USA > Pennsylvania > Northampton County > History of Northampton County [Pennsylvania] and the grand valley of the Lehigh, Volume I > Part 9
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Amid the confusion and violence of the times. there were devout men of God who did not take up arms, nor meddle in political commotion, nor give way to fanaticism. They fostered apostolic teaching, discipline and fellowship, true to the principles and practices of the Bohemian reformer. They were the genuine followers of Hus and furnished the seed of the Unitas Fratrum or the Moravian church. Dissatisfied with the National Church, they longed to work out their own salvation. They were encour- aged by Peter Chelcic, a forcible writer of the times, who investigated the great questions of the age with independent mind. He exercised forma- tive influence on their aspirations. His counsel led them to retire from Prague to the estate of Lititz, a hundred miles to the east, and begin an immediate reformation. There in the midst of the dense forests, under the shadow of the Giant Mountains, they founded their settlement in 1457. Primarily, the idea was simply to form a Christian Association. Hence the name Unitas Fratrum, Unity of the Brethren. Seclusion did not result in cloistering of their interests. They were continually joined by like-minded
persons. Their lofty aim, as well as the compulsive force of persecution, prompted them to place their organization on a more solid basis. They were staunch people and true. As their association gathered strength, they recognized that they had something worth the keeping and that they sus- tained weighty obligations over against their day and generation. Hence, they considered the propriety of separating from the National Church and instituting an independent ministry. The latter they secured by Episcopal consecration, in 1467, through the good offices of the Waldenses.
Four principles were adopted by the members of the Unitas Fratrum as basis of their union. (1) The Bible is the only source of Christian doctrine. (2) Public worship is to be conducted in accordance with Scripture teach- ing and on the model of the Apostolic Church. (3) The Lord's Supper is to be received in faith, to be doctrinally defined in the language of Scripture,
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and every authoritative human explanation of that language is to be avoided. (4) Godly Christian life is essential as an evidence of saving faith.
Gradually, the Unitas Fratrum attained to complete organization. A well ordered polity was worked out. The form of government tended toward the conferential form. Numerical increase of the membership was rapid. When Luther appeared, the Unitas Fratrum embraced about four hundred parishes and two hundred thousand members. Its activity was diversified. The native genius of the church asserted itself continually in practical evan- gelism. A thorough educational system was developed. Colleges and theological seminaries were established. A confession of faith was elab- orated. Hymn-book, Bible and catechism were given to the people. The Unitas Fratrum enjoys the distinction of having been the first church to put a hymnal into the hands of the people. The first edition bears the date 1501. It, also, has the honor of having been the first to translate the Bible into the Bohemian vernacular from the original tongues. After fourteen years of indefatigable labor, on the part of trained scholars, this translation was completed in 1593. Called the Kralitz Bible, modern Bohemians declare the style of this version to be unsurpassed. It has furnished, word for word, the text of the Bohemian Bible published in modern times by the British and Foreign Bible Society.
While building up their own organization, the Brethren did not neglect to cultivate a sincere spirit of fellowship with other evangelical Christians. They entered into friendly relations with Luther, Calvin, Bucer and others, relations that were of mutual benefit. In 1570, they formed with the Lutherans and the Reformed of Poland what may be termed the first evan- gelical alliance, based on the instrument of agreement known as the Con- sensus of Sendomir.
"Man proposes, God disposes." From the pinnacle of prosperity the Unitas Fratrum was plunged into the depths of adversity. The disastrous counter-reformation, which set in with the reverses of the Thirty Years' War, all but crushed the Unitas Fratrum. There was left only the Scrip- tural "remnant." This from an expression used by John Amos Comenius, famous educator and last bishop of the ancient Unitas Fratrum, came to be called "The Hidden Seed." In secret the traditions of the church were cherished. These and the means for reconstructing the organization of the church were preserved, fresh and sound, for Comenius perpetuated the Episcopacy by regular ordination and embodied the principles of the church in his comprehensive work, entitled, "Ratio Disciplinae." The "Hidden Seed" was ready to germinate, when the proper time should come, and grow to a mighty tree, stretching its branches to the uttermost parts of the earth.
In due time the "Hidden Seed" was transplanted to Saxony. There Herrnhut, founded in an unreclaimed wilderness on the estate of Count Zinzendorf by descendants of members of the ancient Unitas Fratrum, became the rallying place for the brethren. Larger and smaller companies of exiles followed. Most of these came from Moravia. The name "Mora- vian Church" given the modern Unitas Fratrum is, therefore, historically well accounted for. The ancient discipline, handed down by Comenius, was introduced ; the venerable Episcopate was received at the hands of the last two survivors of a line of seventy bishops, extending from 1467 to 1735.
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and the Church of the Bohemian and Moravian Brethren, concealed from human eve for three generations, renewed its youth like the eagle's. Earnest men and women were attracted to Herrnhut from other places and from other denominational connections. Hence, as the founding of Herrnhut was the beginning of a new epoch in the history of the Unitas Fratrum, it marked, also, the inauguration of a development different, in many respects, from that of former times. The remnant of the church, transferred to a foreign land, found itself in the midst of the territory and influence of the Lutheran State Church. Within the latter body the pietism of Spener constituted, at the time, a leaven of righteousness. Count Zinzendorf, who became the leading bishop of the resuscitated Unitas Fratrum, was by birth a Lutheran and by conviction devoted to the pietistic movement. Through him and other noteworthy men who identified themselves with the Moravians, the work of renewal of the church on the old principles was invigorated by an infusion of new life from the Evangelical church of Germany.
Soon the vigorous life of the Herrnhut settlement came to expression in varied and far-reaching activity. An extensive network of itineracy in many parts of the continent was formed. An Inner Mission effort among nominal members of the State Churches of Europe, it was called "The Diaspora," for it sought the promotion of vital godliness without endeavor to detach members from other Protestant bodies. Schools were established. Ten years after the founding of Herrnhut, the first messengers to the heathen went forth, the missionary field being destined, in the event, to absorb the chief and best efforts of the church. It became apparent that resuscitation of the church had been brought about for the preservation and propagation of experimental religion in an age when the blight of rationalism was widely spread and the pietistic movement had suffered an inner decay. The activ- ities of the Moravians have enabled them to be a power for good at home and abroad and have kept them, though geographically widely distributed, a Unity of Brethren in doctrine and practice.
Beginnings of Moravian activity in England and America followed within the second decade after the founding of Herrnhut. In both these countries an aggressive evangelism was prosecuted, amid circumstances at once prom- ising and forbidding. As early as 1727, the people of Herrnhut seem to have thought of sending men to America. The Colony of Pennsylvania, with its broad and liberal charter, particularly attracted attention. The savages who roamed through its forests and the many persecuted religionists, who had found a home within its borders but lacked, for the most part, the proper care of preacher and teacher, offered large opportunities for missionary and evangelistic activity. In the event, however, Pennsylvania was not the first of the American colonies to furnish a field for their operations. Through the good offices of Count Zinzendorf, a tract of land had been secured in the newly erected Province of Georgia for a colony of Schwenk- feldian exiles from Silesia. When these elected to go to Pennsylvania rather than to the southern colony, it was proposed that the Moravians begin a settlement in Georgia. To that end, Bishop Spangenberg, with a number of Moravians, came over in the spring of 1735, and, subsequently, the little colony was reinforced. True to their designs, they brought the Gospel to Indians and negro slaves. A school for Indian children was opened on an
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island in the Savannah river, a mile above the town of Savannah. Unfor- tunately, the war which broke out a few years later between England and Spain interfered with the work of the Moravians so much that their settle- ment was brought to an untimely end. Before this occurred, an interesting transaction took place, viz., what appears to have been the first regular ordination to the ministry for service in America, performed by a bishop of a Christian church in one of the English colonies of North America, for on March 10, 1736, Bishop Nitschman, who had come to Georgia, in the presence of the Moravian Congregation at Savannah, ordained one of their number, Anton Seifert, to be their pastor.
But few Moravian colonists were left in Georgia at the beginning of the year 1740. Spangenberg, a learned and able man, formerly professor at Jena and Halle, had been commissioned in 1736 to investigate the spiritual condition of the German population in Pennsylvania and to gather informa- tion about the Indians. There he traversed many neighborhoods and visited all kinds of religionists, acquiring information that was of inestimable value to the Moravians later. In 1738, the colony of Moravians in Georgia had been given another strong leader in the person of Peter Boehler, also a former student and professor at Jena, who ranks in the early annals of Moravian activity next to Spangenberg as theologian, preacher and adminis- trator. War conditions put insurmountable obstacles in his way. He and his companions thought of removing to the Pennsylvania colony. Oppor- tunity to proceed thither came early in 1740. At that time the Rev. George Whitefield, famous evangelist, arrived in Georgia on his sloop, the Savannah. When he sailed again for Philadelphia, he took Boehler and the remaining Moravian colonists with him as passengers. They expected to find both Spangenberg and Bishop Nitschmann in Pennsylvania. But the former had gone to report to the leaders of the church in Europe as to conditions in Pennsylvania, and the latter, commissioned to lead a colony to Pennsylvania, had not yet returned from Europe. Disappointed and at a loss whither to turn, Boehler and his companions were, without suspecting it, led through the instrumentality of Whitefield to the neighborhood in which was to be founded a Moravian settlement destined to be the centre of widespread and varied Moravian activity in this country.
According to the statement of his financial agent, Whitefield had deter- mined to establish "a negro school in Pennsylvania where he proposed to take up land in order to settle a town for the reception of such English friends whose heart God should incline to come and settle there." Whitefield himself had written, "To me Pennsylvania seems to be the best province in America for such an undertaking. The negroes meet there with the best usage, and I believe many of my acquaintances will either give me or let me purchase their young slaves at a very easy rate. I intend taking up a tract of land far back in the country." To this end he purchased from William Allen five thousand acres of land in "the Forks of the Delaware," a term at first confined to the locality just within the confluence of the Delaware and Lehigh rivers but later extended to the whole range of country between these streams from the place of the Forks to the Kittatiny or Blue Moun- tains-practically identical with the present area of Northampton county. NORTH .- 1-5.
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Shortly after the agreement of purchase was made, Whitefield proposed to Boehler that he superintend the erection of the contemplated house and employ his companions, several of whom were carpenters and masons, in the work. After inspecting the locality and examining the timber, stone and springs of water, a contract with Whitefield was definitely concluded. In May of this year (1740) Boehler and seven others, with tools and the barest necessaries for camping in the woods, started for this tract, which White- field, with the proposed school and village in mind, had named Nazareth. They reached their destination the next day (May 30). At its close, this little band of homeless wanderers broke the silence of the dark, wild forest with an evening hymn of praise and stretched their weary limbs to rest under the spreading branches of a giant oak, long thereafter known as Boehler's Oak.
Thus began Moravian history in the Forks of the Delaware-the region now enclosed within the bounds of Northampton county. Out of that humble beginning sprang institutions and activities that, for a century and three- quarters, have been closely identified with this interesting territory, with the tawny natives that sullenly retreated from this region and the various popula- tion elements which thereafter poured in.
The pioneers experienced trying times during the following months. They reared a cabin of unhewn logs for themselves, while it rained nearly every day. Then with a force of lime-burners, quarrymen, masons, board- cutters and teamsters, secured from nearby places, they proceeded with the building of Whitefield's school. Work moved slowly. By early fall the walls were laid up only to the door-sills. Then work on this structure ceased, and Boehler and his companions set about the erection of a better house of hewn timbers in which to pass the winter. In November, Boehler went to Philadelphia to report to Whitefield. This proved unfortunate. Their con- versation led into a doctrinal discussion, carried on in Latin, which these two schoolmen understood better than either understood the language of the other. Differences came to light. And Whitefield became so heated in the argument that he ordered the Moravians to leave his land forthwith. That was out of the question, for winter was at hand. The friendly offices of Nathaniel Irish, well known land agent of Saucon, secured a temporary stay of the sentence.
At this juncture, Bishop Nitschmann opportunely arrived with another company of Moravians, commissioned to found a Moravian settlement in Pennsylvania. The choice of location at once engaged attention. Induce- ments to settle in various places were considered. In the event, it was decided to purchase five hundred acres, lying at the confluence of the Lehigh river and the Manocacy creek. Before the purchase had been actually con- summated, the Moravians on the Whitefield tract, taking for granted that the land on the Lehigh would be bought, began to fell its timber. The first tree was cut down "about the time of the shortest day" (December 21, 1740), by David Nitschmann, Sr., uncle of the Bishop, and others. In the early spring a log cabin was completed on a wooded slope crowning a bluff that descended to the Manocacy, where the most copious spring of the region gushed out of the limestone-bed at the foot of the declivity. That was the first house of Bethlehem. In it lived the founders of the community. Count Zinzendorf
MORAVIAN CHURCH, BETHLEHEM
LOG HOUSE, NAZARETH -
Erected 1740; was the Whitefield House, 1748, and torn down in 1871
$
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visited the little settlement on the Lehigh toward the end of the year and, stimulated by the associations connected with the celebration of the Christmas Eve Vigils, gave the place its significant name, Bethlehem. At the time that the band of pioneers built the first house of Bethlehem-the site of which is indicated by a stone marker to the rear of the Eagle Hotel-there were only three other settlements of white men in the neighborhood. All were located on the south bank of the Lehigh. One was the Jennings farm, about a mile above Bethlehem; another was the Irish farm and mill, property of Nathaniel Irish, at the mouth of the Saucon creek, now Shimersville; the third was the Ysselstein farm, now marked, in part, by the shops of the Bethlehem Steel Company. To the north stretched unbroken primeval wilder- ness, save where here and there corn waved in the summer around some Indian hamlet.
The foundations of Bethlehem were laid in the name and to the glory of God. It was to be the centre of evangelistic, missionary and educational operations. The work of reclaiming the wilderness was consecrated by this noble purpose held steadily in view. The second house erected, still stand- ing, became the residence of the bishops and the clergy. It contained, also, the first chapel. In the course of the following year (1742) the population of Bethlehem was increased by the arrival from Europe of a body of fifty-six Moravians, known as "The First Sea Congregation." The German-speaking portion of these immigrants came to Bethlehem. The English-speaking part of the new settlers were sent to Nazareth, where they occupied the two log houses that had been hastily thrown up by Boehler and his companions, while they were engaged in the work of erecting Whitefield's school.
At the very time when these settlers proceeded to Nazareth, negotia- tions were being concluded in England, whereby the five thousand acre tract came into possession of the Moravian church. By the death of his loyal business manager Whitefield had been left in such financial embarrassment that he was unable to push the Nazareth plans or even to retain possession of the property.
So much land was acquired by the Moravians in "The Forks of the Delaware," because elaborate plans for the Pennsylvania colony had been maturing. Spangenberg's three years of evangelization and investigation in the colony had deeply impressed him with the needs of the situation. Upon the report of his observations, the Moravians conceived it to be their mission to minister to the needs of the many immigrant religionists who had sought a new home in the colony but were, for the most part, as sheep without a shepherd, and, still worse, distracted and demoralized by sectarian contro- versy ; to take the gospel to the Indians who roamed through the forests; to provide instruction for the youth in whose interest but few schools had been established.
So fine a purpose was exacting in its demands. The Moravians were equal to the demands. On June 25, 1742, the inhabitants of Bethlehem were formally organized as a Moravian congregation ; a month later, July 24th, the. settlers at Nazareth were organized as a second congregation. At the time. of its organization, the congregation at Bethlehem consisted of about a hun- dred members, that at Nazareth of a much smaller number. The member- ship was divided into two parts. One was called the pilgrim or itinerant
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congregation, the other the home or local congregation-Pilgergemeine and Hausgemeine. The selection of persons for the one or the other division was made, in some cases, in accordance with their expressed preferences, in other cases by lot, at their request .* The first division were to devote them- selves to evangelistic work among neglected whites, missionary work among the Indians and educational activity among the children. The others were to "tarry by the stuff." They were to develop material resources for the main- tenance of the pilgrims and, at the same time, spiritually to keep the fire burning on the home altar.
The system thus introduced was called "The Economy." It continued for twenty years, 1742-1762. According to its arrangements, the inhabitants of Bethlehem and the several settlements on the Nazareth tract-which is now included within Upper Nazareth township-formed an exclusive asso- ciation, a body politic, in which prevailed a communism not of goods but of labor. Co-operative as it was, it differed materially from the communistic movements of a later day, since aggrandizement in things temporal, either for the individual or the corporation, was entirely foreign to its design and spirit. Its sole aim was the maintenance of evangelistic, missionary and educational activity. It was for this that the church had ventured her means in the purchase of real estate and the transportation of colonists. It was for this that the colonists now agreed to live and labor as one family. The surrender of personal property into a common treasury was no requirement for admission to this Economy. Such a communism was not binding upon the settlers, but left to the free will of each to adopt or reject. Those who had property of their own retained full control of it. The members of this association gave merely their time and the labor of their hands for the com- mon good, and in return were supplied with the necessaries of life and the comforts of home. The mutual obligation ended there. Farms, mills and work-shops that were cleared or erected at different points were made to do service in the interests of the work which the church had taken in hand. While it lasted, the Economy system defrayed the expenses of the various further immigrations of Moravian colonists from abroad, gave the Moravian colonists here comfortable support and maintained ministerial itinerancy among white settlers, the mission among the Indians and schools for children.
Bethlehem was the centre of the Economy. So far as externals were concerned, this settlement was to be the place of manufacturing and trade.
* The use of the lot obtained for some time among the Moravians, according to the precedent set by the apostles at the election of Matthias. The church was re- garded as a kind of theocracy, and the will of God was to be ascertained in all impor- tant affairs. It was employed in the appointment of ministers, the admission of members, as, also, in the contraction of marriages. Its use in the case last named has been frequently misunderstood and misrepresented. Rightly regarded, this consti- tutes one of the most noble instances of devotedness to the service of Christ. In the work of the gospel, especially in heathen lands, Moravians of this period were minded not to be hindered through any of the relations of this life, and they were determined, also, that God should direct them absolutely in forming what constitutes the holiest union on earth. Moreover, marriages by lot were not contracted in an offensive or oppressive way. In course of time, the use of the lot was more and more restricted, then confined to the matter of appointment to high office or function in the Church and, eventually, abolished.
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Its inhabitants were, for the most part, men skilled in various handicrafts and qualified to engage in business. In the settlements on the Nazareth tract-Gnadenthal, Christianspring, Friedensthal, Old Nazareth-the settlers were mainly people adapted to agricultural pursuits. Every branch of in- dustry came under the supervision of committees responsible to a board of direction, of which, during most of the twenty year period, Spangenberg was chairman. For the diversified duties of this position he was admirably fitted. He added the tireless industry and system of the able administrator and shrewd man of affairs to the sound judgment of the thorough theologian and the quenchless zeal of the pioneer missionary. By his fellows he was familiarly known as "Brother Joseph," the protector and director of his brethren in a strange land. Under the wise guidance of Spangenberg and his coadjutors no less than thirty-two industries, apart from farms, were estab- lished and successfully operated at Bethlehem. No town in the interior of Pennsylvania could minister more readily to the varied wants of travel- lers and neighboring settlers. As a result of these varied enterprises about fifty ministers and missionaries were supported and fifteen schools were maintained. Yet at no time during the period of the Economy did the joint population of Bethlehem and Nazareth number more than six hundred.
With the opening of Indian troubles in 1755, the Moravians were thrown into extraordinary perplexity and peril. Because of their well known zeal for the Indians, many of these fled to the Moravian settlements for refuge. Many white inhabitants, on the other hand, regarded them as being in league with the savages. When, however, the appalling massacre of missionaries and converts at the Moravian mission station, Gnadenhuetten on the Mahoni- on the site of Lehighton, Pennsylvania-became known, the character of the Moravians came out in its true light. Writing to Zinzendorf during these times of hardship, Spangenberg wrote among other things, "The Indians are now threatening to attack Bethlehem, but our hearts rest in childlike hope. Our children are ignorant of the war and murder around them; they are lively and sing and play before the Lord in their innocence. The brethren are day and night on the watch to guard against an attack. The neighboring people seek refuge among us, and we refuse no one. In short, we are comforted and resolute in the Lord. We abide unterrified at our posts; for should we yield, the whole country between this and Philadelphia would become a prey to the ravages of the Indians, there being no other place that could resist them. As yet no one has deserted us; indeed, it has not yet entered the mind of any to seek for safety outside of our people." The letter admirably illustrates the faith and spirit of the Moravians amid trying conditions.
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