Northampton County PA Archives History - Books .....The Moravians In Northampton County 1920 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 November 12, 2008, 11:38 pm Book Title: History Of Northampton County CHAPTER VI THE MORAVIANS IN NORTHAMPTON COUNTY By the Rev. W. N. SCHWARZE, Ph.D. Like most Protestant bodies, the Moravian church traces its origin to a revival of experimental religion. The revival occurred in an interesting country, amid stirring events, and exerted determinative influence on the character of the church that proceeded from it. Bohemia was the scene of the noteworthy awakening. This land is one of the smallest of the world's famous countries. Embracing an area of not more than twenty thousand square miles, it is less than Half as large as Pennsylvania. It lies diamond shaped in the heart of Europe. Its boundaries are defended by mountain ramparts. Centrally situated like a natural fortress, Bohemia has been styled the "key" to modern Europe. Field of many battles, it was the storm-centre of the dark and lurid tragedy of the Thirty Years' War. Historically, too, the country is of importance. It has been convulsed by great questions of its own raising, and it anticipated by a century of brave struggle the general Reformation of the sixteenth century. To the southeast of Bohemia lies the much smaller margraviate of Moravia. The two have substantially the same history, one by the tics of fortune and misfortune. Both lands, now parts of the newly formed Czecho-Slovak State, are regarded as the original seats of the "Unitas Fratrum," or the Moravian Church. Into the territory embraced within the borders of these two lands there came in the fifth century the Czechs, a vigorous and high-minded people, the most gifted of the Slavonic tribes. Remnants of earlier inhabitants they either dispossessed or subdued. The missionary interest of the church reached out to them about the middle of the ninth century. It proceeded from both the Latin and the Greek churches, a little earlier from the former, but with much more vigorous expression from the latter. Cyrill and Methodius, sent out by the Greek Church, became the apostles of the Bohemians and the Moravians. They translated the Scriptures into their language and established many churches. A marked feature of their work was the use of the language of the people, not only in giving instruction but, also, in public worship. Thus was laid the foundation for that national feeling and the liberal principles that thenceforward distinguished the Bohemians and Moravians. They were animated by a spirit akin to that which later manifested itself as Protestantism. Roman pontiffs were not indifferent to these developments. On the ground of the prior claims of the Latin Church, they sought to bring the Bohemian and Moravian Church under their supremacy. Toward the end of the eleventh century the two countries became subject to the Roman See. The Greek ritual fell into disuse, the vernacular was no longer employed in public worship. But the impression left in the minds of the people in favor of the use of the popular language for religious purposes was never effaced. The hearts of the people clung to the customs of the fathers. They were ready at any time to welcome a reformer, particularly, when the powerful Roman church became corrupt. In due time the reformer appeared. His name was John Hus. He was the forerunner of the Moravian Church. Under his guidance-as is well known, because his life is a part of universal history as truly as is the life of Luther, of Calvin, of Zwingli, of Wesley, or of Cranmer-the intellectual and religious movement in Bohemia of the fourteenth century was turned into the channel of a national reformation. As learned professor at the University of Prague, as powerful preacher and vigorous writer, he labored for truth and righteousness. It was the seed-time of evangelical truth in Bohemia. As he lifted up his voice against abuses, he roused bitter enmity. Eventually, he was condemned to death at the Council of Constance and was burned alive as a heretic on July 6, 1415. The consequences of this act of violence were terrible. They precipitated the long and sanguinary Hussite wars. For years the brave Bohemians fought for national independence and religious liberty but were, in the end, overwhelmed because divided among themselves. What was left of the several parties at the end of the conflicts was constituted the National Church of Bohemia, enjoying certain concessions granted by the Romish hierarchy, such as the Lord's Supper in both kinds and the use of the vernacular in public worship. 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 encouraged by Peter Chelcic. a forcible writer of the times, who investigated the great questions of the age with independent mind. He exercised formative 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 sustained weighty obligations over against their day and generation. Hence, thev 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 Waldeuses. 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 teaching 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, 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 evangelism. A thorough educational system was developed. Colleges and theological seminaries were established. A confession of faith was elaborated. 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 evangelical alliance, based on the instrument of agreement known as the Consensus of Scndomir. "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 Scriptural "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 "Moravian 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, and the Church of the Bohemian and Moravian Brethren, concealed from human eye 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 activities 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 promising 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 Schwenkfeldian 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 island in the Savannah river, a mile above the town of Savannah. Unfortunately, the war which broke out a few years later between England and Spain interfered with the work of the Moravians so much that their settlement 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 colonics 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 information 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 administrator. War conditions put insurmountable obstacles in his way. He and his companions thought of removing to the Pennsylvania colony. Opportunity 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 determined 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 cither 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 Mountains-practically identical with the present area of Northampton county. Shortly after the agreement of purchase was made, Whitefield proposed to Bochler 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 population 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 Bochler 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 conversation 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. Inducements 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 consummated, 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 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 wilderness, 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 standing. 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, negotiations 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 controversy; 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 hundred members, that at Nazareth of a much smaller number. The membership was divided into two parts. One was called the pilgrim or itinerant 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 themselves 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 maintenance of the pilgrims and, at the same time, spiritually to keep the fire burning on the home altar. *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 regarded as a kind of theocracy, and the will of God was to be ascertained in all important 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 constitutes 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. 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 association, 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 common 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. 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 industry 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. lie 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 established and successfully operated at Bethlehem. No town in the interior of Pennsylvania could minister more readily to the varied wants of travellers 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. Evangelistic activity, using the term in its broadest sense, supported by such industry and steadfastness, made neglected people feel the thrill of a strong religious life. Of this the German colonists in Pennsylvania, in particular, were sadly in need, in the second quarter of the eighteenth century. Their condition was deplorable. It was akin to religious anarchy. Multitudes had been abandoned by the ecclesiastical authorities in Europe to spiritual starvation and moral decadence. There was almost complete destitution of Christian ministrations worthy the name. There were, it is true, numerous sects and parties that made up the motley religious composition of the province. But they promoted, mainly, conflict of doctrines and confusion of tongues. In consequence, irreligion and distaste for all forms of public worship prevailed to an alarming extent. It had become a proverbial expression that a man who was utterly indifferent to revealed religion belonged to "the Pennsylvania church." To meet the needs of such a situation, plans elaborate and comprehensive were matured and the connection of the Moravian settlements at Bethlehem and Nazareth with many points was established. As early as July, 1742, ten itinerant evangelists were sent out. It was enjoined upon them not to interfere with the work of any other denomination, but to minister to the unchurched colonists. From time to time they reported at headquarters and were appointed to new fields of labor. They sought no compensation from those among whom they labored. Their own brethren provided the frugal support with which they were content. Their congregations gathered in private houses, barns, schoolhouses, occasionally in an humble log or stone church. In course of time, groups of persons here and there became definitely identified with them. The efforts of the itinerant evangelists were followed up by "visitors" who did the work of pastors. Advance of the Moravian church as such was not the primary aim. The furtherance of vital religion, not dcnominationalism, was the object of the evangelists and their coadjutors. Throughout Pennsylvania and the neighboring colonics these fervent heralds awakened a great hunger for the word of God. By their agency the "Great Awakening" of 1740-42, started through the influence of George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards and others, had its counterpart among the German settlers. The more important places that were centres of this itinerant work were Germantown, Philadelphia, Lancaster, York, Donegal, Heidelberg, Lebanon, Lititz. Oley, Allemaengel, Maguntschi, Salisbury, Falckner's Swamp, the Trappe, Mahanatawny, Neshaminy and Dansbury, in Pennsylvania; Manocacy, in Maryland; Maurice River, Penn's Neck, Racoon, Oldman's Creek, Pawlin's Mill, Walpack and Brunswick, in New Jersey; Staten Island and Long Island; Newport, in Rhode Island; Broadbay, in Maine; and Canajoharie, in New York. In covering distances to reach these scattered points the devoted itinerants were undaunted by conditions of weather or road or season of the year when they started on their toilsome foot-journeys, sometimes hundreds of miles in extent and months in duration. Quite in harmony with the spirit of this activity was an attempt, in the earliest days, to unite the different German religious bodies of Pennsylvania in closer fellowship. Zinzendorf was the life of the movement, as he was, to the end of his career, the dominant figure in all the widespread Moravian interests. The effort to effect an evangelical alliance of German Protestants in Pennsylvania proved, however, an impracticable ideal for the condition of those days, and, to say the least, was far in advance of the times. Its inevitable failure, coupled with the fact that other denominations, particularly the Lutheran and the Reformed, were assuming organic form in America, forced the Moravians to shape the course of their activity anew. As they had gained a foothold in the not inconsiderable number of preaching places established in seven of the original thirteen colonies, the logic of events gradually led them to enter upon the natural denominational effort of church extension. The Indian mission made heavy demands on the time and care of the Moravians. It was hampered by difficulties that have attended all missionary enterprise among the aborigines of this country. The nomadic character of the red men made it impossible to secure anything like the abiding results aimed for in the prosecution of missionary work among any people. Jt was clear at the outset that no Christian Indian state could be built up to crown the labors of faithful missionaries. Nevertheless, the Moravians addressed themselves, without delay, to the task. As early as 1740, Christian Henry Ranch, landing in New York, met there certain Mohicans. He returned with them to their home village, Shekomeko, in what is now Dutchess county, New York. Results of his work gave omen of a fine future. Among his earliest converts was the notorious Wasamapa, formerly fierce as a savage bear. While this missionary was wintering in his lonely hut amid the pines of Shekomeko, trying to reach the hearts of the wild Mohicans, his brethren in the Nazareth woods made the first Moravian missionary effort among the Delawares. The interest of the Indians in hearing "the great word" stimulated the desire of the missionaries to acquire the language of these people. During the early weeks of the organization of the settlement at Bethlehem, strolling bands of Indians were among the most interesting visitors. In the summer of 1742 some such were escorted to the Chapel, where the Moravians entertained them with instrumental music and endeavored to speak to them about the Saviour. In September of that year two Indians were baptized at Bethlehem. At one of the early conferences, Gottlob Buettner and John Christopher Pyrlaeus, besides Christian Henry Rauch, all of them ordained men, were set apart for missionary service among the Indians. With a view to opening the way for these and other missionaries, Zindendorf undertook three tours into the Indian country. The first, July 24-August 7, 1742, took him into the region beyond the Blue Mountains. Of particular importance was his meeting with deputies of the Six Nations at Tulpehocken. With them he ratified a covenant of friendship, securing permission for the Moravians to pass to and from and sojourn in the domains of the great Iroquois confederation as friends and not as strangers. His second journey, August 3-30, 1742, was to Skekomeko, where he organized a congregation consisting of ten Indian converts, fruit of the labors of the Missionary Rauch. His final Indian tour, September 21-November 8, 1742, by far the longest and most perilous, was that to the Upper Susquehanna and into the Wyoming vallev. then a terra incognita to white men. On this journey he encountered heathenism and savagery in their darkest colors. He endured great hardships and his life was more than once imperilled, for the fierce tribes of those regions were a different kind of men from the Indians of the lowlands. The account of these tours given at Bethlehem awakened the greatest enthusiasm for extensive plans of missionary work among the red men of the forest. At a conference held in November, the Count unfolded his scheme for carrying on this work. His vivid account of the experiences made among the Shawnees, far from deterring men and women, had the effect of increasing the number of volunteers for this service to fifteen. From Skekomeko missionary interest reached out to the neighboring villages. Ranch, and others sent to assist him, visited the natives in various part^ of New York State and extended operations into Connecticut. Within a year, however, the opposition of unscrupulous whites, rum-sellers and the like, caused the government of the New York colony to assume an unfriendly attitude. In consequence, the Moravians determined to transfer their Indian mission activity to Pennsylvania, heyond the settlements of the colonists, the treaty with the Six Nations having been renewed. In course of the following years a body of capable, devoted men developed an extensive Indian mission in Pennsylvania and the contiguous territory. Noteworthy among these were David Zeisberger and John Heckewelder. Both have left important philological and literary works relating to their field of activity. Zeisberger, in the event, rounded out sixty-two years of continuous, unwearied labor in behalf of the red men, a career perhaps not equalled, certainly not surpassed, in point of length of service by any missionary of any church among any people. These men and others among their brethren began their labors by applying themselves to the study of the Indian languages, especially the Delaware and Iroquois, not only by taking instruction from competent teachers but, also, by taking up their residence among the Indians for months at a time. Their work, directed by an intense and wise devotion, extended over a wide field of operations. Necessities proceeding from the conditions of the time and the habits of the natives determined that their missionary careers should be largely a succession of missionary journeys. In many respects the constant enforced wanderings were a hindrance to their work. Yet frequent removal of the mission stations from place to place and the journeys incident thereto served to spread the knowledge of the Gospel over a vast stretch of territory and among many tribes. The missionaries travelled through Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and entered Michigan and Canada. They brought the Gospel to the Mohicans and Wampanoags, to the Nanticokes and Shawnees, to the Chippewas, Ottawas and Wyandottes, to the Unamis, Unalachtgos and Monseys of the Delaware race; to the Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas of the Six Nations, and those who heard often carried the message of the truth into regions where the missionary never appeared. These journeys acquire additional significance when it is remembered that they represent the missionaries' resolute faithfulness to the remnant of a people often cruelly and heartlessly driven from one locality to another. These missionaries were not attracted to the Indians by any romantic notions about the character and traits of these men of the woods. They learned to know them, if ever men did. In their diaries and accounts of the Indians, their country, manners and customs, they denounce their cowardice, treachery, licentiousness and indolence in all but unmeasured terms, even as they do full justice to their few redeeming qualities. Yet they loved them. They spent their lives in the effort to do them good. Among the most illustrious features of their work were the Christian Indian communities they established. Against all odds, they established a number of such, which enjoyed a degree of permanence. These were the wonder of all who saw them. They proved beyond shadow of a doubt how much could be accomplished by a practical application of Christianity to savage life. They were not aggregations of hunting lodges; they were agricultural colonies. The chase was not neglected, but played a subordinate part. These settlements, moreover, were governed by a published set of laws. They proved that under the matchless power of the Gospel even the Indian could be constrained to exchange his wild habits and unsettled ways for peaceable life and regular duty, to give up unrestrained and arbitrarily used liberty in order to submit to municipal enactments that secured the greatest good to the greatest number. The missionaries were successful, too, in the character of the native helpers whom they raised up. And thus their missionary work sustains one of the severest tests applied in estimating the real value and advance of such effort. Only that great day, when "every man's work shall be made manifest," will reveal how many precious souls were led out of darkness into light through the ministry of these intrepid missionaries and that of the faithful men trained by them to be spiritual leaders of their fellows. Another department of activity instituted was school work for neglected children. In 1739, Spangenberg had written to Count Zinzendorf in Europe that the educational needs of the colony of Pennsylvania were very great. It was the day of beginnings. The whole region was sparsely settled by whites. In most parts of it they were battling with the wilderness. The "Log College on the Neshaminy" to the south had reached only its teens. In Spangenberg's language there was "almost no one who made the youth his concern." For several reasons this part of the pioneer's report met with a sympathetic response. Moravians were the conservators of traditions that connected them with the Ancient Unitas Fratrum, or Moravian church, and the labors of Comenius, at this time dead about seventy years, who was a pioneer in advocating the equal education of the sexes, the system of object teaching, the necessity of physical training and the importance of aiming to develop the whole human being. It is not possible to affirm that when George Neisser took his stand behind the desk in 1742 in Bethlehem, and other Moravians at about the same time began their instructions elsewhere, they had a complete apprehension of the Comenian principles. But we cannot peruse the manuscripts left by the first Bethlehem school teacher and avoid the conviction that in him and in others vital traditions of what was best in the church of the forefathers survived. Moreover, Moravians were forcefully affected by the influence of what was best in European education. Men from Halle, Wittenberg and Leipzig had identified themselves with the Moravians. They knew the value of liberal culture. They stimulated Moravian traditions, so that Moravians founded schools wherever they went, in Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Denmark, Britain and Ireland. Naturally, therefore, Moravians in America included educational effort in their plans. Their special zeal and capacity for the training of the young blossomed out in schools of various kinds, particularly in Pennsylvania, where the provincial authorities during the first three-quarters of the eighteenth century did next to nothing for the cause of general education, and, in consequence, various denominations established elementary schools. In 174.2 the daughter of Zinzendorf inaugurated a school for girls in German-town. After sundry migrations this school has been located in Bethlehem since 1749. A school for boys was founded at Nazareth in 1743, but was, two years later, transferred to Frederickstown, now Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. During the next three years schools were established at Oley, near Reading, at Maguntschi, now Emails, at Germantown, at Lancaster, at Heidelberg, at Tulpehocken, at York, at Lebanon, at Muddy Creek, near Reamstown, Lancaster county, at Milton Grove, Lancaster county, at Muehlhach and most likely elsewhere; for it was an essential feature of the policy of Zinzendorf and Spangenberg to organize schools wherever they established a congregation or posted a preaching station. These were schools of various grades. Unfortunately, circumstances hindered the permanence of most of them.* * It is interesting to note that in November, 1746, a school was opened in the "Great Swamp" for boys who had learned bad habits and whom it was not dcsirable to have with those in the other institutions." It was a kind of reform school. Its maintenance in "the Great Swamp" being encumbered with difficulties, it was transferred, in 1747, to the Ysselstein farm-house, south of the Lehigh at Bethlehem. It was the first school in what is now Bethlehem, South Side. It continued but a short time. When Braddock's defeat opened the floodgates and a turbulent stream of savagery poured into the back country beyond the Blue Mountains, hundreds of refugees from desolated homes were received in the incipient towns. Schools ceased in the open country. Thus Moravian educational effort was driven back upon itself and, apart from the parochial and boarding schools in the settlements, Moravian schools here came to an end. As the savage raids of this time were succeeded by other disturbances, notably Pontiac's conspiracy, and the premonitory thunders of the life and death struggle of the colonies rumbled in the distance, these schools were not opened again. In subjecting to scrutiny the curricula of these early schools, it should be remembered that textbooks were rare. The accessories of the modern schoolroom were mainly wanting. Nevertheless, in some of them special attention was paid to English, French and German. Mathematics, astronomy and history find their places beside the more elementary branches. At Nazareth, Latin and Greek were read. Instrumental and vocal music and drawing contributed pleasant accomplishments. The Bethlehem spinning, needle-work and embroidery were famous, fitting young women for life. It is of more than ordinary interest that the boys' school in the Brethren's House, at Lititz, furnished opportunity for the learning of various trades, and thus for the time and the place the question of industrial training was solved. Unobtrusively in all these schools, and, in a way free from sectarian bias, religion was imparted as a matter of course. In the light of modern educational development, defects and crudities will be discovered, but here were the essentials of a liberal education. A word is in order concerning the mission schools among the Indians. Wherever the Moravians obtained a foothold among the Indians, with a prospect of doing good, they built a schoolhouse and opened a school. During the short time they were in Georgia, they had in operation a school for the children of the Creek Indians. At Bethlehem and Nazareth schools for Indian children were opened at an early time. Wherever it was possible in the Indian country, within and beyond the bounds of the Pennsylvania colony, church and school were established. Among the principal stations thus established were Meniolagomeka, in Monroe county; Shamokin, now Sunbury; Wyoming, near Wilkes-Barre; Schechschiquannink, Bradford county; Goschgoschuenk, Venango county; the several places successively named Gnadenhuetten, in Pennsylvania and Ohio; Friedenshuetten, on the Susquehanna; Lawunnakhannok, in Venango county; and Friedensstadt, in Lawrence county. Not until one hundred and thirty years after these and other schools had been established by the Moravians, not till hundreds of tribes and hundreds of thousands of men, women and children had been swept from the face of the earth, did the United States learn the lesson taught by these and other missionaries in their efforts to civilize the Indians. Wickersham, in his "History of Education in Pennsylvania," pays the Moravian mission schools this tribute: "Even Carlisle and Hampton, with all their merit, have less to recommend them as schools for Indians than had the old Moravian towns of Gnadenhuetten, Friedenshuetten and Friedensstadt." Educational conceptions and methods exemplified by these early Moravian schools were mainly that the personality of the teacher counted for much in securing the results of training; that education was regarded not as something to be sought for its own sake, but as a means to greater perfection of character; that it was understood that education should render the youth thoroughly at home in the world, to the end that recognizing opportunities they should best serve their age; that a liberal education must be a Christian education. Little did the fathers of one hundred and seventy years ago, with all their faith, comprehend the abundant harvests of all these years enfolded in the seeds they cast into the soil of the wilderness. When in their log cabins they introduced children to the fundamentals of knowledge or led young men and women of rustic habits forward to the beauties of classical literature and the practical demonstrations of science, a cloud covered from their vision the development which, in five generations, should not only contribute much to fill the region of their self-denial with the fruits of culture, but from that very region, too, send forth the abundant offerings of learning, science and refinement, in hallowed union with religion, across the continent and to the ends of the earth. Additional Comments: Extracted from: History of Northampton County [PENNSYLVANIA] and The Grand Valley of the Lehigh Under Supervision and Revision of WILLIAM J. HELLER Assisted by AN ADVISORY BOARD OF EDITORS VOLUME I 1920 THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY HOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/pafiles/ File size: 51.5 Kb