Northampton County PA Archives History - Books .....The Moravians In Northampton County 1920
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  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
  
  
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