Historic Shrines of America Part 20

XLIII

THE MORAVIAN CHURCH, BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA

A RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY WHOSE FOUNDERS WERE TRUE PATRIOTS

The Unitas Fratrum or Church of the Brethren arose in the fifteenth century in Bohemia and Moravia. In 1727 intolerance led its leaders to begin to plan an emigration to America. A colony was sent to Pennsylvania in 1734, while a second colony went to Georgia in 1735.

Late in the year 1740 the remnant of the emigrants to Georgia joined forces with the Pennsylvania contingent, and settled on five thousand acres of land in the "Forks of the Delaware," as the locality just within the confluence of the Delaware River and the Lehigh or "West Fork of the Delaware" was called. The object of the settlers was to preach to the Indians, and they began at once to win the confidence of the Delawares.

The first house was built in 1741. This was twenty by forty feet, one story high, with sleeping quarters for a number of persons in the attic under the steep pitched roof. The cattle were kept in a portion of the house part.i.tioned off for them. The common room in which they lived was also the place of worship for more than a year. The site of this house is marked by a memorial stone, which was put in place in 1892.

The foundation for the Gemeinhaus, or Community House, was laid in September. For many years this was to serve as home and hospice, manse and church, administration office, academy, dispensary, and town-hall.

As "The House on the Lehigh," it became known through all the countryside.

The event of the year 1741 was the coming of Count Zinzendorf. The Community House was not yet finished, but two rooms in the second story were hurriedly prepared for the guest.

No name had yet been given to the settlement, but on Christmas Eve, after Zinzendorf had celebrated the Holy Communion in the building, the only fitting name suggested itself. Bishop Levering of the Moravian Church tells the story:

"This humble sanctuary, with beasts of the stall sharing its roof, brought the circ.u.mstances of the Saviour's birth vividly before their imagination.... Acting upon an impulse, the Count rose and led the way into the part of the building in which the cattle were kept, while he began to sing the quaintly pretty words of a German Epiphany hymn which combined Christmas thoughts and missionary thoughts.... Its language expressed well the feeling of the hour.... The little town of Bethlehem was hailed, its boon to mankind was lauded.... With this episode a thought came to one and another which gave rise to a perpetual memorial of the occasion.... By general consent the name of the ancient town of David was adopted and the place was called Bethlehem."

The chapel of the Gemeinhaus was used by the congregation for nine years. During this period many of the Indians were baptised there. In 1752 and again in 1753 councils were held here with the representatives of the Nantic.o.ke and Shawnee Indians from the Wyoming Valley.

The second place of worship was an extension of the Gemeinhaus, completed in 1751. Here congregations gathered for fifty-five years.

Here the gospel was preached by some of the most eminent ministers of colonial days, while the records show that famous visitors sat in the pews. Among them were Governor John Penn; Generals Washington, Amherst, Gage, Gates, and Lafayette; John Hanc.o.c.k, Henry Laurence, Samuel and John Adams, Richard Henry Lee, and many other delegates to the Continental Congress.

During the Revolution there were no more earnest patriots than the members of the Moravian Community at Bethlehem. At one time the Single Brethren's House was used for eight months as a hospital, and no charge was made, though in 1779 a bill for repairs was sent which amounted to $358.

A letter from David Rittenhouse, received on September 16, 1778, caused great excitement, for he told of the despatch to Bethlehem of all the military stores of Washington's army, carried in seven hundred wagons. This was done because Washington's army had been compelled to fall back on Philadelphia. It was also thought wise to send the bells of Christ Church and of Independence Hall to Allentown, by way of Bethlehem. The wagon on which Independence Bell was loaded broke down on descending the hill in front of the hospital, and had to be unloaded while repairs were being made.

The most distinguished patient cared for in Bethlehem was the Marquis de Lafayette, who was brought from Brandywine, and was nursed by Sister Liesel Beckel.

Twenty years after the close of the war it was decided that the time had come for the building of a permanent church. The first estimate was made in 1802. At that time it was thought that the total cost would be $11,000. "It is interesting to note how very modern they were in underestimating the probable cost of a church," Bishop Levering says. The actual cost, including the organ, was more than five times the estimate.

The excavation for the building was made in March, 1803, by volunteer laborers, to whom the residents of the Sisters' House furnished lunch.

The work was completed in two weeks. Then the great foundation walls were laid, six feet thick.

For the services of consecration, held from May 18 to May 26, 1806, six thousand people gathered in the village of five hundred inhabitants. On the first day, "at five o'clock in the morning the jubilant note of trombones, trumpets, and other wind instruments from the belfry of the church broke the stillness of the awaking village with a musical announcement of the festival day."

The Moravian Community at Bethlehem has grown. But those who worship in the old church are animated by the same missionary enthusiasm that characterized those who founded the inst.i.tution so long ago.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] A building to the east of Independence Hall was completed in 1791.

In this building, which was the Philadelphia City Hall until 1854, the Supreme Court of the United States held its first session, February 7, 1791.

In 1813 the arcades connecting the main building with the wings were removed, and new buildings were erected which connected Independence Hall with the corner buildings.

In 1816 the city of Philadelphia became the owner of the whole property.

[2] This date and place were generally accepted until 1917, when Francis Hobart Herrick published proof that Audubon was born in Santo Domingo in 1785.

FIVE: OVER THE MASON AND DIXON LINE

_Afar, through the mellow hazes Where the dreams of June are stayed, The hills, in their vanishing mazes, Carry the flush, and fade!

Southward they fall, and reach To the bay and the ocean beach, Where the soft, half-Syrian air Blows from the Chesapeake's Inlets, coves, and creeks On the fields of Delaware!

And the rosy lakes of flowers, That here alone are ours, Spread into seas that pour Billow and spray of pink, Even to the blue wave's brink, All down the Eastern Sh.o.r.e!_

BAYARD TAYLOR.

FIVE: OVER THE MASON AND DIXON LINE

XLIV

HISTORIC LANDMARKS AT NEW CASTLE, DELAWARE

THE FIRST LANDING PLACE OF WILLIAM PENN

How many students of United States history would be able to answer the question, "What town has had at least seven different names and has been under the flags of four different countries?"

There is such a town, and but one--New Castle, Delaware. The Swedes laid it out in 1631, and called it New Stockholm. In 1651 the Dutch built a fort there, and called it Fort Kasimir. Sandhoec was a second Dutch name. When the Dutch West India Company ceded it to the city of Amsterdam it was named New Amstel. After 1675 the English took a hand in naming the village. Grape Wine Point, Delaware Town, and, at length, New Castle were the last names a.s.signed to the seaport that, within a generation, boasted twenty-five hundred inhabitants.

The site of Fort Kasimir was long ago covered by the Delaware. A quaint house, still occupied, is the only survival from the Dutch period. But it would be difficult to find a town of four thousand inhabitants which is so rich in buildings and traditions that go back to the earliest English occupation.

Many of the buildings and traditions centre about the old Market Square, in the centre of the town, only a few hundred feet from the Delaware. This square dates from the days of Petrus Stuyvesant, in 1658. At one end of the square is the old stone-paved courthouse, which has been in use since 1672. To this building William Penn was welcomed, as a tablet on the outer wall relates:

"On the 28th Day of October, 1682, William Penn, the Great Proprietor, on His First Landing in America, Here Proclaimed His Government and Received from the Commissioner of the Duke of York the Key of the Fort, the Turf, Twig, and Water, as Symbols of His Possession."

From the steps of the courthouse, as a centre, was surveyed the twelve-mile circle whose arc was to be the northern line of Delaware, according to the royal grant made to Penn. This arc forms the curious circular boundary, unlike any other boundary in the United States.

[Ill.u.s.tration: IMMANUEL CHURCH, NEWCASTLE, DEL.

_Photo by Ph. B. Wallace_ See page 204]

In the rear of the courthouse, though still on the green Market Square, is old Emmanuel Protestant Episcopal Church, which was organized in 1689, though the building now occupied was begun in 1703.

This cruciform structure is the oldest church of English building on the Delaware, and services have been held here continuously since 1706, when it was completed. Queen Anne gave to the church a "Pulpit and Altar Cloath, with a Box of Gla.s.s." A memorial tablet on the wall tells of the first rector, Rev. George Ross, who came as a missionary from England in 1703, and served for fifty years. His son, also George Ross, was one of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence.

His daughter Gertrude married George Read, another of the Signers. The tomb of George Read is in the rear of the church.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DOORWAY OF PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, NEW CASTLE, DEL.

_Photo by Ph. B. Wallace_ See page 205]

Across the street from the Market Square is the Presbyterian church, whose first building, erected in 1707, is still in use as a part of its ecclesiastical plant. The pastor and many of the members of this church had a prominent part in the War of the Revolution.

The visitor who crosses from one of these churches to the other is attracted by a stone pyramid, on the edge of the Market Square, whose story is told by a tablet: