UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH
Ceo. 2
Darlington .Memorial L/ibr
THE CROWN INN,
NEAR BETHLEHEM, PENNA.
1745-
A HISTORY,
TOUCHING THE EVENTS THAT OCCURRED AT THAT
NOTABLE HOSTELRY, DURING THE REIGNS OF
THE SECOND AND THIRD GEORGES,
REHEARSING THE TRANSMISSION OF "THE SIMPSON TRACT,'
IN LOWER SAUCON TOWNSHIP, BUCKS COUNTY,
IN UNBROKEN CHAIN OF TITLE, FROM
WILLIAM PENN, OF WORMINGHURST, IN THE COUNTY OF SUSSEX, Esq., TO
MARGARET AND WILLIAM LOWTHER; TO MARGARET POOLE, OF
CONEY HUTCH ; TO JOSEPH STANW1X, OF BARTLETT'S BUILD-
INGS ; TO JOHN SIMPSON, OF TOWER HILL; AND LAST,
TO JASPER PAYNE, OF BETHLEHEM, WINE-COOPER,
FOR THE SOLE USE AND BEHOOF OF
HIS MORAVIAN BRETHREN,
BETWEEN 1681 AND 1746:
BEING A PARTIAL UNFOLDING OF THE PARTICULAR ANNALS OF EARLY MORAVIAN
By WM. C. REICHEL,
Author of " The Bethlehem Seminary Souvenir," " The Moravians in New York
Connecticut," " Nazareth Hall and its Reunions," " Memorials of the Moravian
Church," " The Old Mill," " A Red Rose from the Olden Time,"
"The Old Sun Inn at Bethlehem," " Wyalusing," etc.. etc.
499 COPIES PRINTED
FOR E. P. WILBUR AND OTHEI
187a.
TO THE MEMORY
Architect and of the Members of the Building Committee
CROWN INN,
WHOSE LABORS PROVOKED THIS HISTORICAL EXCURSION,
JOHN W. JORDAN,
Late Commissary Sergeant of " Starr's Battery," 32a! Regiment P. M.,
I DEDICATE ITS PAGES.
" l^TOW this Indenture witnesseth : That for and in consideration
X ^1 of the sum of two hundred pounds, lawful money of
Pennsylvania, unto the said John Simpson, by the hands of his said
attorney, William Allen, well and truly paid at and before the sealing
and delivery hereof, he, the said John Simpson, hath granted, bargained,
sold, released, and confirmed, and by his said attorney, William Allen,
doth hereby grant, bargain, sell, release, and confirm unto Jasper
Payne, of Bethlehem, in the county of Bucks, in the Province of
Pennsylvania, wine-cooper, and to his heirs and assigns, all that the
said piece or tract of land, containing as aforesaid, two hundred and
seventy-four acres, together, also, with all and singular the buildings,
improvements, ways, roads, waters, water-courses, rights, liberties,
privileges, hereditaments, and appurtenances whatsoever thereto
belonging, or in any wise appertaining, and the reversions and remainders
thereof."
tt%
JOHN SIMPSON,
BY HIS ATTORNEY,
WILLIAM ALLEN, Esq.,
JASPER PAYNE,
For 274 Acres.
Philadelphia, 3 June, 1746.
UNTIL some painstaking antiquary shall have fully illumined the
twilight, by which, it must be confessed, the history of the
old Crown Inn (despite the acumen' of diverse recent interpreters) is,
even yet, imperfectly read, — the following pages are offered to the
interested reader, in the hope that they may partially supply a want.
Meanwhile, let him abide the time until the end, so devoutly wished
for by him, shall be satisfactorily attained.
It may be well to observe that what is here written, occasionally
militates against what the writer and others have written on this
subject — a confession, however, which cannot shake the intelligent
reader's confidence in either — he well knowing that historical narrative,
like all other kinds of writing, is liable to err, and is at best but an
approximation to the truth.
For the rest, the following pages are based upon authentic records.
If they aid in recalling the past, and prove potent in peopling its
realm with the memories of departed heroes, the object in writing
them will be amply fulfilled.
Bethlehem, Penna., September i, 1872.
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
*745
LIND, indeed, to the perfections of God's
handiwork in Nature, and inlets to a
sluggish soul, must be the eyes that fail
to see, or that grow weary of resting
upon the beauties of the landscape which
skirts the border of the bluff, on whose
ridge, in sharp relief against the northern
sky, stands the modern borough of Bethlehem.
From the placid stream which comes to view out of
the recesses of a fairy island, as from some hiding place,
the foldings of gentle hills rise upward and higher, until
their swelling outlines blend with the mountain which
locks in its embrace this perfect little world. What-
ever of beauty in form, whether form of headland,
lowland or upland, — whatever of beauty in grouping,
be it that of foliage, with sky or cloud, or heaven-
reflecting water, — whatever of grateful charm in the alter-
nation of forest with ploughed or seeded field, of green
(7)
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
nook with fallow wold, of gray with sombre hues, — follow
the sweep of the sunny amphitheatre before you, and
say — are not all these here ? No other portion of the
valley of the Lehigh, confessedly, has been favored by
Nature as this; none, elsewhere, perhaps, of the same
extent, as much ; and yet even here, this goddess,
strange to say, has planted a garden within a garden,
which man is now adorning with all that is chaste in
rural art or magnificent in suburban architecture.
Would you mete out the bounds of this garden-spot, —
taking the river for a base, run a line from a point
in its right bank not a stone's throw below the upper
bridge due south, run a second parallel to this, from
its bank where the stream bends gracefully around
Calypso Island, through the laurels and rockeries of
Oppelt's and the embowered precincts of Bishopthorpe,
and complete the rude parallelogram with the southern
horizon by way of head-line. This is the frame in
which is set " the Picture in the Valley." View it from
what point you choose, (best, perhaps, from the iron
bridge that spans the Menagassi), — it is ever a picture
of surpassing loveliness. A painting not made by
human hand, it defies criticism ; a painting made by a
master, it requires no tedious study, — so just are its
proportions, so truthful its perspective, so correct
its distances and foreshortening, so harmonious the
blending of its colors and its contrasts of light and
shade, so real the transparency of its atmosphere, and
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
so perfectly natural its stereoscopic effects. View it
when you may, it never fails to please. With the
change of the season or the hour of the day, its
aspect, indeed, varies, but only to reveal new shapes
and tints, with which to challenge the beholder's
silent admiration. It is all bathed in sunlight,
long before you see the spokes of the shining chariot
in the east, and long after the lower world is wrapt
in the mists that gather nightly over the river.
Well may you ask, is it a city of gold, half-hidden
among trees of gold, that looms up on those aerial
heights, growing hourly more luminous, until under
the meridian sun, it burns and dazzles in a glory of
consuming splendor ? But would you view it in its
loveliest mood, (be it the time of tender buds or of
green leaves, or when maples flame on every side,) —
mark the witchery that steals over the scene, as soon
as the noonday's glare begins to wane and the evening
hours come on. How gentle the spirit that then
breathes on hill and tree and turret, blending their
shapes and softening their hues and mellowing their
lights ! How silently the shadows creep down the
grassy slopes, stretching out their toils farther and
farther across the lowland, until, when the sun has
sunk behind the hills of Oppelt's, they hold all things
spell-bound in neutral tints and deepening shade, —
there being naught to indicate that the landscape is
not dead, but merely asleep in trance, — save the rosy
10 TJie Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
blush athwart the mountain top and the glittering
fanions on the great tower of Packer Hall ! Then lies
before you, the picture in the valley, in its loveliest
mood !
It was within the precincts of this garden-spot, that,
more than one hundred and twenty-five years ago,
there lay what was called by the Moravians of that
time " the Simpson Tract," on which was reared
for the refreshing of all who had occasion to way-
fare through a then almost primitive wilderness, the
humble hostelry whose name is borne on the title
page of this tribute to its memory.
Now, the naked deed-history of this, to the reader,
important tract of land, is the following:
By indentures of lease and release bearing dates of
22d and 23d of October, 1681, respectively, William
Penn, Sr., Proprietary and Chief Governor of the
Province of Pennsylvania, by the name of William
Penn, of Worminghurst, in the County of Sussex, Esq.,
bargained, sold and confirmed to William Lowther
and Margaret Lowther, two of the children of Anthony
Lowther, Esq., by Margaret, his wife,* five thousand
* Margaret Lowther, was a sister of William Penn (2 Proud, p. 115).
She married Anthony Lowther, of Masham, in the wapentake of Hang-
East, North Riding, of the County of York. Their children were
William and Margaret Lowther. William Lowther married Catharine
Preston ; their child was Thomas Lowther. Margaret Lowther married
Benjamin Poole ; their child was Mary Poole. Mary Poole married
Richard Nichols ; and their child was Margaret Nichols.
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 11
acres of land in the Province of Pennsylvania, to be
set out in such places or parts of said Province, and
at such times as were agreed upon between said
parties, — for a certain specified consideration, and on
the payment of the chief or quitrent of one shilling
for every hundred acres, on the first day of March,
forever, in lieu of all services and demands whatsoever.
Margaret Lowther, who, on the decease of her
brother William, had been invested with his moiety
of the original grant, devised the entire tract to her
daughter, Margaret Poole.
Margaret Poole, soon after marrying John Nichols,
of Coney Hutch, in the County of Middlesex, Esq.,
jointly with her husband conveyed the aforesaid pro-
portion and quantity of five thousand acres, by inden-
ture bearing date of 23d of September, 173 1, to Joseph
Stanwix, of Bartlett's Buildings, Holborn, gentleman.
Joseph Stanwix released them to John Simpson, of
Tower Hill, London, merchant, in January of 173a;
whereupon the latter, desirous of transmuting his
colonial estates into pounds, shillings and pence
sterling, caused, by virtue of a Proprietary's warrant,
bearing date of 31st October, 1733, a parcel of two
hundred and seventy-four acres and allowance of the
noble grant, to be located and surveyed for his own
use, — and subsequently others.* Now the parcel with
* A second parcel of the Lowther Tract, to wit, 200 acres adjoining the
Barony of Nazareth, due south of Christian's Spring, was surveyed for
12 The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
which this writing is concerned, the one last stated as
containing two hundred and seventy-four acres, was
located on the West Branch of Delaware,* in Lower
Saucon township, in the County of Bucks, the survey
being made on the 24th of November, 1736, by
Nicholas Scull, f at that time a deputy for William
Parsons, Surveyor General. Thereupon it was thrown
into the market.
The Moravian Brethren, on establishing themselves
within the Forks of Delaware (the first house of
Simpson, by Scull, on the 26th of October, 1736, and deeded by Allen to
John Okely, of Bethlehem, for the use of the Moravians, on the 19th of
July, 1751.
* The name by which the Lehigh river is always designated in early
deeds and surveys.
f Nicholas Scull, who played a prominent part in the early annals of
Pennsylvania, is first met with at White Marsh, where he was residing, in
1722, engaged as a surveyor, and occasionally in the public service, acting
in Indian affairs in the capacity of a runner, or as interpreter for the
Delawares. With Godfrey, Parsons, and other young men of inquiring
minds, Scull was associated in Franklin's Junta Club, and there " mani-
fested a fondness for making verses." In 1744 he was appointed Sheriff
of the city and County of Philadelphia, and in June of 174S, succeeded
William Parsons as Surveyor General. This position he filled till in
December of 1761. Meanwhile, he had drawn a map of the improved
part of the Province, which was published by an Act of Parliament in
January of 1759. Scull was Sheriff of Northampton for three terms (1753
t0 '755)> and in those years was a resident of Easton. In 1757 we find
him in Philadelphia, and in 1764, keeping an inn at Reading. His sons,
James, Peter, William, Edward and Jasper were all surveyors. William
published a map of the Province in 1770. Both father and sons were
associated with the Moravians, by business, for a number of years.
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
Bethlehem was blocked up in the spring of 1741),
soon perceived that special advantages would accrue
to them from the possession of the "Simpson Tract,"
opposite their settlement. "It will give us the control
of the river at this point, and an unobstructed outlet
into the more thickly peopled parts of the Province.
Once in other hands," they argued, "and we may be
perpetually embarrassed." Reasoning thus, they lost
no time, too, in arranging the preliminaries for an
early purchase. But these, much to their regret,
involved a case of ejectment, in as far as Conrad
Ruetschi, a fellow countryman of Orgetorix and
William Tell, who had been imported in the ship
Mercury, of London, William Wilson, master, but
last from Cowes, in May of 1735, — was firmly seated
on the premises in the memorable spring of 1741.
The ring of the Moravians' axes, and the crash of
falling trees on the hillside north of the river, in the
stormy March of that year, sounded like a knell of
doom in the ears of the Helvetian squatter. He
admitted that he had been headed off, and that he
was likely to be outflanked, too ; yet, feeling strong
in the nine points of the law, he abated none in
improving the surroundings of his cabin, turning
his attention also to the growing of flax. The first
crop of this staple that matured on the Simpson
Tract, it may interest some reader to know, was
gathered for Ruetschi, by the hired labor of the
lJf. The Croivn Inn near Bethlehem.
Moravian women of Bethlehem. This was on the
27th of July, 1742, falling, therefore, in times of
Dorian simplicity, but a little in advance of those
in which our common mother span. So trifling an
occurrence would not have been adduced in this narra-
tive, but for the inference it enables us to draw, to wit,
that the Moravians and their Swiss neighbor were still
living side by side in apparently perfect harmony. But
when in Februray of 1743, the former were hopefully
negotiating with William Allen,* of Philadelphia,
* William Allen, whose speculative enterprise opened up the Forks of
Delaware (subsequent to 1751, Northampton County) to settlement, and
whose name is perpetuated on hundreds of deeds executed by him on the
sale of their lands to early purchasers, was, we are told by Proud (2 p. iSS),
"the son of William Allen, Sr., an eminent merchant of Philadelphia, a
considerable promoter of the trade of the Province, and a man of good
character and estate." The subject of this memoir, it is asserted by
Charles Thomson, deeded away lands in the Minisinks (near Strouds-
burgh) as early as 1733, four years prior, therefore, to the confirmation of
the old Indian purchase, or the extinction of the Indian claim, by the
historic day and a half day's walk. Being " on the ground floor," (to
use a lofty figure of speech) accordingly, and shrewd and prudent, for-
sooth, he was successful in operating and acquired a handsome fortune.
This gave him, — naturally enough, position, — and state following on its
heels, Mr. Allen, in 17G1 (see 1 Watson, p. 20S), was one of but three
gentlemen in the capital of the Province who rode in carriages of their
own, his equipage being a Landau drawn by four blacks, and driven by
an expert of a whip, specially imported from England. But fortune ex-
tended his influence also, and being respected for probity and a knowledge
of the law, he, in due course of time, was appointed Chief Justice of the
Province (1750), sitting as such on the woolsack down to the time of the
rupture between the colonies and the mother country (1774), when with
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
merchant, the duly appointed attorney-at-law of John
Simpson, of Tower Hill, London, for the purchase
of the two hundred and seventy-four acres and allow-
ance, and when on the nth day of March ensuing,
the latter saw the great flat for the Bethlehem ferry
launched and propelled under the very walls of his
stronghold, aggrieved beyond endurance, he broke
truce. Turning to the law for redress, he appealed
to Nathaniel Irish,* the nearest Justice of the Peace,
other loyalists whose fortunes were linked with those of the old regime,
he sailed for England. He died in London in 17S0. His wife, who was
a daughter of Andrew Hamilton, an eminent lawyer, hore him three sons,
Andrew, William, and James. The first was Chief Justice a short time
in the commencement of the Revolution, and also a member of Congress
and of the Committee of Safety ; but placing himself under the protection
of General Howe circa, 1776, he was attainted of high treason, forfeited
his large estates — and thereupon went to England, deceasing in London,
in 1825. William, the second son, was for a time a Lieutenant-Colonel in
the Continental service. He also died a refugee loyalist abroad. James,
a member of the Committee of Observation and Inspection for Pennsyl-
vania, remained true to the cause of American Independence. He was
furthermore the founder of Allentown, which place crystallized about
Trout Hall on Jordan Creek (a summer seat of William Allen), subse-
quent to 1755. His property in and around that settlement, which for a
half century and more fluctuated between the names of Allen's Town
and Northampton (but now Allen/oxuK, although a bona-fide city), he
devised to his daughters, to wit: Mrs. Greenleaf, Mrs. Tilghman and
Mrs. Livingston. James Allen died in Philadelphia, in 1777. The
townships of Allen and East Allen jointly with the aforementioned city
(which should simply be called Allen, — neither more nor less), perpetuate
the name of the enterprising founder of old Northampton County.
* Mr. Irish, who was commissioned a Justice of the Peace for the
16 The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
who dispensed equity at his house, when not grinding
grist in his mill, near the outlet of Saucon creek,
two short miles lower down the West Branch of Dela-
ware. Stating his case to the law-read miller, Ruetschi
County of Bucks, by Govenor Thomas, in April of 1741, bought lands near
the mouth of the Saucon, at different times; the first purchase of 150
acres, bearing date of 12th April, 1738, on which day it was released to
him by Casper Wistar, of the city of Philadelphia, brass button-maker,
and Catharine, his wife. In 1743, he was possessed of upwards of 600
acres, all contiguous; these, together with the improvements including a
mill (whose ruins are still standing in the rear of Mr. John Knecht's
house in Shimersville), he conveyed in October of 1743 to George Cruik-
shank, of the Island of Montserrat, in the West Indies, sugar planter,
who in his lifetime became lawfully seized in his desmesne as of fees
of and in the amount of 900 acres of land, lying contiguous along Saucon
Creek. Cruikshank, by his last will and testament — he deceased in March
of 1746 — devised this tract together with his New South Sea annuities,
and his real estate in Montserrat to his children, James and Lathrop.
But these divided the property in 1769, — whereupon, Lathrop, on marry-
ing John Currie, of Reading, in the County of Berks, Esq., with her
husband entered into possession of 450 acres, the homestead and the mill.
In 17S7, Currie deeded back to James Cruikshank, practitioner in physic,
1S0 acres, including the mill, the latter having meanwhile disposed of his
moiety of the original bequest to Jesse Jones, yeoman, and to Felix
Lynn, of Upper Saucon, practitioner in physic. James Cruikshank, of
the village of Bethlehem, practitioner in physic, by his last will and
testament dated 24th September, 1S02, devised to Marj^Currie, Francis
Currie, and William Currie, children of John and Lathrop Currie, the afore-
mentioned 180 acres and mill, both which, William Currie, of Plymouth
township, in the County of Luzerne, yeoman, deeded to Jacob Shimer,
of Bethlehem township, yeoman, in June of 1S09, for $10,666.66 lawful
money of the United States. Shimer's, now Knecht's mill, was built in
iSi2, and around it by way of nucleus, the brisk little village at the
mouth of the Saucon, gradually grew.
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
adduced the nine points by way of fortifying his argu-
ment, urged his right of pre-emption, and concluded
with a fair offer to purchase the lands in dispute,
promising payment with undoubted security at an
early day. Now had not Henry Antes,* — he resided
at the time in that beautiful region of country, which
stretches back of Pottstown, then called Falckner's
swamp — a man versed in the law, and a warm friend
of the Moravians, happened to be at Bethlehem on
the 23d day of April, 1743 (which day marked the
crisis in this feverish excitement about a strip of
woodland in the wilderness), superintending the erec-
* Mr. Antes (he had immigrated prior to 1716, in which year he mar-
ried Christiana De Wiesen, of White Marsh) was a highly respected
citizen in his neighborhood, and a man of much influence with its German
population, being esteemed alike for his integrity, and for his zeal in the
cause of vital religion. His attachment to the Moravians dates back to
the years in which Spangenberg (subsequently the presiding officer in the
Bethlehem Economy) resided among the Schwenkfelders of Philadelphia
County. With Count Zinzendorf he was on the most intimate terms,
co-operating with him heartily in his attempt to unite the religiously
inclined German element of the Province on an evangelical basis. Mr.
Antes resided at Bethlehem, between June of 1745 and September of
1750, directing, meanwhile, the many improvements that were then being
made at that place and at Nazareth. In December of 1745, he was
commissioned a Justice of the Peace for the County of Bucks.
Mr. Antes died on his plantation in Falcknar's Swamp, on the 20th
July, 1755. John, a son, was a missionary of the Moravian Church,
and an adventurous traveller in Egypt, between 1769 and 17S1. Governor
Simon Snyder, married for his second wife, Catharine, a daughter of
Philip Frederic, oldest son of Henry and Christiana Antes.
The Croicn Inn near Bethlehem.
tion of a much needed grist-mill (the same that be-
came completely historical in the night of the 27th of
January, 1870), — it is a question whether the future
of the Simpson Tract would not have been alto-
gether different from the one of which we are privi-
leged to write, — and whether it would ever have
boasted a royal crown. For Mr. Antes, on the
aforementioned day, adjusted the difficulties between
the contestants, in as far as his representations of the
justice of the Moravian claim prevailed with Irish, —
nay, even tempted the latter to the commission of an
official act, when, at the- close of their professional
consultation in the dusty mill he insisted on serving
a writ of ejectment on the squatter. In this extreme
measure the peace-loving Moravians, however, refused
to concur. Instead, they tolerated their discomfited
rival, until such time as he could conveniently re-
move, and having compounded with him for his
improvements entered into possession.
Three years subsequent to this piece of unpleasant-
ness, William Allen and Margaret, his wife, made
deed of this now historic piece of ground, to Jasper
Payne, of Bethlehem, wine-cooper (a native of Twick-
enham, in the hundred of Isleworth, county of Middle-
sex O. E., " whose eel-pie house was for two centuries
.a favorite resort for refreshment and recreation to
water-parties," — but, in 1742 a resident of London,
dwelling at the corner of Queen street and Watling
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 19
street, St. Antholines), for the use and behoof of his
Moravian Brethren, by indenture bearing date of 3d
June, 1746, in consideration of the sum of 200/. law-
ful money of Pennsylvania,* to them well and truly
paid, and under the yearly quitrent hereafter accruing
to the chief lord of the fee. Its precise bearings and
metes extracted from the field-works of Nicholas
Scull, were these: "Beginning at a marked black-
oak by the side of the West Branch of Delaware,
opposite to an Island in the same" (vulgarly called
Calypso Island, which was surveyed for Nathaniel
Irish, in April of 1742, but transferred by him, in fee,
to Henry Antes, in March of 1745, for 10/., Penn-
sylvania currency, — but for the use of the Moravians,
and thereupon patented by the three brothers Penn),
" from thence extending by vacant land south twenty
degrees west one hundred and sixty-two perches to a
post ; thence by the same east three hundred and
thirteen perches to a post ; thence by the same and
"William Allen's land north one hundred and seventy-
four perches to a marked black-oak by the side of
*A sum equivalent to $533.33 United States money, reckoning 1/.
extinct Pennsylvania currency equal to $2.66 ; at the rate, therefore, of
$1.94 and the fraction of a hundredth per acre,— since which time, how-
ever, it may not be amiss to state, Simpson land in the due order of
things, has materially advanced in price. Town lots in the borough of
South Bethlehem, are being sold at this writing, at the rate of $9,000
per acre of land.
The Croivn Inn near Bethlehem.
said river, and thence on the several courses thereof,
to the place of beginning."*
So much of the history of the Simpson Tract from
times immemorial (in which, in all probability fell
its first tenure by the inevitable Indian), until the
close of the squatter sovereignty of Conrad Ruetschi.
Having linked their newly-acquired possessions to
the five hundred acre tract on which Bethlehem was
being built, by means of a ferry (as was stated above),
the Moravians set about bringing portions of them
under cultivation. Such was the early and humble
origin of the great Moravian farms on the south side
of the Lehigh, which, ultimately, after the purchase
of additional territory, numbered four, and were last
known as the " Luckenbach Farm," the " Jacobi
* Although these terminal oaks have disappeared (whether they paid
the debt of nature, or whether they fell victims to the cupidity of man,
there are no means of ascertaining at this late day), and, although their
lowlier brothers, the posts, have long since been removed, — yet by the
aid of diverse drafts extant illustrating the successive purchases of lands
by the Moravians in the vicinity of Bethlehem, it is not difficult to
exactly locate the Simpson tract, obliterated as its ancient landmarks
have been by the vicissitudes incident on time and tide. Beginning
at the black-oak opposite the Island, its west line passes in the rear
of the buildings of the Water Cure, and having cut Bishopthorpe in
two, terminates at the edge of Tinsley Jeter's brick yard ; from this
point, the south line runs due east to a corner in the grounds of
the Lehigh University, a few rods southeast of Packer Hall ; thence
the east line tends due north one hundred and seventy-four perches,
striking the river's bank, a short distance below the New Street Bridge.
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
Farm," the Fuehrer Farm," and the Hoffert Farm."
But of these, more hereafter.
Now to resume the thread of our narrative, the
beginning of the Bethlehem ferry was on this wise: In
midwinter, January 25th of 1743, a site for the much-
needed convenience was selected, its southern terminus
being a point on the river's bank immediately above
the present railroad bridge, marked to this day by a
group of sycamores, whose ancestors before tnem had
shaded the first waterman who undertook to propel the
ponderous flat across the swift-flowing Lehigh. His
name, indeed, is lost, but it is recorded that the craft
he navigated was drawn to the northern terminus of
the ferry on the nth day of March of the aforemen-
tioned year by eight horses, and successfully launched.
But as the vessel was not christened, there was no
breaking of bottles nor waste of wine. Furthermore,
it is recorded, that in February of 1745, one Adam
Schaus,* who was keeping a public house in a small
* Mr. Schaus, one of those historical personages frequently met with,
who break through the clouds and darkness of the past only at in-
tervals, or if you choose, play on the surface of its gloom fitfully as
do ignes fatui over marsh or stagnant pool, — immigrated from Albsheim
in the Lower Palatinate, with Barbarba, his wife, and Philip and
Frederic, their sons, about 1735. He was a wheelwright by occupa-
tion, and was settled in Falkner's Swamp, when in December of 1741,
he made the acquaintance of Count Zinzendorf, by whom he was
introduced to the favorable notice of the Moravians. Being a man
of good parts, we need not be surprised to learn that he was ap-
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
way on the Ysselstein plantation hard by, consented
to conduct the ferry for his Moravian friends. This
he did for almost a twelvemonth, and then accepted
an appointment to act as miller at the Bethlehem
mill.
Meanwhile the question of erecting a house of enter-
tainment for the accommodation of travellers, at some
point in their territory, had been agitated by the people
of Bethlehem, it having been found that the steady
march of settlement northwards into the Forks was
converting their quiet villiage into a thoroughfare, and
making it a halting-place, at times for idle and im-
pertinent intruders. The arrangements in their large
pointed to act as secretary for an ecclesiastical convention (one of a
series of seven), which sat in the house of George Huebner, a
Schwenkfelder, in the Swamp, in January following. About this time
the Count loaned Mr. Schaus 50/., on terms, that would nowadays
be called easy, as the debt was not liquidated as late as July of
1745. In the spring of 1743, the subject of these memoirs tarried
some time at Bethlehem, as he and his son Philip had been engaged
to assist Mr. Antes in erecting and putting into running order a
grist-mill. Soon after its completion, he removed his family into
Saucon township, in the immediate vicinity of that place. Here he
opened a house of entertainment, in which in December of 1744, a
third son was born to him, named Gottlieb. Subsequently he removed
to Bethlehem, as is stated above, and was manifestly a member of
its Economy, as in August of 1745, its steward supplied him with
"a frock and breeches made of linen without lining," valued at 5
shillings. Subsequent to Mr. Schaus' retirement from the mill, his
history grows obscure ; yet there is reason for believing that after the
erection of the new county-town in the ' Forks, he sought to better
The Ci'oivn Inn near Bethlehem. 23
houses (and others, there were none) forbade the
lodging of strangers among them, save at much in-
convenience;— and an Inn within the precincts of the
town, it was argued, would merely invite invidious
comment on the part of the public, which was deter-
mined to remain ignorant of their object and aim.
In fact, it was already at that time reported that the
Moravians were a monastic order, that their houses
were convents, and that at Bethlehem " the glimmering
tapers shed forth light on cowled heads, and the nuns'
sweet hymn was heard sung low in the dim mysterious
aisle," No wonder, then, it was deemed expedient to
locate the proposed Inn on the Simpson Tract. Ac-
his fortunes there, in the whirl of business, which, it was hoped by men
of sanguine temperament, would attend its growth and development
as a seat of Justice, and a centre of inland commerce. So much is
certain, however, that in 1760, both Adam and Frederic Schaus were
residents of Easton ; the former a landlord, the latter a mason, and
superintending too the work on the Moravian house, then in course of
erection in that place. It would furthermore appear that the son
succeeded the father; for it is said that in Frederic Schaus' Tavern,
the Honorable the Court occasionally sat in conclave prior to the
completion of the Court-house in the spring of 1766. Further than
these, there are no reliable notices of the Schaus family as far as
this history is concerned ; yet, it may be stated, that its modern
branches write Shouse upon their hereditary escutcheon. Finally,
Adam Schaus was never landlord of the Crown Inn, the statement
to that effect made by writers- of its history, being an erroneous de-
duction based upon allusions to his keeping a' house of entertainment
over against Bethlehem ; which point we hope this narrative will defi-
nitely settle.
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
cordingly, in the early spring of 1745, an eligible site
was selected at a point a few rods east of the ter-
minus of the ferry, on high ground near the river's
bank. Work was thereupon commenced ; but as
the time and attention of the industrious little com-
munity were neccessarily occupied with the labors of
the farm and the shops, also, it was late in the sum-
mer before the house was habitable. There, then, it
stood in September of 1745, in a small clearing in the
woods, — as to its exterior, a rather imposing-looking
structure, forty by twenty-eight feet more or less,
compactly knit together from white-oak logs, with
two stories and a high gable-roof, — as to its interior,
however, having four rooms in each story, all floored
with one and a half-inch white-oak plank ; the stud-
ding of the partition-walls being posts of the same
material, grooved so as to receive cross pieces, with
a snug filling of cut straw and clay; the casing of
the doors and windows, moreover, worked to the
very beads and fluting from solid timbers ; wooden
latches and bolts, with not a nail in the carpentering
but what had been wrought from well-qualified horse-
shoes by the nailsmith at Bethlehem. It should not
surprise us, such being the case, that the sturdy
house was found sound to the core in the year of its
demolition, which was the one hundred and thir-
teenth after its erection.
It may in the next place, be well to acquaint the
THE CROWN INN, 1757.
South Front— From "A view of Bethlehem, one of the Brethren's principal settlements in Pennsylv
drawn hy Nicholas Garrison, and published November 24th, 1757.
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
reader with the lines of travel from which it was
expected the young Inn would draw its annual
revenue, — partially, at least. Now the point it occu-
pied with respect to these, was reasonably strategic, as
will become evident from a glance at any map of the
then settled portions of the Province, which shows the
following to have been the system of roads adopted
in the Forks of Delaware. There was, in the first
place, the great King's Road from the capital. This
had been stretching northward by easy stages ever
since the days of William Penn, when, in 1738,
another link was added to its important chain, it being
in that year extended " from Thomas Morris' road
in Perkasie,"* to Nathaniel Irish's stone quarry (a
point in the old Hellertown roadf at Iron Hill). But
in March of 1745, at the very time when the building
of the Inn was in its inception, the inhabitants of Naza-
* The Manor of Perkasie or Perkasea, was a tract of 10,000 acres
of land, lying within the limits of Hilltown and Rockhill townships,
Bucks County, granted by William Penn to Samuel Carpenter,
Edward Penington and Isaac Norris, by letters patent bearing date of
25th October, 1701. In 1735, the three grantees conveyed the tract
to John Penn the first, when it became known by the name of
"John Penn's Manor of Perkasea, in the County of Bucks." In July
of 1759, Thomas Penn donated one-fourth of the estate to the
University of Pennsylvania.
■[■William Bradford, in a pamphlet entitled "An Account of dis-
tances from the City of Philadelphia of all the places of note in the
improved parts of the Province," published in 1755, gives the follow-
TJie Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
reth and Bethlehem, with others, humbly petitioned
the worshipful Court of Justices holden at Newtown in
the County of Bucks, praying in these words, to wit. :
" that they may have a road fit for wagons to pass
from Saucon mill to Bethlehem and thence to Naza-
reth, on account of a corn-mill that is at Bethlehem,
without which road the people of Nazareth, and other
the inhabitants of the county will be put to great
inconvenience, and the same mill to them be rendered
useless." Hereupon the desired road was laid out
ing points of interest in the old King's
distances from the Court-house.
From the Court-house to Bethlehem, viz.
Bridge,
Road, and their precis
»o-
Poole':
Norris',
Farmhill Meeting,
Rising Sun,
Stenton,
Germantovm
Mount Airy
Scull's,
Ottinger's, .
Francis',
White Marsh Church
Benjamin Dav
Baptist Meeting.
Housekeeper's, ,
Swamp Meeting.
StorFel Wagner's
Bethlehem,
iles.
Qrs.
Perches
—
2
65
2
'
37
2
3
35
3
2
40
5
1
—
6
1
3°
8
2
52
IO
—
Z2
2
35
12
3
3S
'3
1
33
16
—
54
23
1
57
25
1
57
37
2
47
47
2
—
5-
3
57
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
as follows, "beginning at Irish's stone quarry at a
white-oak, thence northwest forty degrees north thirty-
five perches; thence west northwest one hundred
perches; thence west sixty-nine perches; thence west
northwest one hundred and fifty perches to Yssel-
stein's plantation ; thence north over the river Lecha*
ninety-three perches ; thence west northwest one hun-
dred and fifty-eight perches to the Bethlehem lane ;
thence west one hundred and twenty perches to the
mill ; and from the Bethlehem line north northeast
quite to Nazareth twenty-eight hundred and forty
perches." Beyond that hamlet there was close con-
nection by bridle-paths with Depui's settlement in
the Minisinks, which, in turn, was tapped by the
historic " Mine Road " that led you through the
valley of the Mamakating to Kingston in Esopus.
A few days' labor it will be conceded, would suffice
to cut a way from the Inn through the woods to the
Indian ford.
*By way of an old Indian ford, which Heckerwelder states to have
been in the great trail leading northward from the lower country of
the Delawares, even from the mouth of their national river,— said
trail on crossing the Lecha-wiech-ink forking off in different directions
to the scattered towns of the Lennape, in inland Pennsylvania,— as far
west as the Alleghenies. This ancient ford crossed the Lehigh on
Ysselstein's plantation, bearing according to an actual survey, north
ii degrees west to the head of Ysselstein's Island (the island now held
by the Bethlehem Iron Company), thence 15 degrees east to the left,
bank, measuring 58 perches from shore to shore.
SO The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
There was, in the second place a high road to
Martin's Ferry over Delaware in the exact fork of
that river, which road had been petitioned for in the
same year 1745, by one David Martin, of Trentown,
who six years prior had obtained "a grant and patent
with the privilege of keeping a ferry from the Penn-
sylvania shore to the upper end of an island called
Tinicum, to the place in the county of Morris in
West Jersey, called Marble Mountain." Thus the
Bethlehem Inn was also on the line of travel from
New York. In the third place a bridle path (con-
verted into a highway* in 1760) struck southwesterly
from the house over the Lehigh hills towards the
German settlements in Macungy, — another due west
to Solomon Jennings' plantation, and diverse others
north and northwest to the seats of the Ulster-Scots
on Menagassi and the springs of Calisuck. Finally
there was a second ford of the river connecting with
" the road through Bethlehem to Philadelphia," bear-
ing from said road first south by east, next due south,
and next south southwest across the river, measuring
thirty-four perches from shore to shore by actual
*This road, called the "road to Salisbury" on olden drafts, and
subsequent to 1761, "the Emmaus Road," as late as 1826, forked
from the Philadelphia Road near the bridge, thence passing up the
hill through the grounds of E. P. Wilbur and John Smylie, Jr., and
onward south by west as far as Foelkner's butchery, at which point it
struck the present road.
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
survey. What more eligible site than this for a
house of entertainment ? And yet the one of which
we are privileged to write, turned its face modestly
from the garish glare of dusty highways towards the
beautiful mountain, borrowing quiet from its peaceful
calm, bloom from the roses that suffused its bosom
at dawn and eventide, and nut-brown health from the
flood of sunlight in which it bathed on its southern
lookout, day after day during its lifetime as an Inn,
which numbered forty-nine long years. Meanwhile its
back, we must confess, was turned indecorously upon
Bethlehem.
Fifteen landlords, to whom it is now proposed to
introduce the reader in turn, presided over the fortunes
of the house thus auspicioulsy established, in the in-
terval between September of 1745 and October of
1794, — said house being at first very appropriately
and without ought of affectation called by the Mo-
ravians of Bethlehem, " The Tavern over y° water," —
but by others " The Tavern near Bethlehem," or
" The Bethlehem Tavern."
Now the names of these olden worthies, recited in
the order of their succession, are the following, to
wit: Samuel Powell, Frederic Hartmann, Jobst Vol-
lert, Hartman Verdriess, John Leighton, John God-
frey Grabs, John Nicholas Schaeffer, Ephraim
Culver, Andreas Home, John Lischer, Ephraim
Culver (a second time), Augustus H. Francke,
32 The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
Valentine Fuehrer, John G. Stoll and George
Schindler.*
On the 30th September 1745, Samuel Powell a
native of Whitchurch {Album Monasteriuni), a mar-
ket-town in the Whitchurch division of the hundred
of North Bradford, County of Salop, brazier, — (he
immigrated in June of 1742 and since then had re-
sided in Philadelphia) and* Martha, his wife, occu-
pied the Inn, which, during their incumbency (it
expired on the 31st of May 1746), after having been
warmed and duly furnished, sustained the character
of a very sober and orderly house. In fact, having
been granted neither permit nor license, it was a
house of entertainment in the restricted acceptation
of the term only, — proving, nevertheless, a useful ac-
quisition for the Moravian settlement, in as far as
upwards of two-hundred visitors were booked at
Bethlehem, for the eight months of the Powell ad-
ministration.f
* The editor of the Memorials of the Moravian Church states
erroneously (see page 262, Vol. 1 ), that one Anthony Gilbert was
a landlord of the old Crown Inn. He was led to a committal of
this error by obscure allusions to said Gilbert as keeping a house of
entertainment, called The Crown, in 1745 — which house, however, he has
since satisfactorily located in Germantown. It might repay some anti-
quary to institute researches so as to develop the history of the hostelry
in that ancient town, the honored namesake of the one of which these
pages treat.
f Samuel Powell died at Philadelphia, 10th September, 1762, and was
buried in Potter's Field, now Washington Square.
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 33
The Powells were succeeded by Frederic Hart-
mann and Margaret his wife, both of whom had
immigrated in the interval between 1725 and 1740,
a period of time unprecedentedly rich in the influx
of Palatines into the Province, — they being not
unlikely included in the number of those of whom
Secretary Logan writes to the Proprietaries so
excitedly — " they come in crowds, go to the best
vacant tracts and seize upon them as places of
common spoil. But when they are sought out and
challenged for the right of occupancy, these Germans
allege it was published in Europe that we desired
and solicited colonists and had a superabundance of
land, and therefore they had come with no means
to pay." Be this as it may, Mr. Hartmann was
residing in the vicinity of the Simpson Tract when
he accepted the appointment to the Inn. In antici-
pation of his accession as landlord, the house, mean-
while, had been well furnished with all that is in-
dispensable to an Inn, besides the appurtenances
of a dairy. This appears from the following record ;
viz. :
" 19 May 1746. Tavern over ye water Dr., for
Sundries, to wit : Two cows 7/., one churn 35. —
one quart wine-measure, one pint do, one half
pint do, one gill do, one half-gill do, all of pew-
ter, and three gill and two dram-glasses 1/. — two
3Jf The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
hogsheads of cider 3/. — four casks do il. 5J. —
one cask of metheglin 17J. Sd. — a small cupboard
with an iron lock 8j. — one walnut table i6j. — a tin
funnel, an iron strainer, a beef-fork and a ladle 4^.
6d. — two iron candlesticks is. 6d. — six pewter plates
10;. — twelve pewter spoons $s. 6d. and two soup
dishes lis. — " Subsequently, in this administra-
tion, the chambers were furnished with green rugs
and blankets, and net-work window curtains. Two
handsome brass candlesticks were provided for the
sitting-room, and the kitchen's outfit completed by
the addition of six black-handled knives and forks,
one copper coffee-pot, one gridiron for broils, one
pewter tea-pot, and three brown cups and three
saucers of china. Thus Mr. Hartmann was enabled
to offer right royal cheer and goodly creature-com-
forts to tired travellers, at the house standing on
Simpson land, which was worth scarce fifteen shil-
lings per acre in the market ; his rates were reason-
able, too — to wit : fourpence for a breakfast of tea
or coffee ; sixpence for a dinner ; (but eightpence,
for a dinner, with a pint of beer;) fourpence, for a
supper, cold ; sixpence for ditto, hot ; twopence for
a night's lodging ; and twelvepence for a night's
hay and oats, for a horse.
Meanwhile, however, steps had been taken to
have the Inn established upon a legal basis. For
this purpose the Court of Quarter Sessions of the
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 85
Peace, holden at Newtown* in June of 1746, was
duly petitioned for a license, and a bond having
been given to Lawrence Growdon, Esq., his Worship
on the bench, — that solemn body forthwith allowed
and licensed Frederic Hartmann to sell beer and
cider by small measure in the township of Saucon,
in the County of Bucks, until the 24th of June
next ensuing, — he promising to observe the laws
and ordinances of the Province which were or
should be made relating to retailers of beer and
cider by small measure. By this process our Inn
was transformed into a house of entertainment, in
a more popular acception of the term than before.
The net income of the Tavern for the seven
months between the 19th May and the 31st Decem-
ber 1746, amounted to 26/. gs. id., a result which
indicates that its management was efficient as well as
acceptable. But on the 12th of January 1747, the
landlady (she was a native of the ancient city of
Worms in the Rhineland) died — and not three
months after her interment in the new grave-yardf
* The ancient village of Newtown, situated on a small branch of the
Neshaminy, ten miles northwest from Bristol, was the first seat of Justice
of the County of Bucks, whither its inhabitants repaired for legal
business even from regions as remote as the Minisinks, until the erection
of Northampton County and the establishment of a Court at Easton in
June of 1752.
f Almost forgotten, as all traces of its existence have long since been
obliterated, is the burial place which the early Moravians provided for
3G T7ie Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
on the Simpson Tract, Mr. Hartmann retired from
the Inn. We are inclined to believe that he died
subsequent to J 756 at Nazareth.*
the settlers residing immediately south of the Lehigh, with whom they
were connected by the ties of religion. A draft of " Bethlehem Lands,"
lying on that bank, of the river, drawn in 1757, locates the graveyard on
rising ground, some thirty rods due south from the "great spring," —
therefore near the intersection of Ottawa and Second Street — and shows
it to have been a small enclosure in the very heart of the primitive
woods, which at that time were unbroken as far east as the line of the
road then leading to Emmaus. There are nineteen official records of
interments made in it between the 12th of January 1747, and the 9th of
October, 17G7. Well authenticated tradition, however, states, that while
the Continental Hospital occupied Bethlehem, its sick were occasionally
billeted in the farm-houses and in the Inn on the Simpson Tract, and
that a number of Revolutionary soldiers were interred in the forsaken
grave-yard, as well as in trenches dug in the fields. It is said, further-
more, that the spot was plowed over in the early part of the century,
— and even old inhabitants who were once familiar with its site are no
longer able to fix its precise locality, so completely have ancient land-
marks been removed or disappeared. (See Appendix for further notice
of the grave-yard on the Simpson Tract.)
"; This history would be incomplete, were no mention made of one
Andrew Ostrom and Jane his wife (they immigrated from London in
the autumn of 17+3), who took apartments at the Inn in October
of 1746, awaiting the completion of a house then in the course of
erection for them on a tract of thirty acres, situated on the mountain
over against the htad of the upper island, which tract Ostrom had taken
up on warrant, the three Penns confirming the same to him by patent
in November of 1760. Jane Ostrom died on "the Ridge" in Decem-
ber of 175S, and was buried in the grave-yard on the Simpson Tract.
In 1764 Ostrom conveyed his land to the Moravians. In 1S53 it was
sold to Chas. W. Rauch of Bethlehem. The inexhaustible quarry of
Potsdam sandstone which underlies Ostrom's Ridge, furnished the
The Croivn Inn near Bethlehem.
It was a fortunate circumstance that at this junc-
ture there was a person on the spot who was well
fitted, and willing to assume the responsibilities
of a landlord, and thus to fill the vacancy created
by Mr. Hartmann's resignation. This person was
one Jobst Vollert, of whose history we know the
following: In the early summer of 1746, Jobst,
and Mary Elizabeth, nee Miller (she was a sister
of Daniel Miller of Philadelphia, potter), his wife,
removed with their family to Bethlehem from their
late residence on the Schuylkill in Coventry town-
ship in the County of Chester. There they had
become acquainted with Moravian itinerants, and
attached to the Moravian Society. But as there
was no dwelling to let in the infant settlement,
several apartments in our Inn were assigned to
Jobst, at a rent of fifty shillings per annum, he
stipulating at the same time "to teach James to
read and write in consideration of his wood, which
wood said James* is to split." Mr. Vollert entered
material of the old Bethlehem buckwheat-mill erected in 176C, of the
Bethlehem Iron Company's buildings, and of those of the Lehigh Uni-
versity.
* It is highly probable that "James" who is here woven into the web
of this history (he was errand-boy and hostler at the Inn), is the same
who inevitably brings up the rear as often as an enumeration is made of
the Moravians who immigrated into the Province from Georgia in
April of 1740. In 1747 James was transferred to Nazareth, where we
lose sight of him.
TJie Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
the Inn on these terms on the 17th of June, 1746,
and thereupon commenced his career as an educator.
Now, having been the first of that ancient and
honorable order who resided on the south bank of
Lecha, which in our day (such has been the onward
march of civilization) abounds in men and women
of letters, — and having moreover left a noble record
and an inspiriting example of disinterestedness in his
calling, it would not only not be undignified but
highly proper, for one or another, or for all of
the institutions of learning on the Simpson Tract,
to confer a degree upon the memory of old Jobst
Vollert, and to inscribe his name on their rolls
of honor.
Right pleasantly, then, we doubt not, occupied
with his pupil, with enunciation, stress, pot-hooks
and hangers, did the long months of the winter of
1746 and 1747 pass — spring opened, the trees gave
signs of life, and when the weir in the Lehigh had
been repaired, and the first shad of the season
were being taken, Jobst Vollert succeeded to the
Inn, — he being the third landlord in the succession.
We much regret our inability to adduce a single oc-
currence of interest as having transpired during this
brief incumbency, either at the Inn or upon its
premises ; but the opening of a boarding-school on
the 25th day of May, 1747, in the " Behringer
House" — (it stood not a stone's throw east from
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 39
the foot of the stairway by which you descend from
the New Street bridge), is an event whose signifi-
cance claims for it more than a passing notice. The
great doctors of Geology tell us, that each period
in that immensity of time in which they revel, pro-
duced some form of life prophetic of some nobler
kindred form of life destined to appear in a suc-
ceeding age — a law, whose application here will
invest the genesis of the school in the " Behringer
House" with extraordinary import, — demonstrating
it to have been prophetic of those higher scholastic
creations which shine resplendent in our day, — the
imperial University, the academic shades of Mel-
rose and Penrose, and sweet Bishopthorpe in
fairyland. In another respect, also, the school which
has thus been introduced to the reader's notice, was
geological in character — it having had epochs, each
of which was sharply defined by the introduction
of a different order of beings. From the day of
its organization to the ioth day of January, 1749,
it was occupied by lads, the major part of whom
had, prior to the first mentioned date, been inmates
of a similar institution, conducted under the aus-
pices of the Moravian Society, at some obscure
point in the Long Swamp. These boys have come
down to us with no good record, it must be con-
fessed, it being said of them that they were un-
ruly spirits and needed disciplining. We can find
40 Tlie Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
no clew, however, to the standing with their con-
temporaries of the girls or young lasses who took
possession of the premises in May of 1749, — but
on their evacuating them in December of 1753, the
" Behringer House" was converted into a hattery,
probably because the neighborhood abounded in rab-
bits, the fur of which animals was fabricated into
the styles of felt-hats worn by the gentlemen of
that day. On a draft of lands lying on the south
bank of Lecha, drawn in 1757, the old school-house
no longer appears.
To return to Jobst Vollert. On the 2d of No-
vember, 1747, he retired from the Inn, and removed
with his family to a plantation of eighty-one acres,
lying south and southwest of the Simpson Tract,
which he had purchased of one Tobias Weber, a
Lutheran, last from Germantown. The house stood
on the road to Macungy, and had been built by
Weber in February of 1744.* In September of
1754, Vollert added one hundred and fourteen acres
and one half acre of mountain land to his domain,
these having been exposed for sale at public outcry
by Nicholas Scull, then Sheriff of the County of
Northampton, as the property of one Anthony
* Its site was at the crossing of the run which springs in the Salisbury-
hills, and which, after passing in the rear of the Church of the Nativity,
struggles through the improvements of South Bethlehem to find its old
outlet into the Lehigh, east of the Union Depot.
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. J/.1
Albrecht (he had been imported in October of
1732, in the pink John and William of Sunder-
land, Constable Tymperton, master, from Rotterdam,
but last from Dover as by clearance thence), from
Mannheim, baker. But the " Albrecht Farm "
stretched from the south line of the "Weber Tract"
upwards to the very crest of the mountain, and was
well-paved with syenite, garnished profusely with vac-
cinia, and rich in ruffed and pinnated grouse. In
August of 1755, these two plantations passed into
the hands of the Moravians, and in the following
May, Jobst Vollert removed to Easton, where we
find him, in the autumn of 1760, assisting John
Bosch, carpenter, Frederick Schaus, mason, and
Abraham Berlin, blacksmith, in erecting a large
dwelling for the Moravians, on a lot " bounded east
by Pomfret street, south by lot No. 120 — west by
a twenty-foot alley, and north by Ferry street."
While in the act of digging a well on these prem-
ises,— the curtain falls upon Jobst and we fail to
recognise him elsewhere on the stage of history.
On the third of November, 1747, Hartmann Ver-
driess (Vandriess), last from Carter's Run in War-
wick township, Lancaster- County, miller, and Ann
Catharine, nee Bender (she had immigrated in her
bellehood with her parents from Heilbrunn, in the
Palatinate, and had settled in Conestoga) his wife, oc-
cupied the Bethlehem Tavern, as host and hostess,
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
they being the fourth couple called to administer its
concerns. But their career was brief, — and even
in its tenor, closing on the 29th day of March,
1748. Elsewhere, however, Mr. Verdriess made his
mark. He was twice miller at the Friedensthal
mill, on Lehietan, touching the Barony of Nazareth
on the east, — and was landlord of "The Rose" hard
by, between August of 1756 and April of 1759, at
a time when living in the bush was fraught with
perils, as white men's scalps were at a premium in
the Indian market. His experiences during that
period of his life are fully rehearsed in " A Red
Rose from the Olden Time;"* — hence, passing them
over thus lightly, we proceed to state, that in 1766
Mr. and Mrs. Verdriess removed their family be-
yond Mason and Dixon's line (about the time when
these distinguished mathematicians and astronomers
had reached the summit of the Little Allegheny in
their historic survey), and seated themselves in Fred-
eric County, Maryland, adjacent to a Moravian set-
tlement (since 1785 called Graceham), then growing
upon a small tract of land, which Frederic, the last
Lord Baltimore had patented to those people in
November of 175 1. Here Mr. Verdriess died in
1774. His widow, however, returned to Bethlehem,
""Or, A Ramble through the Annals of the Rose Inn, on the Barony
of Nazareth in the days of the Province." Small 4to pp. 50. King
and Baird, Printers, Philadelphia.
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. Jj.3
where she died in April of 1S01. Peter Verdriess,
a grandson, was an eminent classical teacher in Phila-
delphia between 1815 and 1825.
John Leighton, a native of the seaport of Dundee,
in the town of Forfarshire, Scotland, but last from
Lamb's Inn (Broad Oak), a Moravian settlement in
the County of Essex, O. E., baker, and Sarah, m. n.
Clifford, born in the ancient city of Canterbury (Du-
rovernuni), both of whom had immigrated in the
autumn of 1743 with one hundred and fifteen others,
(they sailed in the Moravian ship " The Little
Strength") took charge of the hostelry on the 29th of
March, 1748. Their administration of its affairs was,
upon the whole, a prosperous one, — the house netting
62L is. g\d. in 1749 — 71/. 16s. i)d. in 1750 — and 88/.
iij. 3^/. for the year ending 26th July, 1752, — al-
though beer and cider were the only beverages dis-
pensed.* Governor Hamilton honored the Inn a few
* Fortunately there is extant and in good keeping, a view of Bethle-
hem from the declivity of the mountain, taken by some unknown
limner in 1751, in which the Inn, as far as it occupies a position in the
foreground, looks us full in the face. We need no further testimony
than what is furnished by this ancient drawing, that the entrance to the
hostelry was from the south, and that there was no signboard as yet to
arrest the attention of the passing traveller. For the rest, the house is of
imposing appearance, comparatively speaking, and its surroundings such
as are usually presented by a clearing only recently hewn out of a
primitive wilderness. To give life to this picture, the artist introduces
two figures ; — one, a female with pitcher in hand passing out of the
Tlie Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
moments by his presence on the 13th of July 1752,
while on his way to Easton to confer with Mr.
Parsons* on matters touching the welfare and dignity
of the newly erected seat of Justice. There was at
this time a great want of highways through the
Counties of Bucks and Northampton to said seat
of Justice, and as John Chapman and John Watson,
surveyors, had not yet laid out " a commodious
road from the mouth of the West Branch of Dela-
ware opposite the town of Easton (the landing place
of a well-accustomed ferry over Delaware River),
over the aforementioned West Branch into the great
road leading from Saucon to the City of Philadel-
phia,"— (lately asked for by divers the inhabitants
of the County of Northampton) — the Governor was
door — and the other, an Indian, seated on a log, near the well at which
the damsel purposes to fill her vessel.
* William Parsons, who rocked Easton in her cradle and watched
over her infant footsteps with paternal solicitude, was probably a native
of England. We find him residing in Philadelphia prior to 1722 (in
that year he married), a shoemaker by trade, and a member of Frank-
lin's Junta Club in which he passed for " a man having a profound
knowledge of mathematics." About 1743 he was appointed their Sur-
veyor General by the Penns. Ill health compelling him to resign this
laborious position in June of 174S, he thereupon removed to Lancaster,
whence he was summoned by the Proprietaries in the autumn of 1752 to
fill the offices in the seat of Justice of the newly erected County of
Northampton. He died at Easton in December of 1757. Several of his
daughters united with the Moravians. His widow, who removed to
Bethlehem in 1769, died there in March of 1773.
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 45
necessitated to take a circuitous route to reach his
destination. This brought him to our Inn. But,
eighteen days after his Honor and his Honor's suite
had refreshed themselves with beer and cider at
Leighton's, — the worthy couple retired from public
life. Mr. Leighton died at Bethlehem in August of
1756. His widow survived him till in April of 1785.
Although there was as yet no farm on the tract
with whose history this writing is concerned, portions
of it had, meanwhile, been brought under cultiva-
tion, and in 1747 a barn was erected near the Inn,
in order to obviate the inconvenience of ferrying the
hay and fodder over the river to the Economy's
farm-yard in Bethlehem, — and also to permit of
housing such kine as were pastured on its south
bank. There being plentiful subsistence for sheep in
the grassy swales in the lowland, the Economy's en-
tire flock (it numbered in the aforementioned year
two hundred and seventy head, including one hun-
dred and ten ewes and lambs from the Barony) was
summered on the Simpson Tract annually. One
John Godfrey Grabs, a native of wool-growing Si-
lesia (he and his wife Ann Mary had immigrated
with a large colony in November of 1743, most
of whose members had been brought over for the
special purpose of reclaiming the Barony from the
wilderness, — these, therefore, being the pioneers who
felled its primitive forests, enriched its watercourses
The Croivn Inn near Bethlehem.
with made meadows, and sowed its sunny uplands
with wheat and rye, until at five distinct points its
acres smiled with the gifts of Ceres, and eventually,
Nazareth, Sicily-like, became the granary of a Re-
public)— was duly appointed shepherd. This ap-
pointment was dictated by prudence, as the wolves
had not yet deserted their ancestral homes in the
neighborhood. It was for Grabs to guard the flock
against harm from these hungry denizens of the
bush, — whether seated under the shade of some oak
or chestnut, or whether in his two-wheeled lodge on
inclement days, while beguiling his tedious watch,
not with foolish reed or oaten pipe, but with knit-
ting stout hosen from the wool of his own grow-
ing. Nevertheless, it happened occasionally, that a
wolf or two, bolder than their fellows, would dog
the tracks of some inexperienced lamb or yearling,
and dispensing with the hypocritical sophistry of
their kinsman in i£sop, despatch it summarily, while
in the very act of drinking at the run half way up
the mountain. This, then, was the idyllic epoch in
the past of the Simpson Tract, a veritable return to
the davs of poetry and fable, — twin-sisters in the
realm of letters. It is true there were no Phyllises
at hand, (save the lasses at school in the " Behringer
House") — but Mr. Grabs, who has shown himself
a utilitarian and no dreamer, we venture to say, was
proof against their harmless little ways. Be this as
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. Jfl
it may, a well authenticated tradition, asserts that
the unruly lads occasionally wheeled the shepherd's
lodge into the river, when he was called from his
post to follow his fleecy charge in their wayward
movements through the valley. While a knowledge
of these vagaries may serve to detract from the per-
fection of the idyl we were called upon to deline-
ate, it distracts not a whit from our acquaintance
with the instincts of human nature.*
It was from this pastoral occupation that Mr.
Grabs was promoted to the Inn on the 26th day
of July 1752, it being precisely two months after
sheep-shearing. He and his wife were the sixth
couple incumbent, and stood at its head for almost
four years. Before proceeding to review the great
events in this administration, it becomes us to ac-
quaint the reader with the following occurrences of
minor importance. And first our Inn was invested
with new powers, when in the autumn of 1753,
there were displayed in its tap-room the following
letters patent :
"Whereas John Godfrey Grabs hath been recom-
mended unto me as a sober and fit person to keep a
house of entertainment, and being requested to grant
him a license for the same, I do hereby license and
* It may prove interesting to some reader to learn that Casper Beckel,
John Salterbach, Christopher Demuth and John Brodhead (a son of
Daniel Brodhead of the Minisinks) were the last inmates of this school.
J/.S The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
allow the said John Godfrey Grabs to keep a
public house in the township of Saucon over against
Bethlehem in the County of Northampton, for the
selling of wine, rum, punch and other spirituous
liquors, until the 17th day of August next; Pro-
vided, he shall not, at any time in the said term
suffer any drunkenness, unlawful gaming, or any
other disorders, or sell any drink to the Indians to
debauch or hurt them ; but in all things observe
and practice all laws and ordinances of this Govern-
ment to his said employment relating.
" Given under my hand and seal-at-arms, the
17th day of August, in the 27th year of our Sov-
ereign Lord and King George the Second, and in
the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred
and fifty three.
Signed James Hamilton."
[l. S.]
Hereupon, for some reason nowhere given, the
income of the house markedly increased, its profits
for the interval between the aforecited instrument
and the close of the year being 34/., and for the
year ending 31st December 1754, 247/. 10s. 6d.
The cost of the annual licenses issued, as was
customary in those times, by the Honorable the
Governor, on recommendation of the Court of Gen-
eral Quarter Sessions of the Peace, was 2/. 5^. o</.,
for the years 1755 and 1756.
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
A new era was now about to dawn upon the
Province and our Inn, in the course of which the
latter was reluctantly drawn out of its cherished
seclusion by being subjected to distasteful publicity,
was closely linked in its fortunes to the former,
and was brought face to face with the great actors
of the bloody drama, the scene of which was des-
tined to be laid on the frontiers of Pennsylvania.
French ambition and French aggression provoked
the first war, in which the followers of William
Perm engaged with the aborigines. Whatever other
considerations may have moved the Indians to en-
tertain unfriendly feelings towards the descendants
of a man whose memory they revered, whether loss
of confidence in their integrity, or a sense of injury,
or a wild hope of regaining their ancestral seats, —
it is a question whether they would have followed
up these feelings by acts of open hostility, had they
not been incited by the insidious representations of
the French of Canada. An alliance with the Indian
tribes of the Province, the latter well knew would
enable them to carry on their military operations
in the Ohio country successfully, and to realize their
schemes of territorial aggrandizement. In this way,
then, were the Delaware nation and lesser tribes,
residing on the Susquehanna and eastward, seduced
from their allegiance to the British crown, and led
to inflict much suffering upon the white settle-
50 The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
ments which stretched along the line of the Keck-
achtany or Endless Mountains, from the romantic
point at which the Delaware has broken their bar-
rier, to the valley of the Conococheague, on the con-
fines of Maryland. Passing over the occupation of
Presque Isle (Erie) by the French in 1749, their
advance to Venango, and the subsequent erection
of Fort Duquesne in the Forks of the Kit-hanne
or Alleghany, we come to the memorable attempt
made by the English to dislodge the invaders
from this stronghold, and drive them back to their
legitimate seats on the St. Lawrence. Braddock's
defeat on Frazier's run, near the banks of the
Monongahela, on the 9th of July, 1755, was not
only a fatal termination of a campaign which it had
been hoped would inflict a decisive blow upon the
enemy, but proved the direct means of encouraging
the disaffected Indians to make the frontiers of the
Province the scene of a predatory warfare, in which
the northern bounds of old Northampton were se-
verely scourged at intervals during a period of
almost three years.
With the movements of the savages in this quar-
ter, only, are we here concerned, and in briefly re-
viewing their course, we would state that the mas-
sacre at the Gnadenhutten mission (Lehighton), on
the evening of the 24th of November, 1755, was
the first indication given to the inhabitants of that
Tlie Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
County that the enemy was at their doors. Its
remoter settlements, and among these the scattered
plantations that nestled in the small valleys immedi-
ately north of the Blue Mountain, drained by the
Pocopoco and its branches, the Analomink, Mc-
Michael's and the Cherry Creek, — and the Pennsyl-
vania Minisinks, suffered most severely in the
winter of 1755 and 1756. So emboldened were the
savages grown in consequence of their successful
forays, that in January of the last mentioned year,
their scalp-yell was heard within the precincts of the
Barony of Nazareth, and Bethlehem was only saved
from destruction at their hands" by the exercise of
extreme prudence, and by incessant watchfulness on
the part of its inhabitants.
The fear which now seized upon the dwellers on
the frontiers is indescribable ; and as Government
moved slowly in devising means for their protec-
tion (it was the middle of December of 1755, when
Franklin, who had been prevailed upon to take
charge of the northen frontier, and to provide for
the defence of the inhabitants by raising troops and
building a line of forts, moved to the seat of war),
they placed their safety in flight. In this way it
came to pass, that within six weeks after the first
inroads of the enemy, not only was transmontane
Northampton almost entirely deserted by the whites,
but even the plantations in the tier of townships
52 TJie Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
resting against the eastern slope of the Blue Moun-
tain were left to their fate, — invariably the torch of
the Indian warrior. It was in this precipitate hegira
now, that the Moravian farms and villages were
sought out by the fugitives, and were thus converted
into cities of refuge, — and some of them, moreover,
into rude strongholds, girt with palisades, after the
fashion of those times of primitive warfare. This
condition of things reached its climax, it is true, in
the early winter of 1756; nevertheless, even pend-
ing negotiations for peace with the Indians (there
were three conferences held with them at Easton
alone, in the interval between July of 1756 and
August of 1757), there occurred repetitions of the
horrors which had marked the inception of hostili-
ties. At a treaty made between Governor Denny
and the Delaware King Tadeuskundt, at Easton, in
August of 1757, a peace was finally confirmed.
Meanwhile, the Bethlehem Tavern had been the
scene of lesser acts in the exciting drama of the
day. Its precincts were crowded with fugitives in
December of 1755. Landlord Grabs scarcely knew
how to provide for these destitute people.* Stand-
ing, furthermore in the highway of travel between
* Elizabeth, the wife of Solomon Davis, a refugee from Allen town-
ship, died at the Inn on the 25th of January, 1756, and was buried in
the grave-yard near by.
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 53
Fort Allen* (Weissport) and Eastern — between an
important military outpost, and the point which had
been selected by the Indians as the place of con-
ference, it will not surprise us to learn that it was
occasionally a rendezvous for the soldiery in the
Province service, and frequently the halting-place of
the disaffected Delawares and their dusky allies.
The following events occurred at the Inn during
the last months of Grabs' incumbency.
*This was the second stronghold in a cordon of stockades erected
along the line of the Blue Mountain, between the Delaware and the Sus-
quehanna. It was built under Franklin's direction, on the left bank of
the Lehigh, at a point where Col. Jacob Weiss commenced Weissport
in 17S5; was completed on the 25th of January, 1756, and named in
honor of Chief Justice William Allen. The well in the stockade may
be seen on the premises of the Fort Allen House. It should be care-
fully preserved, not only because it is a memorial of the old Indian
War, but also because it testifies to what Poor Richard knew about
digging wells. Fort Allen was garrisoned for five years. On its evacua-
tion in January of 1761, the site on which it stood reverted to the
Moravians, — being within the limits of a tract of 120 acres, part of a
great tract of 5,000 acres released by William Penn to Adrian Vroesen,
of Rotterdam, in March of 16S2, deeded by Adrian Vroesen to Benjo-
han Furley, of the aforementioned city — surveyed for the heirs of Benjo-
han Furley, in December of 1735"; conveyed in March of 1745, in its
entirety, by Thomas Lawrence, of Philadelphia, attorney-at-law, for
Dorothea, widow of Benjohan Furley, and Elizabeth and Martha Furley,
coheirs of Benjohan Furley, to Edward Shippen, of Philadelphia, mer-
chant; conveyed by Edward Shippen in September of 1745 to Richard
Peters, of Philadelphia ; Peters thereupon deeding the aforementioned 120
acres to Charles Brockden, of Philadelphia, for the use and behoof of
the Moravians.
5Jj. The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
On the 23d of November, 1755, the house was
for the first time occupied by the military, and in
the evening of that day, Col. John Anderson of
Greenwich, West Jersey, arrived with a detachment
of sixty men, to aid a sister Province in distress.
These passed the night at the Inn, and next day,
taking the Gnadenhutten road ( the same that had
been laid out by order of the Court in 1748, — "a
good wagon road from the King's Road near Beth-
lehem to the Mahoning creek"), set out for the
mountain, where Indians painted for war were said
to be lurking. Despite the presence of Anderson's
men in the neighborhood, however, the savages, as
is known, struck a blow that same evening at the
Mahoning, which cost the Moravians eleven lives,
and almost proved fatal to their prosperous mission.
Intelligence of this calamity moved Government
to lose no more time in putting the exposed fron-
tiers of Northampton in a posture of defence, and
Franklin, hereupon, began to move companies of
Bucks County militia to the scene of the recent
disaster. Capt. Wilson, with sixty men, was the first
to march. The company spent the night of the 26th
and 27th of November at the Bethlehem Tavern,
and then followed in the track of Anderson.
Franklin arrived at Bethlehem with Commissioners
Fox and Hamilton on the 18th of December. With
these came Capt. Trump's company of fifty men
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 55
(their arms, ammunition and blankets, and a hogs-
head of rum for their use, writes Parsons, had
been forwarded to Easton in advance), so that on
the aforementioned day, one hundred and fifty souls,
states a trusty chronicler, were billeted at our little
Inn. This military triumviate now labored with
alacrity, dividing the time until the expiration of
the year between Easton and Bethlehem. They
summoned Capts. Aston and Wayne from Bucks, —
organized a new company at the former place in
command of Capt. McLaughlin, and advised with
Capts. Martin, Craig, and Hays of the Irish settle-
ments in the Forks. " I had no difficulty," says
Franklin in his autobiography, " in raising men, hav-
ing soon five hundred and sixty under my com-
mand." From the 7th to the 15th of January,
1756, his headquarters were at Bethlehem. Having
mustered into the service Capt. Volck's company,
which arrived at the Inn from Allemaengel (Lynn
township, Lehigh County) on the nth of the afore-
mentioned month, and commissioned John Nicholas
Wetterhold in the Province pay, and John Van
Etten of Upper Smithfield, Captains, — despite his
modest confession that " he did not consider him-
self well qualified for the military business," — the
Colonel set out for Gnadenhutten to erect a stock-
ade at that important point.
It was the 15th of January, 1756, when he broke
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
camp at Bethlehem and moved his little army in
the direction of the wilderness. He was surrounded
by the pomp and circumstance of war — but we
do not question for a moment that the sage's
heart was in the chime of electrical bells, which was
wont to ring musically in his quiet study, on
High street, under the influence of that invisible
agency, which he, first of men, drew down from the
clouds.
Two days after his departure, Capt. Jacob Arndt,
with fifty men, who had been ordered up from
Rockland in Bucks, " to strengthen this part of
the Province," so writes Franklin, " to convoy pro-
visions to the company at work over the moun-
tain, and to quiet the inhabitants who seem terrified
out of their senses," halted at the Inn, and on
the 1 8th of the last mentioned month, set out for
their destination.*
On the 4th of February, Franklin returned to
Bethlehem with an escort of thirty men. He had
built his first fort. Kliest, the blacksmith, having
shoed the Colonel's horse, for which the Province be-
came indebted to the blacksmith in the sum of one
and ninepence, and Lange, the saddler, having re-
* Jacob Arndt was an energetic and popular officer in the Indian
wars, a leading patriot in the country of his adoption during the strug-
gle for American Independence, and a member of the Supreme Execu-
tive Council of Pennsylvania. He died at Easton in 1S05.
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 57
paired his saddle to the amount of three and six,
the tired warrior, — his martial cloak still damp from
the frosty rime of the mountain, if not wet with
"the dew of battle," — rode down to the ferry, was
ferried across Lecha, and having watered his horse
once more at the Inn, followed along the river's
bank to the head of Ysselstein's Island, and there
struck the great highway to the capital. This was
on the fourth day of February, in the thirtieth year
of his subjects' Sovereign Lord, King George the
second, and in the year of our Lord, one thousand
seven hundred and fifty-six.
It was Mr. Grabs' good fortune before retiring
from the Inn, to witness, as we have just seen, the
mustering of troops in defence of old Northamp-
ton, when she was, for the first time, invaded by
Indians, — and, as landlord, to have added 17/. lis.
3d., to the revenue of his house during its military
occupation. His last official act on record was the
purchase of an hour-glass. Now, as a " Neisser
clock," bearing the legend Ab hoc momento pendet
aternitas was ticking in the narrow hall of the
hostelry, ever since the days of Hartman Verdriess,
we fail even to conjecture why so primitive a chro-
nometer was added to the inventory of its effects.
On the 9th of April of the last mentioned year,
Mr. Grabs severed his connection with the Bethle-
hem Tavern.
58 TJie Ci-own Inn near Bethlehem.
It remains to be said of him, that in the ensu-
ing summer he removed with his family to Betha-
bara, on the great Moravian tract, in Rowan County,
North Carolina — that in July of 1759, he assisted
in making a settlement at " Walnut Bottom," sub-
sequently called Bethany, and that at Bethany he
died in the spring of 1793-
Here it becomes incumbent upon us to retrace
our footsteps in this excursion, in order to bring up
the history of the important appendage to the hos-
telry, to whose fortunes those of the latter were
closely linked. The Ferry was left, on a previous
page, in the hands of Adam Schaus, whose return
for the year ending 31st December, 1745, showed
an income of only 2/. in, id, (the rates in those
days for a footman, were 3^/., but for a horse and
rider 6d.) — a sum whose insignificance would surprise
us, were we not advised, that in the absence of a
grant and patent, it was thought prudent to make
payment for ferriage altogether optional with trav-
ellers. Nevertheless, the advantages accruing to the
Economy from a ferry at this point, were, it will
be admitted, so decided as to almost outweigh even
the consideration of gain.
On Schaus' appointment to the mill, one John
David Behringer, shoemaker (he and Gertrude his
wife, had immigrated in the autumn of 1743), who
was domiciled in a log-house that stood just with-
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
out the eastern line of the Simpson Tract* (it was
long known ■ as " the Behringer House," and ap-
pears to have partaken somewhat of the character
of a penal institution), and Matthew Hoffman, born
in Lischenf in Siegerland, in the Palatinate, but last
from Oley in the County of Berks, saw-miller, con-
sented to share the management and the responsi-
bility of transportation over Lecha, until such time
as an efficient ferryman should be found. Much to
their chagrin, naturally enough, then, did a sudden
rise in the wayward river (it was in the night of
the 1 6th and 17th of February of 1747) tear the
flat from her moorings, whence she was hurried
* Dec. 6th, 1745. David Behringer came to the house over against the
saw-mill, November 1 6th, 1746. He is to be rent free one year, and pay
3/. per annum as long as he lives there, and to enjoy the customary
privileges, excepting the fish-dam, and the rent of the farm." Bethlehem
Steward's Book. — Mr. Behringer had occasional customers from points
as remote as. the Brodhead Settlement, or Dansbury on Analomink, in
transmontane Bucks. "Dec. 3d, 1745, Daniel Brodhead, Dr. to J. D.
Behringer, for mending shoes, 19J." Ibid. We have failed to ascer-
tain, when this historic house was built.
f If the curious reader would fix the locality of this and other towns
and hamlets in the Palatinate named in the course of this narrative, he
may consult that well-known and popular topographical manual, entitled
" Historisch-geographischer Hand-Atlas zur Geschichte der Staaten
Europas, vom Anfmg des Mittelalters bis auf die neueste zeit, von Dr.
Karl V. Spruner, Kceniglich Bayeriscliem Major und wirklichem Mit-
glied der Kceniglich Bayerischen Academie der Wissenschaften zu
Miinchen. Gotha, bei Justus Perthes, 1S54. .
GO The Crown Inn near Betlileliem.
down the rapid stream and irretrievably lost. There
was no alternative but to construct another. Now
the second flat* that did service at the Bethlehem
Ferry was launched on the 28th day of Mav, next
following the above chronicled disaster, whereupon,
Peter Petersen, last from Staten Island, mariner, was
appointed her commander. During his admiralship,
sometime in 1749, the first grant and patent for
ferrying over the West Branch of Delaware, was
procured from the Proprietaries' Secretary, at an an-
nual rent of $s., by the Moravians at Bethlehem.
This was done, we read, in order to meet the in-
creasing uncertainty of remuneration resulting from
a tacit appeal to the generosity of travellers, and
also to secure themselves against a possibility of
competition from some rival enterprise in the adja-
cent neutral waters of Lecha. It was now, too,
that wharves were constructed at both termini for
* The following "memorandum for building a ferry-flat," without
date and without signature, it is true, may possibly have been noted
down for use at this time. "Length, 31 J feet. Breadth at the head,
7 feet 6 inches. Extreme breadth 9 feet. 'Abaft the head, 7 feet 8
inches. At the stern by a regular sweep from the extreme breadth, 7
feet 2 inches. Depth at the highest part of the side 14 inches. The
shear 1 inches, to flare 3 inches. The sides to be sawed 5 inches thick
at the bottom edge, and 3} inches at the top edge. The head and
stern posts iS inches wide, and S inches thick on 'the front edge, and
the bottom planks to rabbit on 5 inches— the bottom plank the whole
length, and the cross plank the breadth of the flat; the whole z inches
thick."
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. Gl
the more convenient ingress and egress of wagons,
and the equipments of the ferry were completely
renovated.
The spectrum presented to the view at this stage
of our historical analysis, suddenly becomes a dis-
continuous one and is so crowded with absorption
lines as to leave us in serious doubt as to the order
in the succession of the different Charons, figuring
in the scene. Nevertheless, a single luminous band,
declares unmistakeably that Daniel Kunckler, a native
of St. Gall, Canton St. Gall, Switzerland (he immi-
grated with Ann Mary, his wife, in the autumn of
1743 and settled at Nazareth), was ferryman in the
year 1753.
When, in the spring of 1756, during the incum-
bency of the sixth landlord of the Inn, a second
grant and patent (known in Moravian history as
" the Great Ferry Patent") reconfirmed to the Mo-
ravian Society the sole privilege of ferrying across
Lecha for the distance of one mile above and one
mile below their settlement, and for a term of seven
years, also, — a new impetus was given to the enter-
prise. A flat, forty-two feet in length was forth-
with substituted for the one then in use, — ■ and a
"speaking-trumpet" (six shillings lawful money of
Pennsylvania were paid to Abraham Hasselberg, the
pewterer at Bethlehem, for the shell) added to the
outfit. Now the following is a faithful copy of the
G2 The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
instrument which conferred large privileges upon the
holders of the ferry, and which, moreover, "dead-
headed" the Honorable the Governor and his ser-
vants (its cost, including clerk's fees, was i/. and
i4.t.), the original being endorsed,
Grant and Patent for the Bethlehem Ferry.
Thomas Penn and Richard Penn, Proprietaries,
to David Nitschmann, of Bethlehem, carpenter, for
seven years from March 2d, 1756.
Philadelphia, 10th March, 1756.
" ZVhciTit.'J it hath been represented to us, by reason
of the late very considerable increase of settlements on
both sides of the West Branch of the River Delaware
and parts adjacent, and the great resort of people thither,
and the many travelers whose business and affairs call
them into those parts of the Province, and have
occasion to pass over that branch of the said river, it is
become necessary that some regular ferries at proper
distances and places should be erected and established
for the more ready and safe transporting all persons,
cattle, carriages and goods over the said branch, — ^nd
it appearing to us upon the representation of David
Nitschmann* of the County of Northampton in our
* David Nitschmann, the elder, a native of Moravia, and sprung from
ancestors who were members of the ancient Unitas Fratrum, was the
first Chief Proprietor of the estates of his Society in Pennsylvania ; he
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 63
said Province, that the plantation belonging to the said
David Nitschmann and company, and now in the occu-
pation of the said David Nitschmann, situate in Saucon
township in the said County of Northampton upon the
highroad leading from the city of Philadelphia to the
Minisinks, and from thence to the northwest parts of
the Province of New York, by means of the convenient
situation thereof on the sides of the said branch, is a
suitable place for erecting and keeping a ferry over the
same to Bethlehem in the Forks of Delaware, ^nd the
same David Nitschmann having requested our license
for erecting and keeping a ferry there, and that we
would grant and confirm the same to him, rijaw know
yc, that in consideration of the charge and expenses
which the said David Nitschmann must be put to
in making wharves and landing-places and providing
necessary flats and boats, and the constant attendance
necessary thereunto, <3nd tic being always ready and
willing to promote the public utility and improvement
of our said Province, and to give due encouragement to
all who shall undertake or contribute to the same, {Qitvc
given, granted and confirmed, and by these Presents for
us and our heirs £lo give, grant and confirm unto the
having been qualified to assume them, in virtue of letters of denization
granted him by the Provincial Court, in September of 1750. Prior to
that date, the deeds for lands purchased by the Moravians were executed
to individuals among them who were born subjects of the Crown of
Great Britain. Nitschmann died at Bethlehem in April of 1758, and is
popularly known as the founder of that place.
6Jj. The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
said David Nitschmann, his executors, administrators
and assigns, the sole liberty and privilege of erecting,
keeping and occupying a ferry over the said West
Branch of the River Delaware to and from the place
aforesaid for the transporting and carrying over the
same all persons, wagons, carts and other carriages,
horses, cattle, goods, wares, merchandises and things
whatsoever, hereby strictly forbidding all other persons
on either side of the said branch from taking or carrying
over the same within the distance of one mile above and
below the said ferry hereby settled and established, for
hire, reward or pay, in any flat, boat or canoe, any
persons, wagons, carts or other carriages, horses or
cattle, ^Ind we do further give and grant unto the said
David Nitschmann, his executors, administrators and
assigns during the term hereby demised, the liberty and
privilege to demand and receive from all persons, and
for all wagons, carts and other carriages, horses and
other cattle, goods, wares, merchandises, and things
whatsoever passing or being carried over the said ferry
all such reasonable toll, fees, or reward as shall be set-
tled for the same (us our heirs and successors and our
Lieutenant Governor and attendants and servants only
excepted), (To hive ami to hold the said ferry, liberties,
privileges, profits and advantages hereby granted, with
the appurtenances, unto the said David Nitschmann,
his executors, administrators and assigns, — from the
second day of March instant for and during and unto
The Crown Inn near' Bethlehem. 65
the full end and term of seven years thence next ensuing
fully to be complete and ended, ^fielding md gaging
therefor yearly to us our heirs and successors at the
town of Easton in the said County of Northampton on
every the first day of March in every year for and
during the said term hereby granted five English silver
shillings or value thereof in coin current according as
the exchange shall be between our said Province and the
city of London, to such person or persons as shall from
time to time be appointed to receive the same, provided
always that if the same David Nitschmann, his execu-
tors, administrators or assigns shall not at all times
during the said term hereby granted, find, provide and
maintain necessary and sufficient flats and boats for the
use of the said ferry, and give due, constant and ready
attendance thereunto, that then and from thenceforth
this present grant shall cease, determine and be void,
anything herein before mentioned and contained to the
contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding."
Whoever has made the great wave of Palatine im-
migration which rolled across the Atlantic in the
first half of the eighteenth century, a special study,
will recall the fortunes of those three thousand and
more Germans, whom Queen Anne's most excellent
Majesty, " out of her unlimited compassion and
constant goodness," caused to be transported to the
new world in the Lyon of Leith, the Herbert
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
frigate, the Berkley Castle and divers other ships
of burden, — how, on landing at New York in June
of 17 1 o, the Mayor of that city, having just cause
to believe that there were many contagious distem-
pers among them, consigned them to quarantine on
Nutten (now Governor's Island) — how, in the ensu-
ing autumn, they were settled on both shores of
Hudson's river; on the east shore in Dutchess
County along Roeloff Jansen's kill in the villages •
of Hunterstown, Cjueensbury and Annesbury ; but
on the west shore in Albany county along Sawyer's
kill, in Elisabethtown and Georgetown, — how, they
were expected to engage in the production of rosin,
pitch, tar and turpentine for the use of the British
navy (the overplus, however, to be turned to a
beneficial trade with Spain and Portugal), they hav-
ing been promised sustenance until such time as
they could reap the benefit of their labor, — how,
in 17 13, finding it impossible to make tar where
there were no pines, they began to remove to Sco-
harie, for which her Grace, the Oueen, had con-
tracted with the Indians in their behalf prior to
the immigration, — how they were hospitably received
there by the Mohawk sachems, — how Governor
Hunter thereupon covertly sold Scoharie to land-
jobbers in Albany — and how after years of contest
with these gentlemen's agents and of struggling with
poverty, the brave Palatines, gathering together their
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem,
wives and children, their flocks and their herds,
boldly cut a way through the wilderness to the head
waters of the Susquehanna, built them canoes, and
while the old men paddled the women and chil-
dren down the courses of that marvellously beauti-
ful river to the mouth of the fretful Swatara, the
sturdier yeomen drove the oxen, the horses, the
sheep and the swine overland through a trackless
forest, until (it was in the summer of 1733) they
reached their destination in the pastoral valley of
the Tulpehocken, where they set up their house-
hold gods, and founded a German state in the very
heart of the Indian country, and beyond the juris-
diction of the British lion, much to the dissatis-
faction, be it said, of that magnanimous king.
John Frederic Schaefler, the seventh landlord of
our Inn, was a son of one of these adventurous
Palatines, to wit; the oldest son of Michael SchaefFer,
and Elisabeth his wife, and was born in Scoharie, in
March of 1722. He was therefore a boy at the time
of his people's exodus.
From Tulpehocken (where the Moravians had a
firm foothold until in 1747, when by reason of "a
wrong direction having been given by rivals to the
tenor of a deed" executed to them by the Proprie-
taries for the confirmation of a parcel of land in
their manor of Plumpton, they lost it) young
Schaefler removed to Bethlehem, where, in Decern-
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
ber of 1746, he married Jannetje, relict of Philip
Rudolph Haymer of Saucon township, but oldest
daughter of Isaac Martens Ysselstein, last from Mar-
bletown in Esopus, and Rachel, nee Bogart, his wife.
He was settled at Gradenthal on the Barony, at the
time of his appointment to the Inn, over whose for-
tunes he presided from the 9th of April, to the
1 8th of October, 1756.
This interval though brief, proved an eventful period
in its history. The last of the refugees who had found
an asylum under its hospitable roof after the irruption
of the savages into cis-montane Northampton on New
Year's day, had returned to their homes ; the echoes of
'martial sounds had died away — the old habitues of the
house again frequented their accustomed haunts — and
there began to brood a spirit of listless repose over the
precincts of the hostelry as in the palmy days of Jobst
Vollert and Hartmann Verdries. Meanwhile Govern-
ment had taken a step which conjured up the storm that
demonstrated this calm to have been an ominous lull,
and which brought a swarm of hungry locusts from the
wilderness to sorely plague John Nicholas Schaeffer,
and after his retirement from public life, Ephraim
Culver, the eighth landlord of the Bethlehem Inn. In
the face of a formal declaration of war, Governor Morris
was led in June of 1756 to proffer the olive branch to
the disaffected Indians. Accordingly he dispatched
messengers to the enemy's headquarters at Tioga with
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. GO
an invitation for their chief men and counsellers to
come down and meet him in conference. This invita-
tion met with a response, — thus opening a new epoch
in the history of our Inn — which may, not improperly,
be styled the epoch of Indian occupation. Full seven-
teen months elapsed before it closed.*
The appearance at the Bethlehem Tavern on the 17th
day of July of the last mentioned memorable year of
"a lusty, raw-boned man, haughty and very desirous of
respect and command," a Delaware of the Unamis,
cc dressed in a fine dark-brown cloth coat laced with
gold, which had been given him recently by the French
at Niagara, caused a profound sensation among the
inmates of the hostelry. They recognized an old
acquaintance — Gideon of the Gnadenhutten Mission —
in a new character as Tadeuskundt, the Delaware King.
"This is the man," writes Parsons, <c who persuaded his
people to go over to the French and then to attack our
frontiers." The chieftain was attended by a wild com-
pany of adherents, men, women and children — (thirty-
one all told), the women wearing shirts, as was observed,
"made of Dutch table cloths," some of the spolia
* For full particulars of what occurred at the Bethlehem Tavern during
this occupation, we would point the reader to " The Account of the
United Brethren at Bethlehem with the Commissioners of the Province
of Pennsylvania, during the Indian War of 1755, '56, and '57," in the
first Volume of the Memorials of the Moravian Church. Phila., J. B.
Lipp'mcott & Co. 1S70.
70 Tlie Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
opima taken in the last winter's forays into upper
Northampton.
These unwelcome guests Mr. Schaeffer had orders
from the Commissioners to entertain ; — in fact, the
orders of that body to him and his successors in
office provided for the entertainment at the Bethlehem
Inn (until the restoration of peace), of all Indians
coming that way who had or who might have busi-
ness with Government. Now for the King and his
great men our worthy landlord provided until their
departure for Easton, and for several days on their
return from a treaty, which had formally opened at
that place on the 28th of July, between Governor
Morris, on the part of the Province, and Tadeus-
kundt on the part of the Delawares. So it came to
pass that the King ran up a score of 1/. 17J. at
Schaeffer' s, for eating and drinking (to the latter he
was much addicted, Parsons stating that " he could
consume three quarts or a gallon of rum a day with-
out becoming drunk") — the King's oldest son, a
score of 10/. \\s. 2d. for sundries, and Elisabeth, the
Queen, one of 5/. igs. id. "for victualing herself
and three children from the 21st August to the 1st
of October, being forty-one days, at two and six pence
per day."
In the next place, the Governor having ordered
Conrad Weisser (the rank of Colonel had been con-
ferred upon the veteran interpreter in October of
Tlie Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 71
1755, for meritorious conduct at Tolheo) to come
up from Heidelberg, in Berks, with whatever troops
could be spared, it being his opinion " that it was
quite necessary to have a good number of soldiers at
Easton during the sessions of the conference," — the
Colonel and his men sojourned at our Inn both on
their way to and on their return from that place.
Thereupon Mr. Schaeffer preferred the following
charges against them, to wit :
1. s. d.
July 27, "For supper and breakfast for 48 men, Conrad
1756. Weisser and company, including hay for ye
horses, ......31
Aug. 1, On their return from Easton for dinner to the
same company, 1 17 6
Besides entertaining these celebrities, and soldiers
sent from Fort Allen on detached service (there was
scarcely a week but what some corporal's squad
would halt at the Inn, and in July Lieut. McAlpine
and Ensign Jeffry of the Royal Americans opened a
recruiting office in the house), Mr. ^chaeffer was
providing for several families of friendly Indians,
who had passed the enemy's lines, and since June
had been quartered upon him by order of Govern-
ment. In this way his time and attention were
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
fully engaged for the remaining months of his
incumbency, during which, it is on record, the
Province of Pennsylvania became indebted to the
Bethlehem Tavern in the sum of fifty pounds cur-
rency.*
A New Englander by birth and education was the
eighth in the succession of landlords 'at our Inn.
This was Ephraim Culver — a native of the town of
Lebanon, Litchfield County, Connecticut — who,
sharing with his countrymen their innate propensity
to migrate, had exchanged the land of steady habits
for the wilds of Smithfield, in upper Northampton,
whence he fled to the Barony on the irruption of the
savages in December of 1755. At Nazareth he
united with the Moravians, to whom he had been
previously attached. Although a miller, his appoint-
ment to the Inn was in all respects a happy one as
the sequel proved. In fact, as we shall see, he spent
fourteen consecutive years of his life in the capacity
of landlord at Moravian Inns; and further testimonial
to his eminent fitness for so responsible a position,
would be supererogatory. None of these years, how-
ever, were as momentous or as full of incident as
were the first two of his incumbencv at the Bethle-
"John Nicholas Schaeffer died at Nazareth in April of 1S07. Frederic,
a son, died at the same place in June of 1S30, and Elizabeth, a grand-
daughter, at Bethlehem, in July of 1857.
The Crown Iini near Bethlehem.
hem Tavern, which incumbency we shall proceed to
review as briefly as is consistent with the just pro-
portions of this history.
A second conference with the "enemy Indians"
convened at Easton on the 8 th day of November next
after Mr. Culver's entrance upon public life. This
brought grist to his new mill at once. The Delawares
must needs pass and repass by Bethlehem. There was
a charm for them in its environs. And so it happened
that in the evening of the 17th of the aforementioned
month Mr. Culver and Elisabeth, m. n. Smith, from
"The Oblong" in Dutchess County, New York, his
wife, were called upon at short notice to provide a hot
supper for forty-one Indians (the treaty had closed
that afternoon), and at the same time to furnish
them with forty-six quarts of beer, and then hay
for their fourteen horses. But King Tadeuskundt
called for two quarts of wine for himself and his
counsellor Tapescohung, and for two quarts of oats
for his beast. Next morning at their departure this
merry company was supplied with one hundred and
ten pounds of bread and two gallons of cider.
The following memorandum extracted from the
waste-book of the clerk of the Inn introduces us to
some of the soldiers, whose presence at Easton it
was intended should lend solemnity to the conference,
and impress the Indians effectually with the military
resources of the Province.
74 Tlie Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
Nov. 17,1756. Capt. Runals and Lieutenant AVether-
hold Counrod AViser soldier one In-
sign one Drummer which came with
the Indians from the Treety, Dr. for
Supper and 1 pint wine, . . 36
Seven quarts beer, 1 dram, . . 2 S
Five horses hay and oats and these
mens Lodging, . > . . . 510
The Soldier with an express from the
Governor from Easton to Redden
for eating and drinking and horse
keeping on hay and oats, . . 52
Old Tatamy (Tot's Gap* in the Blue Mountain
bears the chieftain's name to the present day) ate at
the Inn on the day after the treaty; and Sam Evans
and Young Capt. Harris, half-brothers to the King,
were inmates of the house to the close of the month.
It should have been stated that Governor Denny
rode over to Bethlehem in the evening of the 17th
of November, spent the night in the town,")" and the
* On following the " Tot's Gap Road," as you leave Rocksbury, in
Upper Mount Bethel, you come to this pass over the Mountain, four
short miles west from the Delaware Water Gap.
fit may interest some local antiquarian to know that in the absence
of a public house at Bethlehem, at this time, a set of apartments on the
second floor of the old stone house on Market street, built in 1753 for
a store, were kept furnished for the accommodation of visitors of note.
As Franklin, among others, lodged here occasionally during his cam-
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
following morning set out for Philadelphia. He was
the first Lieutenant Governor who enjoyed the im-
munity provided for his rank and station by the
thoughtful Proprietaries in their Great Patent for the
Bethlehem Ferry.
Passing over incidents of minor importance which
crowded the first months of the year 1757, at our
Inn — to wit: the preparations made by Jo Peepy
and Lewis Montour, when on the eve of a mission
in behalf of the Province to Tioga — the death of
John Smalling, a grandson of the King, who died of
small-pox and was buried in the cemetery on the
Simpson Tract, for ten shillings — the maintenance of
fifty-nine Indians who loitered about the house since
the close of the treaty — the maintenance of such as
were constantly on the wing between Fort Allen and
Easton, or Fort Allen and Philadelphia — Hugh
Crawford's two days' sojourn — and the presence of
sundry lieutenants and ensigns at sundry times — we
come to the month of July, in the last week of
which month a third meeting for a treaty with the
Indians opened at Easton. This was an important
conference, and as its deliberations were expected to
be on grave subjects, and touching the confirmation
of peace, too, it was more numerously attended than
paign on the frontiers, the house is justly entitled to more than ordinary
historical distinction, and to the name of " The Franklin House."
7G The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
either of the preceding. A motley crowd of savages
at the Bethlehem Tavern a week before the appointed
day, heralded its approach, and on the 8th of August,
(the very day of its close) seventy-five of the barba-
rians supped at Culver's — and then called each for
a half gill of rum and a pint of cider. From the
tenth to the fifteenth of the month there were daily
one hundred and fifty at table, and when not at
table, at large on the premises. But these had
things their own way. This is inferable from com-
plaints lodged against them with the Commissioners
by the people at the Inn, to the effect that the
Indians engaged in robbing orchards and gardens on
the Simpson Tract, that they wrangled over their
cups, and that they occasionally visited Bethlehem,
where they would vary their excesses, by discharging
their fire-arms at random and breaking lights in the
windows. The King it is true, was present; so was
Paxanosa, a king of the Shawanose. But neither
their joint majesties, nor the high standing in Indian
society of French Margaret, a niece of old Madam
Montour of Otzinachson, or West Branch of Sus-
quehanna, could restrain this lawless crew from hold-
ing carnival as it chose. The King meanwhile ran
up a score of 10/. i8j. yd., Paxanosa bought him a
pair of spectacles, with which he paraded the streets
of Bethlehem to the wonderment of its little boys —
while French Margaret, with the fondness for colors
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 77
instinctive in her sex, although she had passed the
grand climacteric, invested in two pounds of vermi-
lion. It was now that Indian occupation of the
Bethlehem Inn had reached its zenith. Hereafter it
waned.
In the evening of the 7th of August, Gov. Denny-
arrived at Bethlehem. Declining an invitation to
lodge in the town, he crossed the ferry, and passed
the night at Culver's. Here he was serenaded by
the musical element of the town from boats on the
river. In what manner he acknowledged the compli-
ment, and whether, betwixt flute, viol and bassoon,
and seventy-five Indians, he suffered from insomnia
or not, — the annalist has failed to record.
Three days after his Honor's departure, William
Tatamy — son of old Tatamy who died at the house
of John Jones* in Bethlehem township from the
*John Jones was born in 1714, in Upper Merion, then in Philadelphia
county. His father had immigrated from Wales with "other persons of
excellent and worthy character, descendants of the ancient Britons," prin-
cipally from Radnor, Brin-Maur and Haverford, in Merionethshire.
Through their itinerants, Jones became acquainted with the Moravians,
and was induced in 1749 to locate with his young family in the vicinity
of Bethlehem, where he followed his trade, that of a blacksmith. In
April of 1751, he purchased of Patrick Graeme, of Philadelphia (a
brother of Dr. Thomas Graeme, and one of the proprietors of Bachelor's
Hall, "a place of gluttony and good living," on its outskirts), a desirable
tract of 500 acres of land on the left bank of the Lehigh and touching
the east line of the Moravian lands. John Jones, the ancestor of the
Joneses, of Bethlehem township, died on his farm, in June of 1781, but
78 Tlie Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
effects of a gunshot wound he had received at the
hands of a reckless boy in the Craig settlement, while
on his way to Easton with Tadeuskundt's Indians,
(this was on the 7th of July) — was buried in the
grave-yard hard by the Inn, also, on the same day a
Delaware woman from Lechawachneck (Pittston),
one of the King's company.
For some weeks after his subjects' return to the
Susquehanna, Tadeuskundt divided his time between
Fort Allen and Philadelphia. Having arranged with
Government for the building of a town for himself
and his people in Wyoming Valley on the opening
of spring, and having purchased of one James Burd,
merchant in the aforementioned city, a regimental
coat and a gold-laced hat and cockade — the old man
returned to Bethlehem. Here he passed the winter
in a cabin which the Moravians built for him near
their Inn* with the approval of the Provincial Com-
was burled in the grave-yard at Bethlehem. His children were educated at
Moravian schools. Jesse, a son, was collector of excise for Northampton
County prior to the Revolution. The house in which young Tatamy
was nursed stood on the site of the late residence of George Jones.
* Reuter's valuable draft of " Moravian lands lying on the south side
of the Lehigh," drawn in 1757 (this draft is referred to more fully on
a later page), designates three cabins located on said draft on the river's
bank, in front of the building at present occupied by the offices of the
Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, — "Indians." Here then dwelt that
troublesome people, which the government saw fit to impose upon the
Moravians during the Indian War. Perhaps the King's winter-house was
blocked up on this same plot.
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 70
missioners. But he and his family until their depar-
ture for the Indian Country, drew daily rations
from the Bethlehem Tavern. The income of the
house during the busy period which we have just re-
viewed, was, as we might expect, unusually large.
Its net profits for the year ending 31st December,
1757, amounted to 195/. ioj. lid. We believe they
were never exceeded in any twelve months subse-
quently.
George Klein, from Kirchart, in the Lower Palati-
nate (he had immigrated to the Province in 1727,
and settled in Conestoga, where he married Ann
Bender), is entitled, perhaps, to rank among the
landlords of the Inn, in as far as he relieved Mr.
Culver on one occasion for several months during
the latter's incumbency. This is the same Klein
who donated some two hundred and fifty acres of
land to the Moravians (they had been deeded to
Klein by one Jacob Baer, in 1737) for a settle-
ment,— which since 1762, has developed into the
unique village of Litiz, in Warwick township, Lan-
caster County. But the "Klein Tract is watered by
Carter's Run, which heads in a spring remarkable at
once for the volume of water it throws out, and for
exhibiting a natural phenomenon rarely seen, — it hav-
ing been observed that as often as a leaf falls trem-
blingly from the overhanging aspens, — up from the
transparent depths of the fountain there rises a
SO Tlie Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
second trembling like unto its fellow, until the twin
shapes mingle upon the surface of the pellucid pool.
This fons sacer is known as " The Great Spring," or
" The Litiz Spring," and yet some profanely,
forsooth, care it "Venus' Mirror."
King Tadeuskundt bade adieu to Bethlehem on
the 16th of May, 1758, much to the relief of Mr.
Culver, whose last year at the Inn consequently
proved to be one of comparative repose. Having
accepted an appointment to " The Rose" on the
Barony of Nazareth, our well-tried host set out for
that place in March of 1759. We shall meet him
again before the close of this narrative.
Andrew Home and Dorothea, his wife, who immi-
grated in the autumn of 1744, directed the affairs of
the Bethlehem Tavern during the next triennium.
A reference to the docket kept by the clerk of the
Court of General Quarter Sessions for the County
of Northampton shows that Mr. Home was twice
recommended to his Honor, the Governor, as " a fit
person to keep a house of entertainment in said
County." This administration was not an eventful
one. Its close, however (Mr. Home retired in
March of 1762), marks an important change in the
polity of the Moravians in Pennsylvania, which
change, after the loose threads of this history, shall
have been woven rightly into its web up to the date
of its inauguration, shall be duly considered.
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. SI
To do the former, we must here turn back in order
to follow the improvements which had been progress-
ing on the Simpson Tract since the erection of a barn
in 1747, and to notice the condition of the Bethlehem
Ferry. In February of 1752, water was led in
pipes from a spring in the mountain side, just
without the south line of the tract, so as to irrigate
the lowlands and increase the border of natural
meadow, that skirted the run, which, in the rainy
season, poured tribute into the Lecha, debouching
into the ravine east of the Inn.* A draft of " Beth-
*Some readers of these pages may remember that thirty years ago,
decaying fruit trees and the foundation walls of a dwelling in ruins, were
to be seen on the ascent of the mountain, at a spot now included
within the grounds of the Lehigh University. The spot was for years a
favorite resort for such of the people of Bethlehem as loved to recreate
themselves with cake and coffee under green trees and by running water
in pleasant summer afternoons, and was familiarly called " The Old
Man's Place." Its origin, for want of a history, was naturally enough
involved in tradition, and next in fable and mystery. It was said to have
been the retreat of an anchorite — of an alchemist in search of the phil-
osopher's stone and the elixir vitas. Now these remains were the relics of
a three-acre improvement made by old John Lischer, of Oley, in 1750,
on a tract of 87 acres, which the Moravians purchased of the Honorable
Proprietaries two years later, whereupon Lischer sold out his claim for
9/., and removed elsewhere. " The Old Man's Place" or " The
Hermitage" (so it is called in the Journal kept by the misses of the
Boarding School in 17SS, in which year, that journal states, there were
on the spot the " ruins of an old cabin and twelve apple trees"), was
included in the 115 acres of woodland which Asa Packer purchased
of the Moravians in 1853.
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
lehem Lands on the South of the Lecha," drawn
by C. G. Reuter in July of 1757 (Mr. Reuter
immigrated in 1756, removed to North Carolina
in 1759, wnere he was actively engaged until his
decease at Salem in 1777, as surveyor and drafts-
man)— shows the following to have been the con-
dition of the Tract in that year. The one hundred
and ten acres on the west side of the Salisbury
road were unbroken woodland and heavily timbered ;
east of that road, and as far as the run (this was
lined at intervals by meadow, amounting in all to
eight acres), down to the river, we find thirty-seven
acres under cultivation, a stretch of forty acres on
the river's bank, extending from the run to the east
line of the tract also under the plow, and seventy-nine
acres of woodland, stretching south of the same up
the first acclivity of the mountain. Reuter's draft
furthermore, shows a large barn two hundred and
forty feet due east from the Inn, which was in
course of erection in the summer of 1757. There
was no material change of this status (saving some
small clearings) until subsequent to the dissolution
of the Bethlehem Economy in 1762.
We left the Bethlehem Ferry in the hands of
Daniel Kunckler. Now its growing prosperity under
Proprietary patronage suggesting a change in its con-
struction, in January of 1758, it was converted into
a rope-ferry, being ever afterwards conducted on the
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
mysterious principles of the parallelogram of forces,
which such form of ferry involves. A chronicler of
that day in noting this improvement, observes with
somewhat of enthusiasm, that " whereas, formerly in
times of high water four men found it difficult to
effect a passage in less than half an hour, the flat
crosses the river by the rope usually in ninety
seconds." Time, therefore, was made, and time even
then was money. John Garrison, a son of Capt.
Nicholas Garrison of the Irene (whose name is
being gratefully perpetuated by one of the streets
of the borough of Bethlehem), was appointed ferry-
man in September of 1758, Daniel Kunckler, a
second time in 1759, ani^ Francis Steup, in October
of 1761. The following entry in the Economy's
Ledger, under date of November 9th, 1761, indicates
that improvements in the important appendage to
the Bethlehem Inn, had not ceased; — "Paid for
ninety fathoms of shroud hawser, pulleys and tack-
ling for the ferry-flat 22/. i8j. l\d."
Before pursuing this history into the new period
which dawned upon the Bethlehem Inn and all
things else on the Simpson Tract, in the spring
of 1762, it remains for us to enumerate the worthies
residing in the neighborhood of Bethlehem, who,
when on business or in search of relaxation, availed
themselves of its proffered hospitality, during the
seventeen years which we have just reviewed. These,
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
and not occasional wayfarers, it should be borne
in mind, gave life and character to the house, stamping
it with their individuality, regulating its intellectual
commodities, and by the expression of their views on
the weather, the crops, the politics and the news of
the day, investing it in the natural order of things with
all the importance of a rural exchange. Now Saucon
township, as we may expect, furnished most of the
knights who thus tilted at joust or tournament
under the roof of the old Bethlehem Inn. — Thence
came Joerg Freyman, Philip Kratzer, Hans Fahs,
Michael Weber, Friedrich Weber, Peter Graff, miller,
Balzar Beil, Balzar Lahr, Christian Laubach, miller
on Laubach's Creek (he died in 1768), Friedrich
Laubach, Anton Lerch (a/tvater, died in 1793),
Peter Lerch, Kratzer Lerch, Johann Jacob Gross,
Joerg Peter Knecht, Hans Landis, Dieter Gauff,
Joerg Raub, Joerg Bachmann (whose orchard fur-
nished cider for the Bethlehem Inn, during the first
decade of its existence), Rudolph Oberlv, Jacob
Gangwehr, Matthias Riegel {altvater), Heinrich
Groessman, Richard Freeman (the ancestor of the
Freemans of Freemansburg, born in 1 7 1 7 in Cecil
County, Maryland, died in 17S4, and buried on
his farm called the "Private Heck"), Christian
Heller, Ludwig Heller, Stoffel Heller, Simon Heller
(the latter we believe is the same who settled near
Wind Gap, and yet the genealogies of the Hellers,
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 85
for a want of visitations of the heralds, are perplex-
ing), Richard Ley, Valentine Santee, Anthony Boehm
(a son of Rev. John Philip Boehm of Whitpaine
township, Philadelphia County, to whom there were
patented by the three Penns, in 1740, two hundred
acres of land situate on the Saucon Creek, which
tract he and his wife Ann Mary, "for and in con-
sideration of the natural love and affection which
they have and do bear for and toward their son "
deeded to the aforesaid Anthony in September of
1747), besides Boyers, Ruchs, Transous, Reiden-
auers, Hesses and Weitknechts.
From Macungy and Salisbury there would come
to the Bethlehem Inn, with produce for the Bethle-
hem market, Bastian Knauss, Jacob Ehrenhardt,
Martin Bomberger, Heinrich Guth (sometime a dis-
ciple of Conrad Beissel), Jean Ditter alias Piper, Jean
Ditter the younger (whose account in the Economy's
Ledger is debited with two jackets and a pair of
jumps* with whalebone, for his daughter Marguerite),
* An eminent lexicographer tells us that jumps were "a kind of limber
stays or waistcoat worn by females ;" and an equally eminent etymolo-
gist assures us that the word is derivable from Fr. jupe, a long petti-
coat, Pr. jupa, L. Lat. jupa, juppa, It. giubba, giuppa, Sp. al-juba from
Ar. al-jubbah. Hence it would be erroneous to confound the article of
apparel purchased by her fpnd father for his Marguerite, with another of
feminine full dress, much in vogue in our own day, of which the name
jumps, might be suggestive to the mind of some incautious reader.
86 Tlie Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
Casper Kraemer alias " Der lange Kasper," Martin
Ginginger, Friedrich Kemmerer, Nicolaus Gemper-
ling (who stands charged to this day ten shillings
for "curing his leg which was broken" in May of
1746), Adam Blanck, Adam Stocker, Heinrich Rit-
ter, Franz Roth, Rudolph Schmidt, David Giesy,
Michael Schweyer, Conrad Wetzel and Jacob Zim-
mermann.
But the Cruikshank farm sent Quash and Andrew
(slaves from Montserrat), and the Jennings farm, old
Solomon, and John and Isaiah his sons. From
Forks Ferry came Adam Merckel, Christian Minier,
Heinrich Hertzel, Conrad Bittenbender, Michael
Moore and David English the ferryman; — from
the Menagassi, old Peter Schuelpp with famous
butter ; — from " The Drylands," Valentine Kraeter,
Michael Koch, Michael Klaus, Eberhardt Kreiling
and Jacob Abel (some of whom in September of
1752, were convicted "as disturbers of the peace of
our Lord the King for having unlawfully entered
into and taken possession of land included within
the Proprietaries' Manor of Fermor, neither located
nor surveyed by any warrant or order from said
Proprietaries, — and who thereupon were arrested and
to the gaol of our Lord the King in the County of
Bucks, were caused to be led") ; — from the adjacents
of Nazareth, north, Philip Bossert, Franz Clevel and
George Clevel ; — from the adjacents of Nazareth,
Tlie Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 87
east, Abraham Lefevre and Johannes Lefevre ; — from
the adjacents of Nazareth, west, Simon Trorara,
Philip Tromm, Friedrich Scholl, Peter Doll, Han-
nickel Heil and Friedrich Althomus; — from the Craig
Settlement of Ulster Scots on heads of Calisuck and
Menagassi, on market days with flax of their wives'
spinning the following ; to wit : Hugh "Wilson (from
Cootehill, County Cavan, Ulster), James Horner,
Thomas Craig, William Craig, James Craige, Robert
Gregg, Robert Dobbin, Samuel Brown, Robert
Clendinen, James Carruthers, Robert Alison, John
McCartney, Samuel Barron, John Redhill, James
Gray, John Boyd, James Kerr, John McNair, Wil-
liam McCaa, James Ralston, Thomas Heron, Archi-
bald Barron, Robert Lattimore, Robert Gibson,
John McLean, Archibald Greer, Patrick McCul-
lough, Giles Windsor, Thomas Thompson, Patrick
Sufferan, John Campbell, Rowland Smith, Patrick
Evans, James McLeary, Daniel Burr, James Eggle-
ston and Joseph Perry; — from the Minisinks with
deer skins and horns for barter, Daniel Brodhead,
Adam (his slave), Daniel Roberts, Hermanus Decker,
Joseph Haines, Francis Jones, Samuel Vanarmen,
John Aguder and John George Salade ; — and statedly,
iron men from Durham, from Hopewell, Chelsea
and Greenwich Forges, from Popadickon, and from
Oxford Furnace and the Union Iron Works, in
quest of Moravian manufactures, or the Moravian
88 The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
Doctor's services, in return for bar-iron and stove
plates.*
Thus the Bethlehem Inn was peopled by men of
diverse nationalities in the days of the olden time ;
for the fame of the goodly house had gone abroad.
It was indeed a great change which the disso-
lution of the Economy at Bethlehem, in the spring
of 1762, brought with it for the Moravians in
Pennsylvania. For twenty years its members had
been associated almost as closely as the members
* Bethlehem 4th May, 1746. Marcus Hulings of Durham, Dr.
1. s. d.
To curing the bellows-maker's leg that was broken, 300
" " the man that hurt his ribs, ...030
" bleeding himself, 010
" " one of his miners, ....010
3 5 o
JOHN MATTHEW OTTO, M. D.
Greenwich Iron Works, 12 July, 1750.
Mr. Frederic Oerter, Clerk at Bethlehem,
Sir:
This is to desire you to please to order something from Doctor Otto
to cure persons that is poisoned in mowing grass — and please order
your saddler to make conveniences in my saddle to carry a pistol on
each side. I have been informed that you have a set of wagon wheels
ready made. If you have, I should be glad if you would send them
along with your wagon, and you will much oblige
Your humble servant,
JACOB STARN.
P. S. Pray don't fail to send above things when your wagon next
comes this way for iron.
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 89
of a family, actuated like the latter by a common
interest and pursuing a common purpose. In view
of their circumstances in those early times, this form
of social constitution was, without doubt, wisely
adopted by them for the attainment of the object for
which they had removed to the new world. Under
its influence they hoped to be able to concen-
trate their powers for the vigorous prosecution of
that object, which was a mission among the abo-
riginies. This, however, had received a severe
blow in the Indian war ; — directly, in as far as its
organization was almost irreparably deranged — and
indirectly, in consequence of a change in the rela-
tions hitherto existing between the whites and
their copper-colored neighbors. Nor could their
own members fail to perceive tokens of a decay in
their polity, such as eventually manifests itself in
all states founded upon principles which unduly
disregard the interest and claims of the individual
with too high a regard for those of the common-
wealth. These considerations moved Count Zin-
zendorf, who controlled the affairs of the Mora-
vian Church until his death in 1760, to urge the
dissolution of the Bethlehem Economy at as early
a day as was consistent with a just provision for
the welfare of those by whose labors it had been
so long sustained. This dissolution was finally
effected in April of 1762. It involved an entire
90 The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
reconstruction of the relation of labor in the little
community, the members of which hereafter fol-
lowed occupations for their own emolument, or con-
ducted branches of industry for the Proprietor of
the estates at a fixed compensation. In this way
it came to pass that the Bethlehem Inn, in April
of the last' mentioned year was intrusted to a sala-
ried agent, and that, with all things else which it
had, forever passed from under a patriarchal form
of government, it changed its mask to play a
different role. Elated now at its new character, or
jealous, perhaps, of a rival claimant for popular
favor on the other side (the Sun Inn, which after
a lingering struggle into existence had been comple-
ted so far as to entertain " guests " for the first
time on the :25th of September, 1760), — our house
clamored for a distinctive name. Hereupon the
Moravians, who were a loyal people, having been
the recipients of numerous favors at the hands of the
British Crown, named it das gasthaus zur krone,
— die krone, — the crown, — and emblazoned that
ancient emblem of royalty upon a sign-board which
swung on a post near the head of the lane leading
from the highway to its hospitable portal.*
*That rare, and by the antiquary highly prized, view of Bethlehem in
the latter days of the Economy, drawn by Nicholas Garrison, Jr., and
engraved on copper by J. Noual (it was published November 24th, 1757).
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 91
John Lischer, a native of Hilzoff, margraviate
of Wittgenstein, in the Palatinate, but last from
Oley, Berks County, was the first landlord of The
Crown, he and his wife Catharine, nee Loesch,
from Tulpehocken, having been installed in office
on the 27th day of March, 1762. They stipulated
to administer the affairs of the Inn in consideration
of their living, and 25/. Pennsylvania currency per
annum, — and their hostler to assume the duties in-
cumbent upon him for 10/. and the customary
perquisite of 1'rinkgeld, Now the house, together
with its appurtenances, was on the aforementioned
day appraised at 267/. igs.
Mr. Lischer, after having replenished his cham-
bers, his kitchen and larder (we find that in the
charming month of June, he added the luxury of
napkins to his table service), and having acted upon
the suggestion of his employers to raise poultry
largely — "provided their presence do not conflict
with the interests of the farm " — engaged also in
apiculture, erecting an elaborate apiary or bee-house
which in time yielded luscious comb for the hungry
traveller. From one George Schlosser of Philadel-
shows the Inn in the foreground, and a sign-post with swinging board,
near the head of the lane. From this it would appear that the hostelry
then already bore a device as well as a name. These may have been
"The Crown," but that appellation does not appear in official records
until in 1762, as stated above.
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
phia, grocer, he purchased his needed supplies of
Antigua, Barbadoes and New England rums, Lisbon
and Madeira, coffee, sugar and limes, and favorite
brands of roll-tobacco, known in those days specifi-
cally as " pig-tail," " hog-tail," and " cut-and-try."
But neighbor Jones levied upon all things spirit-
uous at the Inn for excise, mulcting it on the 29th
of June, 1762, in the sum of 3/. 9^. qd. for two
hundred and forty-four gallons of liquor in store.
The Christian's Spring Economy supplied The
Crown with small beer, Christian Diemer, the baker
at Bethlehem with bread, and Henry G. Krause,
the butcher, with beef; — the latter staple commodity
being delivered over ye water into the hands of
Mistress Lischer at the rate of three pence per
pound. In this way all honorable steps were taken
to place the hostelry upon a sound working basis ;
its head had grown to be popular, and the routine
of its daily life* was differing none from that of
other rural Inns as the weeks and months passed
by, when in the summer of 1763, there came rumors
of Indian incursions in the then far West, and of
* At this time, new names appear in the records of the Inn — to wit :
those of John Sevitz, Jonas Weber, Henry Brunner, Tobias Wendcl,
George Edelman, Henry Geisinger and William Stuber, inhabitants of
the two Saucons ; John Jaeger, from the Drylands Berndt Straub, Mattes
Schoener, Ludwig Frantz, Andrew Raub, Benjamin Riegel, Johannes
Goetz, and Hannes Melchior.
Tlie Crotvn Inn near Bethlehem.
an impending Indian war. At the very time when
the Ottawa chieftain Pontiac was prosecuting the
siege of Detroit (12th May to 12th October), in the
course of that mighty effort to drive the English
from the country, for which he had enlisted all the
western tribes, — lesser war-parties, at the bidding of
their great leader, had crossed the Alleghanies and
were committing depredations upon the frontiers of
the Province. Before daybreak on the morning of
the 8th of October, some Delaware warriors attacked
the house of John Stenton, in Allen township
(Stenton's house is remembered by aged residents
of Weaversville as standing on the main road from
Bethlehem to Mauch Chunk, eight miles north-
west from the former place, on the property owned
by the widow of the late Thomas Fatzinger), know-
ing that Capt. Jacob Wetterhold of the Province
service with a squad of men was lodging there for
the night. Meeting with Jean the wife of James
Horner, who was on her way to a neighbors for
coals to light her morning's fire, the Indians, fear-
ing that she might betray them or raise an alarm,
despatched her with their tomahawks.* Thereupon
they surrounded Stenton's. No sooner had Capt.
* You may read her obituary record in the cemetery of the English
Presbyterian Church of Allen Township, in these words :
"In memory of Jean, the wife of James Horner, who suffered death
at the hands of savage Indians, 8th October, 1763, aged 50 years."
94 The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
Wetter-holds' servant stepped out of the house (he
had been sent to saddle the Captain's horse) than
he was shot down. The report brought his master
to the door, when on opening it he received a mortal
wound. Sergeant Lawrence McGuire, in his attempt
to draw him in, was also dangerously wounded
and fell. Thereupon the Lieutenant advanced. He
was confronted by an Indian, who, leaping upon
the bodies of the fallen men, presented a pistol,
which the lieutenant thrust aside as it was be-
ing discharged — thus escaping with his life and
succeeding also in expelling the savage. The Indians
now took a position at a window, and there shot
Stenton as he was in the act of rising from bed.
Rushing from the house, the wounded man ran
for a mile and dropped down a corpse. His wife
and two children, meanwhile, had secreted them-
selves in the cellar, where they were fired upon
three times, but without being struck. Capt. Wetter-
hold, despite his suffering, dragged himself to a
window, through which he shot one of the savages
in the act of applying a torch to the house. Here-
upon taking up the dead body of their comrade
the besiegers withdrew. Having on their retreat
plundered the house of James Allen, they attacked
Andrew Hazlitt's, where they shot and scalped a
man, shot Hazlitt himself after a bold defence,
and then tomahawked his fugitive wife and two
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 95
children in a barbarous mannner. Finally they set
fire to his house, and next to that of Philip Kratzer,
and crossing the Lehigh, made off" with their spoils
for the mountain.
Intelligence of this sad affair reached Bethlehem a
few hours after its occurrence, whereupon a small
armed force was sent to the scene of the surprise to
bring the wounded men to town for surgical treat-
ment. So it came to pass, that Captain Wetterhold
breathed his last at The Crown on the 9th of Octo-
ber, and was buried next day in the grave-yard near
by. We find the following charge on record in The
Crown's day-book under date of 10th October, 1763 :
1. s. d.
" Capt. Jacob Wetterhold, Dr. to
1 pint wine, .... 12
For 1 pint beer, .... 2 1.3
" eating and drinking for his
attendants, . . . 20
" oats and pasture for 2 horses, . 3 o
" a shroud, . . . . 60
" ferriage for his attendants ten
times, . . . . 20
Sergeant McGuire lay upwards of three weeks at
the Inn under the care of Dr. Otto. It is stated
that the body of the Captain's servant who was the
TJie Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
first to fall at Stenton's, was also brought to Bethle-
hem, and along with another victim was interred on
what was then known as C£ the Burnside Farm (now
William Lerch's), on the Menagassi. Sergeant Mc-
Guire's charges at the Inn, dated 8th November,
1763, are as follows :
1. s. d.
" Sergeant L. McGuire, Dr.
For 4 half pints wine, ... 24
" beer and cider royal, . . 9
" cash, 76
" his wife's diet for eight days, 10 o
" 2 breakfasts, ... 10
" 1 horse at hay, ... 8
" 25 days' diet and attendance
at is. gd. per day, . .239
This bold foray struck terror, as well it might,
into the neighborhood, and next day The Crown Inn
swarmed with refugees from Allen and Lehigh town-
ships. A panic also seized the inhabitants of Saucon
valley, who crowded its precincts on two occasions
between the nth and 1 8th of the eventful month,
while the arrival of several companies of mounted
men from Bucks in that interval, heightened the
general confusion at the house. It was late in De-
cember before the last of the fugitives had returned
to their homes. One of their number, a woman,
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 97
died at The Crown on the 19th of October, and was
buried on the hill.
On the 10th of September, prior to the occur-
rences just narrated, there set out from Bethlehem,
via The Crown for Philadelphia, a " stage-wagon" for
the convenience of public travel, — it being the first
of those successive generations of " swift and sure"
lines of coaches, which tortured mortal flesh, until
their utter extinction by steam. George Klein was
the father of this enterprise, which must needs have
been a humble one, in order to be prophetic of
higher creations in times to come. John Koppel
drove the wagon for 40/. per annum. But as his
coach was seldom full he prudently engaged in the
additional transportation of freight, carrying either
groceries for the store, or train-oil for the tanner,
or iron for the nail-smith, or wool for the clothier.
We note, as indicative of an early Israelitish migra-
tion into Northampton, that Koppel, in June of
1763, conveyed household furniture for Mordecai, a
Jew of Easton, and for Jacob, a Jew of Allentown,
to those respective seats of traffic. Despite this
mode of supplementing a cargo, and a charge of ten
shillings for a passenger over the route, the enter-
prise sank 82/. 11s, jd. in the first year of its exis-
tence. Nevertheless, for many years, hereafter the
curiosity of the habitats of the Inn was more than
ordinarily exercised on Friday afternoon of every
98 TJie Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
week, on the return of the stage-wagon from the
capital*
The month of November of 1763, proved an ex-
citing one at Bethlehem and at The Crown, as the
popular feeling against the Moravian Indians (who
had made that place their asylum since November of
1755, consequent upon the late inroads) was then
culminating. To such a degree did prejudice against
another race then blind men's reason, that Govern-
ment hastened to order the removal of this unfortu-
nate people for safe-keeping to the capital. Ac-
cordingly in the afternoon of the eighth of the afore-
mentioned month, the Moravian Indians (there were
one hundred and twenty-one, men, women and chil-
dren) rendezvoused at Lischer's, preparatory to their
exodus. This was a memorable day at the Inn.
The following record, the last relating to this event-
ful ' administration, points to the return of these
exiles in March of 1765, and to their subsequent
transfer to Wyalusing on the Susquehanna :
* In November of 1764, Klein sold out to John Francis Oberlin, the
latter paying him for the wagon, a pale mare, a sorrel (der Fuclis), a
roan (der Bock), a bay, harness, chains, an axe, a tar-bucket, and eight
sacks for oats — 52/. Penna. cy. In Henry Miller's Almanac for 1765,
in a " specification of the times of the arrival and departure of post-
riders, mail-coaches and market-boats, at and from Philadelphia," we
find the following announcement — " Every Thursday morning a mail-
coach leaves Race St. for Bethlehem, and returns on Tuesday to Phila-
delphia."
TJie Croivji Inn near Bethlehem. 09
1. s. d.
" i April
I76S-
Joseph Fox, Esq., Dr.
For an order of Thomas Apty for
keeping horses when he came
with ye Indians from Philadel-
phia, viz. :
For 8 horses 5 days at hay, .
2 13 4
" 7 " 7 " . .
3 5 4
" oats for "
16 6
" ferriage, ....
3 2
It remains to be stated that the Inn made a
deficit of 41/. 10s. y\d. for the year ending 1st
April, 1765, — that Mr. Lischer on the 19th of that
month exchanged its responsibilities for those of The
Rose on the Barony — that thence he was called in
1772, to take charge of the Nazareth Inn, and that
he died at Nazareth in May of 1782.
Ephraim Culver succeeded to The Crown on the
20th day of April, 1765, — that being the date of this
his second coronation, — and swayed the scepter at the
Inn for a period of five years, which flowed gently
down the stream of time. It was to a remarkable
degree, what we might characterize as an introspec-
tive life which host and hostelry led during this in-
cumbency, in the absence of Indian wars, and de-
spite an ominous movement in the Province and
her sister colonies, which augured no good to the
100
TJie Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
Proprietary Government and to the Seigniory of
Windsor. The brief records of the house, accord-
ingly, as we may expect, refer almost exclusively to
its economy, thereby, however, acquainting us with
much that is pleasant to know. Thus, for instance,
the following inventory of stock taken on the 19th
of April, of the last mentioned year, throws a clear
light upon what were the appurtenances of the Inn
at that date. "There is on hand at The Crown,
this day —
Kitchen Furniture,
value
lat
17
17
11
Drinking vessels,
'
6
iS
9
Tea and coffee vessels,
'
6
2
10
Earthen ware,
"
1
11
1
Bedding,
'
3-
10
0
Linen,
'
3
2
4
Sundry utensils,
'
1 1
13
6
Casks, &c,
'
5
1 1
6
Tools at ye barn and stable, .
"
2
4
10
Garden tools,
'
2
3
2
A second record testifies to the character of the
literature which was provided by the host for the
intellectual entertainment of his guests. It reads
thus: "March 21st, 1766, paid Messrs. Franklin and
Hall, for the newspapers for last year, 10s. jd."
And again, "March 17th, 1767, paid Henry Miller,
for the newspapers for two years past, 12s."
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 101
In 1767, our Inn was taxed 5/. i8.f. 6d. for the
Province, and 2/. 7J. 6d. for the county. On the
19th of April, of the following year, its premises
were for a time jeopardized by a bush-fire, that swept
down the mountain ; but neighbors coming to the
rescue, the enemy was subdued, at a cost of one and
threepence, for rum, to the Inn. Finally, an exam-
ination of accounts of the house by duly authorized
auditors, on the 1 8th of April, 1770, discovered
among the rest, that the sum total of sundry small
outstanding debts due to the Crown amounted to 20/.
25. %d.
We left the Bethlehem Ferry in the hands of
Francis Steup, in the winter of 1761. On the disso-
lution of the Economy it was united with the Inn,
and managed for one year by Augustus H. Franke,
in consideration of 23/. per annum, in addition to
his and his wife's board, reckoned at seven and six-
pence per week for each. He was assisted by Peter
Petersen, who is charged on one and the same day
with one pair of leather breeches, new, 16s. gd., and
one pair ditto, old, $s., whence we infer that his
position was a wearing one and no sinecure. Franke's
receipts for the year ending the 27th of March,
1763, amounted to 165/. lid., of which sum 73/.
\%s. 6\d., were net proceeds, which goes to prove
that the Ferry (then booked at 185/. iSs. 4^.,
including wharves, flat, rope, and shelter belong-
102 T7ie frown Inn near Bethlehem.
ing thereto, four canoes and chains), was a desirable
investment.*
Valentine Fuehrer (whom we shall meet again in
the course of this narrative) succeeded Franke as ferry-
man, and continued a lodger at the Crown, as his
predecessors had been, until the completion of the
Ferry House, f erected in the autumn of 1765, at the
*The rates of ferriage at this time may" in part be deduced from the
following item, dated "31st October, 1762." The Bethlehem Farm,
Frederic Beckel, farmer, Dr. to the Ferry :
1. s. p.
For ferrying 1 wagon, . . . . . . o 5 o
" " 1 horse three times, ....010
" " 3+4- sheep, o iS 9J
" " the sisters who worked in harvest one
week and a half, back and forth, . 4 o ij
fThe Ferry-house stood near the site of the house of entertainment
enigmatically ycleped first, The Mondray House, but now The Ex-
change, until work at the Lehigh Valley Railroad in 1S53, caused its
removal. After the Bethlehem Ferry had been superseded by a bridge
(in 1 79+). the house was occupied by the successive toll-men in the
employ of the Bridge Company — first by Valentine Fuehrer, next in
1 801 by Peter Rose (he had served under Braddock), and after him suc-
cessively by John Stotz, Massa Warner (he died in the house in May
of 1824), Benjamin Warner, John Adam Luckenbach and Daniel Lawall.
In 1S42, subsequent to the erection of a toll-house at the northern
terminus of the present bridge, Daniel Desh came into possession of the
ferry-house, and occupied it for six years. He then rented it to Jacob
Werst. The last occupant was one "Dutch John," who also removed
TJie Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
103
southern terminus of the ferry. This he occupied
on the 17th of October of that year. It was built
by David Kunz, from Moravia, carpenter, at a cost
of 19/, 17J. 4^/.
Here it behooves us to present to the reader the
following :
Schedule of rates of Ferriage at the Bethlehem Ferry,
January, 1767.
For a loaded wagon and four horses,
" an empty do. do.
" a loaded wagon and two horses,
" an empty do. do.
" a carriage with four wheels and
horses,
" a chair and one horse,
" a do. two horses,
" a sled and four do.
" a do. two do.
" a do. one horse,
" a single horse,
" a number of horses, each
" a footman,
" a single ox or cow,
" a number of oxen or cows, each
" a single sheep, hog or calf, each
" ten head of the same,
2 coppers.
6
2 coppers.
the building, and from its sound timbers constructed a dwelling, which
he located on the river's bank, near its old haunt.
104 The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
Accompanying this schedule was the following
" Advertisement.
"All such persons as bring wheat, rye, Indian
corn, and buckwheat, to the grist-mill at Bethlehem,
for grinding, are free of ferriage, provided they
observe the following regulations, to wit :
One horse with two bushels of wheat, rye, or Indian corn.
One do. " three do. buckwheat.
One wagon and four horses with twenty bushels of wheat.
One do. '
two do.
" fifteen
do.
One cart '
do.
" twelve
do.
One do. '
one do.
" eight
do.
One sled '
two do.
" twelve
do.
One do. '
one do.
" six
do.
Besides the above-mentioned quantities of grain,
all kinds of provisions brought for sale in Bethle-
hem are allowed on the same wagon or horse.
Furthermore, all persons that come to church at
Bethlehem on Sundays or holydays are ferriage free,
provided they do not come for the purpose of
transacting business, or carry parcels, — in which case
they are to pay the usual rates."
There is an event in Mr. Fuehrer's life as ferry-
man, which it is proper to state at this point in
our history. When Governor John Penn was tarry-
ing a few days at Bethlehem, in April of 1768 (he
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 105
was wont to visit the Aliens, of Allentown, Ann,
his wife, being a daughter of the Chief Justice),
it so happened on the twenty-seventh of the month,
that the men of the village were fishing for shad
(it was the height of what we might style the
Devonian age, and one hundred and five years before
the introduction of black bass by an overland route*),
after the Indian mode of taking that excellent fish.f
* " Last night about one o'clock," we quote from the Bethlehem
Daily Times of 13th June, a. c, "two tanks containing 400 black bass
from the Potomac at Harper's Ferry arrived at the Freight Depot of the
N. P. R. R. — a large number of beautiful fish dead." " Four
hundred piscatorial corpses of piscatorial hopes entertained by the public-
spirited gentlemen who had been active in setting on foot the black
bass movement." Ibid.
f " As soon as the shad (Scha-tua-nam-meek) i. e., the South-fish, com-
pounded of Scha-iva-ne-u, south, hence Shawano, — and Na-mees fish, in
their annual migration from the tropical seas, run up the rivers along the
Atlantic coast to deposit their spawn, the Indians assemble for the
fishery. Having built a dam across the stream with walls converging
into a pound at its center, they twist a cable of grape-vines, loading it
down with brush secured at intervals of from ten to fifteen feet. This
barrier is stretched from shore to shore, perhaps a mile above the wier
and being held in position by Indians in canoes, is towed down the
river. The frightened fish are driven before it, and by men, stationed
on the walls, into the pound, and there taken by hand. The Delawares
called March, the " shad-month." Memorials of the Moravian Church,
<vol. 2. Shad were taken abundantly in this way, by the Moravians at
Bethlehem, in the Lehigh below the Simpson Tract, until improvements
were made in the bed of the river by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation
Company, about 1S20. The largest catch on record, — 6th May, 1772 —
numbered 5,300.
106 The Ci'oivn Inn near Bethlehem.
Now, the Governor was desirous of witnessing the
catch. Hereupon Mr. Fuehrer fitted up his best
batteau, and having taken his Honor on board from
a spit on the Sand Island, rowed him within the
magic circle described by the grape-vine cable, into
the pound, below the wier, and, in short, to
every available point of view (the Governor, we
are told by Mr. Watson, was very near-sighted),
much to his gratification. His lady and her attend-
ants, meanwhile, watched the exciting sport from the
heights of Nisky Hill.
When Ephraim Culver retired from the Crown
in April of 1771, Valentine Fuehrer was still at his
post at the ferry. Mr. Culver in April of 1772
became a resident of the charming hamlet of Schoe-
neck on the Barony — there married widow Claus
for his third wife — and died at Bethlehem in March
of 1775.
A division of the estates held by the Moravian
Church in the Province of Pennsylvania completed
about this time, led to a transfer of The Crown
Inn and the adjacent lands to the Society at Beth-
lehem. Hereupon that body let the hostelry (it
was booked at 230/., the Ferry at 50/.) and a few
acres of land contiguous, to Augustus H. Franke,
a native of Eckersheim in Lower Lusatia (he had
immigrated in 1754) at an annual rental of 30/.
He took possession on the 6th of April, 177 1,
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 107
and assisted by his wife, Mary Magdalene m. n.
Steiner, managed both the house and the farm for
his own emolument until the same day of April,
1778.
During this incumbency, although it fell in that
memorable period in which her transatlantic colo-
nies asserted, and then, by an appeal to arms, estab-
lished their independence of Great Britain — no events
of importance occurred at the Inn but what were
intimately related with events which rightfully belong
to the history of the town of Bethlehem. Passing
these over, accordingly, as things known to even
careless readers of Moravian history, it may be
stated, in conclusion, that there were no more exci-
ting days at the Crown, than the days of the week
after the defeat of the Americans at Chadd's Ford
(nth September, 1777), when soldiers, statesmen and
civilians fled from before the British lion in Phila-
delphia, past our house's royal emblem and across its
ferry to Bethlehem; — a hegira, which we may suppose
has no parallel in precipitancy save that of Mo-
hammed, and none in the promiscuousness of its
elements, excepting that of the first Bull Run.
Valentine Fuehrer was ferryman at this critical junc-
ture,— in fact, until the expiration of Franke's lease.*
*We learn from 2 Penn'a Archives, p. 2SS, that John G. Jungman,
who had been obliged by reason of a severe hypochondriac disorder to
return to Bethlehem from the Indian mission, led by the advice of his
108 Tlie Croivn Inn near Bethlehem,.
He was also the thirteenth landlord at The Crown,
if such continued to be the name of our Inn, at a
time when popular feeling throughout the land had
been enlisted in an indiscriminate crusade against
the insignia of royalty. Of Mr. Fuehrer, we know
the following. He was born July 17th, 1732, in
upper Esopus on the confines of Kaatskill, where
his father Christian Fuehrer was a deacon in the
Reformed Church of the Palatine settlers. Becom-
ing attatched to Moravian principles through Mora-
vian missionaries, who, in the course of their
spiritual labors among some Mohegans at Stissik,
near Rhinebeck, occasionally visited the Germans lo-
cated in that region of country, young Fuehrer on
attaining his majority, accompained Martin Mack,
to Bethlehem, the new home of his choice. This
was in March of 1745. In August of 1755, he
married Margaret Elizabeth, a daughter of George
and Christiana Loesch of Tulpehocken, and having
done much service for the Economy in the capacity
of a farmer, on its dissolution, was appointed, as
we have seen, ferryman at the Bethlehem Ferry. It
was in the fifteenth year of his incumbency there,
physicians, who thought bodily exercise very beneficial to him, "worked
at the ferry for three years, during the time when the hospitals and
other parts of the army were constantly passing and repassing the
Lehigh."
Tlie Crown, Inn near Bethlehem. 109
and on the 6th of April, 1778, that he was called
to take charge of The Crown, with a salary of 30/.
per annum. Fuehrer was its responsible head until
the 1st of July, 1791, — for full thirteen years,* — in
the first six of which he also superintended the man-
agement of the ferry. When Sullivan had his head-
quarters at Easton, at the time he was fitting out
an expedition against the Indians of the Six Nations,
Fuehrer's flat was impressed into the public service
and taken to Easton, to assist in transporting troops
and munitions of war across the Delaware. This was
in June of 1779. Massa Warner, a son of Daniel
and Bethiah Warner, — born in the town of Hebron,
* During this period the Moravian Seminary for Young Ladies at
Bethlehem (after having been established in October of 1785), set out
upon a career of usefulness in behalf of the amelioration of womankind,
in which it has persevered, undaunted, for almost a full century. In this
period, then, a new element began to appear in and to lend charms
(year after year more decidedly) to the beautiful environs of Bethlehem,
as well to the nether as to the upper shore of Lehigh, as during Fueh-
rer's incumbency at The Crown, the Simpson Tract was for the first
time trodden by the feet of denizens of the aforementioned venerable
Institution. * * * * But this element, with the lapse of
time, has grown mighty toward giving character to Bethlehem and its
adjacents, — whether the maidens in double file and under the wholesome
restraint of a quasi-military discipline, move demurely in dense squadrons
through the precincts of the borough, — or whether, when without its
limits, they break line, and following the bent of their happy
roam light-heartedly and with graceful abandon through the syl
remains of the historic scenes of which we write.
110 Tlie Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
Litchfield county, Connecticut, — was the next ferry-
man in the succession, in the interval between ist
of April, 1784, and the aforementioned ist of July,
1 79 1. But his salary was 70/. per annum, and his
perquisites were a home in the ferry-house, two cords
of wood every season, and hay and pasture for a
cow.
Mr. Fuehrer, it has been stated, spent thirteen
years of his life as landlord of The Crown. The
events of interest which occurred at the old house, or
which, occurring elsewhere during this period, never-
theless affected its status, may be rehearsed briefly
and in order as follows. In the early winter of 1780,
the Lehigh was closed for seven weeks continuously,
and as the ice permitted the transit of even heavily
laden wains, there could not possibly be any receipts
for ferriage for that time. Washington, accompa-
nied by two aids (the General was on his way to
headquarters at Newburg), passed the 25th day of
July, 1782, at Bethlehem. According to the late
Mr. Frederick Fuehrer's statement (he was the fifth
son of Valentine and Margaret Fuehrer and having
been born in the ferry-house in September, 1768,
was in the fifteenth year of his age, when Washing-
ton was at Bethlehem), the General passed the night
of the 24th of July, at his father's, and on retiring
pleasantly sought to impress the people of the house
with an idea of the heighth of his person by reaching
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. Ill
his hand into a ring suspended from a staple in the
ceiling which was inaccessible by men of ordinary
stature.
On the 8th of November, 1782, a few weeks prior
to the signing of provisional articles of peace at
Paris, several companies of a Continental regiment
en route from Lancaster to Wilmington, were quar-
tered at The Crown. This was its last occupation
by patriot troops, as hostilities between the bellige-
rents ceased in the following January. But when
a definitive treaty of peace was concluded at Brus-
sels in September of 1783, the house and the tract
on which it stood, together with divers other estates
personal and real, passed completely under the juris-
diction of the new Republic.
John George Stoll, the ninth child of John J. and
Ann. M. Stoll, of Balgheim, Principality of Oettin-
ger (Mr. Stoll had immigrated in 1749), and Ro-
sina, his wife, succeeded to the Crown, on the 1st of
July, 1 79 1. This is the same John Stoll, who while
saw-miller at Bethlehem (he spent twenty years of
his life in that romantic little world near the outlet
of the Menagassi, where since 1743, amid alders and
willows, have been heard the hum of the waterfall
and the sound of the busy saw) rendered professional
services to the United States of America, to the
amount of 9/., he having sawed three hundred feet
of timber for the Continental Stable, located in No-
Tlie Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
vember of 1799, on John Lerch's farm* in Allen
township. From the mill, Mr. Stoll, by an easy-
gradation, passed over the river to The Crown. He
presided over its fortunes until the 30th of May,
1792. Mr. Stoll died at Bethlehem, in March of
iSoi.f
George Schindler, from the village of Zauchten-
thal, Moravia, linen-weaver (he had immigrated in
the spring of 1754), and Mary Magdalene, third
daughter of Conrad and Catharine Wetzel, of Gosh-
enhoppen, his wife, were installed at the Crown on
the last day of May 1792, and administered its
affairs to the 31st of October, 1794. On that day
the house closed its public career, " disappearing
without glory," from the ranks of its fellow inns.
The Ferry, however (Valentine Fuehrer had man-
aged it since his retirement from the Crown), had
* Lerch's farm of 150 acres situate on the Lehigh, had been conveyed
to John Lerch in 1773 by Anthony Lerch, the elder, of Lower
Saucon, it being a part of a tract of 1,800 acres of land in the forks
of Hockendauqua, held by Wm. Allen in 1740 — conveyed to William
Parsons in 1754, conveyed by Parsons to Richard Peters, and by Peters
to Wm. Allen, and Joseph Turner, in the aforementioned year; one
hundred and fifty acres of which great tract were sold in 1761, to John
Stenton, by him to John Jennings, and by Jennings, in 1770, to
Anthony Lerch. John Lerch, of Bethlehem, merchant, is a grandson of
the aforementioned John Lerch.
f Mr. Andrew G. Kern, of Nazareth, the venerable Moravian anti-
quary, now in the 79th year of his age, is a grandson of John G. Stoll.
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 113
been abandoned on the 27th of September, of the
last mentioned year ; whereupon the veteran ferry-
man received a gratuity of 10/. in consideration of
his past services.
In January of 1792, the Moravians first agitated
the question of connecting the Simpson Tract with
their town by means of a bridge. Having been em-
powered to do so by an Act of Assembly, that was
passed 3d April, 1792, under the hand and seal of
Thomas Mifflin, the then Governor of the Common-
wealth of Pennsylvania, said act providing for " the
establishing and building of a bridge across the
Lehigh at Bethlehem," and empowering John
Schropp of that place to build said bridge, — vesting,
moreover, the same when built, in " him, his heirs
and assigns forever" — -work was commenced at the
structure in the spring of 1794. Despite some
delays occasioned by freshets in the river, the bridge*
* This bridge was an uncovered one, and was built of hemlock
timber, cut in what was then called " the little Spruce Swamp," between
Panther Creek and the Nesquehoning, in Carbon county. It was con-
structed at a cost of $7,Soo, which sum was divided among stock-
holders, whom, Mr. Schropp, agreeably to the tenor of the act, had
associated with himself; shares being issued at §100. In 1816, this
bridge being found imperfect, was removed, and its place taken by a
more durable one (also uncovered), which rested upon four stone piers,
furnished with ice-breakers. It was opened for travel 19th October, 1S16.
In April of 1827, the present "Bethlehem Bridge Company" was in-
corporated by charter and organized. The bridge of 1816 was carried
11J). The Croivn Inn near Bethlehem.
was opened for travel on the 19th day of September
next ensuing, — whereupon, and since that time (save
temporarily, as, for instance, in 18 16 and again in
1 841), the historic Simpson Tract has been con-
nected more closely and more effectually with Bethle-
hem, than ever it was by stoutest shroud hawser of
ninety fathoms.
George Schindler, died at Bethlehem in March of
1809. His widow survived him until April of 1825.*
Thus passed away the last host and hostess of the
old Crown Inn.
This narrative would be incomplete, were it to
close here. The transformation of the Simpson Tract
and of the lands adjacent, so that their condition
became by insensible steps very different from that
in which we found it in the days of Conrad Ruetschi,
and very different from what it is remembered to
away by the great freshet which swept the valley of the Lehigh, in January
of 1S41. It was superseded in the same year by the present covered one,
which, with the lapse of years, is very perceptibly growing old.
*But how she spent her widowhood in a cottage on Market street,
earning a livelihood by spinning and by boarding pupils of the Bethle-
hem school; how, like other exemplary old ladies of whom we read in
books, she had a rush bottomed chair, an eight-day clock and a tortoise-
shell cat; how she became a favorite with the children of the town, by
inviting them to " vespers," when she would always serve up " etwas
friscli gebackenes," and how in consequence she was called by the endear-
ing appellation of Mammy, first by them, and then by every one, until
the day of her death, the reader may learn in full, by consulting
"Bethlehem and Bethlehem School," by C. B. Mortimer.
Ike Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 115
have been but a quarter of a century ago, — and the
fate of the old house whose name is borne on the
title page of this tribute to its memory, must neces-
sarily be traced, if even briefly. In order to do this, we
must return to the year 1769, which was the seventh
year after the dissolution of the Bethlehem Economy.
In February, of that year, the Moravians laid out
two farms on their lands lying south of the Lehigh
river, and let them to tenants. The improvements
on the upper Ysselstein place, served as a nucleus
for the larger of the two, including, furthermore,
the clearings that had been made about the Inn.
This farm, first known in official records as " Die
Plantage beym Gasthaus zur Krone," was occupied
in 1769 by Conrad Ernst, from Wald Angelloch,
in the Palatinate, and Ann C, daughter of Sebastian
H. and Ann Catharine Knauss, of Emmaus, his
wife.* The second farm, called " The Weygandt
Farm" (its improvements gradually clustered around
a clearing made by Cornelius Weygandtf on a
* The old log dwelling, which in 1849, was superseded by one of
brick (the same that at present contains offices in the freight depart-
ment of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Co.), was erected in 1765, and
subsequently occupied by Ernst and the successive tenants of this farm.
f Cornelius Weygandt, was born in March of 1713, in Osthofen, in
the Palatinate. He died in October of 1799, and lies buried in the
grave-yard of the Schceneck Church, in Bu.shkill township. Some of his
descendants reside in Easton. He doubtless built the ancient farm-house,
which stands in the rear of Bishopthorpe, circa 1759.
116 The Ci'oivn Inn near Bethlehem.
tract of eighty acres of mountain land purchased by-
George Hartmann, 1744), was let to Marx Kieffer*
in April of the aforementioned year 1769. Ernst
was succeeded in April of 1779, by John Lucken-
bach, last from Locust Grove, in Upper Saucon town-
ship. John Luckenbachf was succeeded in April of
1786 by his son, John Adam; he in 1810 by his
son, John David, and he in 1845 by his son,
Thomas David. Thus, because of its occupancy for
many years by the members of that family, the farm
came to be called " The Luckenbach Farm."
Kieffer dying in 1791 (during his tenancy,
there were some of Burgoyne's Brunswickers, then
on parol, quartered at his house), was succeeded by
John Christian Clevel,J he, about 18 10, by John
Hoffert, and he in 1834 by his son, Samuel Hoffert.
This farm was known during the last years of its
tenure by the Moravians as " the Hoffert Farm."§
Subsequent to the Revolution (about 1786), the
* Marx Kieffer was from Nielingen, in Durlach, and was blacksmith
at the Shamokin mission when the Indian war broke out, in November
of 1755.
t John Luckenbach, the ancestor of the family of that name at Bethle-
hem, died in June of 1S10. John Adam died in April of 184.2, and
John David, in August of 1S50.
J John C. Clevel, a son of George Clevel, was born in September of
1754, in Plainfield township. He died near Bethlehem, in June of 1827.
fSJohn Hoffert died in October of 1S37. Samuel Hoffert died in
March of 1S64.
light of the 24th and 25th of July, 17S2
Old Crown Inn), 1854.
iwest ancle of the house, in which Washington
After a sketch taken by R. A. Grider.
TJie Ch'own Inn near Bethlehem. 119
" Luckenbach Farm," which at that time extended at
points to the west of the Emmaus road, was divided, — ■
and one hundred acres on its south side were made into
a third farm — this being given in tenancy to Stoffel
Wiener. Wiener was succeeded by Jacob Jacobi, in
1805, and he, in 1815 by his son, Jacob Jacobi, Jr.
This farm was last known as " the Jacobi Farm."*
Frederic Fuehrer commenced the fourth of the
Moravian Farms situate on the south bank of the
Lehigh, about 1794, and thereupon occupied the old
Crown Inn. Thus the hostelry became a farm-house.
In it Valentine Fuehrer spent the last years of his
life. But in his old age the ferryman's vision grew
dim until he became totally blind. Then like
Oedipus, he was led about by children and children's
children. He died on the 12th of January, 1808.
Frederic Fuehrer, who had developed the new farm,
until its cultivated fields extended westward to the
borders of " The Hoffert Farm," died at Bethle-
hem, on the 1st of March, 1849. But on the very
day of his death, there was felled a white pine (it
had well nigh been uprooted by a storm), which he
when a young man, had planted in the garden hard
by the old Crown, — saying as he set out the sapling,
that he desired for it a prosperous growth, and wood
* Stoffel Wiener died circa 1S45, in trie neighborhood of Bethlehem,
upwards of ninety years of age. Jacob Jacobi died circa 1815; Jacob
Jacobi, Jr., in 1S69.
Hie Crown Inn near BelJiZelicm.
from its trunk for a coffin, when he should come to
die. — Joseph Fuehrer, a son of Frederick Fuehrer
was the tenant on " The Fuehrer Farm," when in
1847 it was sold by the Moravians. Now all these
farms stretched into the Simpson Tract, and in the
last year of their tenure by their original holders con-
tained jointly full five hundred acres of arable land.
Reckoning from the year in which the house of
which we write ceased to be an Inn, we count forty
years for tlie duration of what may, not inappropri-
ately, be termed the bucolic age of the tract on
which it stood ; — an age, in which a Sabbath calm
brooded over the husbandman's acres and the fruits
of the husbandman's toil, — when no sound invaded
the universal stillness of that enchanted world by
day, save the lowing of herds, or the ring of the
mower's scythe, or the hum of honey-bees; and none
by night, but the clink of hopples in the clover, or
the distant watch-dog's bark echoed along the moun-
tain. Then Heaven smiled and the seven planets
shed sweet influence upon fallow and orchard, — upon
seeded field and standing corn ; granting, moreover,
rich increase to flocks and healthful progeny to men.
No plague, then, of blight or mildew, of murrain or
pestilence, as the moon spake kindly oracles and the
mystic signs of the zodiac taught men how to avert
dreaded disease. Thus passed the years and months
of this bucolic age, — fallow-month, hay-month,
TJte Crown Inn near Bethlehem,
autumn-month, winter-month and Christ-month, —
each, in turn, pouring out treasures from its horn
of plenty, until, it appeared as though Saturn pur-
posed to return to the earth and take up his abode
with the race of articulate men.
Meanwhile, in the wilds of upper Northampton,
where the Lehigh, yet an untamed mountain-stream,
frets in its rocky bed, brave spirits were fighting the
powers of Nature, — as men of old fought dragons —
if, peradventure, they might wrest from her enchant-
ments and share with their fellow-men, the treasures
she fain would keep to herself in her savage soli-
tudes. It needed brave spirits, indeed, to pioneer
the way for that inexhaustible traffic which now
pours a continuous stream of merchandise through
its great artery in the valley of the Lehigh, to the
emporiums of the western world. Such spirits were
Cist, Miner, White, Hazard and Hauto, whose
names are inscribed upon the title-page of the almost
fabulous history of anthracite coal. Exchanging the
amenities of civilized life, for the hardships and
denials of life in the woods, these men toiled year
after year in a howling wilderness (on the land and
in the water), hewing roads through its sombre for-
ests, clearing its river's channel of obstructions, hop-
ing against hope and yet persevering, until they had
accomplished what they designed should not be left
undone. Thus they slew the dragon.
122 TJie Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
Now what these and their fellows eventually effected
towards bringing anthracite to market, is as well
known to the reader, as its recital would be irrele-
vant to the subject of this narrative ; still, it is
proper to state, that towards evening of the 3d of
August, 1813, there swept down the Lehigh, past
the Simpson Tract and the old Crown Inn, a craft
such as had never before been borne upon its waters.
This craft was an " ark " (the first of many that
followed in its wake), laden with twenty-four tons
of coal, on her way to Philadelphia, — a rude hulk
of hemlock timbers, forsooth, carrying a mere hand-
ful of fossil fuel, and yet prophetic of fleets of ar-
gosies, which in time to come should sweep past
the site of the olden hostelry, all freighted heavily
with the spoils of a long-past carboniferous age.
In 1820 "The Lehigh Coal Company" (formed
in 1792) and the "Lehigh Navigation Company"
(formed in 181 8) merged their interests into a new
organization with the corporate title eventually of
" The Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company."
This company found the river, whose name hence-
forth became identified with its varied enterprises,
well fitted up with locks and dams for flooding its
channel in seasons of shoal water, by which means
coal was as heretofore sent to market in arks, until
the summer of 1829. It was then that navigation
in the newly completed canal was opened. Within
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 123
a twelvemonth thereafter, thirty thousand tons of
anthracite from Bear Mountain, passed over this new
highway southward into consumers' hands — Such
was the dawn of a modern carboniferous age.
Now all these operations in mining of coal and
in behalf of its transportation down the valley of
the Lehigh, begat a spirit of unrest which followed
the courses of that river to its outlet. Men began
to ponder a movement which was rapidly infu-
sing the vigor of a new life into a hitherto unheeded
region of country, and as they pondered and specu-
lated,— there were some who in vision beheld coal
wedded to iron, and the offspring of this union — gold.
Hereupon the rod of witch-hazel in the diviner's hand
was made to point out the subterranean abode of the
king of metals. Thus iron was found ; and then iron
was smelted by the agency of anthracite in stacks
with flaming throats. This triumph of metallurgy
was first achieved at Catasauqua in the summer of
1840. Seven years subsequent to that great event,
the Moravians sold their farms. It grieved them, we
ween, to see hereditary acres, which were long associa-
ted in their minds with the days of the Bethlehem
Economy and the patriarchal rule of Spangenberg,
pass from their hands; but they hearkened to the
words of far-sighted men who contended that it would
be madness to attempt to rescue them from the high-
tide which in that dayspring of modern improvement
Tlie Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
was setting in towards their borders, threatening to
overwhelm in ruin all things that refused to bow
before its irresistible progress. Hence they were sold,
to wit : five hundred acres and upwards on the south
side of the Lehigh alone, including the Simpson Tract,
and the old building which in the days of the Perms
and of loyalty to the House of Hanover, had been
The Crown Inn. From the sale of these lands, date
the beginnings of that change which has so steadily and
so marvellously been transforming the south bank of
the Lehigh, opposite the old Moravian settlement
of Bethlehem, down to the present day. The first
impetus was given it, perhaps, when in 1852, works
for the manufacture of zinc were erected in the newly
laid out town of Augusta, — which town, as it grew
(and it grew rapidly on the completion of the Lehigh
Valley and North Pennsylvania Railroads), changed
its name frequently, being called sometime Wetherill,
and sometime Bethlehem South— but eventually, the
borough of South Bethlehem. How this vigorous
town grew from year to year, as it took within its
borders new portions of the old Moravain farms,
adding new peoples too, as often as new works for
the production of zinc and iron and brass, were
established ; — and how the railroads became effectual
in bringing trade and traffic of all kinds, as well
as coal and iron and gold, to its bustling market —
need not here be rehearsed. All this is well known
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. IS 5
to the reader. He, too, may predict what eventually,
in all probability, will be the extent and character of
the ambitious town that has supplanted the Moravian
farms and the site of the old Crown Inn. With
this we are not concerned ; but, instead, with the fate
of the old ferry-house, which was demolished to make
way for the track of the Lehigh Valley Railroad; and
with that of the old Crown Inn, which was removed
from its lookout, in the summer of 1857 — it being
proven that it stood in the very bed of the North
Pennsylvania Railroad — whereupon it was sold for the
paltry sum of thirty dollars — itself and all its his-
torical reminiscences ; and having been given over
gently to the axe and the saw, its well preserved
remains were made to do service in houses of
modern structure.
Thus the old Crown Inn, in part, has entered
upon a new career, in which it may make history
for the delight of some future recorder or anti-
quarian, if not, peradventure, for the edification of
future readers of olden time lore.
APPENDIX,
CONTAINING DIVERSE MATTER SUPPLEMENTARY TO
THE FOREGOING HISTORY.
TREATING OF THE PLANTATIONS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF
BETHLEHEM, PRIOR TO 1741.
Three plantations, lying at intervals within a stretch of four miles
on the south bank of the Lehigh, were the only indications of the
white man's presence in their neighborhood, when the Moravians
began to build Bethlehem. Two miles above them in a bend of the
river was the "Jennings' Farm," a choice parcel of 200 acres which
had been confirmed to Solomon Jennings (he was one of the " three
walkers"), in the spring of 1736, by William Allen, and which
after being patented, "was holden of the Proprietaries as part of
their Manor of Fermor or the Drylands in free and common soccage,
on paying in lieu of all other services to them or their successors at
the town of Easton, on the first day of March annually, one silver
shilling for each one hundred acres." This farm, on being exposed
at public sale after the demise of old Solomon (he deceased 16th
February, 1757) by his executors, John Jennings, Nicholas Scull of
the county of Berks, tavern-keeper, and Isaiah Jennings, was bought
by Jacob Geisinger of Saucon township, yeoman, together with 164
acres additional, for 1,500/. Pennsylvania currency, and confirmed
to him by indenture bearing date of 1st June, 1764. It is held
by his descendants to the present day.
Near the mouth of Saucon creek was the "Irish Farm," whose
history is given fully elsewhere.
The third plantation was the "Ysselstein Farm," lying clue east
of the Simpson tract and stretching down the river four hundred and
four perches to the west line of the "Irish Farm," — including two
Tlie Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
separate purchases, to wit: a tract of 17S acres and an island of 10
acres (now held by the Bethlehem Iron Company), which had been
surveyed to David Potts of the County of Bucks, yeoman, in July of
1734, by him assigned to Isaac Ysselstein in December of 173S, to
whom they were deeded by William Allen in December of 1740, for
the consideration of 100/. Pennsylvania currency — and a second
tract of 75 acres, due east of and adjoining the first, which was con-
veyed to the aforesaid Ysselstein by Nathaniel Irish, in December of
1739, for 26/. 5J-. Pennsylvania currency. This plantation was
purchased by the Moravians of widow Ysselstein in 1749.* Of the
original holder we know the following:
Isaac Martens Ysselstein, was of Low Dutch parentage, and
resided in Esopus in 1725, in which year he married Rachel Bogart.
From Esopus he removed to the Dutch settlement of Claverack
(Clover Field), on the east shore of Hudson's river, and thence to
Marbletown, six miles west from Kingston on "the old Mine road."
Allured by the prospect of cheap and fertile lands which were being
thrown into the market by speculators in the Forks of the Delaware,
even prior to the extinction of the Indian claim, he followed others
of his countrymen into the new land of promise, and purchased, as
we have seen, on the south bank of Lecha, building himself a cabin
just over against the ford where Marshall and Yeates, the walkers,
and their Indian companions Combash, Tom and Tuneam had
ridden their horses through the stream, in the afternoon of the
memorable 19th September, 1737. His family at that time consisted
of four daughters, a negress, and a servant man, Jacobus van der
Merck. But one night, it was in the spring of 1739, the treacherous
river suddenly rose and overflowing its banks, swept away the cabin
of the settler, and the timbers he was squaring for a more substantial
homestead and for the housing of his cattle. So impetuous was the
angry flood that the inmates of the doomed house barely escaped
with their lives to higher ground. This is the first freshet in the
Lehigh on record, it being the one which served as a standard of
comparison for Moravian chroniclers of high water in that river, in
the last century.
iangle of 2 acres, in the extreme southeast corner of the Ysselstein land, was sold to
Lynn of Saucon, in 1828, and upwards of 107 acres adjacent, to John Riegcl, better
is Herrnhuter John, in 1S29, at the rate of $45 per acre.
Tlie Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 129
When Boehler and his company of Moravian refugees arrived in
the Forks of Delaware from Georgia, in the spring of 1 740, they
experienced much kindness from the Hollander's family, all the
members of which (excepting the father who deceased on the 26th
of July, 1742) eventually united with the Moravians at Bethlehem.
Isaac Ysselstein left six daughters, as follows :
1. Jannetje, born in Esopus, married Philip Rudolph Haymer of
Saucon, and after his decease, John Nicholas Schaeffer of Bethlehem.
She died at Nazareth.
2. Cornelia, born 25th January, 1731, in Claverack, Albany
county, married Lewis Huebner of Bethlehem, potter, 4th October,
1757, — died at that place 3d June, 1775. The late Abraham
Huebner, M. D., was a grandson.
3. Eleonora, born 21st June, 1733, in Marbletown, married
Abraham Andress of Bethlehem, last from Frederic township, Phila-
delphia county, wheelwright, 29th July, 1757, — died at Bethlehem,
14th September, 1804.
4. Beata, born in Marbletown, 10th May, 1737, married Anthony
Smith of Bethlehem, tinsmith, 14th October, 1766, — died at that
place, 6th July, 18 14.
5. Sarah, born in Saucon township, 27th January, 1740, — died at
Bethlehem, 6 January, 1785.
6. Rachel, born in Saucon township, 8th June, 1741, married
Conrad Gerhardt of Philadelphia, in 1768, — died in that city, 31st
May, 1 So 1. The late Dr. William W. Gerhardt of Philadelphia,
"distinguished as an author and a practitioner in medical science,"
the late Benjamin Gerhardt and Mrs. Henry Du Pont were her
grandchildren.
Rachel, Isaac Ysselstein's widow, married Abraham Boemper of
Bethlehem, silversmith, in July of 1748. She died at that place,
1st March, 1769.
Isaac Ysselstein, it was stated above, died in the night of 26th
July, 1742. His remains were interred on his farm next day, Peter
Boehler, of Bethlehem, conducting the services at the grave. Twenty
years ago a pile of gray stones in among the second growth of timber
marked the spot. Since then, however, a busy town, with giant mills
and shops has sprung up on the site of the Ysselstein Farm, oblitera-
ting in its growth all landmarks of the olden times, — and so it has
130 The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
come to pass that no one knows precisely where the Hollander lies ;
but it is said that day after day, and night after night, the ceaseless
rolling of iron wheels shakes his mouldering bones and dust, as the
ponderous trains sweep impetuously over the place of his sepulture.
TREATING OF THE OLD GRAVE-YARD ON THE HILL, ON THE SOUTH SIDE
OF THE LEHIGH, NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF SECOND AND OTTAWA
STREETS.
The following interments made in this place of burial, in the
interval berween January of 1747 and October of 1763, are extracted
from official records.
1. Margaret, m. n. Lindemann, born near Worms in the Palati-
nate, wife of Frederic Hartmann, died 12th January, 1747, at the
Bethlehem Inn.
2. Margaret, daughter of Peter and Ann Hoffmann of Macungy,
died 21st August, 1747.
3. John Fahs of Saucon township, deceased 7th September, 1747.
4. Adam, infant son of Peter and Ann Hoffmann of Macungy,
died 26th October, 1747.
5. Henry, alias Notcmatwemat (signifying in the Unami Delaware,
"one can't hold great mountains"), a Delaware Indian, born at
"the time when corn was being hoed a second time " in 1731, in
an Indian town in West Jersey, opposite Hunter's Settlement, now
Lower Mount Bethel. Baptized at Bethlehem in January of 1749,
died 13th February, 1752.
6. Henry, a Delaware, infant son of the above, died 24th
February, 1752.
7. Luke, a Delaware, deceased 14th January, 1757.
S. Abraham, a Delaware, son of Jonathan and Verona of the
Gnadenhutten Mission, died 2d July, 1757.
9. William Tatamy, a son of Moses Tatamy (interpreter to
David Brainerd during his residence in the Forks of Delaware),
a Delaware, attached to the Presbyterian Church in Northampton
County, — died 9th August, 1757, in the house of John Jones of
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 131
Bethlehem township, from the effects of a gunshot wound received
at the hands of a white boy in the Craig Settlement, while on his
way with Tadeuskundt's Indians from Fort Allen to Easton to a
treaty.
10. Johanna, a Delaware from Lechawachneck (Pittston), one of
Tadeuskundt's company, died 9th August, 1757, immediately after
baptism, administered on the Simpson Tract by Rev. Jacob Schmick.
11. Lazara, a Delaware, died 3d September, 1757.
12. Christiana, a Delaware, infant daughter of Nathaniel and
Priscilla, deceased 28th November, 1757.
13. A Delaware boy aged seven years, died 3d February, 1758.
14. Justina, a Delaware, died 22d March, 1759.
15. ■ Froneck, a. white boy, whose body was recovered from
the river, he having eight days previous to his interment, while
fording the Lehigh with his father, six miles above Bethlehem,
fallen from their horse and drowned. Interred 2d June, 1760.
16. Andrew Morrison, born in New England, but an inhabitant
of Virginia, who after having lain ill at The Crown for four weeks,
died 31st March, 1761.
17. Capt. Jacob Wetherhold of the Province Service, commis-
sioned a Lieutenant in Major Parson's town-guard, 20th December,
1755. Mortally wounded in the affair at John Stenton's in Allen
township, on the 8th October, 1763. Died at The Crown 9th
October, 1763.
TREATING OF INDIAN NAMES OCCURRENT IN THE FOREGOING HISTORY.
Hockcndauqua, corrupted from hack-i-un-doch-wen (compounded
of hacki, land, un-doch-wcn, to come for some purpose) and
signifying, searching for land. Mr. Heckewelder is of opinion
that this word was used by the Delawares with allusion to the first
advent of the whites to their settlement on the Hockendauqua, for
the purpose of prospecting for or selecting lands along that creek.
Le - chau - wiech - ink, Le - chau - wek - ink or Le - chau - wek - i (com-
pounded of Le-chau-wiech-en, the fork of a road and ink, the local
132 Tlic Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
suffix) signifying at the place of the forks of the road, where there is a
fork of the road, was the name given by the Delawares to the so-called
West Branch of their national river, because, says Heckewelder, at a
point on its left bank below Bethlehem a number of trails forked off
from the great highway of travel, by which they were wont to come
northward from their seats in the lower portions of the Province.
Le-chau-wek-i was shortened by the German settlers into Le-cha, a
name in current use at the present day among descendants of the
old Moravians at Bethlehem.
Le-ehau-wa-quot, a sapling with a fork, Le-chau-han-nc, the fork
of a stream, Lal-chau-uch-si-ta-ja, the forks of the toes, and Lal-
chau-wu-lin-schh-ja, the forks of the fingers, are other words, all
carrying in them the common idea of divergence or forking.
The earliest recorded notices of this river date back to 1701. In
that year the Proprietary and Governor informed his Council, "that
a young Swede arriving from Lechay brought intelligence that some
young men on going out to hunt at Lechay heard the frequent
reports of fire-arms, which made them suspect that the Senecas
were coming down among them." Again — "the Governor censured
a Marylander for endeavoring to settle a trade with the Indians on
Lechay, despite a law prohibiting non-residents to trade with Indians
in this Province." And, finally — "the Governor ordered Op-pe-
me-ny-hook, the chief of the Indians on Lechay, to be sent for to
consult with him about passing a law prohibiting all use of rum to
the Indians of his nation."
Macungy, corrupted from Machk-un-tschi signifying the feeding
place of bears. Machk, a bear — Mach-qui-gc-u, plenty of bears.
Mach-quik, there are plenty of bears. As early as 1735, we meet
with this name written Macaunsie and Macqueunsie.
Mauch Chunk, corrupted from Mach-wach-tschunk (compounded
of Machk, bear, wach-tschu mountain, and ink the local suffix)
signifying, where bear mountain is, or the place of bear mountain.
Minisink, corrupted from Min-sink (compounded of Minsi and
ink the local suffix) signifying, at the place of the Minsis, where there
are Minsis.
Monacasy, corrupted from Me-na-gas-si or Me-na-kes-si, signifying
a stream with great bends, a crooked stream. Descendants of the old
Moravians at Bethlehem, rightly shorten the word into Me-na-kcs.
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem,. 133
The Delawares called the site of Bethlehem, Me-na-gach-sink, i. e.,
at the place of the crooked stream.
Saucon, corrupted from sak-unk (compounded of sa-lm-wit, the
mouth of a creek, and ink, the local suffix) and signifying at the
place of the creek' 's outlet, or, where the creek debouches. The most
important of the various points in their country designated Saucon
by the Delawares, was the outlet of the Big Beaver. The abundance
of Indian relics taken from the flats about Shimersville, warrants the
conjecture that a populous Indian town had once occupied its site.
When alluding to it, the Indians in accordance with the genius of
their language, would simply say, sakunk, i. e., "the town, at the
place tuhere the creek has its outlet.
Shamokin, corrupted from shach-a-mek-ink (compounded of
shach-a-mcek, an eel, and ink the local suffix) and signifying, at the
place of eels.
Susquehanna, written in early times sasquchanna, corrupted from
Que-ni-schach-ach-gek-han-ne (compounded of quin, long, shach-ach-
ki, straight, and han-ne, stream), the name by which the Delawares
originally designated the reach of the West Branch westward from
the Muncy creek (in this reach stood the Delaware town of Queni-
schachachki, perhaps, on the site of Linden) — then the West
Branch, and finally the main stream of the great river. The Five
Nation Indians, however, called the West Branch and its valley,
Otzinachson, i. e., the Demons Den, from a cave in the mountains
on its right shore just above Shamokin. Otzinachson is corrupted
variously, in old records thus, Zinachson, Quimachson, Oxenaxa
and Chenasky.
Tioga, corrupted from Ti-a-o-ga, an Iroquois word, signifying a
gate, or place of entrance, the name given by the Six Nation Indians
to the neck of land in the forks of the Tioga and the North Branch,
which, at one time, was the only authorized point of entrance into
their country for the traveller coming northward from the country
of the Delawares.
Tulpehocken, corrupted from Tulpe-wi-hack-i (compounded of
lul-pc, a turtle, and hack-i land) signifying the land of turtles. This
was the Delaware name of the valley of the Tulpehocken, as well as
of an old Indian town, said to have occupied the site of Womelsdorf
in Berks county.
ISA TJie Crown Inn near Bethlehem,
TREATING OF THE FIRST BRIDGE OVER THE LEHIGH AT BETHLEHEM,
AND OF "THE BIG SPRING."
The following "Song of the Bridge," was written by the Rev.
Jacob Van Vleck, the second Principal of the Young Ladies
Seminary at Bethlehem, for the amusement of his son the late
Rt. Rev. William Henry Van Vleck, then (1794) in the fourth year
of his age. But while the fond parent has playfully put words of
childish wonderment into the mouth of the little boy, he has also
made him speak history, which may warrant the insertion here in its
entirety of
DAS BRUECKENLIED.
Wenn ich mir den Brueckenbau
In dem Lecha Strom beschau,
O ! so denk ich— das ist schcen,
Bald kann man hinueber gehn.
Doch ich wag es eher nicht
Bis ich wciss dass sie nicht bricht.
Stark seh'n zwar die Balken aus
Fuer so eine kleine Maus,
Doch nach meiner Hasenart,
Die sich manchmal offenbar't
Mcecht ich doch zuvcerderst seh'i
Eincn Wagen drueber gehn.
Dann lauf ich getrost drauf hin,
Zu der Mammy Schindlerin,
Wenn sie nehmlich dnieben bleibt,
Und noch laenger Wirthschaft treibt.
Sie ist doch schon alt und schwach,
Licbt ihr eignes Dach uud Fach.
Nun, dem sey nun wie ihm i
Ht'nry fi-eut sich in der Still'
Dass er als ein alter Mann
Einmal kuenftig sagen kann,
Dass in seincm vierten Jahr
Diese Brueck' gebauct war.
TJie Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 135
Des Baumeister's Nam' war Trucks-
Da die Lecha stark anwuchs
Bald im Anfang, und's Geruest
W^uworfen worden ist,
Hat er's dauerhaft gemacht,
Und das Werk zu Stand" gcbracht.
}\\>oJrinz half auch flelssig
Und noch mancher starker .
Henry sah derweil in Ruh
Oft dem Bau der Bruecke z
Nun wenn Starke Wasserfluth
Dieser Brueck" nicht Schaden thut,
Und wenn starker Eisgang nicht
Krachend sie in Stuecke bricht —
O 1 so hat's nicht leicht Gefahr
Diese Brueck' steht hundert Jahr 1
The construction of the Lehigh Valley Railroad on the Simpson
Tract, involved, among the rest, the ruin of what forty years ago was
a favorite resort on the banks of the Lehigh for coffee and tea
parties, its central point being a never-failing spring well guarded
by masonry, and accessible by a flight of stone steps which led you
down to the cool recesses of the grateful pool. The high bank at
this point (half way between the site of the Ferry and the Island)
had been cut away so as to allow of placing tables and benches.
These improvements were made about 1812, when patriotism at
Bethlehem ran high and demanded room for public demonstration ;
and the little amphitheatre being overarched by forest trees, was a
charming spot on a summer's afternoon or evening. It was
customary for the young men of Bethlehem on every Whit-Monday,
early in the morning, to join together in repairing the precincts of
this common resort, on the opening of the season of the year in
which it would again be sought by the families of the town. Its
grounds included the hillside from the bridge to the Island. These
were threaded by numerous pathways that lead you through laurels
and under noble old trees, over by far the most romantic stretch of
sylvan wilderness along the Lehigh at Bethlehem. The "Big Spring"
is noted down on Reuter's draft of 1757, about forty rods due
north from the grave-yard on the Simpson Tract.
136 The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
TREATING OF THE DISMEMBERMENT OF THE OLD MORAVIAN FARMS
LYING ON THE SOUTH DANK OF THE LEHIGH IN GENERAL, AND
OF THAT OF THE SIMPSON TRACT IN PARTICULAR.
When, in the early winter of 1844, the Moravians, relinquishing
their hereditary policy which was one of extreme exclusiveness,
began to_ dispose of real estate in Bethlehem in fee, an important
step was taken toward inviting settlement and enterprise to that
town and its vicinity.
In 1847 Chas. A. Luckenbach of Bethlehem purchased of the
Moravian Society its four farms lying south of the Lehigh river
within Lower Saucon and Salisbury townships, to wit: "The
Hoffert Farm," "The Fuehrer Farm," "The Jacobi Farm," and
" The Luckenbach Farm." They were conveyed to him by Philip
H. Goepp, agent, by indentures bearing date of 1st April 1S4S,
?nd sold at the rate of $75 per acre. This great sale included
almost the entire Simpson Tract, the upper Ysselstein tract, and
portions of the Hartman, the Vollert, the Schaus, the Boerstler
and the Penn tracts, lying west and south of the first two mentioned,
and contained 519 acres and 129 perches, — exceptinga few acres, all
under cultivation.
Prior to this sale, however, — viz.: in April of 1S45, J acre ano^
151 perches of the Simpson Tract, adjoining the Philadelphia stage-
road on the west near the covered bridge (on it stood the old
ferry-house), had been sold to Daniel Desh of Saucon township.
This was the first blow aimed at its integrity. Furthermore, in
April of 1846, 2 acres and 10 perches of mountain land, cut by
the west line of the historic tract, were sold to Francis H. Oppelt
of Bethlehem, whose "Lehigh Mountain Springs Water Cure,"
was then in course of erection; — and about the same time, Daniel
Desh purchased three-quarters of an acre (the so-called "Walter
Lot " *) situate on the Allentown road, a few rods southwest from
the site of the old ferry.
* The log-house standing next to the Anthracite Building, as you pass up Lehigh street, was
built about iSo7, and was occupied by Joseph Till. Mr. Till was a shoemaker, and there are
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.. 137
By indentures bearing date of ist April 1S4S, Chas. A. Lucken-
bach conveyed to Chas. C. Tombler of Bethlehem, 107 acres and
6 perches, to L. Oliver Tombler, of the same place, 32 acres and 21
perches, and to Francis H. Oppelt, 6 acres and 105 perches (land
all lying west of the Emmaus road), at from $70 to $80 per acre —
thus disposing of the Hoffert Farm in its entirety. Seventy acres
more or less of this farm were Simpson land.
Again, by indenture bearing date of the aforementioned day of
April, Chas. A. Luckenbach conveyed to Daniel Desh the Fuehrer
Farm in its entirety (it contained 98 acres and 158 perches) at the
rate of $95 per acre. Seventy-five acres more or less of this farm
were Simpson land.
Finally, by indenture bearing date of ist April 1S48, Chas. A.
Luckenbach conveyed to Joseph Hess of Lower Saucon, the Jacobi
Farm (it contained 103 acres and 83 perches) in its entirety, at the
rate of #80 per acre. Seventy acres, more or less of this farm, were
Simpson land. Its ancient house and barns stand to the present
day at the corner of Brodhead avenue and Fourth street in the
borough of South Bethlehem, the only memorials remaining to
indicate that agricultural pursuits had occupied the attention of
some former dwellers on the site of that busy town.
The fourth and largest of these farms (it contained 160 acres
more or less, 30 of which were Simpson land) was retained by the
purchaser for several years, being farmed by tenants or leased. In
1849 Mr. Luckenbach supplanted the old farm-house by a brick
dwelling, the same, which at present contains the office of C. C.
Tombler, station agent, and offices in the freight department of the
Lehigh Valley Railroad Company.
-"To return to the Hoffert Farm. By indenture bearing date of
7th August 1850, L. Oliver Tombler conveyed to Daniel C. Freytag
of Bethlehem, 22 acres and 21 perches of his portion of the old
farm, and in April of 185 1, the remaining 10 acres to Augustus
Fiot, of Philadelphia. Meanwhile, Mr. Fiot had purchased of
Chas. C. Tombler, the 107 acres described above, the conveyance
old residents of Bethlehem, who relate that it was incumbent upon him, when they were boys,
to repair the foot-gear of the rising generation, and that hence he was wont to inveigh impetu-
ously against their pastime of hunting rabbits in the wild adjacents of the Hoffert Farm,
denouncing the sport as destructive of shoe leather, and, as crowding his bem.li inconveniently
138 The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
being made by indenture dated 2d December 1850. Two years
prior to this sale however Mr. Tombler had erected a stone
dwelling, a few rods south from the old farm-house, which dwelling
Mr. Fiot subsequently enlarged. The latter also added 29 acres and
49 perches of woodland (a portion of theVollert tract) to his estate,
improved and beautified the farm and grounds, and named his seat
Fontainebleau (now Bishopthorpe). Mr. Freyteg, in April of
1856, sold his place (he had erected a dwelling on the premises in
185 1, at present the residence of Tinsley Jeter) to Mrs. Malvina F.
Wheeler of Mauch Chunk. She, in November of i860, conveyed
the property to Tinsley Jeter, formerly of Amelia County, Virginia,
but late of Philadelphia. Augustus Fiot died in April of 1866,
devising his estate to Julius Fiot, who, by indenture bearing date
the 23d July, 1869, conveyed to Tinsley Jeter what lands he had
become possessed of at Bethlehem, in their entirety. Thus,
excepting a few acres, the old Hoffert Farm, passed into the hands
of Mr. Jeter. On his entering into possession of the Fiot estate
(this was in 1866; he continued the town-plot that had been pro-
jected on the Fuehrer Farm by Messrs. Hacker and Shipley, thereby
throwing into the market, sites for suburban residences, which over-
look one of the most charming landscapes in the Lehigh Valley.
The day is not far distant, when all vestiges of the old Moravian
mountain-farm will have disappeared, and its place be occupied by
a beautiful town.*
To return to the Fuehrer Farm. By indenture bearing date of
20th May 1854, Daniel Desh conveyed to Rudolphus Kent of
Philadelphia this farm in its entirety and his prior purchase of
Simpson land, together amounting to 101 acres and 109 perches at
5200 per acre. Mr. Kent, hereupon, sold a parcel of 10 acres of
the above (and with it the old Crown Inn), to the North Pennsyl-
vania Railroad Company, at the rate of $1,000 per acre, — and
extended the town-plot of Wetherill (which had been projected on
the Luckenbach Farm) westward of the Philadelphia stage-road to
the extreme limits of the Fuehrer Farm. Lots in this extension
* In selecting names lor the streets in his extreme westerly extension of South Bethlehem,
Mr. Jeter has among others very appropriately adopted those of the tenants of the old farm
and of the first settlers on adjacent tracts, to wit: Weygand, Kieffer, Clewell, Hoffert, Tombler
and Ostrom.
Tlie Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
(subsequently, after having been entirely changed as to its streets by
Messrs. Hacker and Shipley,* called Fountain Hill, Golden Hill or
Episcopal Hill, according as men followed the bent of their humor),
offering eligible sites for building, found ready purchasers. Robt.
H. Sayre, the Superintendent and Engineer of the Lehigh Valley
Railroad, built his residence (it was the first on the hill) in 1857 and
58 — Wm. H. Sayre, Jr., built in 1S62 — John Smylie, Jr., in 1863
— Elisha P. Wilbur in 1863 and 64— Dr. F. A. Martin in 1S64— H.
S. Goodwin in 1867, and Dr. G. B. Linderman in 1870. This
was the beginning of the town of suburban residences which crowns
the high land of the old Fuehrer Farm.
In the summer of 1852, Mr. Luckenbach projected a town-plot
in the very heart of his farm, its west end invading the Simpson
Tract. It was named Augusta, and was the origin of the present
borough of South Bethlehem. Levin C. Peisert of Bethlehem took
up the first building lot, in the new town, — a lot immediately east
of the New Street Bridge, fronting 40 feet on the track of the
Lehigh Valley Railroad, and running south 176 feet to an alley.
It was deeded to him in the following year, — the consideration
money being $200. Borhek and Knauss commenced work on
three double frame dwellings, situate on Augusta street, on the 31st
October, 1853. These were the first residences erected in the town.
Having disposed of sundry parcels of the old farm to diverse
purchasers — to wit : a plot of four acres to the Pennsylvania and
Lehigh Zinc Company, the same quantity to Samuel Wetherill,
town-lots to Borhek and Knauss, Wm. Th. Roepper and Michael
Gorman, — and 35 acres in several pieces to Asa Packer, of Mauch
Chunk, for the use of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, Mr. Lucken-
bach, by indenture bearing date of 24th of May, 1854, conveyed the
remainder of the old farm, viz. : 97 acres and 141 perches, to Chas.
W. Rauch and Ambrose H. Ranch of Bethlehem.
In the summer of 1854, Charles Brodhead of Bethlehem, who
held the Jacobi Farm of 103 acres and 83 perches by agreement
with Joseph Hess, and the above described remainder of the Luc-
kenbach Farm by agreement with the Messrs. Rauch, enlarged the
* Messrs. Hacker and Shipley adopted Ixodes T.elii^li, the names of Lennape, Third, Hu
Dacotah, Seminole, Pawnee, Cherokee, Ottawa, Seneca, Chippewa, Delaware and Unca
designating the streets and avenues of their town.
ljj.0 The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
plan of Augusta, and changed its name into Wetherill, in honor of
the late John Price Wetherill, of Philadelphia, manufacturer. The
Secretary of War, at this time, recommending the erection of
National Foundries at different points in the country, a strong
effort was made by the late the Honorable Richard Brodhead, to
have one located in the town of Wetherill. But Government
failed to act upon the Secretary's recommendation.
By indenture, bearing date of 31st March, 1855, Joseph Hess,
conveyed to Charles Brodhead, the Jacobi Farm at the rate of $200
per acre. Excepting a parcel of seven acres donated by Mr. Brod-
head to the Lehigh University, this farm has been cut up into lots
and incorporated with the present borough of South Bethlehem.
Allusion has been made to the old farm-house and barns, that
survive its wreck.
In April of 1S55, the remainder of the Luckenbach Farm (to
wit: 97 acres and 141 perches) reverting to Chas. W. Rauch and
Ambrose H. Rauch, these disposed of sundry parcels of the same as
follows : to Thomas Andrews of New York, 8 acres (the site of the
mammoth rolling-milk in course of erection at this writing), to the
North Pennsylvania Railroad Company about 4 acres along the
dividing line of the Luckenbach and Jacobi Farms, and to the
Lehigh Valley Railroad Company a strip lying north of and con-
tiguous to Andrews' lots. At the same time Charles W. Rauch
retained 2 acres of the tract, situate in the extreme southwest corner
of the farm. Hereupon, by indenture bearing date of 1st April
1858, the Messrs. Rauch conveyed to A. Wolle & Co. of Bethlehem,
the remainder of their original purchase, viz. : 81 acres at the rate
of $250 per acre. A portion of these were subsequently sold to the
Bethlehem Rolling Mills and Iron Company, the remainder
continuing a part of the town of Wetherill, or Bethlehem South, as
the place was called in the interval between 1S58 and 1S65.
Thus the old Moravian farms were gradually dismembered, and
the scenes of agricultural pursuits in the olden time, were trans-
formed into scenes of modern enterprise, on which capital and
labor are active in achieving marvellous triumphs in various depart-
ments of human industry.
Finally, it may interest some reader to know, that according to a
"Map of the Bethlehem Tract showing the landsales from 1771 to
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 141
1854," drawn by Wm. Th. Roepper, the Simpson tract was divided
among and held by the following persons, in the last mentioned
year, viz. : Daniel Desh, Joseph Hess, Daniel C. Freytag, Augustus
'Fiot, Asa Packer, E. A. Richardson, Francis H. Oppelt, C. A.
Luckenbach, C. F. Hellner, the Moravian Society at Bethlehem,
and lot-holders in the town of Augusta.
TREATING BRIEFLY OF THE BOROUGH OF SOUTH BETHLEHEM, OF ITS
MILLS, SHOPS, CHURCHES, SCHOOLS, BRIDGES, PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS,
AND WHAT ELSE BEARS UPON THE GROWTH OF THE TOWN, WHICH
HAS SUPPLANTED THE OLD MORAVIAN FARMS.*
THE BETHLEHEM BRIDGE COMPANY'S BRIDGE,
near the site of the old Ferry, was built in 1841 at a cost of $7,258,
and was opened for travel, 20th September of that year. This
bridge is 23 feet above low-water mark, and its floor is 400 feet long
by actual measurement. It is the third bridge built within 47
years on the same site.
THE LEHIGH MOUNTAIN SPRINGS HATER CURE,
established in 1846 by Dr. F. Ff. Oppelt. This charming sylvan
retreat touches the west line of the Simpson Tract. In June of
1 87 1 it passed into the hands of James T. Borhek of Bethlehem, by
whom it was recently conveyed to Tinsley Jeter.
THE LEHIGH ZINC COMPANY.
Forty years ago, a barren outcrop of some unknown mineral sub-
stance on his farm in Upper Saucon township, Lehigh county,
arrested the attention of the late Jacob Ueberroth and his neighbors,
and, after having excited their inquiring curiosity (they took a
wagon-load of the ore to the Mary Ann Furnace, in Berks county,
where a vain attempt was made to smelt it in the cupola) was
* The writer desires thus to acknowledge his indebtedness to numerous gentlemen of South
r.ellilehciii fur v.iluab'e aid rendered hun in presume; this section of the Appendix.
Tlie Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
unheeded, and likely to be forgotten. But "the trained and
observant eye of a studious man, who, with satchel and hammer was
by chance passing that way on a leisure Saturday's stroll of explora-
tion in 1S45, determined the unknown mineral to be calamine, the
hydro-silicate of zinc."* Mr. Win. Th. Roepper's discovery led
to a development of that almost inexhaustible deposit of rich ores of
zinc, — of calamine, Smithsonite and blende, by which the extensive
works of the company, whose origin is here briefly reviewed, have
been supplied for almost twenty years.
The organization effected "for the purpose of mining zinc ore in
the counties of Lehigh and Northampton, — of manufacturing zinc
paint, metallic zinc and other articles from said ore, and of vending
the same," was_ incorporated by an act of Legislature, May 2d,
1855, under the name of "The Pennsylvania and Lehigh Zinc
Company," with a capital of $1,000,000, divided into shares of S5
each. The originators of this company were residents of New
York, and its first president was Thomas Andrews of that city.
Prior to their incorporation, however, in the spring of 1853,
works for the production of zinc oxide in furnaces and by a process
of his own invention, were begun to be constructed by Mr. Samuel
Wetherill, who had been engaged to superintend the enterprise in
its various departments. The site of the company's works was pur-
chased of C. A. Luckenbach, it being included within the original
town-plot of Augusta, on the old " Luckenbach Farm." They were
completed on the 12th of October of the above-mentioned year,
with a capacity of 2,000 tons per annum, at a cost of $85,000 — and,
next day, the first zinc-white made in the United States, was pro-
* We quote from the genial address delivered by Eenjamin C.Webster, the President of the
Lehigh Zinc Company, on the occasion of starting the giant engine at the company's mines in
Fridensville, on the 19th of January last. This is the engine which is destined to become famous
as is the house that Jack built; this is the engine whose "cylinder is no inches in diameter, whose
piston rod is 10 inches in diameter with a ten-foot stroke, — this is the engine that can wcrk " com-
fortably," as we are told, at 12 strokes per minute, and yet is not in the least "fussy;" the engine,
each of whose four walking-beams weighs 48,000 lbs.,— twenty-six of whose pieces weuh each
upwards of 7 tons, and whose entire weight, including girders, is 1,313,300 lbs. ;— the engine that
can lift 52,Soo,ooo lbs., or 26,400 tons, one foot high in one minute of time with the majestic e.iso
and consciousness of power with which an elephant lifts a straw ; the engine that can raise 12,000
gallons of water per minute from a depth of 300 feet— which works day and night without rest ;
and whose influence is a mighty one towards transforming the subterranean haunts of Kobalt and
gnome, where, from times Silurian these spirits have sported undisturbed in the ice-cold sea that
noiselessly washes the shores of their crystal kingdom.
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem, 1J/.8
duced from calamine by the " furnace process" and " tower process"
of Wetherill, in combination with the " bag process of collecting,"
of Richard Jones. Samuel Wetherill and Charles T. Gilbert con-
ducted the company's works for four years, from October, 1853, to
September, 1857, and in that time delivered 4,725 tons of zinc-white.
The present capacity of the oxide works, which are supervised by
James McMahon, is 3,000 tons per year. It should here be stated,
that in the interval between 1854 and 1859, Mr. Wetherill experi-
mented on the production of metallic zinc or spelter, at works
erected by him on a four-acre lot adjoining that of the Pennsylvania
and Lehigh Company — the upper end of said lot lying within the
limits of the historic Simpson Tract. Here the inventor succeeded,
after many expensive failures and disappointments, in producing
spelter — not, however, at a cost such as to characterize his method
as an economically practicable one. Hence it was abandoned.
Joseph Wharton managed the Pennsylvania and Lehigh Zinc
Company's works between September of 1S57, and September of
i860. In this interval its corporate title was changed by an act of
Legislature, dated 16th February, i860, into that of "The Lehigh
Zinc Company," by which it continues to be known. In 1859 Mr.
Wharton contracted with the company for the erection of spelter
works, and for the manufacture of the metal. The works were
constructed- by Louis De Gee, a member of the firm of De Gee,
Gernant & Co., of Ougree, Province of Liege, Belgium, who had
been expressly imported to superintend the inception of the enter-
prise. This led to the importation of Belgian labor, and to the
consequent introduction of a new element. into the population of
Bethlehem South. Andre Woot Detrixhe, Francois Lemall, and Jean
Henrard, experts from the spelter and oxide works of Messrs. De
Gee, Gernant & Co., arrived in June of 1859, and engaged success-
fully in the production of metallic zinc, the first of which was cast
in July of that year. M. Detrixhe since that time has superintended
this department of the company's works, including the pottery for
the manufacture of retorts. There were four subsequent importa-
tions of Belgians ; — in i860, one of fifteen ; in 1861, one of nine ;
in 1863, one of six; and in 1S64, one of twenty-seven. These
operatives are principally from Ougree, and from Ongleur, Vielle
Montagne ; some, however, from St. Leonard, Vielle Montagne, na-
144 T1*-e Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
tive of the Provinces of Liege, Luxembourg and Namour, Belgium.*
They have laid aside the blue blouse and their women have exchanged
the sabot for the American shoe ; but both, by clinging to the mother
tongue, are maintaining their distinctiveness as a people in the mar-
vellous little town of many nations, for homes in which they ex-
changed the land of their birth.
The capacity of the Pennsylvania and Lehigh Company's spelter
works, at present, is 3,600 tons per year.
In 1S64 and 1S65 a mill for rolling sheet-zinc was constructed
under the superintendence of Alexander Trippel, who had been sent
abroad to acquaint himself with the most desirable mode of pro-
ducing this important commodity. The first sheet-zinc was rolled in
April of 1865.- The present capacity of the mill is 3,000 casks, or
1,680 tons, per year.
James Jenkins succeeded Joseph Wharton in the management of
this novel branch of American industry, which although, compara-
tively speaking, in its infancy, already supplies one-half of the home
consumption of zinc in its various forms.
Benjamin C. Webster, the fifth President of the Lehigh Zinc
Company, has been acting manager of its works since September
of 1S63.
The annual yield of the zinc mines, which are situate in Saucon
Valley, three miles and a half south by west from Bethlehem, is
estimated to be 17,000 tons of ore, requiring 40,000 tons of an-
thracite for their reduction. Upwards of 600 operatives are em-
ployed in the various departments of the Lehigh Zinc Company's
enterprise.
* The following is an enumeration of the Belgian metallurgists imported by the Pennsylvania
and Lehigh Zinc Company : In June of 1S59, Andre Woot Detrixhe, Francois Lemall, and Jean
Henrard. In January of i860, Louis Degee, Charles Darthelemy, and Ferdinand Niset. In
July of 1S60, Ferdinand Woot Detrixhe, Nicolas Woot Detrixhe, Philippe Vooz, Augustin Vooz,
Jacques Lemall, Desire Poupier, Hubert Dubois, Isidore Wilmotte, Gilles Franket, Servais
Evrard, Jean Evrard, and Francois Evrard. In May of 1S61, Antoine Dessurny, Jean Bodson,
Loius Mordent, Laurent De Couny, Antoine Gerard, Theodore Georis, Servais Ranson, Joseph
Cambresy, and Guillaume Gillai. In May of 1S63, Henri Vooz, Dieudonne Nelis, Jacques
Tribolet, Pierre Wakery, L'irick Benoit, and Louis Gerard. In September of 1S64, Sebastien
Delfosse, Lambert Jacob, Emile Radard, Michel Massart, Piron Massart, Henri Missoten,
Francois Vandevert, Arnold Classen, Jean Bawdin, Lambert Schouben, Antoine Ledoux,
Francois Lalloux. Nicolas Labaloue, Lambert Barbicr, Henri Philippet, Joseph Dedoyard,
Guillaume Dedoyard, Joseph Beau Jean, Gustave Lignoul, Jules Vandermassen, Ferdinand
Vandermassen, Frederick Vandermassen. Hi[ipulitc VaiHlermasscn, Nicolas Dome, Jean Frank-
son, Henri Chatherlain, and JuM.ph Legraire.
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. Ijf5
THE LEHIGH VALLEY RAILROAD.
The company which controls this now great highway of travel and
traffic was organized originally under the name of "The Delaware,
Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad Company," by an
act of Assembly dated 21st April, 1S46. A supplement to said act,
under date of 7th January, 1853, changed the title of the corpora-
tion to the one by which it is at present known. The original main
line of the Lehigh Valley Railroad (following the courses of the
river whose name it bears for a distance of 46 miles from Mauch
Chunk to Easton), was located in 1852, and constructed between
27th November of that year and the 24th September, 1855. On the
last mentioned day it was delivered complete to the company by
Asa Packer, who had the contract for the work, and was accepted.
Prior to that date, however, viz., on the nth of June, 1855, the
road was opened for the transportation of passengers from South
Easton to Allentown, two trains running daily to the latter place
until the 12th of September ensuing; then it was opened to Mauch
Chunck, with one train a day until the 1st of October. But the
first locomotive engine that was ever driven over the Simpson
Tract was the General Wall, which came up by this road to the
new town of Wetherill, on the evening of the 4th of June, 1855.
The brick dwelling erected on the Luckenbach Farm in 1849,
served for the first station-house at Bethlehem for the Lehigh Valley
Railroad. This was superseded in 1859 by a station-house (used in
common with the North Pennsylvania Railroad), built at the inter-
section of the two roads, near the site of the old ferry-house. This
landmark, as has been stated elsewhere, was demolished, when the
bed of the road was levelled, as it lay in its very track.
The present commodious station-house, built at the joint expense
of the Lehigh Valley Railroad and the North Pennsylvania Rail-
road, in 1867 (it cost upwards of $23,000), called the Union
Depot, — furnished with public rooms for the use of both roads
and with separate offices for each, was occupied on the 18th
of November, 1867. With its spacious platforms it covers the
site of the old Crown Inn and that of its yard and garden. The
historic hostelry stood near the south-east angle of the southern
platform ; and scarcely a rod beyond, is pointed out the track which
146 The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
passes over the well, at which its successive landlords drew the water
which the thirsty traveller needed for qualifying his chosen beverage.
In 1864 and in 1S70 additions were built to the aforementioned
dwelling on the Luckenbach Farm, in which, among others, are the
offices of Robert H. Sayre, General Superintendent and Chief Engi-
neer of the Road ; of William H. Sayre, Jr., the President's assistant ;
of H. Stanley Goodwin, Assistant General Superintendent ; of H. S.
Kitchell, Chief Clerk ; of Calvin E. Brodhead, Principal Assistant
Engineer of the Easton and Amboy Railroad Company ; of George
H. Daugherty, Architect of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, and of
John D. Trimmer, Freight Car Agent. The Western Union Tele-
graph Company, Oliver A. Clewell, manager, established an office
in these buildings in September of 1871.
The Lehigh Valley Railroad, in its course along the river's banks
at Bethlehem, traverses four of the old Moravian tracts, to wit : the
Hartman tract, the Ostrom tract, the Simpson tract, and the Yssel-
stein tract. Day after day, and night after night, the rolling of its
trains of burden and palace-cars (upwards of seventy-five trains pass
the site of the old Crown Inn, every twenty-four hours) — some laden
with human freight, some with merchandise, — (some, too, for a time
carried tea direct from the Celestial Empire, and in return the
"great China mail" on its passage over the Atlantic to the Golden
Gate, thence to be conveyed across the great Pacific Sea) — but most
with anthracite; — these, endless trains, drawn by giant ten-wheeled
engines, — together with the calls of shrill or booming whistles, are
re-echoed by the mountain over the little valley which their irresisti-
ble influences have so wonderfully changed.
The total amount of anthracite coal transported over the main line
and branches of this road for the fiscal year ending 30th November*
iSyr, was 2,889,074 tons. During the same period, there were
transported 867,721 passengers, equal to 13,412,064 carried one
mile, and 1,573,746 tons of miscellaneous freight, equal to 53,165,973
tons carried one mile.
THE NORTH PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD.
The company which constructed this important link in the great
chain of Pennsylvania's railroads, by which, too, Bethlehem has been
brought within two hours from Philadelphia, was incorporated by an
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. ljfl
Act of Legislature dated 8th April, 1852, under the name of The
Philadelphia, Easton and Water-Gap Railroad Company. Ground
was first broken on the Tunnel Section at Landis' Ridge on the 16th
of June, 1853. On the 3d of October of that year, the corporate
title of the company was changed into the one it bears at present.
The first passenger train ran from Philadelphia to the Freemansburg
station, on the Lehigh Valley Railroad (the then northern terminus
of the road), on the 1st of January, 1857. On the 1st of July of the
same year, the track was closed at Iron Hill (Irish's stone quarry),
and a construction train was run through to the Bethlehem station.
On the 8th of July the passenger trains were taken off the Freemans-
burg branch, and began to run regularly over the main line to and
from Bethlehem. This marked the opening of the road. The right
of way over the old Moravian Farms and ground for the buildings
requisite at its northern terminus, were purchased for the company
by its commissioner, Rudolphus Kent — as has been stated elsewhere.
The first station-house was held in common with the Lehigh Valley
Railroad ; and stood in the intersection of the two roads, near the
site of the old Ferry House. This was superseded by the Union
Depot, which was erected at the joint expense of the two roads, and
was occupied on the 18th November, 1867. Besides public rooms
for the use of both roads, it contains the office of H. P. Hammann,
the Company's General Agent at Bethlehem, and those of other
officials under his supervision.
The first round-house of the North Pennsylvania Railroad a-j
Bethlehem, was built in 1857. This was superseded in 1870 by amore
capacious one with stalls for fifteen engines. It stands literally below
where was the site of the " Crown Farm" orchard, it having been
necessary to dig away the hill on which the ancient apple trees stood,
to locate the building on a level with the bed of the railroad. The
Freight Depot, a few rods east by south from the station on the
Luckenbach Farm, was completed in 1870. It is built of brick,
100 feet by 30 feet, roofed with slate, with a shed 70 feet by 25 feet,
attached, — the entire building being surrounded by platforms. Its
cost was $8,000.
The track of the North Pennsylvania Railroad soon after cross-
ing the "old King's Road, from the Bethlehem Mill to Irish's stone
quarry," passes by or over Isaac Ysselstein's grave, opposite the
Ijf8 TJie Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
head of Ysselstein Island, — and on the west side of the run that
flows under its bed, follows the old dividing line of the Luckenbach
and Jacobi Farms, till within the Simpson Tract. In pursuing this
course thence in a northwesterly direction, it passes over the very-
site of the old Crown Inn, and then near that of the Ferry House,
beyond which it joins the Lehigh Valley Railroad. To be more
precise. The first or lowest track of the North Pennsylvania Rail-
road was located so as to cut the southwest corner of The Crown —
and hence the site of the historic hostelry is almost entirely covered
by a portion of the south platform of the Union Depot.
Six passenger trains pass over the line of this road daily, Sundays
excepted. They set out from the very spot on which Samuel Powell
and his successors dispensed hospitality in the olden time. They
land their human freight on the same spot ; and such has been the
improvement in travel, since the days of John Koppel, and Klein's
stage-wagon, that passenger-train No. 6 (commonly called the
Buffalo express), which leaves the Bethlehem station at 8.40 p. m.,
makes the run of 54 miles to Philadelphia, in one hour and fifty
minutes.
For the fiscal year ending 31st October, 1871, there were trans-
ported over this road 829,651 passengers, equal to 15,305,399 carried
one mile, — 227,440 tons coal, 359,219 tons of miscellaneous freight,
46,889 tons of pig iron, 333,345 bushels of lime, and 2,498,438 gal-
lons of milk, — thus, far exceeding the capacity of Koppel's "slow
and sure" freight line of the days of yore. Now the last-mentioned
item of transportation suggested the poetical name of Galaxy or
Milky Way, by which this road is also not unknown.
THE FOUNDRY AND MACHINE SHOP,
below the offices of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, on the site of the
yard of the Luckenbach Farm, was established by Abbott and Cort-
right in 1857.
Early in the month of March, 1857, the senior partner of the firm
of A. Wolle & Co., of Bethlehem, merchants, desirous of making
an effort in a new direction for enlarging the business sphere of his
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 1J/.9
native place, so highly favored by its situation in a region of country
whose mineral wealth was beginning to be developed, and by its
position on the highways of travel, proposed to his partners the erec-
tion of works for the production and manufacture of iron. The pro-
posal meeting with their approbation, Mr. Wolle, before the expira-
tion of four weeks, had procured a charter for the projected com-
pany, styled in that instrument, which was dated 8th April, 1857,
"The Saucona Iron Company."
The summer and early autumn of the afore-mentioned year were
spent in soliciting stock subscription, and in exploring the neigh-
borhood for ore, in both of which preliminary steps, encouraging
progress was being made, when the financial crisis which followed
the suspension of The Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company, par-
alyzed the infant enterprise, and its further prosecution was indefi-
nitely postponed. Up to this time it had been fostered mainly by the
firm of A. Wolle & Co., Charles W. Ranch and Charles Brodhead,
all of Bethlehem, and remained an unorganized body corporate.
Two years of apparent inactivity followed this postponement.
These, however, proved of incalculable benefit to the dormant enter-
prise, as meanwhile numerous applications for the construction and
management of the proposed works coming in from various quarters,
an opportunity was afforded the company of satisfactorily canvassing
the merits of the applicants. Charles B. Daniel, of Bethlehem, and
Robert H. Sayre, of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, becoming associa-
ted with the project, and the corporate title of the company having
been changed at the suggestion of Charles Brodhead (he taking the
ground that a Rolling Mill would furnish occupation for more labor
than a blast furnace), by an act of Legislature, dated 31st March,
1757, into that of "The Bethlehem Rolling Mills and Iron Com-
pany ; ' ' — it was now vigorously prosecuted, and an important step
towards its successful achievement was taken, by securing the ser-
vices of John Fritz, of Johnstown, Cambria county, a master in his
profession, to superintend the construction of the works, and then
the production and manufacture of the metal.
On the 14th of June, i860, the new company elected its first
Board of Directors, and on the 7th of July ensuing, organized with
the following officers, viz. :
President.— Alfred Hunt, Philadelphia.
150 TJie Ci'own Inn near Bethlehem.
Directors. — Augustus Wolle, Bethlehem ; Asa Packer, Mauch
Chunk ; John Taylor Johnston, of the New Jersey Central Railroad ;
John Knecht, Shimersville ; Edward Roberts, Philadelphia; Charles
B. Daniel, Bethlehem ; Charles W. Rauch, Bethlehem.
Secretary and Treasurer. — Charles B. Daniel.
On the 1 6th day of July, ground was broken for a furnace (now
called Furnace No. i), on a parcel of eleven acres of ground lying
between the track of the Lehigh Valley Railroad and the old Heller-
town road ; said parcel having been purchased of Abbott, Cortright
& Co., at $300 per acre, — the company at the same time purchasing
of A. Wolle & Co., six acres of land situate between the aforesaid
road and the Lehigh river, at the rate of $150 per acre. Work at
this furnace was progressing slowly, when, in the spring of 1861,
the country found itself on the eve of a civil war. A critical period
in the history of the company now ensued. There followed six
months of almost total inactivity, and but for the strenuous efforts of
A. Wolle and Charles W. Rauch, in all probability the enterprise
would have been entirely suspended for a time.
By an act of Assembly dated 1st May, 1861, the company's cor-
porate title was changed into that of "The Bethlehem Iron Com-
pany. ' '
Meanwhile work at the furnaces was progressing nominally only,
until in the autumn of 1S62, when it was resumed with vigor. The
stack (115 feet boshes and 63 feet high) was completed by the
close of the year, and on Sunday, 4th of January, 1863, Mr. Jede-
diah Weiss, of Bethlehem, fired the blast, and next day Miss Kate
Powell, of Philadelphia, put on the blast. The first iron made by
the Bethlehem Iron Company (it was smelted from a mixture of
brown hematite from the Saucon Valley, and magnetic oxide from
Morris county, New Jersey) was drawn on the 6th of January, 1S63.
This furnance continued in blast for thirty-four weeks, and was then
blown out for slight repairs. Having been put in blast a second
time on the 24th of January, 1864, it continued in that condition
for three hundred and sixty-three successive weeks, producing in
that time 63,007 tons of pig metal, — a record which is perhaps
without parallel in the annals of metallurgy.
Meanwhile a rolling mill had been in course of construction since
April of 1861. The first iron for rolling was puddled 27th of July,
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 151
1863, and the first rails were rolled 26th of September, 1S63. This
mill contains 4 engines, 14 double puddling furnaces, 9 heating
furnaces and 3 trains of rolls, viz., one 21-inch rail train, one 12-inch
merchant train, and one 21-inch puddle train. The capacity of
these works at present is from 20,000 to 22,000 tons of railroad iron.
The first heavy contract for rails was one of 2,000 tons, made with
the New Jersey Central Railroad, in 1864, said amount of rails being
furnished at $62.50 per ton, one-half, however, being delivered
when the market ruled from $100 to $125 per ton.
Furnace No. 2 (15 feet boshes, 45 feet high), was commenced to
be constructed in May of 1864. First blast fired 27th of March,
1867. Blast put on 28th of March, 1867. First iron drawn 30th
of March, 1867.
In September of 1868 the Bethlehem Iron Company succeeded'
in merging into its own, the interests of the Northampton Iron
Company, an adjacent enterprise, whose works were then in course
of construction. Thereby the former strengthened its own position,
besides acquiring upwards of 80 acres of valuable real estate, con-
tiguous to its works, and also leases of iron beds at different points,
held by the latter.
Furnace No. 3 (14 feet boshes, 50 feet high), until the time of
the merger, called "The Northampton Furnace," was put in blast
in December of 1868. First iron drawn iSth December, 1868.
The combined capacity of these three furnaces is about 30,000
tons of pig metal per annum, most of which is manufactured in the
company's rolling mill.
At a meeting of the stockholders, held 28th of July, 1868, it was
resolved to approve of the late suggestion of the Board of Directors
to engage in the manufacture of steel rails, and that " the Superin-
tendent take measures to construct works suitable for the manufac-
ture of such rails without delay." Action on this resolution was at
once taken, and, in September following, the construction of the
Cyclopean mills, now erecting on what is known as the Andrews lot,
was commenced. A machine shop (dimensions 234 feet by 64 feet),
built in 1865, and furnished with the most approved appliances, and
a foundry (dimensions 107 feet by 64 feet), built in 1868, enable
the company to build or make the engines, pumps, rolls and what-
ever else is requisite for the complete equipment of the new mills,
152 The Oi^own Inn riear Bethlehem.
and also to keep their extensive works in repair with their own
manufactures.
Rolling mill No. 2, of the Bethlehem Iron Company, built in the
shape of a Greek cross, has an extreme length of 931 feet, and covers
an area of 164,391 square feet, i. e., upwards of 4.6 acres of ground.
This colossal structure is covered with a slate roof (the slate is from
the Chapman quarry), resting upon grooved arches of cast iron,
without supporters, presenting in the interior an elegance of design
and construction, which, perhaps, is the first point to strike the
beholder's eye, as he enters its spacious aisles.
The great train for rolling steel-rails will consist of one 24, and
one 26-inch roll, with a condensing-engine at each end (one, with
48-inch diameter cylinder and 46 inch stroke, the other with 56-inch
diameter cylinder and 48 inch stroke) — measuring 124 feet 9 inches
from center to center of the engines — making, it is thought, the
largest continuous train in the world. The blooming-train of 31
inches, is run by an engine of its own. The probabilities are, that
additional trains of rolls, to wit : one 9 inch, one 14 inch, and one
18 inch, will be added. The mill will also contain four sets of saws
with double engine for each set, a double blowing engine for the
Bessemer works, two 5 -ton Bessemer converters, with a capacity of
100 tons of steel per day — a cupola engine, and a number of Sieman's
Regenerative Gas Furnaces for heating purposes.
The Bethlehem Iron Company's works, at the present time con-
sume annually 70,000 tons of Pennsylvania hematite and New Jersey
magnetic oxide, and from 70,000 to 75,000 tons of coal. Upwards
of 800 men are employed in its magnificent enterprise.
ST. PETER'S EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH,
on Vine street, between Fifth street and Packer avenue. Erected in
1863. Opened for Divine Worship 26th June, 1864.
First Pastor. — Rev. A. T. Geissenhainer.
Present Pastor. — Rev. Charles J. Cooper.
There are 175 communicant members belonging to this church.
Total membership 300.
Tlie Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 153
CHURCH OF THE HOLY INFANCY {Catholic)
(Diocese of Philadelphia, Rt. Rev. James F. Wood, D. D., Bishop
of Pennsylvania), on the corner of Fourth and Locust streets.
Erected in 1863 and 1864. Opened for Divine Worship 24th
October, 1864.
Pastor. — Rev. M. C. McEnroe.
Total membership 2,650.
A plot of two and a half acres, lying on the mountain side in the
extreme southeast corner of his tract,- was donated by Asa Packer to
the Church of the Holy Infancy for a Cemetery. The first inter-
ment within its borders, was that of James Griffin, 2 2d October,
1S67.
CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY (EjiscofaQ,
on the south-east corner of Third street and Wyandotte street
(the old Philadelphia Road). Erected in 1864 and 1865. Opened
for Divine Worship 19th April, 1865.
First Pastor.— Rev. Eliphalet Nott Potter.
First Vestry. — Tinsley Jeter, South Bethlehem; William H. Sayre,
South Bethlehem; Robert PL Sayre, South Bethlehem; William H.
Sayre, Jr., South Bethlehem; John Smylie, Jr., South Bethlehem;
Ira Cortright, Bethlehem ; Asa Packer, Mauch Chunk ; Solomon W.
Roberts, Philadelphia.
Present Rector. — Rev. Cortlandt Whitehead.
There are 127 communicant members belonging to this church,
and 75 families connected with the Parish.
THE FIRST SABBA TH SCHOOL,
upon the old Moravian Tract opposite the Borough of Bethlehem,
was commenced by Miss Amanda Jones of that place, on the 1st of
May, 1859. Eleven children constituted the class she gathered on
that day in the "District School House" of Bethlehem South. In
November of 1863, this school numbered 280, and subsequently
upwards of 500 children in attendance. It is still under the care of
its founder and first Superintendent.
15Jj. The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
CHRISTMAS HALL,
erected in 1863 by the Moravians for a Mission Church in Bethle-
hem South. Opened for Divine Worship 20th November, 1864.
First. Pastor. —Rev. F. F. Hagen.
This building was conveyed to the Lehigh University in 1865,
and thereupon received its present name.
THE BETHLEHEM SOUTH GAS AND WATER COMPANY.
INCORPORATED APRIL. 1864,
holds the Gas Works, in the borough of South Bethlehem (on
Spruce street near Third street), — constructed by B. E. Lehman in
1867, at a cost of $32,000, including the works and the distributing
mains. Gas was consumed for the first time, 25th December, 1867.
Board of Directors. — President, E. P. Wilbur; Secretary and
Treasurer, H. Stanley Goodwin; Superintendent, B. E. Lehman.
THE BOROUGH OF SOUTH BETHLEHEM
was incorporated under the General Borough Law at the August
term, 1865, of the Court of Northampton County. The Council
met for the first time 19th September, of that year.
First Burgess. — James McMahon.
Members of First Council. — Louis F. Beckel, E. P. Wilbur, James
McCoy, James Purcell, David I. Yerkes.
Borough Treasurer. — Theophilus Horlacher.
Town Clerk.— William H. Bush.
High Constable.— John Kilkelly.
The limits of the borough of South Bethlehem are thus defined
in the act of incorporation :
"Beginning at a point on the bank of the river Lehigh, opposite
a small island " (vulgarly called Goose island) " in the line of North-
ampton and Lehigh Counties ; thence following down the several
courses of the said river, 427.45 perches to an oak opposite the
head of Ysselstein's island; thence southeasterly, 30 perches to a
stone in the Hellertown road ; thence along the lands of Asa Packer,
westerly and southwesterly, 333 perches to the northwest corner of
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
said Asa Packer's land ; thence westerly, 127.4 perches to the line
of Lehigh County; and thence northeasterly, 130 perches along
said line to the place of beginning."
From Messrs. Aschbach's and Hauman's authorized survey and
map of the borough we learn that the following are the streets within
its limits, lying east of the old Philadelphia road, to wit : Front,
Second, Third, Mechanic, Fourth, Fifth, and Packer Avenue, — all
running east and west ; and Walnut, Chestnut (proposed), Brodhead
Avenue, Vine, New, Birch, Elm, Locust, Pine, Spruce, Linden,
Poplar, Oak, and Cherry, — all running north and south.
The "Zinc Mine road," deflecting from the old Philadelphia
road in a northeasterly direction (now Carpenter street), crosses the
western portion of the above defined plot obliquely. In March of
1 869 the borough of South Bethlehem was divided into three wards,
by virtue of a special act of Legislature. Its population, according
to the census of 1870, was 3,550. How the people of this ambitious
little town (it is a highly composite people, — a mixed population of
Americans, Irish, Germans, Belgians, Welsh, English, French,
Swedes, Italians, Poles and Hollanders) live, — how they buy and
sell, what they eat and drink, and how they maintain the various
relations incident upon their coalescence into a commonwealth, and
yet preserve, each element its distinctive characteristics, may in part
be inferred from an enumeration of the churches, schools, public
houses, places of business and associations which they support. Of
churches there are 6 ; of schools there are 8, including the Sabbath
schools; of Societies there are 4, to wit, Knights of Pythias, number-
ing 200 members ; the Catholic Temperance Society, numbering
230 members; the Catholic Beneficial Society, numbering 180
members; and the Sodality of the Holy Virgin, numbering 210
members. There is furthermore a cornet band and a military
organization, known as "The Wilbur Guards." Of hotels there
are 12, to wit, the Exchange, the Pacific, the Lehigh Valley, the
Continental, the Zinc Works Hotel, the Le Pierre, the Johnstown
House, the Rolling Mill House, the Sherman House, the Marechal
House, the Fountain Valley House, and the Merchants' Hotel.
There are 18 licensed restaurants and saloons, 4 wholesale liquor
stores, 3 justices of the peace, 6 physicans, 1 dentist, 3 bakers and
confectioners, 2 jewellers, 3 blacksmiths, 6 milliners, 8 shoemakers,
156 Tlie Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
2 undertakers, i carpet weaver, i leather dresser, 12 dry goods and
variety stores, 2 drug stores, 3 printing offices, 2 meat markets, 3
cigar stores, 1 hardware store, 1 furniture store, 5 clothing stores, 1
shovel factory, 1 slate yard, 2 coal and lumber yards, 1 foundry and
machine shop, and 1 planing mill and sash factory. Its furnaces,
mills, foundries and workshops, for the production and manufacture
of iron, zinc and brass, furnish employment to almost one-half of
this busy people, the prosperity and rapid growth of whose town
illustrate what wonders can be effected by the harmonious co-opera-
tion of capital and labor.
THE NEW STREET BRIDGE COMPANY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
Incorporated by an act of Assembly, 3d May, 1864. Commis-
sioners, Aaron W. Radley, John T. Levers, Richard W. Leibert,
and Herman A. Doster. This company's bridge over the Lehigh
river, which connects the east end of the Simpson tract with the
borough of Bethlehem, was built in 1S66 and 1S67, at a cost of
$60,000, and was opened for travel 2d of September, 1867. The
structure rests upon eight piers, is thirty-six feet above low water
mark, spans the track of the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad,
the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company's canal, the Manokasy
creek, a neck of land called the Sand island, the Lehigh, and the
track of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. The length of the floor of
this bridge is 1046 feet by actual measurement.
First Board of Directors. — President, Charles N. Beckel ; Robert
H. Sayre, Elisha P. Wilbur, John J. Levers, Herman A. Doster,
Robert A. Abbott.
Secretary and Treasurer. — Herman A. Doster.
Original shares were issued and sold at 550.
WATER WORKS.
In 1866 Tinsley Jeter built a small reservoir near Bishopthrope
School, and laid pipes thence, through several streets, as far as the
Union Depot, thus supplying Fountain Hill with mountain spring
water.
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 157
THE SOUTH BETHLEHEM POST OFFICE
was established in June of 1866.
First Postmaster. — John Seem.
THE LEHIGH UNIVERSITY,
founded by the Hon. Asa Packer, Mauch Chunk, in 1865. Erected
between 1866 and 1869, in the southeast corner of the Simpson
Tract.
In 1865 the Hon. Asa Packer, of Mauch Chunck, announced to
the Rt. Rev. William Bacon Stevens, the Bishop of Pennsylvania,
his intention to appropriate $500,000 and an eligible site and
grounds at South Bethlehem for an educational institution, in which
he designed that opportunities should be afforded to young men of
acquiring, besides a liberal education, a knowledge of those branches
of science which bear directly upon the industrial pursuits concerned
in developing the natural resources of the country — in schools of
Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, of Chemistry,
Architecture and Construction. This institution Mr. Packer pro-
posed to name The Lehigh University.
Ground was broken for the main building — called Packer Hall —
on 1st of July, 1866, and the exercises of the University were form-
ally opened in Christmas Hall on the 1st of September following, in
the presence of the Trustees and Faculty of the institution, the stu-
dents of the first class and invited guests. Packer Hall, built in the
architectural style of the Renaissance (Edward Tuckerman Potter,
Architect, James Jenkins, Superintendent of Construction), of Pots-
dam sandstone, quarried on Ostrom's Ridge, was so far completed
as to be occupied on the 4th of March, 1869.
The corps of officers of this noble Institution was constituted as
follows, at the time of its opening:
Founder of the Lehigh University, — The Hon. Asa Packer, of
Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania.
Foard 0/ Trustees.— The Rt. Rev. William Bacon Stevens, D. D.,
LL. D., Bishop of Pennsylvania, President of the Board; the Hon.
Asa Packer, Mauch Chunk; the Hon. J. W. Maynard, Easton;
Robert H. Sayre, Esq., South Bethlehem ; William H. Sayre, Jr., Esq.,
Bethlehem ; Robert A. Packer, Esq. , Mauch Chunk ; G. B. Linder-
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
man, M. D., Mauch Chunk; John Fritz, Esq., Bethlehem; Harry
E. Packer, Esq., Mauch Chunk ; Joseph Harrison, Jr., Esq.,
Philadelphia.
Secretary. — Robert A. Packer.
Treasurer of the Fund.— EWsha. P. Wilbur, Esq., South Bethle-
hem.
FACULTY OF THE UNIVERSITY.
President. — Henry Coppee, LL. D., Professor of History and
English Literature.
Professors.— Rev. Eliphalet Nott Potter, M. A., Professor of
Moral and Mental Philosophy and of Christian Evidence ; Charles
Mayer Wetherill, Ph. D., M. D., Professor of Chemistry (died at
his residence at the University, 5th March, 187 1) ; Edwin Wright
Morgan, LL. D., Professor of Mathematics and Mechanics (died
at his residence in Bethlehem, 1 6th April, 1869); Alfred Marshall
Mayer, Ph. D., Professor of Physics and Astronomy; AVilliam
Theodore Rcepper, Esq., Professor of Mineralogy and Geology
and Curator of the Museum.
Instructors. — George Thomas Graham, A. B., Instructor in Latin,
Greek and Mathematics ; M. Henri Albert Rinck, Instructor in
French and German ; Stephen Paschall Sharpless, S. B., Instructor
and Assistant in Chemistry.
fan/tor. — Mr. Nathan Crowell Tooker.
First Class of Students (entered 1st September, 1866). — Lehman
Preston Ashmead, Philadelphia ; Edward C. Boutelle, Bethlehem ;
Richard Brodhead, South Bethlehem; William R. Butler, Mauch
Chunk ; George L. Cummins, Louisville, Ky. ; Milton Dimmick,
Mauch Chunk ; J. F. Reynolds Evans, Fort Wayne, Ind. ; George
A. Jenkins, South Bethlehem; Henry C. Jenkins, South Bethlehem;
William H. Jenkins, Wyoming; William J. Kerr, Jr., New York
City ; A. Nelson Lewis, Havre de Grace, Md. ; Peter D. Ludwig,
Tamaqua ; Charles McKee, Allentown ; Harry E. Packer, Mauch
Chunk; William L. Paine, Wilkesbarre ; Joseph M. Piollett, To-
wanda ; Harry R. Price, Minersville ; Henry B. Reed, Philadel-
phia ; AVilliam D. Ronaldson, Philadelphia ; James K. Shoemaker,
Mauch Chunk ; John M. Thorne, Palmyra, N. Y. ; Robert P.
Weston, Slatington ; Charles Wetherill, P hcenixville ; Russel B.
Yates, Waverly, N. Y.
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 159
The first "University Day" was celebrated on the 25th of June,
1867. On the 3d of July, 1871, the Lehigh University was formally
placed under the auspices of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and
tuition in all the branches of instruction, was, at the wish of the
founder, declared to be free.
THE MORAVIAN CHURCH IN SOUTH BETHLEHEM,
on Elm street, near Packer Avenue, erected in 1867, opened for
Divine service 9th of March, 1868.
Pastor. — Rev. Henry J. Van Vleck.
Communicant members, 135 ; total membership, 235.
BISHOPTHROPE SCHOOL FOR GIRLS.
on the west line of the Simpson Tract, established in 1868, under
the auspices of the Protestant Episcopal Church. The School was
opened 5th of September of the aforementioned year.
First President. — Rt. Rev. William Bacon Stevens, D. D.,
LL. D., Bishop of Pennsylvania.
First Board of Trustees.— Rev. Eliphalet Nott Potter, Rector of
the Church of the Nativity; Tinsley Jeter, Robert H. Sayre,
William H. Sayre, Jr., James Jenkins, H. Stanley Goodwin,
Dr. Henry Coppee.
First Principal. — Miss Edith L. Chase.
Present Principal. — Miss F. I. Walsh.
THE RAILROAD BRIDGE OF THE LEHIGH AND SUSQUEHANNA RAILROAD
was built by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, in 1867.
Its length is 438 feet by actual measurement. In the spring of 1868
the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad connected with the North
Pennsylvania Railroad by this bridge for general business.
THE LEHIGH VALLEY BRASS WORKS,
on Front street, below the offices of the Lehigh Valley Railroad,
established in 1863. B. E. Lehman, proprietor.
160 TJie Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
THE PENROSE SCHOOL.
on Vine street, above Fourth, erected in 1867, opened 17th of
October, 1S67.
THE MELROSE SCHOOL.
on Poplar street, above Fourth, erected in 1870, opened nth of
October, 1S70.
Both are graded public schools, under the control of the School
Directors of the District and under the supervision of the Super-
intendent of the Common Schools of Northampton County.
The attendance for the school year, ending 1st June, 1872, was — ■
boys 374, girls 341. The average attendance was — boys 282, girls
231. There are 3 male and 3 female teachers employed in Penrose,
and 3 male and 4 female teachers in Melrose. The School Board,
at this writing, is constituted as follows :
President.- — H. Stanley Goodwin.
Secretary.— O. R. Wilt.
Treasurer. — James Purcell.
Directors.— H. K. Shaner, Wm. S. Sieger, Wm. H. Rudolph,
Charles Quinn, Hugh O'Neil, Henry McCool and Patrick Downey.
THE NORTHAMPTON CONSERVATIVE.
Milton F. Cushing, proprietor and publisher, was the first weekly
newspaper published in the borough of South Bethlehem. The first
number was issued 30th of September 1868.
THE MORNING PROGRESS.
O. B. Sigley & Co., proprietors and publishers, was the first daily
published in the borough of South Bethlehem. The first number
was issued 3d of April, 1871.
THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF SOUTH BETHLEHEM,
on the corner of Fourth and Vine streets, erected in 1S70 and 1871.
The lecture room was opened for Divine worship 9th of April, 1871.
First Pastor. — Rev. J. Albert Rondthaler.
The Crown Inn near Bethlehem. 161
First Session. — Rev. J. Albert Rondthaler, W. Calvin Ferriday,
W. A. McCormick.
Present Pastor. — Rev. J. Thompson Osier.
The congregation numbers 60 souls ; the membership numbers 30.
THE FIRST REFORMED CHURCH OF SOUTH BETHLEHEM.
on Fourth street, between New and Vine, erected in 1S70 and 1871,
opened for Divine worship 2 2d of October, 1871.
Pastor.— Rev. N. Z. Snyder.
Number of communicants 125 ; total membership 226.
THE ANTHRACITE BUILDING.
on Lehigh street, near the old Philadelphia road, erected in 187 1,
contains the offices of the banking house of E. P. Wilbur & Co.,
established in October of 1870 ; the coal offices of Linderman,
Skeer & Co., the Franklin Coal Company, and Cleaver & Brod-
head ; and the offices of "The Morning Progress;" " The Times"
Job Print, D. J. Godshalk & Co. ; and the Central Express.
THE SOUTH BETHLEHEM READING ROOM AND LIBRARY ASSOCIATION,
in Hartman's Hall, on Fourth street, near New, established in
January of 1S72. The reading room was formally opened 3d of
June, 1872.
President. — Wm. Palfrey.
Vice-President.— -B. F. Hittell, M. D.
Secretary. — A. L. Cope.
Corresponding Secretary. — Monroe Van Billiard.
Executive Committee. — George Ziegenfuss, Esq., James McMahon,
M. Van Billiard.
THE COLD SPRING WATER COMPANY,
incorporated 8th of April, 1872, by the Court of Lehigh County.
"The object of this corporation is to supply Fountain Hill, Dela-
ware avenue and their vicinity with water for culinary, household
and other useful and ornamental purposes."
1G2 T7ie Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
President. — Abraham Yost.
Secretary and Treasurer. — John L. Cooper.
Directors. — G. B. Linderman, G. H. Daugherty, H. Stanley
Goodwin.
THE FOUNTAIN HILL CEMETERY COMPANY.
incorporated ioth of April, 1872, by the Court of Lehigh County,
recently located a cemetery for the joint use of the churches of
South Bethlehem and its vicinity, on a plot of 6 acres of ground
(it was known in mediaeval times as "Das Buchweizenfeld," i. e.,
The Buckwheat Field), occupying the extreme western limit of the
old Hoffert Farm.
The officers of this association are —
President. — George Ziegenfuss.
Vice-President. — H. K. Shaner.
Secretary. — O. K. Wilt. Twelve Directors complete the com-
pany's Executive Board.
The first interment within the borders of this cemetery was that
of Henry, an infant son of Jacob and Rebecca Bingel, 28th of
August, 1 87 2.
162 Tlie Crown Inn near Bethlehem.
President. — Abraham Yost.
Secretary and Treasurer. — John L. Cooper.
Directors. — G. B. Linderman, G. H. Daugherty, H. Stanley
Goodwin.
THE FOUNTAIN HILL CEMETERY COMPANY.
incorporated ioth of April, 1872, by the Court of Lehigh County,
recently located a cemetery for the joint use of the churches of
South Bethlehem and its vicinity, on a plot of 6 acres of ground
(it was known in mediaeval times as "Das Buchweizenfeld," i. e.,
The Buckwheat Field), occupying the extreme western limit of the
old Hoffert Farm.
The officers of this association are —
President. — George Ziegenfuss.
Vice-President— -H. K. Shaner.
Secretary. — O. K. Wilt. Twelve Directors complete the com-
pany's Executive Board.
The first interment within the borders of this cemetery was that
of Henry, an infant son of Jacob and Rebecca Bingel, 28th of
August, 1872.
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