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A HISTORICAL SKETCH

OF THE

WIDOWS' HOUSE AT BETHLEHEM, PA.,

1768-1892.

BY JOHN W. JORDAN.

"It shall be to Me a name of joy, a praise and an honor, before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them."Jer. 33, 9.-(Text of the Dedication Address, October 12, 1768.)

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HARVARD

COLLEGE

JFC 6 1893

LIBRARY.

PREFATORY NOTE.

Three plates of illustrations-the first devoted to the original building, and the second and the third, respectively, to the exterior and the interior of the annex-have been contributed by friends, to be used in this pamphlet and also in the Memorial Volume which the Moravian Church at Bethlehem will publish in commemoration of the Third Jubilee of its establishment on June 25, 1742.

A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE WIDOWS'

HOUSE AT BETHLEHEM, PA.

FROM the establishment of the Moravian Church in the Province of Pennsylvania, our forefathers, appreciating that helplessness and old age should be the objects of a peculiar tenderness and sympathy, introduced the plan adopted by the Mother Church, by which there could be but little poverty and no destitution among those who had devoted their best years or lives to her service. The same spirit, therefore, which led to the erection of the other "Choir Houses" in Bethlehem, led to the building of the Widows' House, which for nearly a century and a quarter has afforded its inmates the comforts of a retired home.

Nazareth was the seat of the first Widows' Economy of the Moravian Church in America, and the humble building which sheltered our pilgrim fathers on the "Barony," became the residence of those "old mothers of the Church" who had been bereft of husband and home. You may see it to-day, embowered among the trees which separate it from the "stone house Ephrata." Prior to the organization of their Economy, the widows of the Church were scattered among the congregations, engaged in various capacities. Those at Bethlehem resided in the house for Married People," (on the site of the present Church), and in the "Clergyhouse," while in the "Nursery" and in the school at Nazareth a number were employed.

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In the Spring of 1755, the Choir was formed, and Nazareth designated as its seat. On May 1, wagons were sent down to Bethlehem from Gnadenthal and Christian's Spring to transfer the eleven widows with their effects to Nazareth. At 10 o'clock on the morning of May 2, they reached their destination, escorted by Sister Catharine Huber, of Nazareth, and were at once conducted by Bro. Heckewelder (the father of the well-known missionary among the Indians) to their house, where Bro. Lembke cordially welcomed them by singing a hymn. With the widows of Nazareth, at noon, they attended a service in the Chapel of the "Whitefield House," in which the hymn: "Da Jesus an dem Kreuze stund," was sung with instrumental accompaniment, "The widows," writes the chronicler of Nazareth, "were very happy, and thankful for their house, which they had not expected would be so pleasant."

The following day (Saturday, May 3), they witnessed the laying of the corner-stone of Nazareth Hall-from the variety of nationalities present, one of the most notable Moravian gatherings in America. Scarcely had they become settled in their new home, before one of their number was removed by death. On June 5, the aged Sister Elizabeth Banister, mother of Jasper Payne, was called to her eternal home. She was born in England in 1669, and accompanied her son to Pennsylvania, with the "Second Sea Congregation."

Before the close of the year, Nazareth became crowded with the inhabitants of the remoter settlements of Old Northampton, who fled thither for safety from the disaffected Indians in the service of France, who were mur dering and devastating the country along the line of the

"At last the Widows have the satisfaction of being able to live by themselves, and have their own Choir arrangements, which has hitherto been quite impossible."-Bethlehem Diary, May 1755.

Blue Mountains. To afford accommodations for these panic-stricken refugees, on December 1, the Widows' Choir, which had been increased by the arrival some weeks before of Rosina Endter, widow of George Endter, who died at the mission in Berbice, and Ann Elizabeth Leinbach and Catharine Weber, from Oley, gave up their house and were transferred to Gnadenthal, where they remained until the ensuing Summer.

These are the names of those who composed the first "Widows' Economy:"

Catharine Huber, Deaconess;

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With the exception of adverting to the dedication of the Chapel in Nazareth Hall, November 13, 1756, on which festival occasion the widows were present and for the first time wore the white ribbon in their caps as the insignia of their Choir, (which regulation was continued to the Synod of 1818), we pass on in our history to the Summer of 1766, when we find that the Choir, "were much rejoiced at the action of the Synod held in Bethlehem, in resolving to build a Widows' House in Bethlehem, the commencement of which would probably be made during the following Spring."

By the year 1760, the house at Nazareth becoming too small for the Choir, and the aged members finding the distance to the chapel in Nazareth Hall (since 1756 the sanctuary of the congregation), too great in inclement

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