German Union Church(now United Church of Christ)

With Simon Mansion (left)(Photo by Virginia Lawrence-Hope)

German Union Church (27-29 North Third Street)

At the beginning of the Revolutionary War, in 1775-76, a church was built just north of the Great Square at Third and Church Streets, as a joint enterprise by the Lutherans (from the congregation in Williams Township) and “German Reformed” Calvinists. Each congregation was to maintain their own minister and burial grounds.1 Because of this joint participation, the church was initially known as the “Union Church”.2 This Union Church comprises the stone portions of the present church building (which is now the First United Church of Christ). It remains a principal landmark in the center of Easton today. (Map Reference G)

The first pastor was Christian Streit, the first American-born minister in the Lutheran Church.3 The Reformed Congregation had no pastor at the time the Church was built.4

The Church had an organ almost from the beginning, built by a noted organ builder of the day named Dannaker. It was in place at least in time to be sounded during the Indian Conference of 1777 (see below), a year after the Church was consecrated.5

Church services were generally in German at first. Lutheran Rev. Streit (see above) and some of his successors were able to preach in English as well as German; the Lutheran Congregation began offering one English language service on a regular basis in 1808.6 The German Reformed Congregation, by contrast, offered only German language services until 1831, when a supplementary service in English was initiated.7 German language services continued at the German Reformed Church until 1871.8

Germans constituted the most influential settlement group in Easton. 61% of all the people taxed were members of this church in the 1770s,9 and it would remain the only formal church building in town until the 19th Century when Samuel Sitgreaves donated land for the Episcopalian congregation that had been meeting in his house.10 The combined Lutheran and German Reformed congregations

1 Barbara Fretz Kempton, A History of St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Easton, Pennsylvania 1740-1940 24 (The John S. Correll Co., Inc. 1940); see Joseph and Pamalee La Duca, Map Guide to Historic Downtown Easton (© 1991, 2005 ed.); Marie and Frank Summa & Leonard S. Buscemi Sr., Images of America: Historic Easton 111 (Arcadia Publishing 2000); Rev. Uzal W. Condit, History of Easton, Penn’a 61 (George P. West 1885 / 1889); City of Easton, Pennsylvania Historic Resource Survey Form, Attachment: Building Description Survey Area 1 Zone E (City Council Resolution approved 12 May 1982)(built c. 1776 in “Colonial/Federal” style).

2 C.M. Sitgreaves (compiler), Resources and Industries of Easton, PA, South Easton, and Phillipsburg, N.J. at The Forks of the Delaware! 79 (Geo. W. West 1889).

In February 1778, a petition was presented to the Elders of both congregations to license “Phillip Hellick (the schoolmaster) to ask charitable contributions to pay” the debt incurred for constructing the church. Mathew S. Henry, Manuscript History of Northampton County, PA 54-55 (1851)(located in Pennsylvania Historical Society, Philadelphia).

3 Kempton, A History of St. John’s, supra at 21. 4 Kempton, A History of St. John’s, supra at 24. 5 Id. 6 Kempton, A History of St. John’s, supra at 235, 250. 7 Norman Seidel, A History of Easton’s Jewish Community, Lecture Presented to

Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society, printed in part in EASTON IS HOME, Heritage Edition 23 (Summer 2005); see also S.M. Parkhill, “Church Served as Hospital During Revolutionary War”, MORNING CALL, Thurs., 31 Dec. 1998, p.B-4.

8 S.M. Parkhill, “Church Served as Hospital During Revolutionary War”, MORNING CALL, Thurs., 31 Dec. 1998, p.B-4.

2

were known collectively as “Kirchenleute” – people of the Church, or the “gay Germans” – as opposed to the “Sektenleuten” – or people of the religious sects such as the Moravians or Amish or Mennonites,11 the latter groups considering themselves the “plain” folk.

German immigrants in Easton may have given rise to the first decorated Christmas trees in America. A live evergreen tree in Scott Park (at the “Point” off Ferry and Front Streets) has been designated to commemorate this event.12

The Church archives contain a 1746 pewter communion set, and a hand-illustrated Swiss Bible printed in 1747, presented to the Church by evangelist and

9 Liam Riordan, Many Identities, One Nation 29, 33 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 2007).

10 Point made by Prof. Liam Riordan in lecture at the Easton Area Public Library on 4 March 2010; see separate www.WalkingEaston.com entry for Trinity Episcopal Church, 234 Spring Garden Street.

11 See Liam Riordan, Many Identities, One Nation 28 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 2007).

12 Easton’s claim to have the first documented Christmas tree in America is described in Joseph and Pamalee La Duca, Map Guide to Historic Downtown Easton (©1993, 2005 ed.)(“the earliest diary account of a decorated Christmas tree in America, recorded at Easton, PA, in 1816”); Mary C. Flyte, “Easton Is Home to the First Christmas Tree”, THE IRREGULAR, Dec.1996-Jan.1997, p.1.

According to Ms. Flyte’s IRREGULAR article, Easton’s claim is based upon a popular press book by Daniel J. Foley, The Christmas Tree: An Evergreen Garland Filled with History, Folklore, Symbolism, Traditions, Legends and Stores 71-72 (Chilton Company 1960). Mr. Foley discusses the diary entry of Matthew Zahm of Lancaster, who on 20 Dec. 1821 noted a party going out for Christmas trees. Mr. Foley then states (at page 72): “Another diary reference unearthed recently makes mention of a tree set up at Easton, Pennsylvania, in 1816.”

o Wikipedia’s article on “Christmas tree”, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_trees#Modern, also notes Easton’s 1816 claim. It also refers to the Zahm entry for 20 Dec. 1821. See also aRiKaH, “Christmas tree”, www.arikah.com/encyclopedia/Christmas_tree#Modern; Bible Headquarters, “A Short history of the Christmas holilday”, www.bibleheadquarters.org/AShortHistoryChristmasHoliday.html. It is presumably based upon Foley’s book.

o A NEW YORK TIMES article by Molly Price entitled “Tannenbaum Traditions” (from the 20 Dec. 1970 edition, at page 110), states that “The German immigrants who settled in Easton, Pa., brough their beloved symbol of Christmas with them . . . .” The TIMES later refused to identify its sources. See Beth W. Orenstein, “Historian: Easton can boast first display of yule tree”, EASTON EXPRESS, Sat., 7 Dec. 1985, p.C-1, cols.1-5, at col.3. It seems likely that Ms. Price relied upon the Foley book.

The 1821 Matthias (“Matthew”) Zahm Diary entry referred to in Foley’s book almost certainly refers to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and not Easton. The text is now available both through a reprint of the entry (along with a number of others) in Robert H. Goodell, “Matthias Zahm’s Diary”, Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society, Vol.47, No.4, pp.61-92 (1943), and through online correspondence with the current owner of the Zahm diaries in New Zealand. Email, William Shepard to Richard F. Hope, genforum.genealogy.com/zahm/messages/227.html (10 Jan. 2009). The entry reads (in relevant part): “Thursday Decr 20th cloudy & thaw all day, to day. Sally & our Thomas & Wm Hensel was out for Christmas trees, on the hill at Hendrick’s sawmill.” The 1820 Census shows that

3

educational pioneer Michael Schlatter.13 The bible’s “presentation page is an excellent sample of hand-painted Fraktur” art work.14

The Church also features a Star of David inscribed on a stained glass window in memory of Meyer Hart, Easton’s first shopkeeper and Jewish citizen, who in 1755 had contributed 20 lbs of nails to the building of the first (log) schoolhouse (see below).15 During the Revolutionary War, Easton’s permanent population may have been 10% Jewish, and thus was probably “more densely settled by Jews, in proportion to its total population, than any other American community . . .” at the time.16 Most of these were originally of German extraction, and maintained good relations with the German Christian population of Easton. The German and Jewish ethnicity of Easton is confirmed by a contemptuous British officer visiting Easton (apparently as a POW) in

Matthias Zahm and his father were both residents of Lancaster. It also shows two people with the surname "Kendrick" in Lancaster, and another in Manor, Lancaster County -- and no one of that surname in Northampton County. 1820 Census, Series M33, Roll 106, pp. 45 (Matthias Zahm), 54 (Matthias Zahm), 49 second side (John Kendrick), 52 (Samuel Kendrick), 196 last entry (Susanna Kendrick in Manor, Lancaster County).

o General reference to the Zahm diary is also made in Miss Mary Goddell, “An Old Diary”, Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society, Vol.12, No.5, pp.184-94 (1908); see also Access Pennsylvania, http://205.247.101.11/search?/aZahm/azahm/1%2C16%2C82%2CE/frameset&FF=azahm+matthias+1789+1874&1%2C1%2C (Zahm also been referred to as Matthias Zahm; life span 1789 – 1874).

Easton’s claim, then, comes down to Daniel Foley’s reference to an 1816 diary entry. This offhand statement in Foley’s book is somewhat mysterious. The current owner of the Zahm Diaries does not have any volume for 1816; the oldest is for 1821-2. Email, William Shepard to Richard F. Hope, genforum.genealogy.com/zahm/messages/227.html (10 Jan. 2009). Of course, Foley’s reference to an 1816 diary may refer to one written by somebody entirely different from Zahm – but if so, whose? Foley’s book did not say.

In the 1980s, Dr. Charles A. Waltman, President of the Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society, attempted to verify the claim, and contacted Mr. Foley to get further details. Unfortunately, at that point “Foley told him that he had written his book so long ago he could not remember if he had any further information on the diary or the reference to the tree.” See Beth W. Orenstein, “Historian: Easton can boast first display of yule tree”, EASTON EXPRESS, Sat., 7 Dec. 1985, p.C-1, cols.1-5, at col.3. Notwithstanding the lack of firm data, Dr. Waltman nevertheless wrote an article in which he concluded – based upon the Foley and NEW YORK TIMES references cited above – that Easton might make its claim and see if other would dispute it. See Charles A. Waltman, The First Christmas Tree in America: Holiday Customs in Nineteenth Century Easton (Easton: typewritten article in possession of Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society Library 12 Nov. 1985). The local newspaper quoted him as saying, “let’s claim it’s true and let others disprove it”. See Orenstein, “Historian: Easton can boast first display of yule tree”, supra at p.C-1, col.1. See generally Obituary, “Dr. Charles A. Waltman, Easton oncological surgeon”, EASTON EXPRESS, Fri., 27 Jan. 1995, p.B-5, cols.2-3 (President of Society).

A search to find and verify Foley’s elusive 1816 diary entry seems in order, but the field is rather wide. The source might be “buried in the reams of 200-year-old German diaries and other records under the [Northampton County] historical society’s care. But the group hasn’t yet translated and cataloged all of those documents.” Michael Duck, “Easton’s ‘first’ Christmas tree in doubt ** Trimming story: City may have to revise historical claim”, MORNING CALL, 25 Dec. 2008, p.A-1. At least Dr. Waltman (the Society’s [President] in 1985) was not aware of a source in the Society’s collection (see above); nor is the Society’s Librarian, Jane Moyer, today. See Duck, supra.

4

1779, who complained that the town contained only “three elegant buildings . . . and about as many inhabitants that are any ways agreeable. Take them in general they are a very inhospitable set – all high Dutch and Jew”.17

During the Revolutionary War, the German Union Church served as a military hospital for wounded from the Battles of Brooklyn and Brandywine,18 and was visited by George Washington.19 It appears that it housed more sick and wounded Continental troops in 1776-77, than any other town in the Lehigh Valley, including the much more celebrated hospital facilities in Bethlehem. Indeed, the number of soldiers in the hospital may have exceeded the total peacetime population of the town. In addition, Easton housed a large number of British and Hessian prisoners of war, some of them sick and wounded, although these invalids may have been kept at the site of their incarceration, or

Foley’s book, just prior to his reference to the Zahm diary, makes very favorable reference to Alfred C. Shoemaker, Christmas in Pennsylvania: A Folk Cultural Study (Pennsylvania Folklife Society 1959). This book is available from the Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society, and a more rent 1999 edition published by Stackpole Books is also available in the Marx Room at the Easton Area Public Library. Originally published just two years before Foley, Shoemaker extensively described the scholarly search for the first Christmas tree in America and mentions the Zahm diary 1821 entry, but makes no reference at all to any 1816 entries. Accordingly, it would seem that any 1816 diary entry must have been “unearthed” after the research for Shoemaker’s 1959 book was complete, but before Foley’s 1961 publication date – so likely in the very late 1950s, or perhaps in 1960 itself. Unfortunately, a review of the issues of Pennsylvania Folklife (of which Alfred L. Shoemaker was the Managing Editor) during this period does not reveal any announcement of such a discovery.

Shoemaker himself references three other scholars who were studying the issue of the first Christmas tree in America. One of them, Rudolf Hommel, was apparently already dead, and thus cannot have “unearthed” any diary references after Shoemaker’s book was published. Two others may have done so: Dr. William I. Schreiber of Wooster, Ohio, and Dr. Philip A. Shelley at Penn State University.

Daniel J. Foley’s A Christmas Tree, supra at 71-72 and Alfred J. Shoemaker’s Christmas in Pennsylvania, supra at 45-47 also discuss undocumented claims of an earlier appearance of Christmas trees in America. These include a recurring legend that trees were set up by Hessian troops the night before their fateful defeat by Washington at Trenton, and that Hessians as prisoners-of-war set them up in Newport RI for the children. There is also another undocumented claim of an earlier tree in Michigan. It appears that the Moravians in Bethlehem set up Christmas “triangles” (tree-like shelves for ornaments or candles). Another Internet article, after noting Zahm’s 1821 diary entry, suggests that the Moravian Church at Bethlehem may have set up a Christmas tree as early as 1747. Douglas D. Anderson, “The Early America Tree”, in Hymns and Carols of Christmas, http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/O_Tannenbaum/11-The_Early_American_Tree.htm (1996-2005)(accessed 9 May 2005). As of 2009, Mr. Anderson had removed the histories (of which this was one) from his website, but promised to re-do them with more modern scholarship.

13 A Brief History of EASTON, www.easton-pa.com/History/HistoricEaston.htm (accessed 2 Jan. 2005; more recently accessible through the “History” link from the City of Easton’s website at www.easton-pa.com), at “The First United Church of Christ”. Michael Schlatter was originally sent to America as an inspector by the Reformed Church of Holland, but (after being fired by the Church) he became the first Superintendent of English language schools in the colonies. William J. Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car 104 (Express Printing Co. and harmony Press, 1911, reprinted 1984).

14 S.M. Parkhill, “Church Served as Hospital During Revolutionary War”, MORNING CALL, Thurs., 31 Dec. 1998, p.B-4.

5

in the town jail on South 3rd Street. Many of the sick and wounded died, not least from epidemic infections of smallpox and typhus exacerbated by the poor conditions under which the men were kept.20

The Church was also the site of the Indian Treaty Conference of January 1777, in which the Continental Congress attempted diplomacy to win the Iroquois over from their traditional alliance with the British.21 This Conference was presided over by Easton representative George Taylor (Easton’s signor of the Declaration of Independence), and another colonial politician named George Walton.22 One of the secretaries who recorded it was Thomas Paine. Paine may have obtained some of his later ideas of government from his study of the Iroquois at this time.23

The Iroquois prevaricated at the conference. Some of them agreed to a treaty, but it appeared that neither side had authority to act, and the treaty was later repudiated by the Continental Congress.24 Thereafter most of the Iroquois tribes remained British allies, but the Oneida allied with the American colonists, splitting the Iroquois Great Confederacy. Iroquois warriors openly fought and killed each other at the Battle of Oriskany in the Mohawk Valley (New York) in 1777, ending of the “Great Peace” that had united the Iroquois for centuries.25 The resulting warfare along the frontier let General Washington to send General John Sullivan and an entire division of troops to

15 Rev. Uzal W. Condit, The History of Easton, Penn’a 17, 59 (George W. West 1885 / 1889); M.S. Henry, History of the Lehigh Valley 64 (Bixler & Corwin 1860); see A Brief History of EASTON, www.easton-pa.com/History/HistoricEaston.htm (accessed 2 Jan. 2005; more recently accessible through the “History” link from the City of Easton’s website at www.easton-pa.com), at “The First United Church of Christ”. See also A.D. Chidsey, Jr., A Frontier Village 116 (Vol. III of Publications of The Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society 1940)(first shopkeeper). For a more complete history of Meyer Hart, see generally separate www.WalkingEaston.com entry for the Pomp/Bixler Building at 401 Northampton Street.

16 Joshua Trachtenberg, Consider the Years: The Story of the Jewish Community of Easton 1752-1942 1 (Centennial Committee of Temple Brith Sholom 1944).

17 Samuel M. Shute, Journal¸ from Frederick Cook (ed.), Journals of the Military Expedition of Major General John Sullivan 268 (Auburn, NY: Knapp, Peck and Thompson 1887), as quoted in Liam Riordan, Many Identities, One Nation 80 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 2007).

18 La Duca, Map Guide to Historic Downtown Easton, supra; Summa & Buscemi, Images of America: Historic Easton, supra at 111; Condit, History of Easton, Penn’a, supra at 130-31; Kempton, A History of St. John’s, supra at 25; see Mary Costella, “Battle of Brandywine: The Human Toll” Chadds Ford Historical Society, www.chaddsfordhistory.org/history/battle-aftermath.htm (accessed 4 Jan. 2005).

19 A Brief History of EASTON, supra, “The First United Church of Christ”; William W. Carling, Northampton County Studies in Our Community 23 (Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society (sponsor), library accession stamp from Marx Room of Easton Area Public Library 8 Apr. 1940); Summa & Buscemi, Images of America: Historic Easton, supra at 18. Lafayette was himself sent to Bethlehem to recover from his wounds at the Battle of Brandywine. Carling, Northampton County Studies, supra at 23.

20 See Thomas Verenna, “Easton’s Missing Dead”, in Journal of the American Revolution (12 Aug. 2014, in 2015 ed.), available online at http://allthingsliberty.com/2014/08/eastons-missing-dead/.

6

Easton in 1779, to conduct a reprisal campaign to accomplish “the total destruction and devastation” of the Iroquois Confederation.26 Sullivan assembled his forces in Easton, and began his campaign from the German Union Church, marching north along “Sullivan’s Trail”.27 Sullivan completed his campaign through northern Pennsylvania and western New York that summer, burning some 40 Indian towns with their harvests. His campaign was considered militarily successful at the time; its devastation effectively broke the Iroquois nations as a military power in the long run, although it did not discourage the Iroquois and others from continuing their raids against the frontier settlements throughout the remainder of the Revolutionary War.28 The expedition “changed the face of Iroquoia, erasing entire communities from a region they had occupied for generations”. Reprisals by the Iroquois tribes allied with the British were, in some cases, vented upon the towns of the Iroquois allied with the Americans.29 The result, together with more aggressive treatment by the Americans after the Revolution, was that “[w]ithin a decade after the Revolution, the Iroquois found themselves confined to reservations and separated from each other by growing settler populations and an international border.30

After the Revolution, in “[a]bout the year 1790”, an attorney for the Penn Family visited Easton “looking for unsold land belonging to the Penns”, and threatened repossession of several tracts belonging to the two German congregations, including the church property itself and the two plots where the congregations had established their cemeteries (the Lutherans at 4th and Ferry Streets, and the German Reformed where the public library now stands). A committee chaired by Jacob Arndt, Jr. visited John Penn in Philadelphia to obtain assurances that their would not be evicted, and in 1802 they obtained a formal deed to the church/school land and to the burial grounds for the two congregations, for a total price of $10.31

Continuing disputes arose between the two congregations sharing the church, over issues such as who would be schoolmaster and organist,32 the division of alms money,33 and over the use of the separate burial grounds, particularly in cases of intermarriage between the two congregations.34 Finally, in 1830-31, the Lutheran Congregation split off into its own St. John’s Church building on 4th and Ferry Streets.35 The German Reformed congregation remained in the building on North Third Street.

A major fire in Easton damaged the German Union Church in 1831.36 After the Lutherans left, the German Reformed congregation extensively remodeled the Church in

21 La Duca, Map Guide to Historic Downtown Easton; Dr. Richmond E. Myers, Northampton County in the American Revolution 80 (Bicentennial Publication of Northampton County Historical Society 1976); Condit, History of Easton, Penn’a, supra at 60; see Pennsylvania State Papers, “Letter from Committee at Easton” dated 15 Jan. 1777, listed in Iroquois Indians: A Documentary History at 391; “Report of the Committee on Indian Affairs” in the National Archives (Washington D.C.), listed in id. at 519; and “Treaty of Easton” in the Scottish Records Office (Edinburgh, Scotland), listed in id. at 578.

22 Condit, History of Easton, Penn’a, supra at 117. 23 Dr. Donald A. Grinde, Jr. (speaker), The Iroquois and the Origins of American

Democracy, delivered at Cornell University, 11 Sept. 1987, online at www.elastic.org/~fche/mirrors/www.textfiles.com/politics/Iroquois.txt (accessed 4 Jan. 2005). See also Condit, History of Easton, supra at 58, 60.

7

1832.37 The prominent steeple of the Church, and the brick portions at the north end, were added in the 1832 remodeling.38 The architect was Thomas U. Walter, who also designed the dome of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington D.C.39

A “Big Bell” in the in the steeple was installed in December of 1850.40 A controversy arose in 1869, in which the Church congregation demanded that the Easton Town Council should provide a guarantee “should the bell be cracked by the striking of the clock”. Easton’s Town Council “ordered the clock keeper not to wind up the clock, until the matter is settled. In consequence, the clock is not running to-day.”41 Immediately subsequent newspaper issues are missing from the microfilm records, so the

24 See William Jacob Heller, I History of Northampton County (Pennsylvania) and the grand valley of the Lehigh 135 (American Historical Society 1920); Liam Riordan, Many Identities, One Nation 77 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 2007); Journals of the Continental Congress, 27 Feb. 1777, listed in D’Arcy McNickle Center for the History of the American Indian, Newberry Library, Iroquois Indians: A Documentary History 127, 281, microformguides.gale.com/Data/Download/2030000A.pdf (accessed 4 Jan. 2005).

25 Jordan S. Dill, First Nations website, “Iroquois History”, www.tolatsga.org/iro.html (accessed 4 Jan. 2005). See also Francis Jennings, The Creation of America Through Revolution to Empire 235 (Cambridge University Press 2000).

26 Francis Jennings, The Creation of America Through Revolution to Empire 253-54 (Cambridge University Press 2000); see Rev. Uzal Condit, History of Easton, Penn’a 138 (George W. West 1885 / 1889).

27 William W. Carling, Northampton County Studies in Our Community 23 (Northampton Couny Historical & Genealogical Society, Easton Public Library date stamp 8 Apr. 1940); Rev. Uzal Condit, History of Easton, Penn’a 138 (George W. West 1885 / 1889); Stanley J. Admiak, The 1779 Sullivan Campaign, earlyamerica.com/review/1998/Sullivan.html (accessed 3 Jan. 2005).

28 Stanley J. Admiak, The 1779 Sullivan Campaign, earlyamerica.com/review/1998/Sullivan.html (accessed 3 Jan. 2005); William W. Carling, Northampton County Studies in Our Community 23 (Northampton Couny Historical & Genealogical Society, Easton Public Library date stamp 8 Apr. 1940); Rev. Uzal Condit, History of Easton, Penn’a 138-41 (George W. West 1885 / 1889); Francis Jennings, The Creation of America Through Revolution to Empire 254-56 (Cambridge University Press 2000).

29 Timothy J. Shannon, Iroquois Diplomacy on the Early American Frontier 192-93 (New York: The Penguin Library of American Indian History 2007).

30 See Timothy J. Shannon, Iroquois Diplomacy on the Early American Frontier 196-97, 202 (New York: The Penguin Library of American Indian History 2007).

31 William J. Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car 117-18 (Express Printing Co. and Harmony Press, 1911, reprinted 1984); see Deed, John Penn and Richard Penn to Peter Snyder, et al., Trustees for German Reformed Congregation of Easton, and Jacob Weygandt, et al., Trustees for Lutheran Congregation of Easton, G2 402 (23 June 1802)($10 sale price). Original town Lot Nos.70 and 72 were included “on which Lots the said congregations have erected a church and School house”, in trust as a “seite for the church”. Also included were original town Lot Nos.179 and 180 (on Ferry Street) and a large property North of what is now Church Street between 5th and 6th Streets (where the public library now stands) in trust “as Burial Places”.

32 See Edith von Zemenszky and Mary A. Redline, A Strasbourger In America, John Frederick Ernst Minister of the Gospel, Lutheran Denomination (1748-1805) 185 (Seaber Turner Associates 2007)(dispute over Philip Helik); Barbara Fretz Kempton, A History of St. John’s

8

resolution of the controversy is not definitively known, but the indemnity demand suggests that the town may have owned the clock – lending support to Easton historian John C. Pohl’s statement that it was the one that had originally been installed in 1827 in the belfry of the Courthouse in Centre Square, which had recently been torn down.42 Such a controversy in 1869 might have also served as a basis for the removal of the clock from the German Reformed Church in 1878, and its relocation into the huge belfry of the Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church (now the Rock Church) in 1878 – ostensibly, because its larger steeple tower gave Easton citizens a better view.43

Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Easton, Pennsylvania 1740 – 1940 35 (Easton: The John S. Correll Co., Inc. 1940)(in replacing John Casper Mattes after his death, “[t]he two German congregations found it almost impossible to agree on anyone or even meet to converse about the matter.”).

33 See Barbara Fretz Kempton, A History of St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Easton, Pennsylvania 1740 – 1940 44 (Easton: The John S. Correll Co., Inc. 1940)(relations “very strained” in part over request of the Reformed congregation for part of the Lutheran’s alms collections).

34 See William J. Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car 117-21 (Express Printing Co. and Harmony Press, 1911, reprinted 1984); see also Barbara Fretz Kempton, A History of St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Easton, Pennsylvania 1740 – 1940 47 (Easton: The John S. Correll Co., Inc. 1940).

35 See separate www.WalkingEaston.com entry for St. John’s Lutheran Church at 330 Ferry Street.

36 Article, “Alarming Fire”, EASTON CENTINEL, Fri., 25 Mar. 1831, p.3, col.1, reprinted in Ethan A. Weaver, “A Disastrous Fire Sixty-nine Years Ago”, reprinted in Ethan Allen Weaver, Historical Notes First Series 153 et seq. (Easton Public Library June 1936); Article, “Destructive Fire!”, DEMOCRAT & ARGUS, Thurs., 24 March 1831, p.3, col.2. See generally separate entry for Sitgreaves’ Folly at 237-39 Northampton Street.

37 Kempton, A History of St. John’s, supra at 55-58. 38 Rev. Uzal W. Condit, The History of Easton, Penn’a 61 (George W. West 1885 / 1889). 39 La Duca, Map Guide to Historic Downtown Easton, supra; A Brief History &

Architectural Tour of of EASTON, PENNSYLVANIA, www.easton-pa.com/History/HistoricEaston.htm (accessed 2 Jan. 2005) at “The First United Church of Christ”; Easton Heritage Alliance, Historic Easton Spring Tour 1984 Site #7.

40 Article, “The Big Bell”, EASTON DEMOCRAT & ARGUS, Thurs., 19 Dec. 1850, p.2, col.2 (passed by the ARGUS office on a wagon on Monday morning on its way to the German Reformed Church steeple).

41 Article, “The Town Clock”, EASTON DAILY FREE PRESS, Thurs., 26 Aug. 1869, p.3, col.2.

42 Cf. John C. Pohl, The Old Town Clock unnumbered p.2-3 (Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society Pamphlet Apr. 2004). See generally www.WalkingEaston.com entry for 000 Centre Square; www.WalkingEaston.com entry for the Rock Church at 20 North 5th Street.

43 John C. Pohl, The Old Town Clock unnumbered p.2-3 (Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society Pamphlet Apr. 2004).

9

In 1885, an extensive Church remodeling effort was undertaken, in which frescos and the stained glass windows (mentioned above) were also added.44 Another renovation was undertaken in 1908, and the sanctuary was completed in 1952.45

The Schoolhouses

The first building on the church lot was actually a log school house, built in 1755. It had been requested the year before by the Germans in town, and was undertaken reluctantly by Easton’s founder, William Parsons, when instructed to do so by trustees of a fund that contributed £ 30. As with other matters, Parsons was zealous in executing his instructions to establish the school, despite his own inclinations.46 The contributing fund, known as the “English Charity Fund”, was administered by a Board of Trustees in Philadelphia under the auspices of the “Society for the Promotion of the Knowledge of God Among the Germans”. Historian William Heller relates that a principal objective of this Society was to replace the use of the Luther Bible (in German) with the King James’ Version (in English) – and in this they utterly failed among the primarily German-speaking community in Easton, as well as other Pennsylvania communities where such schools were founded.47

Heller’s story was exaggerated in 1977 (at the time the downtown Easton Historic District was being established) by a newspaper article in the EASTON EXPRESS, which (citing Heller) claimed that the 1778 church (see below) was established by a “Society for the propagation of the Gospel among the Heathens” [emphasis added], where the “heathens” in this case meant “Germans”.

The school was also partly paid for by local contributions, and run with tuition funds from the families of students who could afford to pay. As the administrator having effective control, Parsons even ended up defending the rights of poor Germans who wished to attend.48 Parsons did, however, try to prevent Germans from contributing to the school’s construction, because of his concern that “if we allow them to subscribe

44 Condit, History of Easton, Penn’a, supra at 61; accord, Article, “Church Rich in History”, EASTON EXPRESS, Thurs., 25 Aug. 1977, p.26, cols.4-6.

45 Article, “Church Rich in History”, EASTON EXPRESS, Thurs., 25 Aug. 1977, p.26, cols.4-6.

46 A.D. Chidsey, Jr., A Frontier Village 86-88 (Vol. III of Publications of The Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society 1940).

Chidsey states at 251 that the log school was “the first public building of any kind built in Easton.” However, at 203 he presents evidence that the first log jail (or “prison”) had been built in 1752.

47 William J. Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car 103-04 (Express Printing Co. and Harmony Press, 1911, reprinted 1984).

48 A.D. Chidsey, Jr., A Frontier Village 86-88 (Vol. III of Publications of The Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society 1940).

Chidsey states at 251 that the log school was “the first public building of any kind built in Easton.” However, at 203 he presents evidence that the first log jail (or “prison”) had been built in 1752.

10

towards the building, every subscriber will think the school must be conducted as he suggests, and as they will all have different notions, there will arise a general quarrel amongst them; then, to spite each other, they will not send their children to the school at all, and by that means frustrate the object of it.”49

Despite Parsons’s views, a number of Germans are listed among the contributors.50 The original log building was located in the middle of the lot behind the location later used for the church building, and somewhat West of the alley (later called Sitgreaves Street).51 One of the early teachers was Robert Traill, who later became a politician and clerk of the Committee of Safety during the Revolutionary War.52 The schoolhouse building was also used by the German Reformed, Lutheran, and even Moravian congregations for their worship services.53

49 M.S. Henry, History of the Lehigh Valley 65 (Bixler & Corwin 1860); see also A.D. Chidsey, Jr., A Frontier Village 86-87 (Vol. III of Publications of The Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society 1940)(similar sentiment in Parsons’s letter transmitting to Philadelphia the petition of some Germans for a school).

Parsons’s mentor, Benjamin Franklin, had a similar jaundiced view of Germans, and feared that the influx of German settlers would swamp English culture and language. Franklin considered that these South Germans had a “swarthy Complexion” unlike English or even Hanoverians, and grouped the “Palatine boors” along with the French, Mediterranians, and (interestingly) also with the Russians and Swedes (who we certainly do not consider “swarthy” complected today). See Liam Riordan, Many Identities, One Nation 31-32 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 2007). It should be noted that the word “boor” originally meant a peasant farmer in “low” German (reflected in the Dutch and South African term “boer” today), which is almost certainly the social and economic description that these German immigrants would have used for themselves.

50 Rev. Uzal W. Condit, The History of Easton, Penn’a 17-18 (George W. West 1885 / 1889).

51 A.D. Chidsey, Jr., A Frontier Village 234-35 (Vol. III of Publications of The Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society 1940)(Building No.32); accord, William J. Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car 117 (Express Printing Co. and Harmony Press, 1911, reprinted 1984)(“The old log cabin was demolished to make room for the building now used as a Sunday School by the Reformed congregation.”); Article, “Easton Public School System Acclaimed for Accomplishments”, EASTON EXPRESS, Saturday, 12 June 1937, Jubilee Section B, p.9 (“a few feet east of the German Reformed Church in North Third Street”).

Contra, Rev. Uzal W. Condit, History of Easton, Penn’a 298 (George P. West 1885 / 1889)(original log schoolhouse site was “at or near the corner of Church and Sitgreaves streets”).

52 Rev. Uzal W. Condit, History of Easton, Penn’a 18, 72, 298 (George P. West 1885 / 1889).

53 A.D. Chidsey, Jr., A Frontier Village 251 (Vol. III of Publications of The Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society 1940)(Building No.32).

11

(Photo by Richard F. Hope)

In 1778, after the construction of the German Union Church (and hence presumably no longer needing the old log schoolhouse for worship services), the German Reformed and Lutheran congregations built a stone Second Schoolhouse building at the back of their lot, on the corner of Church and Sitgreaves Streets. This Second Schoolhouse building still stands, and now serves as the current Church congregation’s office building54 (Map Reference F55). The builder was mason Philip Meixell, who lived in Williams Township along the Delaware River, and who brought cooked meals for his workmen from his house all the way up to Easton. He was paid in Continental currency, which depreciated significantly during the Revolutionary War, leaving him with little real compensation. The first teacher was a Mr. Kemper. Meanwhile, Parsons’s old log building at the back of the Church was used by Presbyterians to conduct classes in English, until the Union Academy was erected in the 1790s. It was then torn down.56

An early teacher in the school was Philip Helik (also spelled Hellick), who was also the organist at the church.57 In 1781, Easton’s Lutheran minister, John Frederick Ernst, accused Helik of making improper advances to a 15-year old female student.

54 A Brief History of EASTON, supra, “The First United Church of Christ”; William J. Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car 117 (Express Printing Co. and Harmony Press, 1911, reprinted 1984); but see Article, “Easton Public School System Acclaimed for Accomplishments”, EASTON EXPRESS, Saturday, 12 June 1937, Jubilee Section B, p.9 (stone second school built in 1798 after Reformed Church Rev. Ludwig Becker and others disagreed with land acquisitions on Second Street for Union Academy).

55 La Duca, Map Guide to Historic Downtown Easton, supra.56 William J. Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car 117 (Express

Printing Co. and Harmony Press, 1911, reprinted 1984). Heller indicates that Meixell’s house was located “a short distance below the present Black Horse Tavern”, which evidently refers to the infamous Black Horse Tavern where “Johnny the Wop” was assassinated in 1928 during the Prohibition Era, and has now become known as “Stemmie’s Place” on Route 611. See, e.g., Linda Bellings, “Every So Often, Skeletons Rattle at the Sign of the Black Horse”, EASTON EXPRESS, Fri., 27 June 1975, p.12 (sign in Mercer County Museum says 1782, but 1917 photograph shows date as 1783); James A. Wright, Colonial Taverns of Northampton County, Pennsylvania 17 (self-published, 1993)(dates to 1783); N. Heindel, “Murder at the Black Horse”, THE PASTFINDER (Publication of the Williams Township Historical Society), Vol. II, No.2, pp.1-2 (April 1978).

As indicated above, a later newspaper story states that the stone school was not erected until 1798, and was first conducted by John Casper Mattes. Article, “Easton Public School System Acclaimed for Accomplishments”, EASTON EXPRESS, Saturday, 12 June 1937, Jubilee Section B, p.9.

12

However, the combined congregations refused to fire and excommunicate him, and Rev. Ernst resigned.58 By October 1783, Helik left Easton anyway – according to former Pastor Ernst, because “he sinned against the 6th commandment and [no one] with good conscience was able to consider him fit for service.”59 Helik’s successor both as schoolmaster and organist was John Casper Mattes, who served from 1783 until his death in 1809.60

57 Article, “Easton Public School System Acclaimed for Accomplishments”, EASTON EXPRESS, Saturday, 12 June 1937, Jubilee Section B, p.9 (Mr. Hellick, which it claims was the first teacher – but this cannot be correct, since Robert Traill was clearly earlier); Edith von Zemenszky and Mary A. Redline, A Strasbourger In America, John Frederick Ernst Minister of the Gospel, Lutheran Denomination (1748-1805) 185, 211-13, 217 (Seaber Turner Associates 2007)(Philip Helik).

58 Edith von Zemenszky and Mary A. Redline, A Strasbourger In America, John Frederick Ernst Minister of the Gospel, Lutheran Denomination (1748-1805) 185, 211-13, 217, 222-26 (Seaber Turner Associates 2007).

59 Edith von Zemenszky and Mary A. Redline, A Strasbourger In America, John Frederick Ernst Minister of the Gospel, Lutheran Denomination (1748-1805) 330 (Seaber Turner Associates 2007).

60 Barbara Fretz Kempton, A History of St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Easton, Pennsylvania 1740 – 1940 31-35 (Easton: The John S. Correll Co., Inc. 1940); accord, Article, “Easton Public School System Acclaimed for Accomplishments”, EASTON EXPRESS, Saturday, 12 June 1937, Jubilee Section B, p.9.

13