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Moravian College • Preservation Master Plan
meaning that the Lenape were forced to relinquish
a much larger tract than they had intended. The
tribe contested the claim but a 1742 meeting of
the Iroquois Confederacy upheld the decision
(Gerhardt et al. 2008:4-5).
William Allen was a Presbyterian of Scots-Irish
descent. Within two years of the Walking Purchase,
other Scots-Irish settlers moved to his land from
New Castle, Delaware, and were joined by German
settlers moving north from Bucks County. The
area remained a frontier in its first two decades
(Gerhardt et al. 2008:4-5).
Between 1737 and 1740, the Moravian colonists of
Savannah abandoned their settlement and several
moved to Pennsylvania. Two of their bishops,
Augustus Spangenberg and David Nitschmann,
had already traveled there to conduct missionary
work among the Schwenkfelders. English evangelist
George Whitefield hired the Moravians to construct
a school for blacks (figure 2-2) at his new settlement
called Nazareth, established in 1740 on 5,000 acres
purchased from William Allen. Nazareth lay in a
near-wilderness, with only a few nearby white
settlements populated by Scots-Irish, and Delaware
Indians still had a significant presence. Within a
year, theological differences between Whitefield
and the Moravians led the Moravians to seek
their own land. On April 2, 1741, after considering
multiple locations, they purchased property from
William Allen. The 500-acre tract lay ten miles from
Nazareth at the confluence of the Lehigh River
and Monocacy Creek, and had never been settled.
Just a few months later, Whitefield abandoned his
venture at Nazareth and the Moravian Church
purchased his entire tract, giving it not one but two
new settlements in Pennsylvania (Murtagh 1967:7,
95-97; Myers 1981:39-41).
Figure 2-2. Nineteenth century view of Whitefield House at
Nazareth, built by Moravian settlers in the 1740s (Murtagh
1967:96).
Figure 2-3. 1874 Rufus Grider watercolor showing first log house
in Bethlehem at far left (Murtagh 1967:22).
Bethlehem’s site was chosen for its proximity
to a fast-flowing spring at the base of the bluff
overlooking the confluence of creek and river.
The town was sited atop the wooded bluff to
avoid floods, meaning that all water used in the
settlement had to be hauled uphill by cart until
the first waterworks was constructed in 1754
(Myers 1981:39-41). The spring of 1741 saw the
planting of the fields and construction of the first
log dwelling house there (figure 2-3), which served
initially as both dwelling and stable. The small
group of Moravian workers began construction
on a much larger log house, the Gemeinhaus, in
September (figure 2-4). Count von Zinzendorf and
his sixteen-year-old daughter Benigna, along with
Figure 2-4. 1854 Rufus Grider watercolor of the
completed in 1742 (Murtagh 1967:25).
Gemeinhaus,
John Milner Associates • October 2009 • Chapter 2 • Historic Overview • 8