The Rose Tavern Stockade

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The Rose Tavern Stockade

"The Rose Inn"

Frontier Forts of Pennsylvania
Second Edition, Edited by Thomas Lynch Montgomery, Litt. D.

The youngest sister of the family was she of the beautiful name "Rose." Like the youngest of the house is frequently, so was she, different from all the others. Instead of the quiet, staid and matronly, so to say, settlement at Gnadenthal, Christian's Spring, and Friedensthal, we have the rollicking, bustling and cheerful public "Inn". It was distant about 1 1/4 miles north by east from old Nazareth. The story of its birth and existence is interesting.

In 1751 there came orders from the head men of the Church in the old country for the laying out of a village on some eligible spot within the limits of the Nazareth domain. It was to be like unto the Moravian vilage in Germany. Bishop SPANGENBERG accordingly selected, and had surveyed into a town plot; a parcel of one hundred and sixty acres, adjacent to the Northern boundary of the modern borough of Nazareth. The survey was actually commenced on the third day of January, 1752, preparations were made looking to the erection of dwellings on teh opening of spring, and the name Gnadenstadt-"The City of Grace"- was given to the projected town. On January 10th Bro. Nathaniel SEIDEL escorted the masons and carpenters, forty hands in all, from Bethlehem to Christian's Spring. They were received at Nazareth with sound of trumpets as a welcome. The masons were led to the stone quarry and the carpenters began to fell trees. At an early date a small log house was completed on the site of the new town, and then the further building of Gnadenstadt was indefinitely postponed. The inhabitants of Nazareth, whom it was proposed to transfer thither, were not willing to give up the poetry and freedom of an Economy for the prose and restricitons of a Municipium. The small log house stood vacant until in May, 1760, when it was occupied by John George CLAUS, a native of Alsace, and Mary Catharine, m. n. KUEHN, his wife. In the Autumn of 1761 Gottleib DEMUTH, from Radelsdorf, Bohemia (sometime an inhabitant of Georgia), took up a lot a quarter of a mile south from the Inn and blocked up a house. In this way the building of Gnadenstadt was gradually resumed and the place grew; but in June, 1762, it received the name of Shoeneck, i.e. "Pretty Corner", and so it continued.

One other building was originally erected, a rather imposing looking frame mansion of two stories, our Inn, and as it was the first house of entertainment for the "Tract" or "The Harmony", as it was called, its erection deserves more minute mention. On February 2d, 1752, John Jacob LOESCH and Carl SHULTES, residents of Bethlehem, were instructed by the authorities "to draft an Inn or Tavern House, such as would be suitable to erect behind Nazareth for the conveniency of the workmen of Gnadenstadt and also for the entertainment of strangers, said house to be thirty-five by thirty feet, to be furthermore quartered, brick-nogged and snugly weather-boarded, with a yard looking North and a garden South." A site for this important accessory was selected on a tract of two hundred and forty-one acres of land, which had been surveyed to the Moravians some times previous by Nicholas SCULL, and which touched the head line of the Barony. Here the Inn was staked off, its cellar dug deep down into the cool slate, and on March 27th the first stone of the foundation laid by Bishop SPANGENBERG, assisted by Warden SCHROPP, of Nazareth, Gottleib PESOLD, of Bethlehem, and others. Although work was carried on as actively as possible, yet it was autumn before the caravansary was completed. It contained seven rooms, one kitchen and a cellar. Subsequently a stable of stone, thirty-two by twenty-six feet, and a spring house of logs were built. It was first occupied on September 15th, by John Frederic SCHAUB, a native of Zurich, Switzerland, a cooper, and Divert Mary, his wife, who covenanted to discharge the duties of a landlord blamelesly in consideration of the payment unto him annually of 10, lawful money of Pennsylvania. Standing as it did on the great Minisink road that, since 1746, led from the farms and settlements dotting both shores of the Upper Delaware down to the populous portions of the Counties and to the great Capital itself, its portals soon opened to many a weary traveler who speedily found rest and good cheer within. It was on August 6th, 1754, during their incumbancy, that the sign was charged with a full blown scarlet rose. Hence, and ever afterwards, the house was known as "Der Gasthof zur Rose" - Die Rose - The Rose. Rev. REICHEL very pleasantly says "Now this floral appellation was bestowed upon the lonely hospice not because its surcoat was dyed deep in Spanish red, not because it was hoped that in its presence the surrounding wilderness of scrub-oak and stunted pines would blossom like the queen of flowers, but in order to keep in lively remembrance a point of history-- in so far as when John PENN, Thomas PENN, and Richard PENN released to Letitia AUBREY of London, their half-sister, gentlewoman, the five thousand acres of land that had been confirmed to his trusty friend, Sir John FAGG, for her sole use and behoof, by William PENN,Sr. late Proprietary and Chief Governor of the Province of Pennsylvania, by the name of William PENN, of Worminghurst, in the County of Sussex, Esquire, it was done on the condition of her yielding and paying therefore ONE RED ROSE on the 24th day of June, yearly, if the same should be demanded, in full for all services, customs and rents.

SCHAUB, his wife and son Johnny, the first child of white parents born at Nazareth, bade a reluctant farewell to "The Rose" on August 14th, 1754. John Nicholas WEINLAND, his successor, mentioned in connection with Gnadenthal, administered its concerns until the 11th day of December following. So it came to pass that the fury of the Indian War fell upon its neighborhood during the incumbency of Albrecht KLOTZ, last from Tulpehocken, but a native of Hohenlohe, in the Lower Palatinate, blacksmith, and Ann Margaret, m. n. RIETH, his wife, born in Scoharie, a daughter of old Michael RIETH [she is definitely not the daughter of Michael, but more likely the daughter of Peter RIETH√]. Associated with them were Christian STOTZ, from Laufen, Wurtemburg, farmer, and Ann, m. n. Herr, his wife (they with three children had immigrated to the Province in 1750), last from Gnadenthal. They came in April, 1755, and attended to the farming. Joseph, a negro from the Gold Coast, who since March 5th, 1753, had been acting as hostler, returned to Bethlehem, with his Indian wife Charity, at this critical period.

On November 1st, 1755, sixty thousand people perished at Lisbon, Portugal in the great earthquake. A curious and interesting extract from the Moravian chronicles, over which scientists may puzzle if they see fit, states that in the early morning of the 18th of said month there was heard on the Barony, with a star-lit sky overhead, a sound as of a rushing wind and of the booming of distant siege guns, and whilst the sleepers in their beds at the Inn rocked, as do mariners in hammocks out at sea, lo! the doors in "The Rose" swung on their hinges and stood open. The part taken by our hostelrie in the Indian War was of a peculiar and two-fold nature. In the first place it was par excellence a "house of refuge". At the northern and most advanced point of the Barony and on the high road communicating with the devastated regions, it became the gateway which admitted the harassed sufferer and those he loved to safety. On the other hand it was through this same gate the soldiers marched to protect their friends and repel the invader, and it was here they found for a while a comfortable resting place, either when on their way to the front or upon their return from the scene of hostilities. It was but seldom its doors did not resound to the knock of the refugee, and possibly even less seldom they did not open to admit bodies of armed men. Indeed its position of importance as a public house and, in addition, as an outpost of the Barony, demanded the frequent presence of a guard. When, on rare occasions, it did not shelter detachments of Provincial troops, brethren from Christian’s Spring were detailed in time of need for that duty. So then besides being "a house of refuge" it was indeed "a fort.."

On November 25th, 1755, upwards of sixty terrified men, women and children from the districts on the north adjacent to the Barony, thronged through the doorway of the Moravian Inn, clamorous for shelter and for protection from the murdering Indians. Among them were the CLEVELS, from the banks of the romantic Bushkill, the STECHERS (whose seedling apple is in high esteem to this day), the GERMANTOWNS, the KOEHLERS, the KLAESES, and the KOSTENBODERS, all from the plains of upper Northampton. By December 17th, 1755, according to an official enumeration, there were two hundred refugees billeted at Nazareth and in the Ephrata House, and one hundred at the other settlements on the tract. On January 29th [1756] following, as previously mentioned, there were 253 at Nazareth and 196 at the other settlements, of which 226 were children. At this time 21 were quartered at the "Rose". It was as promiscuous an assemblage as ever had been gathered in so short a time, embracing, as it did, men of divers nationalities and creeds and women of divers tongues. There were the EISENMANNS, the GEISLYS, the HECKS, the HEISSES, the HEIMANS, the HOFFMANS’, the HUEDS or HUTHS, the KUNKLES, the SCHIELSES, the SERFASES, the SYLVASES, and the WEISERS, all from Contented Valley [**Chestnuthill Township]; the CULVERS and the JONSES from McMICHAEL’s creek, the BREWSTERS, the COUNTRYMANS, and the HILLMANS, from Dansbury – and many others.  [Thanks to Dan Tanczos, the staff at the Moravian Museum confirmed there are no Sylvases on the list, or any list, of those that were at the Moravian Inn.]

Its occupation as a military post covered the interval, especially, between November 26th, 1755, and February 20th, 1756, a most trying period of the hostilities. On the evening of November 26th a company of Saucon rangers, under command of Capt. LAUBACH (the Laucbachs were settled, prior to 1740, on a branch of the Saucon creeck, called Laubach’s creek to this day) halted at the Inn, lit their camp fires in the orchard, and bivouacked for the night. Having scoured the neighboring woods next day to no purpose, on their return to "The Rose" there came intelligence of the enemy’s presence in the gap in the mountain, whereupon they broke up camp at dusk, and, by the friendly light of the full moon, set out in pursuit. Meanwhile, two detachments of mounted men had arrived. These, however, failed to recognize any necessity for their presence and so, after having dined, departed. On December 14th, Captain JENNINGS and DOLL, at the head of their repective command, passed "The Rose" en route for the scene of the late disaster at HOETH’s, under orders to search for and bury the dead. Five days later, on their return from this dangerous duty, they posted Lieut. BROWN, with 18 men at the Inn, for the defense of the Moravian Settlements; and well it was they did so, for that very night there were indications of savages lurking within gunshot of its doors. Captain Jennings was the same SOLOMON JENNINGS, who, at sunrise on September 19th, 1737, set out with EDWARD MARSHALL and JAMES YEATES from JOHN CHAPMAN’s corner at Wrightstown, to walk for a wager and to walk off the land for the Penns; but who, on arriving at a point two miles north of the Tohickon, about eleven o’clock the same morning, desisted from the contest. Falling back into the curious crowd that followed in the wake of the walkers, Jennings parted company at the Forks of Lehigh (at the head of the Bethlehem Iron company’s island) and struck into the path that led to his farm, situate about two miles higher up on the right bank of the river. Here he died, February 17th, 1757. On December 21st, Capt. CRAIG, with a detachment of Ulster-Scots, from their seats on the Monocasy and the springs of Callsucks, arrived in order to assure himself of the safety of his Moravian neighbors, who, it was rumored, had been cut off by the enemy. Next followed Capt. TRUMP and Capt. ASHTON, with their Companies of Provincials. From the seat of Justice in a remote corner of the county hard by the Jerseys, their destination being Smithfield and their errand the erection of a blockhouse within its limits. This was on December 26th, and the last movement of the military past "The Rose" in the year 1755.

In the first month of 1756, however, in the halls of the hostelrie again echoed to the tramp of martial feet, and perhaps never more loudly than during the occupation of the Nazareth tract by Capt. ISAAC WAYNE, of FRANKLIN’s command, in the interval between January 5th and 15th. In the ensuing weeks there was constant intercourse between Nazareth and the men of war in Smithfield, detachments of Trump’s men coming down from Fort Hamilton to convey supplies of bread, baked at stated periods in the large family oven on the Barony, to their hungry comrades. But on February 17th our good landlord, ALBRECHT KLOTZ, was perhaps more sorely tried than on any previous occasion, when he was obliged to billet sixty soldiers who were clamoring for bed and board at the already crowded Inn.

     

1756

Jan’y 26--

To Smithy at Christian’s Spring for sundry work,

�3.. 3

       

Feb. 5

To meals furnished Capt. Ashton’s company,

�1.. 4

       

Feb. 14

To 25 men’s eating and drinking, in command of Lieut. Anthony Miller,

�1..10

       

Feb. 18

To 31 men’s breakfast of Capt. Trump’s company,

�15..6

       

Feb. 19

To meals furnished capt. Arndt’s company, in command of Ensign Nicholas Conrad,

�1..10

       

Feb. 19

To means and drams furnished Capt. Wetherhold’s company,

�…15

       

Feb. 23

To 700 lbs bread delivered to Capt. W. Craig in Nazareth,

�4.. 7 ..6

       

Feb. 26

To 200 lbs bread delivered in Nazareth to Capt. Wetherhold,

�1.. 5

           

�14..10

Gottleib Senseman was baker-general at Nazareth.

After this the presence of the military at "The Rose" became less frequent, and gradually, though not uninterruptedly, its history’s stream returned into its former more peaceful channel. Were it a part of this work it would be interesting to mention its remaining landlords and tell somewhat about them, as well as to dwell on a few of those who enjoyed its hospitality. The only remaining occurrence, however, which admits of notice was the visit on September 18th and 19th, 1757, of Jacob Volck, Lewis Jung and three Indians who had been sent by Teedyuscung to Joseph Kellar’s place, the capture of whose wife near Tead’s Blockhouse on September 16th, has been given under that head, to see if any of his liege subjects were implicated in that outrage. This was under the incumbency of Hartmann Verdriers, the fifth landlord, and his wife Catharine, m. n. Bender, who occupied it August 20th, 1756.

After various further alarms and guard mountings, various visits of Indians and authorities of the Province during the efforts made to bring about a treaty of peace, and various vicissitudes, incident to all similar buildings, it finally came into the hands of its last landlord, John Lischer, who, with his wife, Mary Catharine, administered its affairs from April 20th, 1765, until March 30th, 1772. With his retirement it ceased to be an inn, having been sold in 1771 to Dorst Alteman, a native of the Canton of Berne, Switzerland, but prior to 1761 an inhabitant of Lancaster county. It then passed through various hands until the spring of 1858, when the old hostelrie was doomed to destruction. Its chimneys were torn down, its roof was removed, its floors torn up. Some of the boards which survived the wreck were used to cover the gables of the tenant house which then stood on its site. Rev. Reichel says they were "the sole remaining, but alas! withered leaves shed from the Red Rose that once bloomed on the Barony of Nazareth."

Volume 1, p. 269-277

√  Thanks to the research of Dale Leppard, 1/2012 [[email protected]]

It's my opinion, at this point [7/21/02], that the "Sylvases" mentioned are either #2 William and family or #1 Henry and family if they were also farming Williams Chesnuthill Township patent.  #1 Henry and family could have gone to Oblinger's Block House in the present Palmerton area which was said to be on land originally of Nathanial Irish (later sold to Nicholas Obblinger/Oplinger) and adjoined #1 Henry's land.  William took up a warrant for land in the present-day Slatington area by this time.

** In 1754, a petition was put before the authorities.  The Petitioners were "inhabitants of Contented Valley."   The Petition:  For the formation of Chestnuthill Township; the present township was too large and they were obliged "to work at makeing the Roads near Twenty Miles from some of their Habitations."  Borders:  New township would go from Henry FRANCE Settlement then along the Blue Mountains down far enough to take in Weaver MICKEL's old settlement, then over the second mountain called Second Blue Mountain, then to include Larence KUNKEL, then back to the beginning "wich we Recken it will be Nine or Then Miles Broad and Twelve Miles Long."  No Silvius signing because they were still living on Henry's warrant in the Palmerton area but it's signed by John Christian Bomper (I think he or another Boemper, died the same day as the Hoeth massacre) and Nickol BURGER (had land near land that was later #11 Henry's) among other names I don't recognize.  On the back of this record it said "allowed if the township joined Lower Smithfield and Dry Gap (now called Wind Gap) or near it; Fred-k HOET and Philip SERFASS were to assess and report back to court." [From the book of Candace E. Anderson, Miscellaneous Public Records, 1758 to 1767, p. 30.]   This is most definitely the area that the Chesnuthill Silvius property was. 

Regarding finding more information about these Sylvases at the Rose Inn, a researcher in the area told me:  "The families that found asylum in Nazareth are listed in the Nazareth Diary which is located at the Moravian Historical Society in the Whitefield House in Nazareth. It has not been microfilmed. I'm not sure if it includes the families at the Rose."  It would be great if someone would try to find this information because the author found it recorded somewhere that the Sylvases were here. 

Dansbury was located in what is now Stroudsburg, Monroe County (north on Rte 191 from Nazareth).  Dansbury is used in many business/civic names, ie: Dansbury Park and Dansbury Depot (a restored rail station, now restaurant) etc.  [Thanks to Dan Tanczos]
McMichael Creek is in upper Monroe County it appears.  [Marie.]