Nazareth Hall - Looking Back

Looking Back

A wonderful remembrance of life as a student at Nazareth Hall is from the History of Northampton County by Mathew S. Henry, 1851, Presented by Mrs. John McGrath. The original document is in the possession of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Matthew Henry was a descendant of William Henry, the older, who founded his Gun Factory in Lancaster, and the younger, who moved it to Nazareth (as he refers them in the work). Matthew built the first iron furnace in Northampton County at Jacobsburg in 1824. While his time as a student is not known, it can be inferred from his writing that it occurred long before this volume was written:

Schoolmates! will you accompany me to the Garden or pleasure grounds near the Hall? Do you recollect assisting in the planting of those Trees in the lower parts of this Garden, those yet remaining mementos of our toils, now are grown a size that would defy our remaining strength to displace, our arms cannot encircle them; whilst our Shrubbery such as the Rose bushes Sweetbrior, our tulips narcissus and other tender plant have disappeared long time ago. Who of you would not find pleasure in a visit to our bathing place at the Bushkill Creek (three miles north from the Hall) which we called "Klines" our Skaing Ponds in the long Meadow, our ball playing grounds in the woods beyond the Grave Yard. Our Sleigh rides from the upper end of the Grave yard down the hill there towards the Hall. Our excursions to Burrow's (Smith Gap of the Blue Mountain) our hunting the flying Squirrels in the neighboring forests, our taking the black Snakes captive, putting them into our pockets & bosoms in their full vigor, our gathering the hazel nuts Hickory nut Walnut & Chesnut & in these excursions occasionally infringing on the rights of others. Our innocent, gambols diversions of many kind, our likes, our dislikes our quarrels, our fights as miniature men, tell me! my now old & grey headed Men doth not the blood that now usually courses so Sluggishly through our veins, receive an impetus by recurring to those pleasant youthful years of our lives, spent at Nazareth Hall, & that the training then received will not fail to open unto us a blissful eternity, if properly adhered to the maxims then impressed upon our Notice.

And in History of the Moravian Church by Joseph Edmond Hutton (born 1868), it is written:

At Nazareth the Brethren had a school for boys, known as "Nazareth Hall." If this school never served any other purpose, it certainly taught some rising Americans the value of order and discipline. At meals the boys had to sit in perfect silence; and when they wished to indicate their wants, they did so, not by using their tongues, but by holding up the hand or so many fingers. The school was divided into "rooms"; each "room" contained only fifteen or eighteen pupils; these pupils were under the constant supervision of a master; and this master, who was generally a theological scholar, was the companion and spiritual adviser of his charges. He joined in all their games, heard them sing their hymns, and was with them when they swam in the "Deep Hole" in the Bushkill River on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons, when they gathered nuts in the forests, and when they sledged in winter in the surrounding country."