Edward J. Gallagher, Bethlehem immigrant, retired, nearly 50 years as Professor of American Literature at Lehigh University, known as "Dr. G" and "Conan the Grammarian" to students, whose virtual world avatar "EdwardScholarhands" stares at you here, has reinvented himself as the Bethlehem Gadfly.
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5 thoughts on “Mother’s Day question for the Bethlehem historians”
I suppose you should count Countess Benigna von Zinzendorf, who founded what is now known as Moravian College.
Clearly, you must resemble your father! (Bad joke, my good man)
On Sun, May 12, 2019 at 10:30 AM The Bethlehem Gadfly wrote:
> The Bethlehem Gadfly posted: “Mother’s Day An excuse to post a picture of > the Gadfly mother. Isn’t she beautiful? Anyway. We have no lack of > Bethlehem forefathers — Zinzendorf, Nitschmann, etc., etc. Do we have > Bethlehem foremothers?” >
We have lots. Benigna Zinzendorf started the sixth oldest college in America and first to educate women and Native Americans in their language. Nitschmann is not a man, she is Anna Nitschmann, Benigna’s step mother who provided the initial funding of the school by spinning wool. There is also a history of the women at Moravian College in the first floor of the Brethren House on Moravian’s south campus.
Those are just some of the Moravian mothers. There are so many more.
Best, Bryon
On Sun, May 12, 2019 at 10:30 AM The Bethlehem Gadfly wrote:
> The Bethlehem Gadfly posted: “Mother’s Day An excuse to post a picture of > the Gadfly mother. Isn’t she beautiful? Anyway. We have no lack of > Bethlehem forefathers — Zinzendorf, Nitschmann, etc., etc. Do we have > Bethlehem foremothers?” >
Bethlehem foremothers lost their surnames when they married. Estelle Stadiger Borhek, a Moravian girl, was “only” the daughter of a principal of the Brown and Borhek Company when she married a young Lehigh grad employed by Bethlehem Steel Company, Archibald Johnston. Johnston was not a Bethlehem native or even a Moravian at first. We know how that turned out. The family name lived on as the middle name of their son Archibald AKA “Arch Jr.”.
Another foremother from the Brown family married a guy named Eugene Grace.
Victorian ways didn’t give most of our foremothers the opportunity to let their lights shine as brightly as Hilda’s did. I submit that without Estelle there could have been no Mayor Johnston.
Thanks, Foremoms!
Yes!!
On Sun, May 12, 2019 at 10:30 AM The Bethlehem Gadfly wrote:
> The Bethlehem Gadfly posted: “Mother’s Day An excuse to post a picture of > the Gadfly mother. Isn’t she beautiful? Anyway. We have no lack of > Bethlehem forefathers — Zinzendorf, Nitschmann, etc., etc. Do we have > Bethlehem foremothers?” >
I suppose you should count Countess Benigna von Zinzendorf, who founded what is now known as Moravian College.
Clearly, you must resemble your father! (Bad joke, my good man)
On Sun, May 12, 2019 at 10:30 AM The Bethlehem Gadfly wrote:
> The Bethlehem Gadfly posted: “Mother’s Day An excuse to post a picture of > the Gadfly mother. Isn’t she beautiful? Anyway. We have no lack of > Bethlehem forefathers — Zinzendorf, Nitschmann, etc., etc. Do we have > Bethlehem foremothers?” >
We have lots. Benigna Zinzendorf started the sixth oldest college in America and first to educate women and Native Americans in their language. Nitschmann is not a man, she is Anna Nitschmann, Benigna’s step mother who provided the initial funding of the school by spinning wool. There is also a history of the women at Moravian College in the first floor of the Brethren House on Moravian’s south campus.
Those are just some of the Moravian mothers. There are so many more.
Best, Bryon
On Sun, May 12, 2019 at 10:30 AM The Bethlehem Gadfly wrote:
> The Bethlehem Gadfly posted: “Mother’s Day An excuse to post a picture of > the Gadfly mother. Isn’t she beautiful? Anyway. We have no lack of > Bethlehem forefathers — Zinzendorf, Nitschmann, etc., etc. Do we have > Bethlehem foremothers?” >
Bethlehem foremothers lost their surnames when they married. Estelle Stadiger Borhek, a Moravian girl, was “only” the daughter of a principal of the Brown and Borhek Company when she married a young Lehigh grad employed by Bethlehem Steel Company, Archibald Johnston. Johnston was not a Bethlehem native or even a Moravian at first. We know how that turned out. The family name lived on as the middle name of their son Archibald AKA “Arch Jr.”.
Another foremother from the Brown family married a guy named Eugene Grace.
Victorian ways didn’t give most of our foremothers the opportunity to let their lights shine as brightly as Hilda’s did. I submit that without Estelle there could have been no Mayor Johnston.
Thanks, Foremoms!
Yes!!
On Sun, May 12, 2019 at 10:30 AM The Bethlehem Gadfly wrote:
> The Bethlehem Gadfly posted: “Mother’s Day An excuse to post a picture of > the Gadfly mother. Isn’t she beautiful? Anyway. We have no lack of > Bethlehem forefathers — Zinzendorf, Nitschmann, etc., etc. Do we have > Bethlehem foremothers?” >