Latest in a series of posts on Bethlehem Moments

Bethlehem Moment 26
City Council
July 21, 2020

Mary Foltz, Lehigh University
Susan Falciani Maldonado, Muhlenberg College
Kristen Leipert, Muhlenberg College

audio

Bethlehem Moment: June 22, 1969

Le-Hi-Ho, the first organized group for gays in the Lehigh Valley,
held its first meeting

As the Lehigh Valley concludes the celebration of Pride month and looks forward to Allentown’s Pride Festival in August, the Lehigh Valley LGBT Community Archive has engaged with uncovering the deep history of LGBT organizing in our region. While many will know about activism at Stonewall in New York City, few in our region will recall 1960s LGBT organizations that paved the way for social change in Pennsylvania and the larger nation. We are grateful for this opportunity to share a short narrative about one such organization that originated in the months prior to the Stonewall uprising. It is our hope that this story will give residents of Bethlehem and the larger Lehigh Valley a glimpse of the vibrant contributions of LGBT leaders to our region. And we affirm here that the Lehigh Valley has important stories to tell about LGBT history from the 1960s into the present.

In the early months of 1969, a group of friends tuned into activist groups in major urban centers envisioned bringing the energy of the Homophile Movement to the Valley. The Homophile Movement gained support in the U.S. in the 1950s and continued to make progress through the 1960s; its primary aims were to fight for equal rights for gay and lesbian people, to counter discrimination in housing and employment, and to counter negative medical, educational, and social understandings of homosexuality. As LGBT people in the Valley faced rampant discrimination, this group of friends believed that a local homophile organization could help to make civic change that greatly would impact our community.

LeHiHo members summer 2019 with student archivists

Their dream became a reality six days before the raid at the Stonewall Inn, which served as a catalyst for the gay liberation movement.  On June 22, 1969, a gathering of twenty-seven individuals met “on the north slope of the blue mountains” in Bloomsburg, PA to form a “homophile movement” in the Lehigh Valley. The meeting drew participants from a sixty-mile radius, and fifteen charter members pledged dues, time, and energy to foster the new organization. Leaders of the burgeoning organization included Ron Seeds, Joseph Burns, and others from the city of Bethlehem.

One of the primary decisions the members faced was whether or not to become an affiliate of the nationally-networked Mattachine Society, one of the earliest gay rights groups in the United States. Ultimately, the Lehigh Valley’s relative distance from New York City and Philadelphia, which presented challenges for attending meetings and events, prompted the founders to lean towards an independent organization, and the Homophile Movement of the Lehigh Valley was born. Nicknamed “Le-Hi-Ho,” the organization wanted to secure a more central location for their meetings so that many in the Lehigh Valley could attend. During the summer of 1969, Le-Hi-Ho approached the Unitarian Church of Bethlehem about holding its meetings in their building, and, after a review of the organization’s bylaws, the Church approved meetings beginning in 1970.

From its first month, Le-Hi-Ho became a hub for information about national gay liberation struggles and their regional counterparts. For example, they published their first newsletter in June 1969 and continued to offer relevant reportage about protests and activist efforts in our region and NYC and Philadelphia as well as needed discussion of social events. Even as they provided rich resources for the LGBT community, Le-Hi-Ho leaders sought to protect members from discrimination by securing mailing lists and the names and addresses of those who received newsletters. As gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people could be fired or lose housing because of their sexual or gender identities, leaders needed to ensure the privacy of members. All communication and correspondence was conducted through a Bethlehem post office box in the name of Ron Seeds, a manager at Bethlehem Steel who was the founding director of Le-Hi-Ho. Ron Seeds was the only keeper of the Le-Hi-Ho mailing list, thereby ensuring that names of members were not revealed. The August ‘69 newsletter stressed the importance of discretion, recommending best practices for not revealing too much about other members of the organization.

According to Joseph Burns, the original editor of the newsletter, Le-Hi-Ho was primarily a social organization even as their members were invested in politics. Monthly meetings often featured an invited speaker, such as “Dr. Bob” in September ‘69, who spoke about health concerns of LGBT people, or Dick Leitsch of the Mattachine Society, who visited in January 1970. Still, the most anticipated part of the meetings was the social hour that followed the conclusion of the official agenda. Le-Hi-Ho provided an alternative to the bar scene, according to Burns, as many LGBT people wanted the opportunity to meet outside of noisy taprooms and dance halls.

While social events continued to be a huge draw for members, political organizing became the focus for others. Le-Hi-Ho members, like Frank Whelan and Bob Wittman, were involved in starting the Lambda Center in Allentown, the first LGBT community center in our region. Others were involved with the regional chapter of N.O.W. and participated in the important fight for an anti-discrimination ordinance in Allentown. The political activity of Le-Hi-Ho members shows the value of social organizations for fostering spaces in which to build community, to dream of social change, and to create relationships that fuel the difficult work for social justice.

In the late 1990s, Le-Hi-Ho’s membership began to decline as other LGBT organizations took the lead in the Valley, building on the foundation created by our earlier organizers. Still, their work on behalf of our community is an important part of Lehigh Valley history, which we are proud to celebrate.

We are fortunate to have insight into the early days of this (necessarily) private organization thanks to archivally-minded members of the group, Frank Whelan and Bob Wittman, who deposited the records of Le-Hi-Ho at the Allentown Public Library, where they are available for researchers. The collection contents can be viewed by visiting the Lehigh Valley LGBT Community Archive at http://trexler.muhlenberg.edu/library/specialcollections/

“Without a shared history, we are not a true community.”

Latest in a series of posts on Bethlehem Moments

Alan would normally deliver this “Moment” in person at City Council tonight — no doubt in re-enactor garb — but we bow to the pandemic and publish it solely here. Enjoy!

Bethlehem Moment 22
City Council
April 21, 2020

Alan Y. Lowcher
438 High St.

Bethlehem Moment: July 7, 1865, Trying the Assassins of President Lincoln

“Sic Semper Tyrannis!” With those words and a woman’s scream from the Presidential Box, the audience at Ford’s Theater was plunged into chaos.  Several physicians examined the unconscious President and pronounced the wound mortal.  It would be unseemly for the President of the United States to die in a house of entertainment – on Good Friday, no less.  But the doctors agreed that Lincoln would never survive the carriage ride to the White House.  The President was carried out onto Tenth Street, Union officers scanning the scene for someplace – anyplace – to take the dying Chief Executive.  From across the street, a voice called out “Bring him in here,” and Lincoln was carried into a boarding house and laid in the bed of Louisa Peterson, who was away at the Bethlehem Female Seminary.  The President died in her bed at 7:22 AM on Easter Saturday, April 15, 1865.  Telegraphers flashed the news around the country. Wednesday, April 19^th was designated as a national day of mourning.

Secretary of War Stanton directed the search for Lincoln’s assassin – and the perpetrators of the brutal assault on Secretary of State Seward – from the Peterson

house.  With the full weight of the military and police brought to bear, it was only a matter of days until the Lincoln conspirators – John Wilkes Booth, David Herald, George Atzerodt, Lewis Powell (a/k/a Payne), Mary Surratt, Dr. Mudd, Edman Spangler, and two early signers on in the plot to kidnap Lincoln but who were not involved in the plans to assassinate Lincoln – Samuel Arnold and Michael O’Laughlin – were identified, caught, and incarcerated, except for Booth who died of a gunshot at the Garrett farm in Virginia.  Another conspirator – John Surratt, Jr., Mary’s son — had fled to Canada.  He would elude capture for a year and was tried before a civilian court in 1867, the U.S. Supreme Court having held in Ex Parte Milligan that trying civilians in a military court was unconstitutional when the civilian courts were functioning.  The statute of limitations having run on the lesser charges, Surratt was released when the jury could not unanimously agree on the remaining murder charge.

Stanton favored convening a military commission to quickly try and execute the conspirators.  The commission met for the first time on May 8, 1865.  All of the defendants except Atzerodt and Powell were represented by attorneys.  Bethlehem native Brevet Brigadier General William E. Doster was hired by Atzerodt’s brother to defend George. The commission appointed Doster to represent Powell, who could not secure his own counsel.  Doster was a Yale graduate and obtained his law degree from Harvard.  He served with the 4th Pennsylvania Cavalry and rose quickly to the rank of Lt. Colonel.  His military career was cut short when he contracted malaria after the Gettysburg campaign.  In 1865 he was honored with the rank of Brevet Brigadier General “for gallant and meritorious service in the field.”  Although his illness kept him out of the saddle, Doester turned his combative skills to good use practicing law in Washington City in 1864.

Faced with an eye-witness identifying Powell as Seward’s attacker, and weapons, an escape map, and Booth’s bank book found in a trunk in Atzerodt’s hotel room – Atzerodt was assigned to assassinate Vice President Johnson — Doster surely realized that his clients would be convicted.  All he could do was try to persuade the commission to spare their lives.  In the case of Atzerodt, Doster argued that he was too much of a coward to be that heavily involved in the conspiracy. Atzerodt, after all, failed to carry out Booth’s instructions to kill the Vice President.  Instead, he downed several drinks at the Kirkland House bar, mere feet from Johnson’s room, and then made his way out of Washington City.  Doster might also have highlighted his client’s lack of intelligence: Atzerodt made a bee-line for a relative’s house in nearby Maryland.  His trail was not hard to follow.  Doster’s defense of Powell portrayed the former Confederate soldier as an abused, innocent farm boy turned murderer by the recently concluded cruel war.  Doster also argued that Powell suffered from a kind of insanity.  After all, Powell was heard to scream as he ran from Seward’s home, “I’m mad! I’m mad!”   In the end, Doster’s eloquent pleas on behalf of both clients came to naught.  Atzerodt and Powell were hanged together with David Herold and Mrs. Surratt, July 7, 1865.

However, that is not the end of the story.   In 1978, a historian examining Doster’s legal files came across a May 1, 1865, “confession” made by George Atzerodt to the Provost Marshal of Baltimore.  Atzerodt’s statements directly linked Mrs. Surratt and Dr. Mudd to Booth’s original plot to kidnap Lincoln and spirit him to Richmond.  More tellingly, Atzerodt confirmed Booth’s instructions to Mrs. Surratt – after Booth’s plans turned from kidnapping to assassination – to make ready the rifles that she had hidden in her Surrattsville tavern for Booth to pick up after assassinating Lincoln.  Inexplicably, the Provost Marshal turned over Atzerodt’s statement to Doster, not Secretary of War Stanton.  Doster suppressed Atzerodt’s statement and never spoke of it.  Had he revealed it, the evidence of Mrs. Surratt’s guilt would have been that much stronger, and Dr. Mudd – who escaped the death penalty by one vote – surely would have hanged alongside Mrs. Surratt and the others.  An unanswerable question remains:  Had General Doster chosen to reveal the “confession,” could he have made a plea deal with the military commission to spare Atzerodt the death penalty in exchange for Mudd’s life?

Doster returned to Bethlehem after the war to practice law.  He represented many local companies, including Bethlehem Iron Company and the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, and Bethlehem’s prominent citizens and their families.  He married Evelyn Augusta Depew in 1867.  They had two sons and a daughter.  The marriage was “dissolved,” and in 1888, 51-year-old Doster married 19-year-old Ruth Porter, a great beauty, and heiress to two prominent East Coast families. The musically gifted Ruth was a founder of the Bach Choir.  Scandal befell the family when Ruth divorced General Doster and married her stepson, Edward Depew Doster, who was just a year older than she.

And what of Louisa Peterson’s bed?  Peterson’s father sold the house for $4,500 to a speculator who hoped that the government would buy it for a museum.  The bed upon which President Lincoln died was sold for $80.  According to Louisa’s brother Fred, who gave an interview to the Chicago Historical Society in 1926, the family could have sold the bed many times over.  The story of Miss Peterson, her bed, and its connection to Bethlehem would never have been known except for a letter that Louisa wrote in 1864 asking about her trunk that had not arrived home yet from school.  The letter, found in the Moravian Archives, included details about Peterson’s family that led to the “Bethlehem” connection to the household where Lincoln died.

“Without a shared history, we are not a true community.”

Sources:

The Morning Call, November 24, 2017, In Bethlehem’s Moravian history, archivists find connections to Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, by Nicole Radzievich.

Chicago Historical Bulletin, February 1926, containing an interview of Fred Peterson that first appeared in the New York Times, February 9, 1913.

National Park Service, Ford’s Theater, Washington, D.C.

The Morning Call, January 6, 2002, Bethlehem native played a role in aftermath of Lincoln’s assassination, by Edward Steers, Jr.

The Trial of the Lincoln Conspirators, by Doug Linder (2009)

Latest in a series of posts on Bethlehem Moments

“Without a shared history, we are not a true community.”

1) The “Bethlehem Moment” is a scene or event from Bethlehem history anywhere from 1741 to the 1960s, usually no more than 20 typed lines, that can be read in approximately 3 minutes, that will be presented at the beginning of City Council meetings. The Moments will be archived in Council minutes and published on the Gadfly blog, as well as perhaps other places.

2) The purpose of the Bethlehem Moment in a town that has been the scene of so much important history and has three historical districts is to encourage everyone to learn more about that history. (For examples, see: https://thebethlehemgadfly.com/category/bethlehem-moments/.)

3) Willingness and interest are the most important things. You don’t have to feel you know anything at the beginning. A list of resources will be available. There will be people with whom to consult.

4) Help can be provided finding a topic, researching it, and writing the Moment if needed.

5) The topic is open, but you should clear it with the coordinator.

6) Good topics often start with a question: who? what? when? why?

7) Pick a topic that you know about, or, better yet, one that you want to learn about or feel that it is important that others know about.

8) There is no especial need to pick big topics, obvious topics, well-known topics. Aspects of our history that are little-known or hidden, that we might not have even heard of, might be better.

9) Likewise, you should feel no especial need to choose a celebratory, feel-good topic – our dark moments are part of our history too and equally important and illuminating.

10) It’s best if you deliver your Moment at City Council yourself, but others can read it for you if necessary or if you prefer.

11) City Council meets at Town Hall the 1^st and 3^rd Tuesdays of each month.

12) You might not feel that you have anything to say at the beginning, but you will probably struggle to confine yourself to 20 lines/3 minutes after you have done some research.

13) The Bethlehem Moment is a project aimed at fostering a sense of community. You should feel it an honor to do one. We hope you will see it as fun.

14) After, we hope you will be an Ambassador for the project & encourage others to participate.

15) please contact:

Ed Gallagher
Coordinator pro-tem
ejg1@lehigh.edu

Latest in a series of posts on Bethlehem Moments

“Without a shared history, we are not a true community.”

Well, if not, why not?

The Bethlehem Moments are mini-essays on Bethlehem history from 1741 to around the 1960s, delivered during public comment at City Council meetings and then published here on Gadfly.

The series of Moments is meant to generate a sense of community.

Without a history we are just an atomized assembly of individuals who happen to live in an arbitrary area.

When you do a Moment, you “own” a piece of the past, you become one with a piece of the past.

We’ve done 20 Moments so far. Alan Lowcher will do #21 on the occasion of next week’s Council meeting.

I’m under house arrest, and one of the things I’m doing is reading the 1968 history of Bethlehem.

In the next post you’ll find a “Guide to Bethlehem History.” Libraries are closed, but some of the books can be ordered online, and full texts of at least two can be found online. In addition, there are some valuable web resources.

So you could also be doing some reading about Bethlehem history during this forced hiatus in our workaday lives.

And you might also be thinking about finding some “moment” in our history to add to the work of your fellow residents.

Gadfly’s modest goal, he says with a smile, is that everybody do a Bethlehem Moment — and that he lives to see it.

In the second next post you’ll find a brief information document about the project.

Gadfly’s looking to fill slots in June and July and August. And is ready to help you.

His mailbox is open: ejg1@lehigh.edu

Latest in a series of posts on Bethlehem Moments

Bethlehem Moment 21
City Council
April 7, 2020

Councilwoman Grace Crampsie Smith
1403 Lorain Ave.

Bethlehem Moment: January 1, 1886, Bethlehem’s First Mayor is Irish

The first settlers to the Lehigh Valley and Bethlehem, in particular, were Scots Irish. That first wave of immigrants pre-dates the 1742 Moravians and arrived in 1728 to build the Craig settlement in Northampton County.

The pioneering spirit of the Scotch Irish Ulstermen caused them to be among the early movers and shakers because of their fierce patriotism and fighting spirit.

Between 1815 and 1834, Irish immigrants arrived just in time for the canal-building boom. The saying was that all you needed to build a canal was a pick, a shovel, a wheelbarrow, and an Irishman. A thousand Irish workers, with help from local German farmers, built the Lehigh Navigation Canal, finishing the 46-mile route that carried anthracite coal from the mines to market in record time. Irish workers were instrumental in building all the anthracite canals and later the railroads that ultimately replaced them.

The Irish famine years of the 1840s triggered further Irish immigration. In 1850, Irish immigrants made up more than half of the foreign-born residents of Pennsylvania.

How fitting that Bethlehem’s 1^st mayor hailed from Ireland. Andrew Harford Boyle emigrated from Burtonport, Ireland, to New Orleans, then moved to Bethlehem when he attended Lafayette College. He was a successful engineer and merchant and was Mayor of Bethlehem for 27 years, from 1886 to his death in 1913. That’s even longer than Mayor Donchez!!

In 1900, prior to the expansion of the steel mills, the native Americans, Irish, and German immigrants dominated the population of South Bethlehem

Irish immigrants faced discrimination and were vilified as lazy, drunken, dishonest, and, as Catholics, un-American. The 19th century found most Irish immigrants and their first- and second-generation descendants at the bottom of the social and economic scale. “No Irish Need Apply” signs were frequently displayed. Strikes and violent confrontations between miners, steelworkers, and others against increasingly remote, wealthy, and autocratic owners did little to help.

However, those difficulties led Irish Americans to form strong community supports such as churches, parochial schools, colleges, social groups, beneficial societies, and political groups. These all helped promote many second and third generation Irish Americans into the middle class and into positions of social, economic, and political power in Pennsylvania and the nation.

In 1861, Holy Infancy Church was established as a parish in South Bethlehem and was the first Catholic church in Northampton County.

South Bethlehem’s first Burgess, James McMahon, a respected Irish citizen, had been an active participant in the organization of Holy Infancy.

Patrick Briody, an Irish immigrant who came to America in 1850 from County Meath, Northern Ireland, was also a dedicated founding parishioner of Holy Infancy Church. Briody was Superintendent of Furnaces for The Bethlehem Iron Company. In March of 1894, he was appointed Postmaster of South Bethlehem, with the Post Office located at the corner of 4^th and Brodhead Ave. Briody was also a member of the School Board and was on the committee for building the Central High School, and Webster, Excelsior, and Packer schools.

Like him, many community leaders of Irish descent contributed to the community by the close of the century, including John Donegan, Charles Quinn, James Broughal, and Thomas O’Reilly.

In 1912, James Bonner, brother to my grandmother Grace Bonner Crampsie, moved to Bethlehem from the coal region town of Summit Hill. James’s parents had emigrated from County Donegal. James worked as an electrician at Bethlehem Steel as well as operated his own electrical business. James’s daughter Cynthia Bonner was born in 1935. Cynthia graduated from Liberty High School and joined the Air Force upon graduation from nursing school. Cynthia rose to the rank of Lt. Colonel in the Air Force and served as an Air Evacuation Nurse in Vietnam and Director of Nursing at Howard AFB in Panama. She also assisted in the aftermath of the Reverend Jim Jones disaster. Later in life, she was exposed to the H1N1 virus which contributed to the downfall of her health.

In retirement she continued providing nursing services at Maher AFB and the county of Sacramento. She loved her country, her hometown of Bethlehem, and her Irish heritage. While she lived throughout the world, she always spoke fondly of her days growing up in Bethlehem, and Bethlehem was always close to her heart.

Bethlehem has been blessed with many Irish immigrants and their descendants contributing to our great city, and to those we are forever grateful.

In the present day, Bethlehem hosts the Celtic Cultural Alliance – an Educational non-profit organization that hosts the Annual Celtic Classic Festival and many other Celtic Cultural events throughout the year. The resurgence of Celtic Culture in the valley through organizations like the Ancient Order of Hibernians, Irish Dance Schools, and Scottish Pipe Bands made it a natural place to start one of the major Celtic Festivals in North America bringing almost 300,000 people annually to Bethlehem.

I wish to thank Joe McCarthy of Holy Infancy Parish and my good friend Timothy Briody, descendant of Patrick Briody, for their invaluable contribution to this Bethlehem Moment. And a special thanks to my cousin Cynthia Bonner for her selfless contributions in serving our country.

May the road rise to meet you on this Holy, sacred day as Irish Americans pay homage to their patron Saint, Patrick. [This Bethlehem Moment was originally scheduled for March 17.]

Slainte and Sith!!

“Without a shared history, we are not a true community.”