Mention the name Henry Antes (1701-1755) to most people and you’ll probably get a blank stare. Even those with some knowledge of Pennsylvania’s colonial history may be confused. However, in his time, Antes was a friend of Count von Zinzendorf, the founder of Moravia, and was among those who prepared the plans for Bethlehem.

Antes, although not a Moravian himself, helped them in other ways. He enjoyed religious debates with Bishop von Spangenberg, the leader appointed by Zinzendorf to take charge of Bethlehem.

by 19^This Antes, a century Moravian bishop and historian Joseph Levering, was a member of a group called the Associated Brethren of Skippack. Levering describes them as “serious people of various faiths who came together for the propagation of piety and brotherhood without regard to sectarian lines.”

Looking at his background, it is easy to understand why Antes, while seeing the good in the ideals of all religions, was skeptical of the intolerance of most of them towards each other. Antes grew up in a small village in the region known as the Electoral Palatinate, the home region of many Pennsylvania Germans in the greater Holy Roman Empire.

Divided by the Protestant Reformation, the war plunged the empire into what history calls the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648). Violent struggles pitted sect against sect, family against family. Protestants fought other Protestants on issues such as infant baptism.

A forced peace was eventually imposed with the Treaty of Westphalia. If the Prince who ruled your domain was a Lutheran, then his subjects were also Lutherans; if the Reformation was made, then the subjects were also Reformed; and if they were Catholics, they were Catholics. No other sect was allowed.

Antes’ family included the minor noble Baron von Blum and was on the losing side in the war. Their lands and titles were taken. Perhaps it was this ancestor who changed his name from Blum to Antes, which he claimed meant Blum in Greek, to conceal his role in the war.

A few years later, the new young king of France, Louis XIV, decided to wage war against the bordering German states. Apparently, to show that he meant business, Louis had his soldiers burn Antes’ hometown of Freinsheim. His father, Philip Frederick Antes, responded by becoming a carpenter and rebuilding his house. As young Heinrich grew up, he worked for his father and learned to be a millwright; this then meant a person skilled in the construction of flour mills, sawmills, paper mills, and filling mills.

In 1720, 19-year-old Henry Antes was one of many German immigrants who left the Old World behind and headed for the New World. When the mob arrived in Philadelphia, they met paper manufacturer William De Wees. They built what was then the second paper mill in North America on Moonshone Creek between Germantown and Philadelphia. Antes married De Wees’ daughter and together they had 11 children; 8 of these survived to adulthood.

With a growing family, Antes decided to settle outside of Philadelphia. So he moved to Upper Fredrick Township in Montgomery County. He built a mill and a sawmill to support himself. He built a large two-storey house here in 1736. It had no features other than its size. Important meetings were held here to establish a unified body that would bring together all German-speaking churches, but nothing came of it.

In 1745, Antes moved to Bethlehem to make plans for many of the buildings that survive today in the Moravian sections of the city. One modern expert who lived in Freinsheim in the 1960s noted in an interview in the 1990s that many of the original buildings looked more like the town in which Antes grew up than anything in Germany’s eastern regions. Others disagree.

While also working in Bethlehem, Antes offered the Moravians a piece of land near his home that became the Frederickstown School. There was one Black student and one Native American student on this property, and it was said to be the only school in the country that allowed this. In that case.

Despite their closeness, things were not always close between the Moravians and the Antes. In 1750 a dispute arose between him and church leader John Nitschmannn over what one source calls “the adoption of titles and a change in ecclesiastical doctrine”. By 1752, Antes saw that nothing had been resolved by this and, not wanting to create any more grudges, he decided to return to his farm.

Only an appeal from his old friend Spangenberg made Antes agree to take on a commission for the Moravian communities in North Carolina. The combination of work and climate was too much for Antes, who returned home in 1755 and died there, exhausted, at the age of 54.

The French and Indian War began the following year. Antes’ family remained in the family home until the Revolution. Antes’ son, Frederick, who was an officer in Washington’s army, was afraid that the British would seize the house when he heard that Washington was using the house as a headquarters, so he sold the house for 500 pounds.

The property has had many owners over the years; among them is Camp Laughing Water, a Girl Scout property. Today it is listed as a National Historic Landmark and is owned by a group known as the Goschenhoppen Historians, who host the Goschenhoppen Folk Festival there every summer.