Once again I polled my Facebook followers to see which of two subjects they wanted me to cover this week. By a two-thirds margin, they voted for this one.
Burnside Plantation is a magnificent colonial estate nestled in a part of Bethlehem which, until I undertook this particular marker quest, I had never occasioned to visit. It's sort of tucked out of the way. The road leading to it branches off from Schoenersville Road, and this week's marker is found at the entrance.
 |
| The marker is situated at 1461 Schoenersville Road, Bethlehem, at the entrance to Burnside Plantation (near the railroad crossing) |
It's the man rather than the house which gets the marker, though both are of great significance to Bethlehem's Moravian community. Tannenberg's parents, Johann and Judith (Nitschmann) Tannenberg, had fled religious persecution in Moravia, Germany, and taken refuge on Count Zinzendorf's estate in Herrnhut. You might recall my explaining about that in my post about the First House of Bethlehem. The Tannenbergs relocated to Berthelsdorf, in the province of Saxony, in 1726; two years later, their son David was born.
David was profoundly influenced by Count Zinzendorf, as so many were, and in fact the Count took charge of making sure that the young man was well educated. He left his studies for a time when he was a teenager, to return to his parents in Berthelsdorf, but then moved to Herrnhut in 1746. After a short time at the Moravian community in Zeist, Holland, he joined a group bound for the New World; they met up with Count Zinzendorf in London, then set out for New York. They reached the Moravian community of Bethehem on May 21, 1749. David worked as a joiner - the person who makes wooden components for buildings like stairs and window frames - so he was involved with helping to build a lot of the new houses and other important structures. He participated in an event called the "Great Wedding" on July 15, 1749, in which 28 couples were married.
David and his wife, Anna Rosina Kern, relocated to the Moravian community in Nazareth on August 8, 1752. However, they returned to Bethlehem in December 1754 out of growing concern about Native American attacks. (The massacre at Gnadenhuetten happened the following year, so the concern was not unfounded.) In 1757 he made the acquaintance of Johann Gottlob Clemm, an organ builder from near Dresden, Germany, who came to Bethlehem that November. The next year, Clemm went back to Nazareth with the Tannenberg family, which sort of makes it sound like they adopted him. Maybe they did, in a way, since Clemm at that point was nearly 70 years old and nothing I've read indicates that he had any family of his own. In any case, they lived at Nazareth Hall for a time. (This is a mansion which had been built in the hopes that Count Zinzendorf might live there permanently; when that didn't happen, it became part of the Nazareth Hall Tract, which from 1759 to 1928 was a prominent school for Moravians.)
David was profoundly influenced by Count Zinzendorf, as so many were, and in fact the Count took charge of making sure that the young man was well educated. He left his studies for a time when he was a teenager, to return to his parents in Berthelsdorf, but then moved to Herrnhut in 1746. After a short time at the Moravian community in Zeist, Holland, he joined a group bound for the New World; they met up with Count Zinzendorf in London, then set out for New York. They reached the Moravian community of Bethehem on May 21, 1749. David worked as a joiner - the person who makes wooden components for buildings like stairs and window frames - so he was involved with helping to build a lot of the new houses and other important structures. He participated in an event called the "Great Wedding" on July 15, 1749, in which 28 couples were married.
David and his wife, Anna Rosina Kern, relocated to the Moravian community in Nazareth on August 8, 1752. However, they returned to Bethlehem in December 1754 out of growing concern about Native American attacks. (The massacre at Gnadenhuetten happened the following year, so the concern was not unfounded.) In 1757 he made the acquaintance of Johann Gottlob Clemm, an organ builder from near Dresden, Germany, who came to Bethlehem that November. The next year, Clemm went back to Nazareth with the Tannenberg family, which sort of makes it sound like they adopted him. Maybe they did, in a way, since Clemm at that point was nearly 70 years old and nothing I've read indicates that he had any family of his own. In any case, they lived at Nazareth Hall for a time. (This is a mansion which had been built in the hopes that Count Zinzendorf might live there permanently; when that didn't happen, it became part of the Nazareth Hall Tract, which from 1759 to 1928 was a prominent school for Moravians.)
There's a mystery out there to be solved, because currently, nobody seems to know who taught Clemm how to make organs for churches, but Clemm was the one who taught David. In 1759, they all moved into what is now Whitefield House, home of the Moravian Historical Society and also of the 1776 Tannenberg organ, which can be seen here. The duo's tutorship/partnership continued in earnest, and they made at least five organs together for various Moravian chapels before Clemm's death in May 1762.
Here's where we get to the part of the story related to the house. At the time of Clemm's death, David and his family (and probably Clemm too) were living at Burnside Plantation, a 500-acre tract of land named for its original owner, James Burnside. The Moravians had purchased 200 acres of the land from Burnside in 1751, and in 1758, his widow sold the rest to the Moravian Church. The Tannenbergs lived there from 1760 to 1765. In the maid's bedroom in the attic is a caricature of David at work, as well as a brief list of where his and Clemm's organs were constructed. I unfortunately can't read the entire caption, but it shows him and "his journeyman" at the "Old Lutheran Church, 1801."
David did not make another organ for three years following the death of his mentor, during which time he studied the writings of German organist and theorist Georg Andreas Sorge. Sorge's ideas, according to Tannenberg historian Philip T. D. Cooper, were revolutionary even for 18th century Germany, and when David resumed his organ construction, he spent the remainder of his career merging Clemm's old-fashioned traditions with Sorge's modern techniques. This is part of the reason why Tannenberg organs are so unique. The oldest confirmed surviving Tannenberg organ was built in 1770 for the Zion Moselem Lutheran Church in Kutztown, Berks County; it's still in the church today, and I must thank MarkerQuest Facebook follower Jonah Arndt for sharing this with me. The organ's status was authenticated by the Smithsonian Institute, who believe it to be among the oldest, if not the oldest, in the country.
David moved his family to Lititz, in Lancaster County, in 1765, where he once again took up making organs. He not only built organs, but could play them well; he also played the violin and sang, so he frequently performed at church services. His fame as an organ maker spread, leading him to build instruments for Lutheran and German Reformed churches as well as for his fellow Moravians, and some of these are among the largest of their kind for the time period. In 1793, in order to keep working despite his advancing age, he sent to Herrnhut for an assistant; his request was answered with the arrival of Johann Philip Bachmann, a 30-year-old instrument maker. Having the younger man around to help allowed David to make several more organs before his death, and he was able to send his assistant on trips to install organs in Virginia and North Carolina. According to a Facebook post by the Moravian Historical Society, Bachmann married David's youngest daughter, Anna Maria, thus becoming his son-in-law as well as apprentice; unfortunately, the marriage was short-lived due to her untimely death in 1799. (Special thanks to the MHS for this update.)
David suffered a stroke on May 17, 1804, while working on one of his organs at Christ Lutheran Church in York, and died two days later. He had made more than forty organs since 1765; this final one was played for the first time at its maker's funeral. He was originally buried in the Moravian cemetery, but has since been relocated to York's Prospect Hill Cemetery. Organ makers continued to follow in his footsteps for decades after his death, but many of the instruments David constructed in his lifetime have been lost. Nine of these are confirmed to still exist; Philip Cooper maintains a list of them, as well as another list of the organs he is known to have built - David himself kept no such list, but various writers have painstakingly combed the details of Moravian diaries and other sources. The very last of his organs, the one played at his funeral, is today the property of the York County History Center, which is currently raising funds for its restoration.
 |
| The mansion house at Burnside Plantation, where David Tannenberger lived from 1760 to 1765 |
David did not make another organ for three years following the death of his mentor, during which time he studied the writings of German organist and theorist Georg Andreas Sorge. Sorge's ideas, according to Tannenberg historian Philip T. D. Cooper, were revolutionary even for 18th century Germany, and when David resumed his organ construction, he spent the remainder of his career merging Clemm's old-fashioned traditions with Sorge's modern techniques. This is part of the reason why Tannenberg organs are so unique. The oldest confirmed surviving Tannenberg organ was built in 1770 for the Zion Moselem Lutheran Church in Kutztown, Berks County; it's still in the church today, and I must thank MarkerQuest Facebook follower Jonah Arndt for sharing this with me. The organ's status was authenticated by the Smithsonian Institute, who believe it to be among the oldest, if not the oldest, in the country.
David moved his family to Lititz, in Lancaster County, in 1765, where he once again took up making organs. He not only built organs, but could play them well; he also played the violin and sang, so he frequently performed at church services. His fame as an organ maker spread, leading him to build instruments for Lutheran and German Reformed churches as well as for his fellow Moravians, and some of these are among the largest of their kind for the time period. In 1793, in order to keep working despite his advancing age, he sent to Herrnhut for an assistant; his request was answered with the arrival of Johann Philip Bachmann, a 30-year-old instrument maker. Having the younger man around to help allowed David to make several more organs before his death, and he was able to send his assistant on trips to install organs in Virginia and North Carolina. According to a Facebook post by the Moravian Historical Society, Bachmann married David's youngest daughter, Anna Maria, thus becoming his son-in-law as well as apprentice; unfortunately, the marriage was short-lived due to her untimely death in 1799. (Special thanks to the MHS for this update.)
 |
| On display in the attic bedroom of Burnside Plantation, this drawing names the organ maker as "David Dannenberger" |
As for Burnside Plantation, where David's collaboration with Clemm came to its end, it remains open to the public today. Belonging to the Historic Bethlehem Preservation Association, it's carefully maintained as a museum of Moravian life, including the original mansion house full of antiques, the summer kitchen with its ingenious rainwater-gathering apparatus, the barn, and the acre-square vegetable garden lovingly maintained by volunteers (pictured below). Just follow Schoenersville Road and watch for David's historical marker, keeping silent vigil at the entrance to the road leading to the organ master's former home.
Edit 4/19/2023: Mark Iampietro, who is a fellow member of the Bethlehem History Lovers group on Facebook, made a great video about David Tannenberg that includes lots of images I'd never seen. Definitely check it out here!
Sources and Further Reading:
The Bethlehem Digital History Project
Visit Burnside Plantation
"Visit, Explore, Experience Historic Moravian Bethlehem, Pennsylvania: A National Historic Landmark District," published by the Historic Bethlehem Preservation Association
Moravian Walking Tour and Guide Book, published by the Moravian Historical Society, 2014
David Tannenberg at the Historical Marker Database
If you've enjoyed this, please leave a comment!
Except where indicated, all writing and photography on this blog is the intellectual property of Laura Klotz. This blog is written with permission of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I am not employed by the PHMC. All rights reserved.
Hello. In searching for a photo of the farm house at Burnside Plantation, I found your blog. I smiled at reading the text of the historical marker here because I wrote it in 2004 when I was head of the PHMC's historical marker program. I was also a church organist so was quitr interested in Tannenberg. I had a lovely visit to Burnside Plantation on the day the marker was dedicated! Thanks for the memory.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you enjoyed the post! It's wonderful to hear from someone with a personal connection to the subject matter. Thank you so much for commenting. :)
Delete