Welcome to the Lehigh Valley Landmarks with Leon podcast series, celebrating 250 years of independence. I'm your host, Rachel Leon. Since being elected in 2022 and serving as Vice President of Bethlehem City Council, I'm humbled by the opportunity to serve the diverse communities that make up our great city. But to understand where we're going, we need to understand our past. Each week, I'll share a short feature with a big story about the 250 years that made the Lehigh Valley and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, known as the Christmas City, as we explore historic landmarks.
"Father of American Mycology,” Lewis David de Schweinitz specialized in mushrooms, molds and yeasts, was born in Bethlehem Pennsylvania on February 13, 1780.
In addition to being a botanist, Schweinitz was also a Moravian clergyman. His great grandfather was Count Ludwig Von Zinzendorf, who was instrumental in establishing the Moravian settlement.
His parents were Hans Christian Alexander and Dorothea Elizabeth von Watteville von Schweinitz.
During a visit to the Moravian Nazareth Hall boarding School, the young Schweinitz's attention was caught by a specimen of Lichen lying on a table.
It was at that exact moment, that Schweinitz dated his new found passion for the "beauties of the vegetable kingdom.”
At eighteen years old, Lewis' father took the family to Europe. There Schweinitz entered the Moravian Theological Seminary, at Niesky in Lusatia, where he studied theology and botany.
In 1807 von Schweinitz began to teach at the Boys' Boarding School in Niesky. He was soon appointed superintendent of the Single Brethren in Gnadenberg, Silesia, and a year later he was transferred to the same position in Gnaden, Saxony.
In 1812 he was called to be administrator of the entire Moravian Southern Province in America. Before he left for the United States he married Louisa Amelia LeDoux.
It was a long journey filled with obstacles and tragedy, but in November 1812 Schweinitz and his wife arrived safely in Salem, North Carolina. Their first child, Edward William, was born in Salem and died in infancy. Four more boys were born and all became ministers and educators in the Moravian church.
Upon Lewis’s arrival to Salem he was made a member of the Moravian Helpers' Conference and saw to all the business affairs of towns in the Southern Province.
When it came time to elect a representative to the General Synod in Herrnhut, Germany, von Schweinitz was the overwhelming choice. In September of 1817, he and his family set sail to Germany.
They were abroad for sixteen months, and returned to Salem in 1819, when the General Assembly of North Carolina elected him as a trustee of The University of North Carolina.
In 1821 he accepted the call to serve as head pastor for the congregation in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and returned to the place of his birth.
In 1825 he was appointed to oversee the material interests of the Church in America.
In his last published paper in 1831, "Synopsis of the American Fungi" he listed more than 1,200 fungi that he discovered.
On February 8, 1834, Lewis David Von Schweitzer died in Bethlehem.
The Moravian Museum of Bethlehem, also known as the 1741 Gemeinhaus and the Lewis David de Schweinitz Residence, is a historic house museum located at 66 West Church Street in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It is the oldest surviving building in Bethlehem and the largest surviving log house in continuous use in the United States.
Today many of his manuscripts, letters, sketches, and important herbaria are now owned by the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University in Philadelphia.
Thank you to the Moravian Archives and to WhichMusuem.com for information for this episode.
