(Excerpt from A History of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1741-1...)
Excerpt from A History of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1741-1892: With Some Account of Its Founders and Their Early Activity in America The many illustrations with which the volume is embellished are, in a great number of instances, reproductions of rare prints, manu scripts and drawings and materially enhance the value of the book. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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Joseph Mortimer Levering, the son of Lewis Alexander and Sophia (Hauser) Levering, was born in Hardin County, Tennessee, United States. On his father's side he was descended from a line of Moravian missionaries, settled in America during the eighteenth century. In 1852 his family moved to West Salem, Illinois, and in 1856 to Olney.
He attended private school and prepared for college. In 1870 he entered the Moravian College and Theological Seminary at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he distinguished himself for unusual ability, receiving both the arts and divinity degrees in 1874.
After teaching for a few months at Nazareth Hall, Nazareth, Pennsylvania, he was ordained deacon (December 20, 1874) and in January 1875 assumed the pastorate of the new congregation at Uhrichsville, Ohio. On May 21, 1876, he was ordained presbyter and three years later was called to the pastorate at Lakemills, Wisconsin. He remained there until 1883 and then entered upon the pastorate of the church at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the largest congregation of his denomination in the United States. On September 30, 1888, he was consecrated bishop at Bethlehem by Bishops A. A. Reinke and H. J. Van Vleck. In 1901 continued ill health forced him to retire temporarily from active work, but he devoted his leisure to an intensive study of the Moravians in America, and in 1903 published A History of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1741-1892, in commemoration of the sesqui-centennial of the leading Moravian settlement in America.
This huge volume of over eight hundred pages is far more than an ordinary town history. It is a cross-section of the whole story of the growth of the United States as revealed in the wealth of manuscript letters and reports of Moravian agents and missionaries preserved in the Archives of the Bethlehem church. It is especially strong in its revelation of the social and economic forces that were at work in the land. The author's distaste for the flimsy and trivial led him to avoid the pitfall that traps so many local historians--he included in the book no notices of individuals, as such, apart from the exposition of his theme.
From 1895 to 1908, he was president of the Moravian Historical Society. In 1903 he was elected president of the governing board of the Moravian Church, and in that capacity won distinction for his executive ability and tact. He died suddenly, April 4, 1908.
His fame rested chiefly on the publication of his extensive work on Bethlehem history, called "A History of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1741-1892". He prepared, also, many articles and papers for special occasions and anniversaries, most of them published in the proceedings of the Moravian Historical Society.
(Excerpt from A History of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1741-1...)
Levering was married, June 6, 1876, to Martha Augusta Whitesell of Bethlehem, who, with two daughters, survived him.
