Henry Antes was an early 18th-century settler of Pennsylvania, an architect and builder and a leader of the Moravian Church. He is considered one of the most important religious/political leaders of the time, specifically because he preached tolerance and understanding.
Biography
The name "Antes" is sometimes said to be a Greek paraphrase of the German "Blume", adopted as a disguise during persecutions of 1620. It is more likely that the last name is a shortened form of the name "Antonius." Henry Antes emigrated with his father's family to Pennsylvania Colony about 1720, and built a paper mill on the Wissahickon near Philadelphia. He partnered with William DeWees to establish the second paper mill in the nation, and later married DeWees's daughter, Christina DeWees. His brother in law was William DeWees, who owned Valley Forge, Pennsylvania during Washington's encampment during the winter of 1777. He was also to related David Rittenhouse, who was his wife's aunt Wilhelmina DeWees Rittenhouse's grandson. Antes built and designed his home and his own a paper mill in 1736 on the Wissahickon in present-day Upper Frederick TownshipMontgomery County, Pennsylvania. His home, Henry Antes House, is recognized as one of the first interracial and nonsectarian boys schools in Pennsylvania and possibly in America. The school was called the Frederickstown School and educated as many as 34 boys at one point including a Black from St. Thomas, West Indies and a Mohegan Indian. Upon invitation of Antes's son Colonel Frederick Antes, George Washington and his troops stayed at Henry Antes house from September 23 to 26, 1777, during the Philadelphia Campaign. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1992. It is now the owned by the Goshenhoppen Historians, Inc. Here he married Christina, daughter of William Dewees, and became a leader in the civil and religious affairs of the colony. He was the friend of Whitefield and Zinzendorf, and, after consultation with the latter, assumed the leadership of the religious organization founded in 1741, and known as "Unitas Fratrum," or Moravian Church. Antes was one of the founders of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He signed the deed for Bethlehem on April 2, 1741, conveying 500 acres along the Monocacy Creek from William Allen, the founder of Allentown, Pennsylvania. The original deed of the town of Bethlehem is held in a temperature and humidity controlled vault in the Moravian Archives in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Antes became the business manager for the Moravian colony and engineered the building of mills, buildings and other works. The legal care of the communities property and temporal affairs were placed in his hands. a trusted counsellor skilled in the drawing of legal documents. He served as "Baumeister" of the first buildings which still stand in Bethlehem's historic district. Antes became the chief architect and builder for the Moravian Church having been involved in nearly all of the building activity in the various Moravian settlements. He engineered the building of the first mill on the Monocacy in 1743, the Single Brethren House, and the Sisters House in 1744, the Bell House in 1748 and its two additions in 1748 and 1749, the Brethren House or Colonial Hall in 1748, the Crown Inn, and numerous mills and industrial buildings. When the Moravians established the first ferry crossing the Lehigh River, the enterprise was called Henry Antes in his honor. In 1745 the Governor appointed him Justice of the Peace for Northampton County and in 1752 Justice of the Peace for Philadelphia County. In 1752 he purchased 100,000 acre tract on behalf of the Moravians in North Carolina for their colony of Wachovia.
Descendants
His son Philip Frederick Antes held political and military offices, and was a judge of the court of common pleas. During the American Revolution, British General William Howe put a bounty on his head for 200 pounds. In 1776, in company with a Mr. Potts at Warwick furnace, he successfully cast an 18-pound cannon, the first cannon ever made in America. A friend of George Washington's, Frederick invited Washington and his troops to stay at Henry Antes house from September 23 to 26, 1777, during the Philadelphia Campaign.Lt Colonel John Henry Antes was his son and founder and defender of Fort Antes, Pennsylvania. His fort played a major rule in the Revolutionary War specifically the Big Runaway where Colonel Samuel Hunter ordered the evacuation of the area surrounding Forts Antes and Augusta. He served as a Justice of the Peace from July 29, 1775, until January 24, 1776, of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. Henry's daughter, Anna Catherina, joined the Moravian Church, married a physician and moved to what is now Old Salem, North Carolina. John Antes was his son and the first American Moravian Missionary to travel and work in Egypt, one of the earliest American-born chamber music composers, and the maker of perhaps the earliest surviving bowed string instrument made in America. Benjamin Henry Latrobe his grandson and so called "father of American architecture." He was the second Architect of the Capitol and responsible for the design of the White Houseporticos. Judge Henry Barnhart his great-grandson was an elected member of the Legislature of Centre County, Pa, serving two terms.
