Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Antes, Henry

ANTES, Henry, colonist, b. in Germany in 1701; d. in Fredericktown, Pa., 20 July, 1755. The name Antes is a Greek paraphrase of the German Blume, adopted as a disguise during the Romanist persecutions of 1620. Henry Antes emigrated with his father's family to Pennsylvania about 1720, and built a paper-mill on the Wissahickon near Philadelphia. 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 Moravians. He was one of the founders of Bethlehem. — His son, Philip Frederick, b. 2 July, 1730; d. in Lancaster, Pa., 20 Sept., 1801, held several public offices, was a member of the provincial council and of the general and state assemblies, judge of the court of common pleas, and a colonel of state militia. He was so conspicuous and ardent a patriot during the revolution that the British offered a reward for his head. In 1776, in company with a Mr. Potts at Warwick furnace, he successfully cast an eighteen-pounder, the first cannon ever made in America. See “A German Hero,” by Rev. Edwin McMinn (Moorestown, N. J., 1886).