\ ,0o. 'A ^ V xV X V X ,<•> ^ .^ v* ^ "^ -- << a y ^, V c o K x °,. .0 o U > \0 c> > *b 0^ ^ ^ CX vfc' / v* ^ .$% 1 •■ " /• c- • V s x ^. \^. // Amfcof P.H.OVW* B«*1«W. i ET1K1 (LIE [HI H M Showing lie I.ehigh River, Lehigh Canal, Lehigh fa y, and North Pennsylvania Rail Road; o? HISTORY LEHIGH YALLEY CONTAINING A COPIOUS SELECTION OF THE MOST INTERESTING FACTS, TRADITIONS, BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, ANECDOTES, ETC. ETC., RELATING TO ITS HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES, A COMPLETE HISTORY OF ALL ITS INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS, PROGRESS OF THE COAL AND IRON TRADE, MANUFACTURES, ETC. BY M. S. HENRY ILLUSTRATED BY NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS. EASTON, PA.: PUBLISHED BY BIXLER & CORWIN 1860. A c V Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1860, hy BIXLER & COR WIN, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. COLLINS, PRINTER, 705 JAYNE STREET, PHILADELPHIA. iH<f ILLUSTRATIONS. NO. 1. 2. 3. 4 4 5. ^9. H.O. Hi. \2. •13. ^4. -46. 16. •VI. 48. ««L9. -20. -21. 22. 23. 24. -25. -26. --27. *28. ^29. ^80. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. ^ 36. 37. 38. Map of the Lehigh Valley (folding). Portrait of Hon. Samuel Sitgreaves . View of Easton (folding) 1 "' . Portrait of Hon. James M. Porter-' . Portrait of Hon. Washington M'Cartney^ Portrait of Hon. A. H. Reeder "T Portrait of Hon. H. D. Maxwell''' View of Bethlehem (folding) "' . View of Eagle Hotel (Bethlehem) View of Sun Hotel (Bethlehem) 4 " View of Bethlehem Islands '* View of Lehigh Zinc Works ^ . Portrait of Hon. Henry King*^ . View of Allentown (folding)'- View of Allentown Seminary View of Allentown Iron Furnaces Portrait of Samuel Lewis "". Portrait of David Thomas 1- '. View of Lehigh Crane Iron Works ^ . View of David Thomas's Residence ■. View of Catasauqua and Fogelsvilje Railroad Bridge View of Hokendauqua Iron Works'" . View of Slatinfftori" .... View of Lehigh Water Gap View of Mauch Chunk (from the Narrows Poi'trait of Hon. Asa Packer v . View of Mansion House (Mauch Chunk) View of Mount Pisgah Plane *' . View of Mauch Chunk (from Mount Pisgah) View of Switch Back Railroad' . View of Planes of the Hazleton Coal Company (Penn Ha\ View of E. A. Packer & Co.'s Colliery (Stockton) Portrait of A. L. Foster Portrait of Josiah White*" . Portrait of Erskine Hazard Portrait of E. A. Douglas * . Portrait of R. H. Sayre " . Portrait of A. G. Brodhead 16 48'- 72^ 96 112 ■ 144- 172* 184- 200- 224' ' 236- 264'- 272 - 280- 286 2S8-- 292- 294- 296- 29a- 3oa- 304- 308^ 336** 344- 348- 352- 356 • 360- 36# 366 368 375 • 375 385** 395 A ' v Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by BIXLER & COR WIN, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. COLLINS, PRINTER, 705 JAYNE STREET, PHILADELPHIA. iH**H¥ ILLUSTRATIONS. NO. 1. 2. ■ 3. 4 4 5. "~-€. 7. ^8. *9. ~i0. Hi- >2. -13. S*4. S>5. 16. ■*7. •48. •49. -20. *ai. •22. 23. "24. -25. -26. -27. ^28. ^30. 31. 32. 33. -34. 35. V 36. 37. 38. Map of the Lehigh Valley (folding). Portrait of Hon. Samuel Sitgreaves . View of Easton (folding) ^ . Portrait of Hon. James M. Porter**" . Portrait of Hon. Washington McCartney*' Portrait of Hon. A. H. Eeeder •T Portrait of Hon. H. D. Maxwell'' View of Bethlehem (folding)*" . View of Eagle Hotel (Bethlehem) View of Sun Hotel (Bethlehem) 4 - View of Bethlehem Islands " View of Lehigh Zinc Works ^ . Portrait of Hon. Henry King 1 "' . View of Allentown (folding)* View of Allentown Seminary View of Allentown Iron Furnaces Portrait of Samuel Lewis "". Portrait of David Thomas'*''. View of Lehigh Crane Iron Works View of David Thomas's Eesidence View of Catasauqua and Fogelsvilje Railroad Bridge View of Hokendauqua Iron Works v . View of Slatinarton" .... is' View of Lehigh Water Gap View of Mauch Chunk (from the Narrows Poi'trait of Hon. Asa Packer v . View of Mansion House (Mauch Chunk) View of Mount Pisgah Plane "" . View of Mauch Chunk (from Mount Pisgah) View of Switch Back Railroad' . View of Planes of the Hazleton Coal Company (Penn Ha\ View of E. A. Packer & Co.'s Colliery (Stockton) Portrait of A. L. Foster Portrait of Josiah White* . Portrait of Erskine Hazard Portrait of E. A. Douglas v . Portrait of R. H. Sayre «- Portrait of A. G. Brodhead en)* PAGE 16 48* 72*"' 96 112 • 144- 172* 184- 200- 224 ; ' 236- 264- 272 * 280- 286 288-** 292- 294- 296 298/ 300*' 304- 308* 336^ 344- 34S- 352' 356 • 360- 36# 366 368 375 • 375 385 •' 395 400 PREFACE. Since the completion of the Lehigh Valley Eailroad this region of country has been visited by thousands — a large proportion of whom have come solely with the view of obtaining recreation, and a change from the old round of tours which, from frequent repeti- tion, no longer yield them the same freshness of attraction as in former times. They have been gratified and delighted with the beauty of the scenery, novelty of the objects, and exhilarating salubrity of the mountain atmosphere. Many of them have re- turned from time to time, always finding something new on which they could dwell with pleasure. With but few exceptions, they have expressed their regret that a book descriptive of the many objects of interest had never been published. With the object in view of instructing not only the tourist, but also the resident of the Lehigh Valley, this volume has been prepared. We expected, when we commenced, to complete it in 250 pages, but as we pro- gressed in the work, new sources of information were opened up to us, and we were almost involuntarily tempted to become more and more diffuse ; the consequence has been, that our 250 pages have been swollen to over 400. We trust, however, that the matter furnished will not be without interest. At all events, we have endeavored to fulfil our promise made at the outset, to fur- nish an authentic and complete history of all the towns on the Lehigh Valley Eailroad. To make the work still more enter- taining, it has been profusely illustrated by beautiful lithographic 1* Vi PREFACE. views of the scenery, and portraits of the leading men in the valley. "We have commenced the work by an Outline History of Penn- sylvania, and followed it by a History of Old Northampton County, Histories of Northampton, Lehigh, and Carbon Counties ; complete histories of all the towns and villages in the valley, from their first settlement down to the present time; and histories of the Lehigh Canal, Lehigh Valley and Beaver Meadow Kailroads, &c. &c. The short biographical sketches interspersed throughout the work, of men distinguished in their own community, but not much beyond, seldom find an appropriate place in a history of the ordinary form, and yet it is important that they should be pre- served. The topographical and statistical information embodied in the work, is designed to connect the history of the *past with the present state of manners and improvements, and to present the features of the two periods in striking contrast; and although to some minds these details may seem out of place in an historical work, yet it should be remembered that the statistics of to day may be the history of ten years hence. Many of the facts here recorded, both statistical and historical, may seem trivial or tediously minute to the general reader, ana yet such facts have a local interest, and for that reason have been inserted. The mate- rials for the work have not been gathered without great personal labor and heavy expense. Eecourse has not only been had to many private and public libraries, but the compiler has spent much time in each of the counties, examining ancient newspapers and musty manuscripts, conversing with aged pioneers, and col- lecting from them orally many interesting facts never before pub- lished, which otherwise would probably not have been preserved. There will doubtless be some who may think the work has been illy performed, because some fact with which they were familiar has been overlooked, or because some slight mistake may have been discovered among the thousands of matters which have formed the material of our history. We have only to say to those PREFACE. Vll who are disposed to find fault, that they are at perfect liberty to try their skill in writing a history, and if they are more successful than ourselves, we will esteem them fortunate. We must acknowledge that the work is confined mainly to a statement of facts, which, from the space a work of this kind has necessarily limited us, has precluded, in a great degree, grace of style; but we hope the solid merit of authenticity will compensate the reader for some abruptness of diction. We would be ungrate- ful to neglect to acknowledge our indebtedness to several friends and correspondents who have rendered important aid during the progress of the work. They have had a large share in rescuing from oblivion many interesting facts, and in making up what will be at "least a curious contribution to the history of the State. To the authors, both ancient and contemporary, from whom extracts have been made, credit has generally been given in the body of the work. Acknowledgments are due and are here most heartily rendered to Hon. James M. Porter, Hon. H. D. Maxwell, Hon. Asa Packer, Robert E. Wright, Esq., Robert H. Sayre, Edwin Walter, David Thomas, A. L. Foster, Melchior Horn, Leivis H. Stout, Joseph J. MicJcley, Prof. Cattell, Chas. Brodhead, Sol. W. Roberts, J. N. Hut- chinson, A. H. Frack-er, Thomas Scatter good, Robert McDowell, D. D. Jones, A. O. Brodhead, T. L. Foster, Wm. Lilly, Daniel Bertsch, Jr., Rufus Grider, and the Officers and Employees of the Lehigh Valley and North Pennsylvania Railroads generally. It is hoped that many to whom the writer has been indebted for valuable informa- tion, will not attribute to forgetfulness or ingratitude the omission of their names in the above short list of kind friends, which space permits him specially to mention. Special thanks are due to Mr. W. H. Bixler, one of the publishers of the work, for his valuable aid in compiling the last three num- bers. Thanks are also due to Messrs. Osborn & Son, Photographers, of Bethlehem, for the able manner in which they produced the excellent views of the towns, from which the lithographs have Vlil PREFACE. been copied. And last, though not least, to Mr. T. K. Collins, and his able assistant, Mr. Huff, of Philadelphia, for the good taste they have displayed in the arrangement of the letter press, as well as for the kind and gentlemanly deportment which has characterized them throughout the period of our transactions with them. INTRODUCTION. The Kittatinny Valley (in which the greater portibn of the Lehigh Valley is included) is continuous and unbroken from Lake Champlain to Tennessee, if not to the Mississippi River. It is bounded by the Kittatinny or Blue Mountains on the north, and by the South Mountain (the Blue Ridge of Virginia) on the south. Its average breadth from the Delaware River to the Susquehanna is about twelve to fifteen miles. It is, take it all for all, the largest and most fertile valley of continuous land in the world. The name ''Kittatinny," given to the valley, means "endless;" the length of it being so great that the Indians supposed there was no end to it. The northern half is argillaceous slate, and the southern limestone. Perhaps the richest portion of the land is near the line where the two soils meet, and in which the lime predominates. The streak extends along by Nazareth, Bath, Siegfried's Bridge, and Fogels- ville, in Northampton and Lehigh Counties. It is at this point that hydraulic cement is found throughout the length of the valley, of the very best quality, and which is prepared in large quantities on the Lehigh near Whitehall. A distinguished statesman of the United States, who had occasion to pass through this valley, said, that previous to that trip, he had been disposed to put down what he heard about Pennsylvania husbandry, &c, to some extent, to State boasting — but that he must now give it up ; for he had never in all his life (during which he had travelled over a great deal of the United States, as well as considerably in Europe) seen X INTRODUCTION. any continuous one hundred miles which exhibits such uniform evidence of wealth and independence as he observed in the valley from Harrisburg to Easton. "There is," said he, "no place on the road where you can travel half a mile, that you do not find a good substantial farm-house and barn of such dimensions as are nowhere else to be met with, with well-cultivated farms; the fence rows clear of brush, and the fields filled with such crops of grain and grass as are hardly to be met with, even in detached farms else- where. The horses and cattle are fine and well-fed, and their masters and mistresses are literally living on the fat of the land. Here the eye meets with the constant assurance ' that freemen own, and freemen cultivate the soilf" As we have before said, the greater portion of the Lehigh Valley is included in this great and beautiful " Kittatinny Valley." The Lehigh Kiver is a mountainous stream, and meanders through a series of natural scenes not excelled if equalled in the United States. Its extreme northern sources are in the southern part of Wayne County and in Luzerne near Wilkesbarre. The stream runs in a southerly course until it reaches Allentown, where it changes its direction and continues its course nearly due east for eighteen miles, and empties into the Delaware at Easton. In every portion of the Lehigh Valley from Easton to White Haven (a distance of seventy miles), nature appears to have diffused her beauties of grandeur and magnificence on every hand, but so diversified that not a single monotonous view occurs. Besides the grandeur of its mountains, its waterfalls, its wooded and barren mountain sides, its mountain walls and frightful precipices — the beautiful farms, extensive manufactories, splendid buildings, &c. &c. have been the theme of admiration for many years. The general appearance of the valley everywhere indicates prosperity and plenty ; the land is among the best cultivated and best producing land in the country. As an iron producing and general mineral locality, it probably bears about the same relation to Pennsylvania as Pennsylvania does to the other States of the Union. With inexhaustible sup- INTRODUCTION. xi plies of the best kinds of coal for industrial purposes ; with rich hematite iron ores scattered over a good portion of its length ; within a few hours' transport of the magnetic oxide ores of New Jersey; with iron smelting furnaces and machinery of the largest description, producing iron of every variety of property, and of quality not excelled anywhere for tenacity, fusibility, and that quicksilvery liquidity, when in a state of fusion, so much prized by iron founders, and so valuable for making castings of every description. With splendid canal and railroad facilities for trans- portation to the great seaports of New York and Philadelphia; and flowing through the midst of this rich mineral valley a large and beautiful river, Meandering through its greenwood glades ; Never resting ; running ever, In purling streams, or bright cascades, a friendly harbinger of health and cleanliness to the many homes scattered along its beautiful banks; and with a climate and other conditions of health, for the workmen which would be employed, not excelled anywhere in these United States. Twenty years ago there was not a single bar of iron smelted on the banks of the Lehigh ; now there are seventeen furnaces, which make about 150,000 tons of pig metal per annum. In 1820 (forty years ago), only 365 tons of anthracite coal was sent to market from the Lehigh region; in 1859, the Lehigh Canal carried to market 1,050,659 tons, the Lehigh Valley Eailroad 577,651 tons, and the Beaver Meadow Eailroad 746,313 tons. Can any other valley in the State or Union of equal size show a corresponding increase in any one or all the branches of its internal trade ? Who will venture to state what will be the extent of the coal and iron trade alone, of the Lehigh Valley, thirty years hence ? Manufactories of all kinds have kept pace with the increase of the iron and coal business. In 1853, the extensive zinc furnaces were erected near Bethlehem, and in estimating their value to the valley of the Lehigh, it must be borne in mind that the $300,000 worth of merchandise which they can produce annually xii INTRODUCTION", is made exclusively from the natural products of the valley ; the mines which belong to the company are situated about four miles from Bethlehem, and produce about 50,000 tons of zinc ore per annum. The Lehigh Valley also contains large beds of hydraulic cement, which is prepared in extensive quantities, and finds a ready market in New York and Philadelphia. The extensive paint mines, which were discovered a few years ago near the Lehigh Gap, also bid fair to be a fruitful source of revenue to this region. The towns and villages throughout the whole valley have also greatly increased in the last ten years, many of them having more than doubled their population; in like proportion has the number of miscellaneous manufactories increased, among which the manu- facture of roofing and school slates, at Slatington, is one of the most extensive. The Lehigh Valley is divided in two parts by the Blue Mountains; the lower part is excellent farm land, and contains large deposits of hematite iron ore, hydraulic cement, zinc ore, seams of excellent soft slate, and abounds with excellent lime- stone ; above the Blue Mountain it has large coal deposits, and fine timber lands. The Lehigh Canal and the Lehigh Valley Railroad afford every facility to the manufacturer for the conveyance of his manu- factures to both, of the great commercial emporiums of the United States. And, in conclusion, we would say to capitalists abroad, no section of our country presents greater inducements to invest money than the Lehigh Valley ; the advantages it possesses for the manufacture of iron, either in the amount of power to be applied, the abundance and variety of coal, ore, limestone, and other neces- sary materials ; the ease and shortness of communication with all the markets, and salubrity of the location, and the cheapness of living, and of all the raw materials, is equal if not superior to any other in the United States. We would invite those whose interest it will be to do so, to come and see and judge for themselves. HISTORY OF THE LEHIGH VALLEY. PHILLIPSBITRG, N. J.* Phillipsbueg is one of the largest towns in Warren County, New Jersey, and is situated on the banks of the Delaware River, directly opposite the mouth of the Lehigh, at the juncture of the New Jersey Central, Belvidere Delaware, and Lehigh Valley Rail- roads, and is the western terminus of the New Jersey Central R. R. and Morris Canal, from New York, and the eastern terminus of the Lehigh Yalley R. R„, from Mauch Chunk. The town being on much higher ground than the lower part of Baston, it presents a most commanding appearance from that place. The present site of the town, according to a map made by Yonder Donk, a Dutch engineer, in 1654, was at that time called Chinktewunk, and was an Indian settlement. It was the custom of the Indians to make a clearing of the land immediately surrounding their villages, for the purpose of raising corn. The " flats," or " old fields," as Mr. Parsons calls them, in his draft of Easton and vicinity, made in 1755, immediately above the Delaware bridge, were used by the natives for this purpose. The fact of there being an Indian vil- lage here, is also corroborated by the numerous flint arrowheads, * Properly speaking, Phillipsburg is not in the Valley of the Lehigh, but as it is the eastern terminus of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, and its business interests being so intimately identified with those of Easton, we feel justified in giving it the same attention as other towns situated on the Lehigh Valley R. R. 1 2 PHILLIPSBURG. hatchets, and corn-pounders, that have been found on the fields.* The origin of the name Phillipsburg is not well known, the general impression being, that it was named after a large landholder of the name of Phillips, who resided here at an early day ; it is the opinion of the writer that it is named in honor of an old influential Indian chief of that name, who resided here. This supposition appears to be the most plausible, as we find the name of Phillipsburg upon a " map of the inhabited parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey," published by Evans, in 1 749, which was before the time when Mr. Phillips resided here. This Indian chief Phillip, was an intimate friend of the great chief Teedyuscung. Phillip, with fourteen other Indians, in December, 1755, was arrested by the Jersey people, and brought to Easton (it being the nearest place containing a jail), and committed to prison, not for any crime they had committed, but because so great was the panic created by the massacre at Gnaden- hutten, on November 24 of the same year, that all Indians living among the whites were suspected. At the treaty held at Easton, commencing July 4, 1756, the great chief Teedyuscung was present as spokesman, and in several of his speeches greatly interested himself in their behalf. Having been born in New Jersey, he was well acquainted with these Indians, and more particularly with the chief, Phillip. The event occasioned a correspondence between Gov. Denny, of Pennsylvania, and Gov. Belcher, of New Jersey, from which the following is extracted. Gov. Denny, writing to Gov. Belcher, says :f " You will please to observe that in the course of the conference, the chief Teedyuscung has warmly solicited me to use my good offices with you, that the Indians now living in your province have liberty, if they please, to go and visit their relatives and friends in the Indian country ; the chief thinks when the Indians come to see one an- other, and learn how friendly those in your province have been treated, it will dispose them to peace. He particularly desires this * Charles Sitgreaves, Esq., of Phillipsburg, has a fine collection of these curi- osities, f Colonial Records, vol. vii. page 360. THE INDIAN CHIEF PHILLIP. 3 favor for one of your Indians, called Phillip, who it appears is an old man, and had at first been put in prison, but was released, and now lives along with the other Indians." We also find that the Executive Council of New Jersey, at Elizabethtown, on March 31, 1757,* advised his Excellency the Governor to permit the Indian chief, Phillip, to pass to Philadel- phia. There are numerous other circumstances we might mention, did our space permit, which would go still further to corroborate the supposition that the chief Phillip was a great favorite as well as an influential man among his people, and therefore entitled to this honor. This village was evidently settled by the white people before Easton,f inasmuch as Easton was not laid out until some time after different maps were published giving the name of Phil- lipsburg. About the time Easton was laid out, the land upon which Phillipsburg is built was owned by the heirs of David Martin,^ ferryman, and a Mr. Cox, a merchant of Philadelphia, Mr. Cox owning the principal part, about 411 acres, among which was the "old fields, 7 ' on which, on account of their beautiful loca- tion and the advantages they appeared to have for the purposes of a town over the land on the opposite or Easton side of the river, * Colonial Records, vol. vii. page 468. t Mr. Philip Reese, an old gentleman of the town, informed the writer that in his youth there lived an old lady by the name of Meyers, who said, when her parents first came to Phillipsburg, there were eleven houses there, and but three on the opposite side of the river. These houses were situated on the south side of the N. J. C. R. R. track, near the wagon bridge which crosses the road. Mr. Reese says that some of the cellar walls were there when he built his house a few years ago. $ David Martin obtained the first grant and patent for ferrying at the " forks of the Delaware in 1739," of which the following is an extract : " Giving and granting to the said David Martin, his heirs and assigns, the privilege of constructing a ferry from the Pennsylvania shore, by the upper end of an island called ' Tinnicum ' to the place in said county of Morris called * Marble Mountain,' about one mile above the 'forks of Delaware,' the undivided right to ferry over horses, cows, sheep mules, &c. &c." Mr. Martin's ferrying privileges therefore extended about thirteen miles, as Tinnicum Island is about twelve miles below Phillipsburg, and Marble Mountain about one mile above. 4 PHILLIPSBURG. he contemplated in 1752 to lay out a town. This intention of Mr. Cox's appeared to greatly alarm the proprietors of Pennsylvania, who were much afraid that it would injure the infant town of Easton. In a letter from Thomas Penn, dated May 9, 1752,* to Eichard Peters, he says : " I think we should secure all the land we can on the Jersey side of the water." The intention evidently being to get this land in their possession and thus prevent any settlement there. Mr. Cox finally abandoned his project of laying out a town on the Jersey side. Easton in the meantime having been made the seat of justice for the then new county of Northampton, and having a jail in which to confine any lawless characters that might attempt injury to the settlers, soon acquired a position which proved pre- judicial to the welfare of Phillipsburg. It therefore remained for many years a straggling village, in which there was but little improvement made. The opening of the Morris Canal, in 1832, infused some life into it, but this was of short duration, and the village soon relapsed into its former listless state. A traveller who passed through here in 1849, thus describes the place: "We passed through the long single street of the ancient village of Phillipsburg, which tradition says was laid out long before Easton was thought of, and which now contains some thirty or forty houses, scattered in straggling order over a distance of half a mile." The village, however, about this time began to make considerable improvement, in expectation of the completion of the New Jersey Central Bail- road, and by the time this road was completed, in 1852, it had grown to be a considerable town, most of the building lots having been taken up and built upon. The great difficulty that now appeared was the want of ground, upon which to build, the de- mand being greater than the supply. Advantage was taken of this want by a number of gentlemen in Phillipsburg and Easton, who formed themselves into a Company, under the title of the * Pennsylvania Historical Society's Manuscript. PHILLIPSBURG LAND COMPANY. 5 " Phillipsburg Land Company," and purchased, in 1853, the land adjoining the town, known as the " Eoseberry Farm," which they divided into lots, and sold them upon such liberal terms as enabled many persons to provide themselves with a home, who could not otherwise have done so. Upon the completion of the Belvidere Delaware Railroad, in 1854, from Trenton to Phillipsburg, the demand for these lots became so great, as to induce the Company to purchase another farm ; and after the completion of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, in 1855, they purchased another, amounting, in all, to about three hundred acres, for which they paid the sum of $55,000. There were about 1058 regular building lots cut out of these farms, besides 72 one acre out lots. These lots varied in price from $50 to $250 each. Up to October 1, 1858, the Company had sold about $52,000 worth of lots, and have still in their possession and for sale, about 500, besides some twenty acres reserved for manu- facturing purposes. Among the sales effected by this Company, was one of twenty acres to the "National Paint Company," for $8000, and one of ten acres to the " Warren Foundry Company," for $4000 ; thus showing an increase in value, in one year, of over one hundred per cent, for land sold by the acre. Phillipsburg possesses many advantages for manufacturing pur- poses, surrounded as it is by a rich and fertile country ; bounded on one side by the Morris Canal and the Belvidere Delaware Railroad, and with the New Jersey Central Railroad running directly through it, it offers to manufacturers every facility for transport- ing their manufactures to either of the great cities, and who by means of the Lehigh Canal and Lehigh Valley Railroad, can have the raw material brought direct from the mines, and unloaded at their doors, without any transshipment. The first church, in this section of country, was located at Phil- lipsburg, and was built of logs; a part of the burial-ground attached to that church is inclosed in the garden of John S. Bach, Esq., and the rude gravestones still mark the resting-place of the lathers of Phillipsburg. Mrs. Elizabeth Stryker, whose grand- 6 PHILLIPSBURG. father worshipped in this old church, has in her possession the sacramental cup used by the congregation, and a large Irish linen cloth which covered the sacramental emblems. The cup is made of material similar to bell metal, and on it is rudely engraved the following: — 1 . 7 . 61 c , A , . M I . P . B The meaning of which no person has yet been able to explain. After this church was torn down, which was previous to the Eevolutionary war, the village was without a building devoted to public worship until the year 1854. During that year there was a magnificent church erected by the Presbyterian congregation, at a cost of $15,000. It is built of brick, in the Elizabethan style of architecture, is finished so as to represent granite, and is large and commodious. A Methodist church was erected in 1855, at a cost of $8000; the church is built of brick, in a neat and substantial manner, and will accommodate about six hundred people. It will thus be seen there is ample accommodation for all who wish to attend Divine service. The cause of education has also kept pace with the rapid increase of population. In 1851, all the children were taught in a little school-house about 18 by 24 feet, one story high. At the present time there is a large academy, divided into four depart- ments, in which about four hundred children are taught at an annual expense of about fifteen hundred dollars, derived from three sources ; the State fund, interest on surplus revenue, and a public school tax. Great credit is due to the able superintendent of public schools, J. R. Lovell, Esq., for the systematic manner in which the schools are conducted. In addition to the public schools, there has been established within the last year the " Lenni-Lenape Institute," a boarding and day school for both sexes; S. Freeman, A. B., Principal. The course of study in this institution embraces a thorough knowledge MANUFACTURES. 7 of the English, necessary to fit the student for the counting-room, or for any of the practical pursuits of life ; and an accurate know- ledge of the classics, so far as may be necessary for entering with credit, any college in the United States. The gradation of the school is divided into an elementary, an intermediate, and academic department. Each department is conducted by competent teach- ers, who have constant supervision of the studies, health, and morals of the pupils. This institution, from its central location, convenience of access by the various lines of railways, the large and well-ventilated building, and the systematic course of instruc- tion which distinguishes it, has induced many of the leading families of the neighborhood, and many from a distance, to place their children under the care of the principal. MANUFACTURES. The first regularly established manufactory was an iron and brass foundry and finishing shop, erected in 1848 by J. E. Temp- lin & Co., in which an extensive and remunerating business was carried on until July 4th, 1855, when it was destroyed by fire. Among the large contracts filled by this establishment, in con- nection with the Eagle Foundry at Easton, was that of casting the large iron pillars for the Crystal Palace of New York. In 1849, the Cooper Furnace was erected by the Trenton Iron Company, about one mile below Phillipsburg, but which at the present time may be considered in the town. The ore used bv this furnace is chiefly derived from the Andover Mines, situated in Sussex County, New Jersey. These mines were originally worked by an English company, prior to the ^Revolutionary war, from which period up to the year 1847 they remained unworked; they were then purchased by Peter Cooper, Esq., for the Trenton Iron Company, who have since continued mining them, and have taken from them up to the present time about 200,000 tons of ore. S PHILLIPSBURG. The ores are principally the peroxide of iron, and the chief varieties are the " blue" and " red." These ores, though not unu- sually rich, are remarkable for the facility of their reduction. The large quantity of fluxing materials, such as manganese and carbonate of lime, contained in the ores themselves, renders the small addition of but ten per cent, fluxing matter necessary in working the ores. In one of the furnaces (forty-two feet high, and eighteen across the boshes) there was made two hundred and thirty tons of pig iron per week for six weeks in succession, with but one and a half tons of coal for each ton of iron produced, and the yield in one week, for a single furnace with a blast of three and a half pounds of pressure to the square inch, was three hundred and eleven tons, an amount unprecedented in the annals of European furnaces. A considerable amount of the iron produced is of the kind termed " lamellated ;" this iron is a type of the perfect combination of carbon and iron, with the carbon in larger proportion than in any other kind of iron. This species presents in its fracture a silvery brightness, and is beautifully crystallized, some of the crystals having brilliant faces measuring two inches across. An- other variety is the " radiated," which presents a fibrous fraction, the fibres radiating from the centre to the outside of the pig. The pig iron made at these furnaces is puddled at the rolling mills of the company, and the anthracite blooms thus made are converted into the various kinds of bar iron, rails, &c. At the wire mills the blooms are worked and drawn down to the finest wire, unsurpassed in quality. Steel of the best description is also produced from this iron ; and whenever wrought iron of great strength and toughness is required (as in the shafts of our largest class steamers) this iron, having been thoroughly tested, is highly esteemed. This company have at present three furnaces in opera- tion at Phillipsburg, requiring to supply them, when in full blast, 60,000 tons of ore, and about the same quantity of coal, per annum, yielding about 25,000 tons of pig iron in the same time. When in full operation, the company employ about three hundred MANUFACTURES. 9 men in and around the furnaces, who with those employed at the mines and the rolling mill number about one thousand; while, if we add those engaged in boating, mining coal, &c, the number would be about fifteen hundred; which, could it be possible for them to be located at one place with their families, would make no inconsiderable town. The works under the management of the Superintendent and Chemist, J. C. Kent, Esq., have been remarkably successful, having been in operation with but little intermission since their erection, and have produced in that time about 125,000 tons of pig iron. In the same year, A. R. Eeese & Co., seeing the necessity for a manufactory of agricultural implements in the great grain growing district of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, started one as a mere experiment, upon a capital of $500, and sent to market the first year eleven mowers and reapers. The name of the firm was afterwards changed to Eeese, Thomas & Gould, who, with an increased capital, greatly extended their business, and, in 1852, sent to market five hundred " power corn shellers," two hundred and fifty grain drills, and a large number of mowers and reapers. During the last year the firm was again changed to that of Eeese, Gould & Lake, who sent to market in that year two hundred and fifty mowers and reapers, two hundred grain drills, and one hundred power corn shellers, besides a large number of horse powers, threshing ma- chines, cutting boxes, clover hullers, corn planters, &c. &c. This firm has, in connection with their manufactory, a large iron and brass foundry. Much of the success of these gentlemen may be attributed to the excellent manner in which their work is gotten up, using nothing but the best material in their construction. From close attention to business, and good workmanship, this firm has risen from a small business of $500 capital to a large and ex- tensive one, requiring a capital of $60,000, and being one of the largest establishments of the kind in the State. In 1850, the extensive distillery of Messrs. John Tindall & Co. was erected. This establishment is one of the largest in this sec- 10 PHILLIPSBURG. tion of country, consuming on an average about sixty thousand bushels of grain, and manufacturing and sending to market about 240,000 gallons of whiskey yearly. These works contain all the recent improvements in distilling, and are propelled by a forty- horse power engine, requiring a capital of between thirty and forty thousand dollars. The Warren Foundry and Machine Company was incorporated in 1856, with a capital of $200,000, one-half of which was taken and is employed in carrying on the works. The buildings are very large, and were completed during the summer of 1856. They are all of stone, and of the following dimensions: Foundry 112 by 130 feet ; engine house 30 by 50 feet ; blacksmith shop 70 by 70 feet ; machine shop 70 by 400 feet, with a railroad running through the centre, connecting with the New Jersey Central and Lehigh Valley Eailroads. This company has finished heavy contracts for the Brooklyn water works ; columns for Chicago building fronts, &c. &c, and are now engaged on a large contract for government thirty-inch water pipes for Washington City. Their facilities for manufacturing are equal if not superior to any establishment in the country, having all the essentials at their very doors. Phillipsburg Bank was chartered March 19, 1856, and com- menced its operations on the 2d of September of the same year, with an authorized capital of $200,000, of which amount $146,470 was paid in ; there are 4000 shares of stock, which is held by 192 persons. The institution has been well conducted, under the management of its able officers, Chas. Sitgreaves, Esq., President, Lewis C. Eeese, Cashier. Phillipsburg at present contains about 1500 inhabitants, two churches, two schools, four hotels, one bank, three furnaces, one distillery, one agricultural implement manufactory, one foundry and machine shop, a post-office, and twenty stores — among which LOCATION AND APPEARANCE OF THE TOWN. 11 are included those for the sale of dry-goods, groceries, hardware, stoves, boots and shoes, wines and liquors, drugs, provisions, &c. i&c. The following letter, which we copy from a city paper, will give the reader a general description of the location and appearance of the town : — " Phillipsburg may in fact be considered a part of Easton, or at least bearing the same relation to it that Camden does to Philadel- phia. Many of the citizens of Easton are extensively engaged in business here, while others who are engaged in business in Easton, reside here ; consequently the interests of both places are consi- dered almost as one. " The many beautiful cottages and villas which are sprinkled in great profusion over the lofty hills of Phillipsburg, present from the opposite side of the river a very beautiful and charming ap- pearance. " There are two bridges over the Delaware Eiver, which connect the town with Easton : the one a wagon-bridge, erected in 1806, and the other the celebrated double bridge of the Lehigh Yalley Eailroad. The old Delaware Bridge, which we crossed to reach this place, is a miracle of cleanliness, and from either side of which, through the open windows, can be obtained a charming and romantic view. As we emerged from the bridge on the Phil- lipsburg side, we found ourselves within a fine large open square, which is named "Union Square," and is surrounded on all sides by fine large buildings ; in this square is transacted the principal mercantile business of the place. Some of the stores I noticed with the patent iron fronts, and in appearance compare very favorably with the handsomest stores in Easton. Within this square are located the Post-office, Bank, Lenni-Lenape, and Union Square Hotels, and the depot of the Belvidere Delaware Eailroad. The buildings of this depot are some of the finest and most complete in the State. The passenger building, which is about sixty feet square, is built of brick, four stories high, and was erected at a cost of about $14,000; the interior arrangement is unsurpassed for convenience. Some idea of the amount of goods received and 12 PHILLIPSBURQ. shipped at this depot may be formed, from the size of the freight house, which is 200 feet long by 80 feet wide, and lighted through- out with gas. "The gas used in the public and private buildings is manufactured by the Easton Gas Co., and is conveyed from that place through a large iron pipe, which is laid over the Delaware Bridge. " The town, from the fact of its not being incorporated, lacks many improvements which would greatly add to the convenience of its residents. The only accommodations for foot passengers, with but few exceptions, is a narrow plank walk, which at present is in a rather dilapidated condition. There are, however, fair prospects of the town not only becoming incorporated, but of its being made the seat of justice of a new county, which the citizens of the place and surrounding country are endeavoring to form from parts of the counties of "Warren, Morris, and Hunterdon. " In our walk through the principal avenue, we passed the hand- some residence of Hon. Chas. Sitgreaves, President of the Belvidere Delaware Eailroad, and one of the leading men in Western New Jersey. Immediately behind this residence is Mount Lebanon, upon which a number of the wealthier citizens have built their cottages. The view from this mountain is very fine ; as it is situ- ated directly opposite where the Lehigh empties into the Delaware, it affords a fine view up that river for the distance of about two miles, the beauty of which is greatly augmented by the smoke and flames of the furnaces and manufactories which line its banks and rise high above the lofty trees. " From this mountain we wended our way to that of Parnassus ; the view from this mountain is not so extensive as that from Lebanon, but it gives the tourist a better opportunity of seeing the many improvements in the neighborhood, of which there is proba- bly a greater number within the circle of a thousand feet than can be found anywhere else in the Middle States. "This beautiful mountain was named after one of the noted mountains in Greece, which it is supposed somewhat resembled this — it having two summits — one of which was consecrated to A GHOST. 13 Apollo and the Muse, and the other to Bacchus. On it was the celebrated Castalian fountain, the waters of which were fabled to inspire those who drank there with the true spirit of poetry. " Whether this mountain has ever had this honor, or is possessed of these peculiarities, I am unable to say — but tradition says that many years ago, it was the resort of the witches which were the source of so much trouble to the early settlers of this region. "In connection, and by way of closing this already too long and tedious letter, I will relate an amusing circumstance which occurred on this mountain a few years ago. "An old man, who resided in Easton, and was a firm believer in Mesmerism, received from his daughter while in the mesmeric state the gratifying intelligence that a large sum of money had been buried in this mountain. In accordance with the directions re- ceived from her, he repaired to the mountain at the 'witching time of night, when churchyards yawn,' &c, and commenced searching for the treasure ; night after night he worked faithfully, and the required depth had almost been obtained, when he was abruptly startled in the midst of his labor by a sepulchral voice, which seemed to proceed from the bowels of the earth. With trembling knees he turned around, and beheld a huge figure dressed in white. 'Dig dare — dig dare,' said the ghost; but the old man was too much frightened to reply. Mustering up all his strength, with a single bound he cleared the mountain, and with the speed of a locomotive, and shrieks equally as frightful, fled towards his home. The circumstance was the theme of conversa- tion for many a day by the inhabitants of the neighborhood. It may, perhaps, not be out of place to mention, for the benefit of those who are believers in apparitions, that the one in this case was a colored ostler of a neighboring tavern, who had been dressed for the occasion by some of the wags of the town, who had watched the secret movements of the gold-digger." OUTLINE HISTORY. Sir William Penn, the father of the founder of Pennsylvania, who had been a distinguished admiral under Charles II., left at his death claims of considerable amount (£16,000) against the crown for his services. His son William,* in consideration of this claim, and with the still nobler motive of securing an asylum where his Quaker brethren might enjoy, in unmolested security and freedom, their peculiar religious tenets, sought to acquire from King Charles II. the grant of a tract of land in the New World. This request was granted, and by the king's order (much against Penn's inclina- tion) the new province was to be called Pennsylvania, in honor of the services of his illustrious father. The charter was dated 4th March, 1681, and confirmed in April, by royal proclamation. The extent of the province was three degrees of latitude in breadth, by five degrees of longitude in length ; the eastern bound- ary being the Delaware Kiver,f and the northern " the beginning of the three-and-fortieth degree of northern latitude." William Penn left England in the ship " Welcome," on the 30th of August, 1682, accompanied by about one hundred colonists, and after a long voyage, arrived in December, at Newcastle (now in the State of Delaware). Soon after his arrival, he divided his province into three counties, viz., Philadelphia, Chester, and Bucks. * The Indians called William Penn " Miquon," which, means a quill, or pen. f The name of this river was given in honor of Lord Delaware, who was gover- nor of the Virginia colony, and in 1610 discovered the bay and river. The Dutch knew it only as " Sud Revier," or South River, in contradistinction to the North River of New York. THE WALKING PURCHASE. 15 Before the arrival of Penn, his deputy governor, Markham, had purchased from the Indians a considerable tract of country, and in 1683 and 1684 he himself purchased other tracts. In 1686, the Indians granted to him an extent of country, commencing in a line of the former purchases, and from thence northwestwardly, as far as a man could ride on horseback in two days ; this contract, however, was not consummated during the lifetime of Penn, so that the extent of this purchase remained undetermined until 1737. On the 25th of August, 1737, a treaty was held with the Indians at Durham, below Easton, on the Delaware, when it was stipulated that the purchase of 1686 be consummated by commencing near where Wrightstown, in Bucks County, now stands, and terminating at the spot which a person could reach in one and a half day's walk. The Proprietaries, Thomas and John Penn, immediately after the treaty, advertised for the most expert walkers, and from those who were presented, selected three men, viz., Edward Marshall, Solomon Jennings, and James Yeates. The walk took place on the 19th and 20th of September, 1737. They started from a marked spruce-tree at sunrise, and at sunset Edward Marshall arrived at a creek near the northern base of the Blue Mountain.* About one mile from the resting-place of Mar- shall, there was an Indian village, called Meniolagemika, at which a large number of Indians collected, in the expectation that he would go no further. But when they found that he intended to proceed in the morning, they were very angry, saying that they were cheated, that the Penns had got all their good land, but added that in the spring every Indian was to bring him a buckskin, and they would have their good land again, and Penn might go to the devil with his poor land; one old Indian, with indignation, * Kitochtanemin was the original name of this mountain, and is so called in the deeds to Penn. Kit signifying " very large" or " highest ;" Wachtu or Wasch- tshu, " a mountain." Guneu, "long," therefore, the usual translation given to the word, is " endless mountain." The mountain at present is generally called " Kit- tanny Mountain." 16 THE WALKING PURCHASE. thus exclaimed — " No sit down to smoke, no shoot squirrel, but lun, lun, lun all day long." Next morning, at sunrise, Marshall* started again, and at noon arrived at the Tobihanna Creek, near the banks of which he struck his hatchet into a tree. Solomon Jennings had given out the first day, arriving at the Lehigh Kiver, and Yeates could proceed no further than the foot of the Blue Mountain, on the south side. The whole distance walked by Marshall was about seventy-four miles, or about fifty miles the first day, which cannot be considered an extraordinary performance, inasmuch as many persons at the present time can, upon an emergency, exceed it. It is also said that the obstructions that previously may have existed had been removed; that the Indian path upon which they walked was well trodden, and had been used probably for many years, as it was one of the principal thoroughfares from the Delaware Eiver near Burlington, to the great hunting-grounds at the Susquehanna, near Wyoming The Indians did not value the lands south of the Blue Mountains very highly; their favorite hunting-grounds at that time were in the Minisink country, or the valley north of that mountain, extending from the Wind Gap, into the State of New York, near to the Hudson Eiver ; and as a rectangular line was drawn from the terminating point of the walk to the Delaware Eiver, many miles northward of the Minisinks were included in the purchase, as well as all their favorite hunting-grounds along that river, a result which was contrary to their expectations, and which caused them to be much dissatisfied, and eventually, through the agency of some of the enemies of the proprietors, became exasperated; the consequence of which was, that they committed many murders, and finally became involved in a war with the whites from 1755 to 1758. * Marshall's Creek was named in honor of Edward Marshall ; at the commence- ment of the Indian wars, his family were all killed by the Indians ; he lived at that time near where the present town of Stroudsburg stands. There are nume- rous entries in the records of the county in 1752 — 1755, of his being paid for wolf scalps, &c. FIRST EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS. 17 "William Perm was a Quaker, and although the proprietaryship of the province, after his decease, came into the hands of his sons John and Thomas Penn, who belonged to the Established or Epis- copalian Church, the Quakers for many years retained the ascend- ency in the Assembly. The governors differed in many points from the views of the Quakers, thereby engendering a feud between these parties. The Quakers, considering the walking purchase a great fraud, naturally induced the Indians to regard them as their true friends, and all those who were not Quakers, as adverse to their interests. Many discussions took place in the Assembly, and pamphlets were published by both parties, criminating and recriminating each other in regard to this walk. Charles Thompson, of Bucks County, the first Secretary of Congress, published, in 1758, a pamphlet en- titled " The Causes of the Alienation of the Indians," in which he asserts that the walk was a fraud. This charge was refuted by a publication in London, in 1759, entitled "An Answer to the Causes of the Alienation of the Indians." The Indian path upon which the walk was performed, passed the Lehigh Eiver about one mile below Bethlehem, over an island (now called Jones's Island), from thence in a nearly northwesterly course to the Blue Mountain, at Smith's Gap, in Moore Township.* The first European settlements in the vast territory which formed the county of Northampton at the time of its erection, were made about the year 1710, in the township of Smithfield, now in Monroe County, northeast of the Blue Mountains, along the Delaware Eiver (by the Indians called the " Minisinks"). Samuel Preston, in an article published in Hazzard's Register, dates this settlement about the year 1660, which, from a careful examination of the subject, we consider too early, yet it is known * Moore Township was named in honor of John Moore, the representative of Northampton to the Assembly in 1761. The records of the county show that the original eastern line of the township was laid along this Indian path. The com- piler has a distinct recollection of this path, his youthful feet having trodden it frequently, below, as well as on the mountain side. 2 18 FIEST EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS. that settlements were made at an early day on the Jersey side of the river, for we find it stated in the Documentary History of New York, that Claus de Euyter produced at Amsterdam several sam- ples of copper ore dug there in 1659, and as these excavations are still to be seen, it is evident that the Dutch who were settled near the North Eiver, had formed settlements along the Delaware in New Jersey previous to the settlements in Pennsylvania. In a report made to the Assembly " on paper currency," dated August 20, 1752, the committee expressed an opinion that there were but few if any settlements above Durham in 1723. This may have been the case in the eastern part of the county, but it is very probable that the Mennonists, Dunkers, Amishes, and other reli- gious persons who settled at and near the Falkner Swamp, in the present county of Montgomery, had, in 1708 — 1715, crossed over upon the lands now in Upper Milford Township, in Lehigh County. A considerable accession was had from 1720 to 1730, and a great number arrived from 1730 to 1740, and thence to 1752. In 1752, when the county of Northampton was formed, it con- tained within its borders between 5,000 and 6,000 inhabitants, (exclusive of Indians), who were distributed over the townships then organized in the following proportions, viz : — Smithfield, formed in 1742 Milford, u 1742 Upper Saucon, (I 1743 Lower Saucon, u 1743 Macungie, it 1743 Bethlehem, u 1746 Allen, a 1748 Williams, a 1750 Inhabitants 500 700 650 700 650 600 300 200 Upper parts of Lehigh County, forming subsequently the townships of Lynn, Weisenberg, Heidelberg, Salisberg, Lowhill, Whitehall, &c, about .... Forks of the Delaware, excepting Allen and Bethlehem Townships, about ..... Making in all near 6,000. 800 800 Of these, there were about 600 Scotch-Irish in Allen and Mount EARLY PIONEERS. 19 Bethel Townships, and 300 Dutch in Smithfield, the remainder were Germans with but very few exceptions. In some of the townships there is not one English name to be found in the assess- ment lists. The county then contained about 6,300 square miles, or near 4,000,000 of acres. From the beginning of the 42° north latitude to the 43° there was no white person living excepting here and there an Indian trader. The Moravian missionaries were probably the first intelligent persons who traversed those wilds. Amongst them Count Zinzendorf, accompanied by Martin Mack and several others, were the earliest pioneers. The earliest settlements in this remote part of the county by the whites, were made along the River Delaware, at Cushietank, about 1754-5, by the New Eng- land intruders; these were so insignificant that they were not noticed by the County Commissioners in their assessment lists of that time. All the country north of the Blue Mountains, with the exception of Smithfield Township, was called Towamensing (which signifies a wilderness, or a country not inhabited), a very proper name by the way. In the assessment list of 1762 we find only thirty-six taxables in the whole of this wilderness.* Count Zinzendorf * Information given by John Williamson, who was employed by John Jennings to go to Cusheitank, June 18, 1762, to gain intelligence of the numbers settled there, &c. (P. A., vol. iv. page 83.) Sixteen families are settled on the river ; their whole settlement extends seven miles. Their head man is named Moses Thomas ; he lives in the second settle- ment ; his brother lives half a mile from him, and is named Aaron Thomas, in the first settlement. Third settlement there resides Isaac Tracy (owns a saw-mill), Christopher Tracy, brothers ; Jonathan Tracy, Reuben Jones, Moses Kimball, Levi Kimball, James Penaire, Daniel Cash. Fourth settlement, Nathan Parks, Tyler, Cummins. There are in all forty men, who told him they held their land under New England ; they had laid out a town four miles to the west of them, on a body of fine land, on a branch running into Lackawaxen ; and threatened, if any sheriff came to molest them, they would tie a stone about his neck, and send him down to his governor. They knew the woods well, and would pop them down three for one. 20 GEKMAN EMIGRANTS. named this country St. Anthony's Wilderness, which name it bears on the early maps, particularly Evans' of 1749. How Saint Anthony became entitled to this honor is not known — unless he was a descendant of Vulcan, who had here his storehouse of an- thracite coal. The Germans who first emigrated into the Province of Pennsyl- vania, came chiefly for conscience sake. Those who arrived at a later period, came to improve their temporal concerns ; after the tide of emigration had fairly commenced, it became a matter of speculation to entice the Germans to take up their abode in the wilds of America. There were found many persons in various portions of Germany who had been in America for a short time, and who, giving glowing descriptions of the fruitfulness of the country, enticed the poorest Germans to emigrate in great num- bers. In 1708, 1709, 1710, to 1720, thousands of them arrived who were known as Palatines, because they had come from the Palatinate, to which some had been forced to flee from their homes in other parts of Europe. Some of these had gone to England, on the invitation of Queen Anne, by whose bounty not a few were transported to America. James Logan, the Secretary of the Pro- vince of Pennsylvania in 1717, remarks: — " We have of late a great number of Palatinates poured in upon us without any recommendation or notice, which gives the country some uneasiness, for foreigners do not so well among us as our own English people." In 1719, Jonathan Dickinson remarks : Nathan Chapman, who lives on the Jersey side, told him no body of men could come up without their having notice half a day before they arrived from the Mini- sink people, who had promised to give them notice. The land on which they are settled is very good. The land flies are intolerable. At Goshen a man told him that one hundred families were coming from Connecticut, in as private a man- ner as possible, to settle the lands at Wyoming. These adventurous colonists from Connecticut, claimed the land under the ancient charter granted in 1620 to the Plymouth Company by King James I. This grant comprehended all the territory lying in the same latitude with Con- necticut and Massachusetts, aa far west as the Pacific Ocean, not previously set- tled by other Christian powers. REDEMPTIONERS. 21 "We are daily expecting ships from London, which bring over Palatinates in number six or seven thousand ; some few are coming from Ireland lately, and more are expected thence — this is besides our common supply from England and Wales." From 1725 to 17-10, there was another great influx of Germans of various reli- gious opinions : German Reformed, Lutherans, Catholics, Mora- vians, and Schwenkfelders. Those coming during this period settled in great numbers in Northampton County, and we may conclude that of the 1000 German families that were residents in the county in 1752, the greater part had arrived during that time. In 1725, James Logan says, in a letter, that many of these Ger- mans were not over scrupulous in their compliance with the regu- lations of the land-office. "They come in," says he, "in crowds, and as bold, indigent strangers from Germany, where many of them have been soldiers; all these go in the best vacant tracts, and seize upon them as places of common spoil. He says they rarely approach him on their arrival to propose to purchase, and when they are sought out and challenged for their right of occupancy, they allege it was published in Europe that we wanted and solicited for colonists, and had a superabundance of land, and therefore they had come without the means to pay." To arrest, in some degree, the arrival of the Germans, the Assembly passed a law taxing newly-arrived persons twenty shillings a head. Among these immigrants were many who bitterly lamented that they had for- saken their homes for the Province of Pennsylvania. In many instances, persons in easy circumstances at home, with a view of improving their condition, came to America, but to their sorrow found that their condition was rendered none the better, but in many respects much worse. Others, again, who had not the means of paying their passage across the Atlantic, were, on their arrival at Philadelphia, exposed to sale at auction, and sold to serve until their passage money was paid. These were called Redemptioners, and were sold for about ten to fifteen pounds for from two to five years' servitude, according to age and condition. Many of them, after serving out their time faithfully, became, by frugality and 22 A SOUL-DRIVER TRICKED. industry, to be among the most influential citizens in the State. The years that were peculiarly remarkable for the importation of Palatinate redemptioners, were from 1728 to 1751, yet the practice of selling continued for many years, and was not abolished within the eighteenth century.* There was a set of men who were called soul-drivers, who used to drive redemptioners through the country and dispose of them to the farmers. They generally purchased them in lots consisting of fifty or more, of captains of ships to whom the redemptioners were indebted for their passage. The trade was very brisk for many years, but (as the country increased in population) broke up about 1785, by the numbers that ran away from the drivers. A story is told of one of these soul-drivers having been tricked by one of his herd. This fellow, by a little management, contrived to be the last of the flock that remained unsold, and of course travelled about with his master. One night, they lodged at a tavern, and in the morning the young fellow rose early, and sold his master to the landlord, pocketed the money, and marched off. Before going, he used the precaution to tell the purchaser that, though tolerably clever in other respects, he was rather saucy, and a little given to lying. That he had even been presumptuous enough at times to endeavor to pass for master, and that he might possibly represent himself as such to him. To show the opinion entertained by the proprietors, in regard to these Germans, the following extract of a letter (in possession of the Pennsylvania Historical Society) from Thomas Penn to Gov. Hamilton, may suffice. The letter is dated July 31, 1749, and * The writer well recollects the following purchase. I was residing with Samuel Grosh, a storekeeper in Litiz, Lancaster County, in 1805. Mr. Grosh, going to Philadelphia to purchase some goods, was requested by a tobacconist of the place, named Eichler, to purchase for him one of these redemptioners ; this Mr. Grosh promised to do, and upon his return brought with him a young German, of very small stature. Mr. Eichler, upon his introduction to the man, asked him, "How old are you?" "Twenty-nine years," was the answer. Eichler, who was considerable of a joker, remarked, after surveying him from head to foot, "Well, well, you have in a long time shot up very short!" The fellow blushed. He served out his time, three years, faithfully. QUAKER INFLUENCE OVER THE GERMANS. 23 says : " You should issue a proclamation to deter people from set- tling lands "without license, and make an example of a particular person or two in terrorum* else as there are great numbers of people going over, we shall have the country overrun with people who will neither pay us our dues nor submit to the law of the land. For my own part, I should be better pleased not to have one settler in seven years to come, than have such as throw them- selves in the country as now do. I find people here (in England) think we go too fast, with regard to these matters, and it gives an opportunity to those fools, who are always telling their fears, that the colonies will set up for themselves." Many of the Germans became men of wealth and influence in their day, and their descendants are among the first in society as ^ to intelligence, wealth, and respectability. About the years 1748 to 1750, the Germans were much noticed in the publications of the day. They were at that time in general hearty co-operators with the Quakers or Friends, who then had considerable influence in the Assembly, and at the elections they assisted them in carrying the members whom they proposed. The Quakers derived much of their influence over the Germans through the aid of C. Sower, who published a German newspaper in Ger- mantown in 1739, and which, being generally read, influenced them on the side of the Quakers. A MS. pamphlet in the Philadelphia Library, supposed to have been written by Samuel Wharton in 1755, says that the Quakers, by means of Sower, persuaded the Germans that there was a design to enslave them, to compel their young men, by a contemplated militia law, to become soldiers, and to load them down with taxes. For this cause, he adds, they come down in shoals to vote (of course, many from Northampton County), carrying everything before them. * Although the proprietaries threatened settlers who had not taken warrants for the lands, yet there is nothing which we have found on record that shows they were actually dispossessed. It is altogether probable, however, that they complied with the proprietary's demands, for, by a bond found in the land-office, they were obliged to satisfy the proprietaries or quit the premises. 24 IRISH EMIGRANTS. Thomas Perm, in a letter from England to Governor Hamilton, dated February 25, 1750, says : "lam greatly alarmed to find the Germans behave so insolently at the elections ; they must no doubt do so from the numbers given them at the back counties. The taking of counties from Bucks and Philadelphia (Northampton and Berks) will take off their settlements, and leave them only two members of eight, and prevent them for many years from having a majority."* Wharton imputes their wrong bias to their "stubborn genius and ignorance," which he proposes to soften by education — a scheme, still suggested, as necessary to give the general mass of the country Germans right views of public individual interests. To this end he proposes that faithful Protestant ministers and schoolmasters should be supported among them ; that their chil- dren should be taught the English tongue, that government in the meantime should suspend their right of voting for members of the Assembly, and to incline them sooner to become English in edu- cation and feeling, should compel them to make all bonds and other legal writings in English, and that no newspaper or almanac should be circulated among them unless also accompanied by the English thereof. "Finally (the writer concludes), without some suck measure, I see nothing to prevent this province from falling into the hands of the French." The Irish arrived in the county about 1729 or '30. These earliest Irish emigrated from the North of Ireland, and all of them of the Presbyterian (Scotch) Church. In 1729, James Logan, Secretary to the Proprietaries, remarks : " It looks as if Ireland is to send all her inhabitants hither, for last week, not less than six ships arrived, and every day two or three arrive also. The common fear is, that if they continue to come, they will make themselves proprietors of the province. It is * It would appear from the above letter, that the taking of Northampton County from Bucks was for political purposes, because from the fact of the alliance of the Germans with the Quakers (who were generally opposed to the proprietary influ- ence) they could carry the old counties. HOSTILITY OF THE INDIANS. 25 strange," says he, "that they thus crowd where they are not wanted. The Indians themselves are alarmed at the swarms of strangers, and we are afraid of a breach between them — for the Irish are very rough to them." At the time of the erection of Northampton County, an alarming crisis was at hand; the French, who were hovering around the great lakes, had sedulously applied themselves to seduce the In- dians from their allegiance to the English. The Shawanees* had already joined them, and of the Sis Nations (or Iroquois), the Onondagas, Cayugas, or Senecas, were wavering, and the Delawares waited only for an opportunity to revenge their supposed wrongs. The French were fortifying the strong points on the Ohio. To reduce Fort Duquesne (Pittsburg), an expedition was projected and sent forward, under the command of General Braddock, in the summer of 1753 ; when this army had just crossed the Mononga- hela Eiver, within ten miles of Fort Duquesne, they were sur- prised by a party of French and Indians in ambush, and completely routed. This defeat spread consternation throughout the province, the citizens of Northampton County being on the frontier, were the most exposed, and the defenceless citizens could only seek safety by flight. The whole frontier, from the Delaware to the Potomac, was now lighted with the blaze of burning cottages. The Indians, joined by the Delawares, roamed unmolested among the passes of the mountains, laying waste all the settlements beyond the Blue Mountains, making inroads upon those below, and butchering the settlers.f Treaties were held with them in 1756, 1757, and 1758, and a peace concluded in the last mentioned year. * Shawanno translated means South, implying that these Indians came from the south. In the commencement of the 18th century they were driven out of Florida, and found no resting-place until they arrived in Pennsylvania, where the Delaware Indians assigned to them several places for residences. f The building of forts, the treaties with the Indians, as well as the murders committed, will be noticed in the history of the section of country where they occurred. 26 BOUNTIES OFFERED FOR THE CAPTURE OF INDIANS. The short calm was succeeded by a terrific storm in 1763. The great Indian chief Pontiac conceived the gigantic plan of uniting all the northwestern tribes in a simultaneous and vigorous attack upon the whole frontier, and in utter extermination of all the whites, the destruction of their forts, crops, cattle, and cabins, upon the same day. It is painful to record the details of savage barba- rity ; but it is more painful to confess that the atrocities of the Indians in this war were fully equalled, if not exceeded, by those committed by some of the whites. The Indians had good cause for this war, the white people having built forts on lands which they had never purchased, several of them one hundred miles from the lines of the purchased lands. These forts were held in defiance of former treaties, as outposts, from which, further encroachments were apprehended might be made towards the west. It creates a feeling of sadness to know that the grandson of William Penn, John Penn, who became Governor of Pennsylvania in 1763, in the city of brotherly love itself, in July, 1764, offered, by proclama- tion ; the following bounties : — For the Capture, or Scalps, and Death of Indians. For every male above the age of ten years, captured . . . $150 For every male above the age of ten years, scalped (being killed) 130 For every Indian female, and every male, under the age of ten years, captured . . . . . . . . .130 For every female above the age of ten, scalped, being killed . 50 " ! quam mutatus ab illo .'" Bouquet's expedition to the Muskingum in the autumn of 1761, overawed the Indians, who sued for peace. The Delawares, Shawanees, and Senecas, agreed to cease hostili- ties, and surrendered a great number of prisoners, taken during the late wars. The return of these prisoners, many of whom were children, carried joy to many an anxious heart in Pennsylvania. During the Eevolutionary war, several tribes of Indians became auxiliaries to the English, and made some inroads into the county, particularly at Wilkesbarre, in 1778 ; they took prisoners the Gil- bert family, on the Mahony, and committed some murders in Upper CAUSES OF THE INDIAN WAR. 27 and Lower Smithfield Townships, now in Monroe County; and some few made incursions in those townships until 1782, or to the end of the Eevolutionary war. The following history of the causes of the Indian war, taken clown by Conrad Weiser (the Indian agent), and sent to Governor Denny on 10th February, 1757, gives the most correct information. The attention of the reader is particu- larly desired to a careful perusal of it. Memorandum taken at Fort Allen, November 26, 1756. "As I came along this morning from Nicholas Upplinger's," Joseph Tatamyf kept me company for the most part, and some- times John Pumpshire4 We began to discourse about this pre- sent Indian war. I asked them several questions, and so did they me. Among other things, I told them that, for my part, I did not understand Teedyuscong§ clearly, in his speech about the cause of the war; now and then he blamed the English in general, the Proprie- taries of Pennsylvania, and then the Indians for being too credulous and foolish to believe the French ; sometimes said the Frenchmen's success, wealth, and power, prevailed upon you all, and so on. "Joseph Tatamy told me that everything had been agreed upon in the Indian council ; that their king Teedyuscong had everything in his heart, and knew what to say before he came to Easton, and that there his memory was refreshed, but being too often overcome with strong liquorj he spoke confusedly, though nothing that was wrong or false in itself, only not in such order as he ought to have done, and one passage he never mentioned at all, which had drawn the Delaware Indian's heart from the English, and their Indian allies. * Upplinger kept a tavern at the north side of the Blue Mountain, beyond the Lehigh Water Gap ; of late years, Thomas Craig's tavern. f Son of the celebrated William Tatamy, a Delaware Indian chief, living near the present Stockertown, in Forks Township, Northampton County. % John Pumpshire, likewise a noted Indian ; also interpreter at the various treaties held at Easton, in 1756, &c. § This was the principal Delaware Indian chief. || Parsons says he would drink a gallon of- rum a day, and do business. 28 CAUSES OF THE INDIAN WAR. " That Teedyuscong should have given an account of the differ- ences that had arisen some time ago between the Delaware Menis- sing Indians and the Mingos (the Six Nations, or Iroquois), and should have told the Governor of Pennsylvania how the latter have cheated the former out of a great deal of land on the river Dela- ware, and sold it to the proprietaries of Pennsylvania ; that the Mingos had abused the Delawares some years before, in Philadel- phia (1742), as if the Delaware and Minisink Indians were their dogs, and that Cannasataego, then speaker among the Mingos, drove them away from their own land, and said he would give them lands on Susquehanna Eiver, and ordered them instantly to settle there, which the Delaware and some of the Minisink Indians did, in order to prevent mischief. That then Cannasataego sold that land to the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania; but the Delawares and Mini- sink Indians made no reply against it, thinking themselves safe enough on Susquehanna ; but about three years ago, a company of New England men had come down Susquehanna, and taken draughts of all the good spots of land, and perhaps of all ; that when the Indians asked why they did so, they boldly answered that so many hundred families from New England would come and settle there. ' This is our land,' said the Indians, who were settled there. 'No!' was the reply; 'it belongs to the Mingos; you are only their tenants, slaves, dogs.' That thereupon, the Delawares sent a large body of their people, as their deputation to the Mo- hawk country, to protest against the New England people, or any other whites settling there, and to complain of the Mohawks' pro- ceeding, and to tell them plainly that if they, the Mohawks, would not prevent the New England people from settling on the Susque- hanna, they, the Delawares, would go over to Ohio, to the French, in hopes of receiving better usage from them. That the Mo- hawks then denied everything, and said the New England people had no leave of them for any lands on the Susquehanna, and that they never would sell them any, and that neither the New England people nor any other white should settle there. That the deputa- tion then went home again, the Delaware and Minisink Indians CAUSES OF THE INDIAN WAR. 29 being thus satisfied, but that they were soon informed by some of the Mingos themselves, that that land had actually been sold to the New England people, and that the Mohawks had received large considerations for them, and that the Mohawks had deceived the Deputies of the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, who were about buying it, and having promised the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania that they should have the preference, if ever the land was sold. At this they became enraged, and fearing that they would be cut off, they gathered at Tioga, to see what would be the consequence, and whether they would join the French, or hold on to their lands; a great many did so, others went over to the French from time to time, and came back with messages from them. The war broke out. "I said I wished that this story had been told at the treaty. Teedyuscong said he was afraid of the Mingo Indians, that were there, lest they might misrepresent the story when they came home. ' The Mingo Indians' (continued Tatamy), ' have from the beginning cheated our nation, and got our forefathers to call them uncles by deceit and art, and at last said they had conquered our forefathers; whereas, the Mingos stood in need of our forefathers' assistance, and got some of their cunning men to come down to our forefathers, with the news that a certain nation from the west was preparing to come and cut them off, and so our forefathers entered into a league with them, and rather fought their battles, when the Mohawks should have fought ours.' "Both these Indians were desirous, and insisted that I should use my endeavors with the governor and people of Pennsylvania, to lay out a large tract of land on Susquehanna, and secure it to their posterity, so that none of the whites could sell it, or any- body buy it. That if this was done, the Delawares would, for the most part, come and live on it, and be reconciled to the people and the government of Pennsylvania forever. Teedyuscong told me much the same story, as before-mentioned, before we parted, with very little difference, and desired the same of me. "CONRAD WEISER." SO CAUSES OF THE INDIAN WAR. The case of the Delaware Indians was certainly a deplorable one. From being the occupiers and actual owners of such a vast terri- tory, to be, in the course of seventy-five years (from 1681 to 1756), deprived of it, not retaining one spot of their own, wherein to lay their weary bodies ! OLD NORTHAMPTON COUNTY. This county, at the time of its division from Bucks, embraced all the land now contained in the counties of Northampton, Lehigh, Carbon, Monroe, Pike, Wayne, and Susquehanna, and parts of Wyoming, Luzerne, Schuylkill, Bradford, and Columbia. The erection of the county was a question of considerable poli- tical importance, as we have previously shown. The Quakers un- willingly gave their consent to it, as they thereby gave considerable strength to the proprietary party, j^et the inhabitants, notwithstand- ing this, could not overlook their own interests, as they labored under great inconveniences on account of the great distance from the seat of justice, at Newton. The Quakers, therefore, were eventually constrained to pass the act for a separation. The first petition, which was signed by a great number of the inhabitants of the upper part of the county of Bucks, was pre- sented to the House of Assembly by William Craig, on the 11th of May, 1751, and read. "Setting forth that by the number of inhabitants, and the re- mote extent of settlements of said county, from the present seat of judicature, they are extremely harassed and aggrieved when- ever they have occasion to make application for obtaining justice, and often choose to lose their right, rather than sue for it under such circumstances; that many knowing this, are guilty of fraudu- lent and deceitful practices, as well as other licentious behavior, which they durst not attempt were the petitioners erected into a county by themselves, and the seat of justice more easily to be come at; that they are encouraged to hope that the same justice, equity, and regard for the good of the public, which induced the 32 OLD NORTHAMPTON COUNTY. late assemblies to erect new counties for the relief of the inhabit- ants, will (as their case is the same) be extended to them ; that they apprehend a division line run to the southward, from Tohiccon creek, to the line of Philadelphia County, and from thence to the northward, by the common line that divides Philadelphia County from Bucks, would be the most convenient separation from the old county of Bucks ; that it is with concern for the public, as well as with great detriment to themselves, that they daily see the produce of that part of the province carried over at the point of the forks of Delaware, into the Jerseys, and from thence by land to Brunswick, which is a private loss, by the heavy charges for carriage, and a pro- vincial loss, by so great a share of the produce going to a foreign market; but all this they conceive might be thoroughly remedied, if there was a new county erected, and a proper situation pitched upon for the seat of commerce and justice ; they, therefore, being conscious that what is here offered is essentially connected with the good of the public in general, as well as of the inhabitants in par- ticular, do pray this house to grant them a speedy and effectual relief in all the premises." On the 16th of June, it was read the second time; on the 5tb, 6th, 11th, 18th, 20th, 21st, and 22d of February, 1752, it was the subject of debate, and finally passed on the sixth day of the follow- ing month, receiving the signature of Governor James Hamilton, on the eleventh day of March, 1752. The Assembly did not name this new county, but the Proprietary, Thomas Penn, in a letter to Deputy Governor Hamilton, dated London, Sept. 3, 1751, says: "Whenever there is a new county, it shall be called Northampton." The seat of Lord Pomfret, whose daughter Thomas Penn had lately married, was in Northampton- shire, in England. William Craig was very active in this matter, and upon a petition to the Commissioners for remuneration for loss of time and expense, he was paid, in 1754, £30 out of the county funds. The first court was held on the 16th day of June, 1752, and in the Sessions docket is thus recorded : — FIRST ELECTION AND COURT. 33 "At a court of record of our Lord the King, held at Easton, for the county of Northampton, the 16th day of June, in the 26th year of our sovereign Lord George the Second, by the grace of God, King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, &c, Anno Domini 1752, before Thomas Craig, Timothy Horsefield, Hugh "Wilson, James Martin, and William Craig, justices of the Lord the King, the peace in the said county to keep, as also divers trespasses and felonies, and other offences in the said county committed, to hear and determine assigned. (By commission dated the 9th of June, instant.)" Some of these justices had received commissions in 1748 to 1748. The second court was held on 3d October, 1752 ; at this session the first grand jury was empanelled, consisting of James Ralston, Allen Township. Charles Brodhead, Smithfield. William Casselberry, " Garret Brink, " Robert Gregg, " Isaac Van Campen, " James Horner, " Benj'n Shoemaker, " John Atkinson, " David Owen, Up. Saucon. John Walker, " John Cooken, " Robert Lyle, Mount Bethel. Lewis Merkle,* Macungie. Alexander Miller, " Nathaniel Vernon, Easton. Michael Moore, " The first election in the county was held on the first day of Oc- tober, 1752. James Burnsides was elected Member of the Assembly. William Craig was elected Sheriff. Robert Gregg, Peter Trexler, and Benj'n Shoemaker were elected Commissioners. This election was held at Easton for the whole county. There were no other election districts formed before the Eevolu- tionary war, and the greater part of the electors lived twenty to twenty -five miles from Easton, and was therefore very inconvenient for them. The candidates for Assembly were Wm, Parsons and James Burnsides ; the first was the proprietary candidate, and the * Lewis Merkle was the only German in the jury. 34 OLD NORTHAMPTON COUNTY. other the Quaker candidate ; the contest was very warm, the can- didates and their friends accused each other of foul play ; Parsons himself was much excited. The Quaker candidate received a majo- rity of several hundred votes. Burnsides was a Moravian, and lived near Bethlehem, on his own farm; he came from Ireland, about 1742. In 1744 — 1746, &c, he had been a missionary at several preaching stations of the Mora- vians; one of them was near Broadhead's, in Monroe County; an- other at Walpeck. The succeeding elections were carried on with the same degree of bitterness. William Plumstead* was returned as the regularly elected repre- sentative to the Assembly, October, 1756, from Northampton County, but was not suffered to take his seat in the House, the elec- tion being contested by John Jones, Samuel Mechlin, and Daniel Brown, who, in a petition of Oct. 30, 1756, say that the illegality of the election could be proved, and the following charges substan- tiated. 1st. That , one of the inspectors, notwith- standing his oath, destroyed several of the tickets which were in favor of William Edmonds, and were delivered to said . 2d. That one person was seen to deliver tickets, repeatedly, to the in- spector. 3d. A great number of the tickets were folded up toge- ther, some one in another, and some two in one, which were received by the inspectors as one ticket, &c. The Assembly had the matter under consideration for some time, many witnesses were produced by both parties, yet the affair was not finally settled until the 23d of September, 1757, when the election of Plumstead was pro- nounced illegal by a large majority. The contest was upheld by the proprietary party on the one side, and the Quaker party on the other, Plumstead being the candidate for the former, and Edmonds of the latter. Letters were produced by the Quaker party, implicating Ptichard Peters, the proprietary agent; William Parsons, also, by some overt acts, laid himself open * William Plumstead was mayor of the city of Philadelphia. It was not neces- sary that a member of Assembly should be an inhabitant of the county from which he was elected. LETTER OF NICHOLAS SCULL. 35 to censure. The following letter was produced by John Jones, which he had received from Nicholas Scull. Easton, Oct. 12, 1756. Sik : I make no doubt before this time, you have heard that Johnny Jennings has lost the sheriff's office. I believe the reason why, was, that Mr. Parsons wrote in Rinker's favor, as I have had some hints that Vernon carried a letter, which he intimated would get Rinker the office. I think, if so, there is no belief in Mr. Parsons, for, a few days before the election, Mr. Parsons and I had some talk about them that purposed to set up for the sheriff's office, and he then said that he thought Johnny much the fittest, as he was a sober well-behaved young man, and had some experience of the office. But, you know Mr. Parsons is a man that is not apt to forget any old difference, and I suppose the difference between Johnny's father and him, is the reason that he wrote in Rinker's favor, as Mr. Peters told me there was no objection against Johnny, only on account of his father; and I think he need never set up for the office any more, for, as I told Mr. Peters, I thought it very hard that any misstep of the father should be thrown on the son, when he had behaved himself well ; and the answer was, that the iniquities of the father should be inflicted upon the children, until the third and fourth gene- ration. So, if that is the case, I think that Johnny may be easy, for as long as Mr. Parsons is in the country, he will be against him. Yours, NICHOLAS SCULL.* The Johnny Jennings Mr. Scull speaks of in his letter was a son of Solomon Jennings, one of the three walkers of the so-called "walking purchase." In September, 1737, Solomon resided on a tract of land about two miles above Bethlehem, f on the Lehigh Eiver (now the Geisinger farm). When he settled here he was on the extreme frontier of the county, and became famous as a hunter and good walker, which procured for him the honor of being se- lected as one of the three walkers. Solomon was very fond of whiskey, which probably occasioned his giving out on the first day. On the first day of October, 1755, he was elected one of the County Commissioners, and on taking * The fact of Mr. Scull being a son-in-law of Solomon Jennings, may probably account for his antipathy to Mr. Parsons. f Laskiel says this was one of the only two houses in the neighborhood of Beth- lehem when the Moravians located there. 36 OLD NORTHAMPTON COUNTY. the oath of office he made a + , being unable to write. He died in 1757. The "misstep" alluded to in Scull's letter is found in the Sessions Docket, under the head of Fornication and Bastardy. His son, John Jennings, became sheriff in 1762, and again in 1768; he was a very good officer, and was well known in history. The New England men at Wilkesbarre will not forget him for some time to come. He is frequently quoted by Mr. Miner in his his- tory of Wyoming. William Edmonds was elected a member of Assembly in 1753, and again in 1770 to 1774. Being a Moravian, he had the support of the Moravian interest, and thus procured his election. Mr. Ed- monds for some years was the shopkeeper of Bethlehem. The stock of goods in 1763 could not have been very heavy, as the valuation in the tax lists of that year was only £8, or $21 33. This valuation, however, is not certain, as the estimates were much below their real value. The Moravians had all their property in common, which from 1741 to 1762 they called an "Economy." Mr. Edmonds of course did not receive any wages or salary for attending to the store, but was provided with the necessaries of life. He acted in the capacity of storekeeper under an agreement with one of the clergy,* Bro- ther Lawatsch, who as warden had the particular management of the secular matters. The agreement between these parties has many stipulations and exactions of a character that would not be relished by any agent of the present day, drawn up with most astonishing minuteness, limits and bounds being set in every shape and form, interlarded with pious expressions in abundance. In fact, agreements of this nature, which bound both soul and body, made the agent a mere machine. About 1763 Mr. Edmonds removed near Nazareth, and there kept a tavern and store called the Eosef Tavern. One of the governors spent a week at his house, having come here, with some others, to shoot grouse on the neighboring * The author has seen this agreement with Mr. Edmonds. f This building is still standing, about two miles from Nazareth. The origin of the Rose will be shown in an article on Nazareth. DIFFICULTIES AND HARDSHIPS. 37 plains. One Sunday the governor, being in a listless humor, asked Mr. Edmonds whether he had an interesting book to read. "Yes," replied he, "I have a very interesting one," and, on bringing it to him the governor found it to be a Bible. Mr. Edmonds after- wards remarked that very likely it was a book not often looked into by the governor.* The early settlers of the county of Northampton labored under many difficulties and hardships in consequence of being (princi- pally Germans and Irish) habituated to the customs of countries that were densely inhabited. Upon their arrival here they found themselves as it were in a new world, and were compelled to aban- don all their former habits and begin a new life of toil — a life that aroused all the latent energy of man — a life to which they were entire strangers, and in which all their former experience was valueless. The writer has frequently heard an aged gentleman of the county (Judge John H. Keller) relate the circumstances attending his grandfather's arrival in the county about 1730: "Arriving one day near a spring of water with his family in the upper part of Plain- field township, he made a halt with his wagon, containing all of his effects, and seeing considerable timber there, he at once deter- mined to locate himself upon that spot, not less than two to three miles from the nearest habitation. He unloaded his few goods, erected a temporary tent, and there lodged until he put up a small log-house." As soon as possible settlers cleared a few acres of ground for grain, &c, in the harvesting of which they were much annoyed by the deer, the crow, the blackbird, and the squirrel. To protect the farmer a law was passed granting bounties of one shilling and six pence per dozen for the destruction of the three last. But it appears that this was not sufficient, as the inhabitants in 1754 petitioned the Assembly for further relief from the ravages of the squirrel, who, they say, "come in such vast numbers, destroying our grain to an extent that renders it very discouraging to plant * Information from John J. Edmonds, a grandson. 3S OLD NORTHAMPTON COUNTY. anything. We pray you, therefore, to amend said law in such manner that it be obligatory upon every inhabitant to kill a certain specified number of those vermin per year, and that those that destroy over and above such number be liberally paid for such excess, and that those who destroy less than the specified number be subject to the payment of the deficiency, at the same rate."* The deer, during the fall and winter, were making nightly ravages on the grain then springing up. The wolves would carry off and kill their sheep and young cattle. Foxes and minks sometimes in one night would destroy all their fowls, and thus they were surrounded by every danger, and often deprived of the fruits of their hard earned toil. During the first two years we find that upwards of fifty wolf scalps were brought and paid for by the County Com- missioners, and it is recorded already in 1746, in Bucks County, that Nicholas Depui gave an order to one man for the payment of the bounty on sixteen wolf scalps, delivered to him in Lower Smithfield township. Many a farmer in one night lost his whole flock of sheep. It became as second nature to the farmer to have his gun or rifle with him wherever he went. Even when working on his farm it was found leaning against some tree or upon a stump. His horses and cattle were driven out into the woods; the working horses or cattle returned to the house in the morning, but as young horses and cattle were left roaming in the woods, they were often not seen by their owners for six months at a time, and numbers of them were stolen by horse thieves. We find the con- viction and punishment of nine horse thievesf in the Sessions Docket of the county for the first three years after its erection. * Votes of Ass., iv. p. 341. f John Eggleston, being indicted, &c. &c. December Sessions, 1754. Wherefore it is considered and adjudged by the Court here that the said John Eggleston shall restore the said horse and mare to the said John Jones, and shall also pay to the said Jones, for his loss of time, charges, and disbursements in the apprehending and prosecution of the said John Eggleston, and moreover that the said John Eggleston shall forfeit and pay the like value of said horse and mare to the governor, for the support of government, and shall stand committed, &c, and that he shall be publicly whipped with nineteen lashes on his bare back, well laid on, &c. DIFFICULTIES AND HARDSHIPS. 39 The range of their operations was so extended as to make detection and consequent conviction a rare case. On the 13th December, 1754, the inhabitants of the county had a petition presented to the Assembly, setting forth "that the stealing of horses is becoming very frequent in that county, owing, as the petitioners conceive, to the smallness of the punishment inflicted by law for that crime; the petitioners therefore pray that this House would take the mat- ter into consideration and pass an act to punish horse stealers with death." Another representation to the Assembly was made by the farmers, stating that whereas they were dependent upon a market for the sale of their cattle and horses, usually disposed of to traders; that since the New England people came into the province with numerous droves of cattle their sales have nearly ceased, and the disposal of horses for exportation to the West Indians has also greatly decreased, they being deprived of all means, of proper sus- tenance, pray the House to grant relief, &c. In 1730, there was no grist-mill in the county, and the settlers, therefore, were obliged to procure their flour from the lower part of Bucks County, a distance of not less than twenty or thirty miles. These journeys were made along Indian paths on horseback, as roads had not extended so far northward, and even in 1754, the roads were very few in number, for even if granted and laid out by juries they were not opened. This want occasioned the follow- ing petition of divers inhabitants of the county of Northampton, which was presented to the House of Assembly, Feb. 6, 1754, and read : — Setting forth " That the laying out of roads and townships within the said county, how necessary however the same may be for the general good, is very much neglected, by reason that the charge attending the doing thereof frequently falls upon a few public spirited persons, whilst others, who reap equal benefit with them, do absolutely refuse to pay their reasonable and proportionate part of the expense, alleging that there is no law of the province that obliges them to contribute thereto, therefore praying this House would be pleased to take the premises into their serious 40 OLD NORTHAMPTON COUNTY. consideration and grant such relief therein as shall be judged most equitable and proper." The farmers had no wagons then ; and no roads to travel upon for a long time ; some of them occasionally made a wagon for using about their lots, the wheels of which were of solid pieces of timber sawed round, and the harness of the horses were either ropes or strips of untanned hides. The Bethlehem annals inform us that such rudely made contrivances were frequently seen in the streets of that town in its early days. Men, women, and children worked on the farm; all the family rose up from their beds at the early dawn of day, the males attending to their out-door work, feeding their horses, cattle and swine, whilst the females attended to the household duties until breakfast time, after which, both males and females proceeded to work at their assigned places, either grubbing on new lands, cutting timber, fencing, harvesting, threshing, &c. &c. Every member, either male or female, large or small, was em- ployed upon such work as they were able to perform by reason of strength; sex was not much considered in the division of labor. They had also some convivial seasons. For a long time after the first settlement, the inhabitants usually married young. There was no distinction of rank, and very little of fortune ; on these ac- counts the first impressions of love resulted in marriage, and a family establishment cost but a little labor and nothing else. A description of a wedding will serve to show the manner of our fore- fathers, and mark the grade of civilization of their rude state of society. At an early period, the practice of celebrating the marriage at the house of the bride began, and, as would seem, with great propriety; she also had the choice of the minister to perform the ceremony. A wedding engaged the attention of a whole neighborhood, and a frolic was always anticipated by old and young with eager expec- tation. This is not to be wondered at, when it is remembered that a wedding was almost the only gathering which was not accom- panied with the labor of reaping, log-rolling, building, or in plan- ning some scouting party or campaign. WEDDING PARTIES. 41 On the morning of the wedding-day, the groom and his attend- ants assembled at the house of his father for the purpose of reach- ing the mansion of his bride by noon, which was the usual time for celebrating the nuptials, and which always took place before dinner. Let the reader imagine an assemblage of people, without a store, tailor, or mantuamaker, within thirty miles, and an assemblage of horses, without a blacksmith or saddler within an equal distance. The gentlemen dressed in shoepacks, moccasins, leather breeches, leggins, linsey hunting shirts, all homemade. The ladies robed in linsey petticoats, and linsey or linen bed-gowns, coarse shoes, stockings, handkerchief, and buckskin gloves. If there were any buckles, rings, buttons or ruffles, they were the relics of olden times, family pieces of parents or grandparents. The horses were caparisoned with old saddles, old bridles or halters, and pack saddles, with a bag or blanket thrown over them ; a rope or string as often constituting the girth, as a piece of leather. The march in double file was often interrupted by the narrow- ness and obstructions of the horse paths, as they were called, for they had no roads, and these difficulties even often increased, some- times by the good, and sometimes by the ill-will of neighbors, by falling trees, and tying grape-vines across the way. Sometimes an ambuscade was formed by the way-side, and an unexpected dis- charge of fire-arms covered the wedding party with smoke. Let the reader imagine the scene which followed this discharge, the sudden spring of the horses, the shrieks of the girls, and the chi- valric bustle of their partners to save them from falling, which sometimes occurred in spite of all that could be done to prevent it. If a wrist, elbow, or ankle happened to be sprained, it was tied with a handkerchief, and little more was thought or said about it. Another ceremony commonly took place before the party reached the house of the bride, after the practice of making whiskey began. When the party were about a mile from the place of their destina- tion, two young men would be singled out to run for the bottle, the worse the path, the more logs, brush, and deep hollows, the 42 OLD NORTHAMPTON COUNTY. better, as these obstacles afforded an opportunity for the greater display of intrepidity and horsemanship. The start was announced by an Indian yell, logs, brush, muddy hollow, hill and glen, were speedily passed by the rival ponies. The bottle was always filled for the occasion, so that there was no necessity for judges, for the first who reached the door was presented with the prize, with which he returned in triumph to the party. On approaching them, he announced his victory over his rival with a shrill whoop. At the head of the troop, he gave the bottle first to the groom and his attendants, and then to each pair in succession in the rear of the line, giving each a dram ; and then putting the bottle in the bosom of his hunting shirt, took his station in the company. The ceremony of the marriage preceded the dinner, which was a substantial backwoods feast, of beef, pork, fowls, and sometimes venison and bear-meat, roasted and boiled, with plenty of potatoes, cabbages, and other vegetables. During the dinner, the greatest hilarity always prevailed, although the table might be a large slab of timber, hewed out with a broadaxe, supported by four sticks set in auger holes, and the furniture, composed of old pewter dishes and plates, with wooden bowls and trenchers, and occasion- ally pewter spoons, much battered about the edges, might be seen about some tables. The rest were made of horns. If knives and forks were scarce, the deficiency was made up by the scalping- knives, which were carried in sheaths suspended to the belt of the hunting-shirt. After dinner, the dancing commenced, and gene- rally lasted till the next morning. The figures of the dances were three and four-handed reels, or square sets, and jigs. The com- mencement was always a square four, which was followed by what was called "jigging it off," that is, two of the four would step out for a jig, in which they were followed by the remaining couples. About nine or ten o'clock, a deputation of the young ladies would steal off with the bride, and put her to bed. In doing this, it frequently happened that they had to ascend a ladder, instead of a pair of stairs, leading from the dining and ball-room to the loft, the floor of which was made of clapboards, lying loose, and with- WEDDING PARTIES. 43 out nails. As the foot of the ladder was commonly behind the door, which was purposely opened for the occasion, and its rounds, at the inner ends, were well hung with hunting-shirts, petticoats, and other articles of clothing, the candles being on the opposite side of the house, the exit of the bride was noticed but by few. This done, a deputation of young men, in like manner, stole off with the groom, and placed him snugly by the side of his bride. The dance still continued, and if seats happened to be scarce, which was often the case, every young man, when not engaged in the dance, was obliged to offer his lap as a seat for one of the girls; and the offer was sure to be accepted. In the midst of this hilarity the bride and groom were not forgotten. Pretty late in the night, some one would remind the company that the new couple must stand in need of some refreshment ; Black Betty, which was the name of the bottle, was called for, and sent up the ladder, but sometimes Black Betty did not go alone, as bread and butter, beef, pork, cabbage, went along with her. The young couple were com- pelled to eat more or less of whatever was offered them. It often happened that some neighbors or relations, not being asked to the wedding, took offence, and the mode of revenge adopted by them on such occasions was that of cutting off the manes, forelocks, and tails of the horses of the wedding-party. " The better-to-do" class of people on such occasions were some- times dressed in the finery which their parents had brought with them from their "fatherland." The groom dressed in his father's wedding coat, and the bride in the quilted petticoat which had served her mother on a like occasion, in Germany. As the whis- key they drank operated upon their courage, they very frequently had a brawl or fight. The Rev. Mr. Muhlenberg mentions this as occurring at weddings at which he was called upon to officiate. In the summer time but very few wore shoes and stock- ings, except on extraordinary occasions, and even then very seldom. Going to church, or on a visit to town, the females carried their shoes in their hand, trudging along barefooted, until they arrived at the door of the church, or near the town, when 44 OLD NORTHAMPTON COUNTY. they wiped the mud or dust from their feet, with leaves from the neighboring trees or bushes, before putting them on. Before the introduction of the " linsej woolsey," the wearing of which was con- sidered a great luxury, many an anxious thought was occasioned in the minds of the parents of the young people who decked themselves with it, that their offspring were approximating too fast towards fashionable, and, of course, inactive life. When, in the years 1798 to 1800, calicoes were first introduced, this departure from the old custom and manners in dress, was de- plored by many an anxious mother, its folly frequently alluded to by her, and the ruin of the daughter foretold. But the enticing adornment of the person never failed in the end to overcome the mother's warning. The winter evenings then were not passed, as at present, in fro- licking around among the neighboring houses, but supper being o,ver, and the bread and milk or stirabout being put aside, the mother would call to the girls to go to their spinning, while she would attend to the mending; the smaller children were sent to the corn-crib for a basket of corn to husk for the pigs, or to the cellar for pumpkins to cut for the cattle ; and one of the last things done before retiring, was to consult the almanac, for the purpose of ascer- taining the kind of weather they would have the next day; none of the family received more than one pair of shoes per annum, the leather for which was procured in exchange for the hide of slaugh- tered animals, both wild and tame. The majority of families had a weaver's loom, upon which the females generally wove all their tow cloth, coarse linen, and linsey-woolsey. The Germans, upon their arrival in Pennsylvania, brought with them all their superstition and belief in witches, and in almost every bush, rock, or stump, they saw the witches playing their pranks, and occasionally mounting on the back of a poor wight, (as he was returning homewards from a tavern in his neighborhood), and riding him, until he reached his own cabin. There is a very prominent hill in the southern part of Williams Township (and about six miles from Easton), which eminence is SONG OF THE WITCHES. 45 capped by a huge rock, overlooking the country for many miles around. This place to the present day retains the name of "Hex- enkopf," a German designation; the literal translation of the name is Witches' Head, but more properly defined " the head-quarters of the "witches ;" from one of the crevices in this rock, there grew a large and wide-spreading oak tree. This " Hexenkopf" was held to be the favorite resort of all the witches from far and near, where, after the manner of the Ketten- tanz (linked dances) of the German witches on the Hartz Moun- tains, in Germany, they frequently met in a stormy and dark night to dance on this rock, and around this tree. The following is one of their songs, which is represented as having been heard from the witches, while dancing with linked hands around their favorite tree. CONCERT OP WITCHES. Merrily dance we, merrily dance we, round this old oak tree, Full many will dance this terrible night, hut none will be merry but we ; The ships shall dance on the yeasty waves, the billows shall dance and roll, And many a screech of despair shall rise from many a sin-sick soul. FIRST WITCH. I saw Dame Williams sitting alone, And I dried up the marrow within her hip-bone, When she arose she could scarcely limp — Why did I do it ? She called me " an imp." CONCERT OF WITCHES. Be merry, be merry, the lightning's gleam itself were sufficient light, But we've got us a phosphor-gleaming corpse to be our candle to-night ; There never was night more foul and black, there was never fiercer blast ; Oh ! many a prank the winds will play, ere this terrible night be past. SECOND WITCH. I scratched the justice's swine on the head, When he wakes in the morning he'll find them dead ; And I saw a rich villain, at his house door, Loaded with gold, but crimson'd with gore. 46 OLD NORTHAMPTON COUNTY. CONCERT OF WITCHES. Be merry, the fiends are roving now ! and death, is abroad on the wind, Join hands in the dance, to-morrow's light full many a corpse shall find ; Our sisters are out, on mischief bent, the cows their milk shall fail, The old maid's cat shall be rode to death, and her lap-dog lose his tail, The farmer in vain shall seek his horse, who fasten'd his stable-door With lock and with bolt, if he has not nail'd a horseshoe firmly o'er. At this point they were intruded upon by some beings of mortal mould, whereupon, uttering something like the exclamation of the ancient " Blocksberg" witches — " Horse and hattock in the devil's name," they were all instantly seated upon broomsticks, and rode away at a speed exceeding that of the forked lightning. That the witches did not always escape unpunished, is evident from the following. The case was against a woman for bewitching a horse, whereby he " became wasted," and " became worse." The jurors, &c, upon their oath, present that S. B., of Williams Township, in the county of Northampton, widow, on the day of in the year , at the said county of Northampton afore- said, certain most wicked acts (called enchantments and charms), at the county aforesaid, maliciously and diabolically, upon and against a certain white horse, of the value of four pounds, of the goods and chattels of a certain justice W., of Williams Township aforesaid, on the day aforesaid, and in the county aforesaid then being, did exercise and practise, by means of which the said horse of the said justice W., on the day aforesaid, at the township of Williams aforesaid, " worstended and wasted" away, against the peace of our said commonwealth, and against the laws in this case made and provided. This poor woman at first resolutely (but in vain) denied that she was a witch, until overcome by the awe of the grave judges, and the oaths of the jurors, she was forced to acknowledge her crime, and to suffer sentence amidst the reprobations and impreca- tions of the enlightened community who reverenced these laws with stupid adoration. WITCHES. 47 Whether the witches yet congregate on the Hexenkopf, the writer is not informed, but certain it is that the effect of their witchcraft is much lessened by the exorcisms of a witch doctor residing near this terrible place, and " whose occupation even now is not yet gone." E ASTON. Easton was laid out in 1750, at which time it was in the county of Bucks. Thomas Penn, in a letter from England, dated Sept. 8th, 1751, to Governor Hamilton, says:* "Some time since I wrote to Dr. Graeme and Mr. Peters, to lay out some ground in the forks of the Delaware for a town, which I suppose they have done, or begun to do. I desire it may be called Easton, from my Lord Pomfret's house, and whenever there is a new county, that shall be called Northampton." Thomas Penn had some time pre- vious to this date, married the daughter of Lord Pomfret; her name was Julianna Fermor. The names of Pomfret, Fermor, Ju- lianna, and Hamilton, were introduced into the town as names of streets,| and were retained as such for upwards of an entire cen- tury. There is a tally-list of the workmen employed by the surveyors — Parsons and Scull — in which are given the number of days, or parts of a day, that each of them spent in assisting at the survey, as well as clearing the streets, cutting of timber, &c. This paper, which is in the handwriting of Wm. Parsons, is in the possession of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, and is dated 9th May, 1750, the day on which the survey commenced. Some of the hands were employed nine days, several a less time, and others one or two days * Penn. Hist. Society's Archives. t These old and original names were discarded a few years ago, and the insig- nificant ones of First, Second, Third, &c, adopted. We consider that names so intimately associated with early history, should never be changed. THE INDIAN CHIEF TATAMY. 49 only; they received each eighteen pence per day as wages,* finding their own board. Mr. Parsons had left Philadelphia on the 7th inst., and was met here by Nicholas Scull.f During their sojourn, they took lodgings and boarded at the public house of John Lefebre,;}: about six miles up the Bushkill or Lehicton Creek, near where Messinger's tavern now is, on the road from Baston to the Windgap. This was the nearest public house to Easton, and was situated on the Indian path which led from the "forks" to Tatamy's Gap in the Blue Mountains. This path also passed the house of the Indian chief Tatamy, about one mile from Lefebre's. This chief deserves an honorable notice in the history of North- ampton. He was born near the Delaware Eiver, in New Jersey, about 15 miles below Phillipsburg; in his youth, he settled in Penn- sylvania, and being a man in whom the government of Pennsyl- vania placed great confidence, was intrusted with the negotiations of a pacific nature between the Indians, the proprietaries, and go- vernors, about the year 1742. It was then already that the fairness or unfairness of the walking purchase was discussed by the Indians. Tatamy (which word signifies a peaceable man), being the principal chief of all the Indians in the neighborhood within a circuit of more than a hundred miles, by the power of his eloquence and judgment, preserved the peace until 1755, at which time another man arose amongst his nation who carried with him the great body of the disaffected Indians, one whose persuasive eloquence made even his enemies tremble at the celebrated treaty at Easton, in 1756. It must be acknowledged that the war chief Teedyus- cung, cast the peaceable Tatamy in the shade. * One of these workmen was Melchior Hay, the owner and occupier of a farm of 300 acres of land upon which South Easton is erected. f Nicholas Scull was the Surveyor-General of Pennsylvania. t Lefebre was one of the French Refugees whose ancestors had reached the State of New York with the earliest Dutch emigrants about 1620, in connection with the Depuis. He is said to have been a man of intelligence, kept a good house, and provided liberally. 4 50 EASTON. Count Zinzendorf visited Tatamy in 1742, at his house near Stockertown, and says that he was a man of a mild disposition, one who lived much as the white people; he recieved a grant of 300 acres of land from the proprietaries for his services. He was shot near Bethlehem by a boy fifteen years old in 1757. (See Penna. Archives, vol. iii. pp. 209, 247, and 251.) An aged gentleman of Easton, still living there, says he went to school with the two sons of Tatamy, and that he had seen Tatamy's wife often, who was a white woman. The poor book of Easton of 1801 contains a record of her death and burial. The late Rev. Thomas Pomp preached the funeral sermon. Tatamy was the last remaining resident In- dian south of the Blue Mountains in Northampton County. The amount of Lefebre's bill for the entertainment of Messrs. Parsons and Scull, for about ten days, was £2 lis. 9d. inclusive of "slings" (the very word used). To provide for a Philadelphian in those days was considered no small honor, and therefore we may suppose that Parsons and Scull were regaled with the venison of the forest, the grouse of the neighboring heath, the trout of the brook, and other delicacies of the season. The site of Easton had, at some period of the world's history, been a pool of water, a cove formed by the retiring of the lime- stone rock with which it is rimmed along the Pennsylvania shore, a central point for the intermingling of the waters of the Delaware, Lehigh, and Bushkill, a kind of whirlpool into which the rushing waters precipitated the rocks, trees, &c, which they had rent from their original localities and carried in their course to this spot where they were lodged. The surrounding hills, as if to aid crea- tion, furnished the necessary debris, as a bed to lay in. In digging wells, trees have been found at the depth of thirty feet, and rocks of tons in weight of the conglomerate formation at a depth of six to eight feet below the surface ; of these rocks there is no formation nearer than twenty miles above the town, along the river. Some of the causes that tended to the formation of the site of Easton are at present in full operation, the current in the Dela- GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS. 51 ware along the Pennsylvania shore lessening, and its depth decreas- ing, whilst on the Jersey side the current is encroaching more and more upon its shores, and the depth of the stream is increasing. The underlying rock is the limestone (secondary), yet within a short distance north of the town there is a hill of several miles in length of the primitive formation, while on either side of this hill the limestone rock is unmistakably presented. Geologists call it a freak of nature, and such an upheaving of primary rock as is here to be seen is rarely met with. For the formation of a cabi- net of minerals, the vicinity of Easton affords one of the best oppor- tunities in the State. Here is to be found the yellow serpentine in great profusion, topaz, beryl, chalcedony ; and other precious stones have also been found. There are persons still living in Easton, who recollect distinctly that during a high freshet in the Bushkill Creek, a part of its waters united with the Lehigh Eiver, through a gully running nearly north and south half way between the Delaware bridge and the court-house; many inhabitants are living whose memories have retained the knowledge of the large pond extending from the southwest corner of the large square, to the Bushkill Creek, in a northward direction. William Parsons, in a letter to Eichard Peters, under date of December 3, 1752, gives this general description of this infant town of Easton : — "Sir: Upon removing my family to this place, my thoughts have been more engaged in considering the circumstances of this infant town than ever, as well with regard to its neighborhood, as the probability there is of its being furnished with provisions from the inhabitants near about it; and if there already is, or probably may in time be, a sufficient number of settlers to carry on any con- siderable trade with the town. For without these, it is not likely that it will be improved to any great height, as well with regard to the tov/n itself, that is to say, its situation, as to health, trade, and pleasantness. "Easton is situate in the fork of the Eiver Delaware, exact]y in that part of the fork where two main branches meet, and is 52 EASTOJS". bounded on the south by the west branch, and on the east with the main branch of the river, which runs, in this place, nearly north and south, about 120 perches, to a very pleasant brook of water, called Tatamy's Creek, which bounds the town to the north. On the west it is bounded by a pretty high hill, that runs nearly parallel to, and at the distance of 130 perches from the main branch. " The site of the town is pleasant and very agreeable ; the banks of all the waters bounding it are high and clean ; and if it was as large again as it is, being now about 100 acres, it might be said to be a very beautiful place for a town. "It is true that it is surrounded on every side by very high hills, which make it appear under some disadvantages at a distance, and might give some occasion for suspicion of its not being very healthy ; but during all the last summer, which was very dry, and the fall, which has been remarkably wet, I don't know that any one has been visited with the fever, or any other sickness, notwithstanding most of the people have been much exposed to the night air and wet weather. From whence I make no difficulty to conclude the place is, and will continue very healthy. As to the external advantages or disadvantages of the town, I am not yet sufficiently acquainted with the country to enumerate them all. The most conspicuous are the adjacent rivers. The main branch, in some seasons of the year, is navigable for small craft from near 100 miles above the town to Philadelphia ; and if it were cleared in some places of the rocks which impede the navigation in the summer season, above as well as below the town (and I have been told that it is practicable in some good measure to clear them), the advantage that would accrue from the trade to and from Philadel- phia must be very considerable, as water carriage is much cheaper, and, in respect to several kinds of merchandise, much safer than land carriage. And in regard to the trade up the river, that would likewise be very advantageous to the town, as well as to the country in general, even in the single article of lumber, as there is plenty of almost all kinds of timber above the mountains, where DESCRIPTION OF THE INFANT TOWN. 53 there are also many good conveniences for erecting saw-mills, and several are there built already, from whence the town might readily be supplied with boards, shingles, &c. The west branch will also be of advantage to the town, as it is navigable several miles for small craft ; and Tatamy's Creek, being a good stream of water to erect mills upon, will also contribute towards the advancement of the town. The Jersey side being at present more settled near the river, opposite to the forks, than the Pennsylvania side ; and, indeed, the land on that side is better watered, and more convenient for settlements, than it is on this side for several miles about Easton. We have been supplied as much or more from that side, as from our own. But how Mr. John Cox's project of laying out a town upon his land adjoining Mr. Martin's land, on that side the river opposite to Easton, may affect this town, is hard to say, and time only can obviate. "But, notwithstanding the advantages already mentioned, and perhaps many have escaped my notice, it must be confessed that the town labors under several considerable disadvantages. The first that offers, I mention with submission, is the great tract of land called the Dry Land, to the westward of the town. This, with another tract adjoining the town to the northward, being altogether about 20,000 acres, is almost the only part of the country that, by its nearness to the town, were it settled and im- proved, could conveniently and readily afford a constant supply o( provisions of all kinds, especially the smaller kinds, which would not be so convenient for persons who live more remote to furnish. To the westward and northward of the Dry Land, are the Moravian settlements, about eleven miles from the town. These settlements are not only of no advantage, but rather a great disadvantage to the town. For, being an entire and separate interest by them- selves, corresponding only with one another, where they can pos- sibly avoid it, except where the advantage is evidently in their favor, it can't be expected that the town should reap any benefit from them. Besides, as they have not hitherto raised, and as their number is continually increasing by the yearly addition of foreign- 54 EASTON. ers, it is not likely that they will, in time to come, raise sufficient provisions for themselves, but are obliged to purchase great quan- tities from their neighbors, who would otherwise bring it to the town ; but this is not to be expected while they can dispose of what they have to sell so much nearer home ; and this leads me to wish, for the good of Easton, if the Honorable the Proprietaries should incline to have the Dry Lands improved, that it may not be disposed of to the Moravians. Not because they are Moravians, but because their interests interfere so much with the interests of the town. "If the Dry Lands should be chiefly settled by them, the Master Brethren would have the whole direction and disposal of all that should be raised there, which would be more discouraging and worse to the town than if the land were not inhabited at all. For as long as it remains uncultivated, it will serve for range to the town cattle. Between the town and the mountains, which is about 16 miles, is mostly poor lands, and but thinly settled. The other side of the mountain consists chiefly of new settlements, except the Minisinks and some other plantations near the river ; but very probably in time they will contribute to the advancement and trade of the town. On the south side of the west branch, the country is the most and best settled, except near the town, where the land is very hilly and stony. Upon the whole, the town has hitherto been very well supplied with meat, beef, pork, mutton, butter, turnips, &c. But how it will be supplied with hay and pasturage, I can't clearly yet foresee. I mean if the town increases, as I am in great hopes it will. " For this winter I think we are pretty well provided ; however, this leads me to mention out-lots, which will be more particularly wanted here than at any of the other new county towns, as they are all of them much better accommodated with meadow ground near about them than this town is. If I might presume to speak my opinion, and I know you expect I should, if I speak at all, I could wish that a sufficient quantity of the Dry Lands might be appropriated for out-lots, and that all the rest were to be settled DESCRIPTION OF THE INFANT TOWN. 55 and improved, and that by Dutch people, although they were of the poorer sort of them. I don't mention Dutch people from any- particular regard that I have for them more than for other people, but because they are generally more laborious and conformable to their circumstances than some others amongst us are. I need not say who they are, but it is an old observation that poor gentle- folks don't always prove the fittest to begin new places, where labor is chiefly wanted. " I can't hear of any considerable body of clay for making bricks or potter's work upon any of the proprietary's land near the town, but upon the 500 acre tract which was surveyed for Mr. Thomas Craig, near the town, I am told is very good clay, both for a potter and brickmaker. The 500 acres belong now to one Correy, in Chester County. I wrote to you about it very largely in a former letter. There are now eleven families in Easton, who all propose to stay this winter, and when our prison is finished, which there is hopes it soon will be, as it is now covered in, there is great probability that the number will increase before the spring .* " WM. PARSONS." This description of Easton by Mr. Parsons gives a very good idea of the town itself, as well as the surrounding country, at the time the letter was written. The inhabitants of the town were, in a manner, entirely cut off from any communication with the inte- rior of the county ; they had then no road laid out to the town, and therefore had access to each other only along the several Indian paths, which, as all the travel of that time was on foot or horse- back, may have answered very well. In the records of Bucks County we find a considerable number of applications by petition for roads in the more thickly settled sections of the county. The first road within the county limits was made from Goshenhoppen, in Montgomery Co., through Upper Milford, in Macungy Town- ship, to Jeremiah Trexler's (now Trexlertown), in 1732.f After * Pennsylvania Archives, vol. ii. p. 95. t Colonial Records, vol. iii. p. 629. 56 EASTON. the arrival of the Moravians, in 1740, they, within a few years, petitioned for a road to Mahony ; this and another one from Bethlehem to Nazareth had both been laid out and no doubt travelled upon before the erection of the county, and probably another one from the Irish settlement, now Allen Township, to another Irish settlement in Mount Bethel Township. The Mora- vians acted very energetically in all their undertakings, as Mr. Parsons, in the preceding letter, admits. In a petition to the legisla- ture in 1755, the petitioners strongly deprecate the custom of lay- ing out roads without carrying the grants into execution. After the erection of the county there were applications to the first and second courts held, which were all allowed and granted. A road was laid out in 1753, by order of the Assembly, from Easton to Eeading. In the commissioners' book we find, June 18, 1755 : " Two orders were drawn on the treasurer in favor of Adam Yohe for the expenses of four jurymen upon the Provincial road from Easton to Reading, £1 4s. lid., or $3 32 cts." There are no other charges found for laying out this road of fifty-two miles in length. The writer has not been able to ascertain to a certainty that dwelling-houses had been erected in Easton previous to the forma- tion of Northampton County, but is inclined to believe that a few, probably two or three, had been put up in 1750 and 1751. Afc the ferry there had been a house since 1739, erected by David Martin, the ferryman. Several old gentlemen of Easton remember the old ferry-house distinctly on the " Point," at the junction of the Rivers Delaware and Lehigh. Mr. Martin is thus mentioned by Mr. Parsons (Dec. 15, 1755): — " I went over the river with Mr. Martin to see Col. Anderson.* Ferrymen had no use for any flat, as most of their customers came on foot, and such as had horses swam them over alongside the canoe. Nobody had wagons, or even if they had had them, there were no roads on which they could have used them. Ferries at that time had not the commodious flat to convey over rivers * Col. Anderson lived four or five miles up the River Delaware, on the Jersey side. His ferry was near Howell's Mills, which many of the older persons recollect. FAMILIES IN THE TOWN IN 1753. 57 wagons, horses, &c. The late John Green, Esq., informed the writer that he had been the ferryman here in 1792 or '3. " One day," said he, " a man appeared on the Jersey side of the river on horseback ; after dismounting from his horse, he hallooed for the ferryman. I took my flat and went over the river and took him in ; he was quite an old man ; he said that it was near fifty years since he had crossed here before, and at that time the ferryman had no flat ; a canoe served all his purposes. ' I was obliged to take the saddle and saddlebags off my horse and take them into the canoe with me ; the horse swam alongside.' Then he, on near- ing Easton, said : ' Here, where your fine town now stands, was no house ; all was woods with thick underbrush. From the ferry I rode along a narrow horse or Indian path to Bethlehem, which was then commencing to be built.' " In 1745 Mr. Martin petitioned the court at Newtown for a grant of a road from his ferry to Bethlehem ; the petition was granted, but the road was not made until 1754 or 1755. The ferry-house was a one-story log house.* William Parsons in his letter of 8th December, 1752, says that there were then "eleven families living in the town" (probably about forty men, women, and children); the jail was then in pro- gress, being already covered ; it was finished in 1753. The proprietaries sold the town lots, subject to seven shillings ground rent, with the condition annexed, that the purchaser with- in two years from the time of purchase should erect a house there- on not less than twenty feet square, with a stone chimney. (This precaution as to the chimney was necessary, as the general practice was to make them of slabs of wood, daubed over with mud both inside and out.) * The Indian treaties were held at this place in 1756-57 and '58. Several shanties had been added to the house by the ferryman, Nathaniel Vernon. The Indians were, in 1758, very numerous, at several of the treaties numbering from 300 to 500. Rum was kept from them during the treaty of 1757 ; at the close, how- ever, Teedyuscung requested Vernon to take the lock off the rum cask and let it run. 58 EASTON. The eleven families were — William Parsons Clerk of Courts, &c. Louis Gordon Lawyer. Henry Allshouse Carpenter. Abraham Berlin Smith. Nathaniel Vernon Ferryman. Wm. Craig and John Anderson . . Tavern-keepers. Paul Miller " Ernest Becker Baker. Anthony Esser Butcher. John Finley Mason. Meyer Hart Shop-keeper. William Parsons, from the time of the erection of the county to his death, in December, 1757, held the offices of prothonotary, clerk of the courts, recorder, clerk of the commissioners, and justice of the peace, and at the breaking out of the Indian war in November, 1755, was appointed a major of the Continental troops. In 1754 he was the representative in the Assembly from the county of Northampton. He had been a shoemaker in his early life. In 1743 he was appointed surveyor-general, which office he held until 1749, when he received a commission of the peace in Lancaster County. Mr. Parsons possessed both talent and energy ; he had been appointed by Governor Hamilton to attend to the interests of the proprietaries in the county. Thomas Penn, in a letter from England, dated July 13th, 1752, says of him : " The account you give me of the unfitness of the inhabitants of the two counties of Berks and Northampton to act as magistrates and govern them is worse than I expected to receive. I well know there must be a very great number of strangers to our language and constitution ; but thought as the lower part of the county has been many years settled there would have been enough among them fit for the car- rying on public business, till the Dutch became acquainted with our language, which they must do, or be subject to fines for non- attendance on courts ; upon the whole, we are very well satisfied with the erecting them, and much approve of the appointment of CHARACTER OF MR. PARSONS. 59 the clerks — William Parsons is no doubt the most proper person that could have been chosen." Mr. Parsons was very active in all the matters he had charge of; every page of the early history of the county shows that nothing escaped his notice. The whole bent of his mind appears to have been directed to the welfare of the place of his adoption. As a matter of course he came into collision with persons who had not magnanimity sufficient to form a truthful judgment. He at vari- ous times exhibited considerable irritability at the slow movements of the Germans, and then again at the carelessness of the Irish ; the position he occupied was one of difficulty from which he could not have expected to escape unscathed. In every department relative to the town of Baston or the county of Northampton he was looked up to as the adviser and umpire. It is supposed that his death was accelerated by his ardu- ous duties, and his indomitable perseverance. His letters to Go- vernor Hamilton and Eichard Peters, the secretary to the proprie- taries, interspersed through these notes, all breathe a great anxiety for the prosperity of Easton as well as the whole county. During the Indian war of 1755 and '56 and '57 he appears as a father to his beloved children, and when the danger was most imminent and many others fled, he remained firm ; and yet even this strong man could not suppress a sigh, when, in a letter to Richard Peters of Dec. 25th, 1755, he says: "This probably is my last letter to you." Men of the character of Mr. Parsons were rare. Were Mr. Parsons to arise from his tomb on Mount Jefferson, and view the town of his care in its infancy, he would exclaim: " Is this the town of which I spake on 15th December, 1755 ? In this poor little town we are without men and without arms to oppose the enemy !" In the northeast corner of South Hamilton and Ferry Streets (the old names) he would find the house which he erected in 1756 still standing, but far eclipsed in beauty by its neighbors. Louis Gordon was the first lawyer admitted to practice in the courts of Northampton County. The following memorandum is 60 E ASTON. made on the sessions docket : " 16th June, 1752, Louis Gordon having represented to the court that he was admitted an attorney to practise the law at Philadelphia and in Bucks, was, upon his prayer, admitted an attorney to practise in the courts at North- ampton." He made Easton his home, and in many instances acted in concert with Mr. Parsons. After Mr. Parsons' decease, he in a great measure supplied his place. In the various offices during the Indian war of 1763-64, his correspondence with the governor, and Richard Peters, and others, was frequent. He entered into the Revolutionary war with heart and soul, but at the time of trial in 1777, when the contest between the colonies and the mother country wore its gloomiest aspect, he, with a number of other kindred spirits, such as Galloway, &c, proved defective. A warrant was issued for his arrest, but before it was served he was a corpse. He died at Easton in 1777. His daughter Elizabeth was married to James Taylor, Esq., a son of George Taylor, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. James died young, about 1778 or '79, leaving a widow with five children, some of whom removed to South Carolina, where their descendants are still living. Henry Allshouse was one of the first residents in Easton. He built a house at the northwest corner of the Public Square (now Mr. Rader's store). By profession he was a house carpenter, and did the carpenter work to the court-house, for which he received four shillings and six pence per day (or sixty cents). Abraham Berlin was a blacksmith. He prepared the necessary irons in the jail ; his name appears prominently in the business transactions of the infant town, as one of the contributors to the fund for the erection of the school house in 1755. In the digging of the well and other improvements, his subscriptions show the interest which he took in these enterprises. At the school-house he worked five days gratis. At the public well he contributed the work for the windlass. Nathaniel Vernon was a prominent citizen of Easton. At the first court on 16th June, 1752, he applied for a license to keep a public house, which was refused ; but another effort being made at WM. CRAIG — JOHN ANDERSON — ERNEST BECKER. 61 the December sessions, a license was granted to him. It was about this time he had the charge of the ferry, and his tavern was kept in the old ferry-house. It was then that the profits at the ferry were increasing so much, that in 1776-77, when owned by Louis Gordon, it was the most profitable business in Easton, and in 1782, when Jacob Able had it in possession, it was rated at .£220, whilst Peter Kichlein's mills, with eleven acres of land, several houses, &c, is rated at ,£200 ; and David Wagoner's mills, besides eight acres of land, at £195. Mr. Vernon's subscription to the school-house is <£3, or $3, one of the highest on the list. He left Easton in 1758 soon after the Indian treaty, and removed up the Susquehanna River. William Craig and John Anderson erected a tavern on the lot adjoining the jail lot ; they received a license on the 16th June, 1752. This property a few years afterwards came into the pos- session of Christian Rinker, who for many years was the landlord. Paul Miller came to this town from Philadelphia. In 1754 he employed Jasper Scull to erect a tavern-house for him at the southwest corner of Hamilton and Northampton Streets (now Rinek & Semple's Rope Store). It was in this house that Governor Denny lodged when at the Indian treaty in 1758. Ernest Becker was a baker, a German immigrant ; he was the maternal grandfather of Mr. George Troxeil, to whom Mr. Becker communicated the following circumstances attending his arrival at Easton with his family : " When I came to Easton," said he, " there were only three houses built, in none of which was there room to accommodate myself and family, therefore I was obliged to unload my few goods upon the public square, and there under a tree strike up a tent, and encamp until I had erected a small house, which did not require many days, being generously assisted by the other inhabitants (the house was in North Hamilton Street, several perches from Northampton Street). My intention was to follow my business as a baker. I labored under considerable difficulties ; the procuring of flour rendered it necessary for me to go to Bethlehem, where a mill had been erected a few years before, 62 EAST03ST. and there being no road to that place yet opened, I took a bag and walked there on the Indian path, and on my back returned with as much flour as I conveniently could carry. My supply was frequently replenished in this manner." Mr. Becker was yet living in 1785. Anthony Esser was a butcher. It appears that he was rather scant in stock when Mr. Parsons wrote to Eichard Peters, Esq., of Philadelphia, on the 3d April, 1757. "I have seen no mutton," says he, " since last treaty (July, 1756), neither have I any person in my house that knows how to dress it ; I have sent for some to Philadelphia. This week I intend to move into my new house." A sad condition this, nobody in Easton to roast the mutton for Mr. Parsons' flitting frolic! The matter admits of explanation. Sheep were not killed, or very seldom ; they were kept for their fleece. Cows were kept for their milk; other cattle were not raised ; it was only the male calf whose life was in jeopardy, and besides, the hog was the only meat eaten, except an old cow occasionally whose rings round her horns had grown to near the tip. Pork, either salted or dried, was the meat generally eaten, but as it was always broiled, and never roasted or fried, herein con- sisted principally Mr. Parsons' difficulty.* The good housewives could no doubt have dressed Mr. Parsons' mutton by boiling it with sour-crout, or dried apples and dumplings. Mr. Esser encou- raged education by subscribing fifteen shillings towards the build- ing of the school-house. It appears that he got into some difficulty with Mr. Yernon in Sept., 1758. Mr. Vernon had been engaged by the agent of the governor, Mr. Swainef (the prothonotary after Mr. Parsons' decease in 1757), to make all the necessary provisions * The writer, for some years, from 1815 to 1817, kept bachelor's hall at his iron- works in Bushkill Township, N. Co. An old woman from the neighborhood, of near 70 years, kept house for him ; before this she, during her long life, had never roasted or fried any meat. The old lady considered it a great waste to roast meats. t Mrs. Swaine had borrowed from Mrs. Stedman, of Philadelphia, tea service to be paraded before the expected great folks from the city ; amongst these was a CONTRACT WITH MR. FINLEY. 63 for the expected Indian treaty, which was to take place in a few weeks. Esser lived in a house belonging to Yernon ; he was de- sired to move out to make room for some of the expected gentry of Philadelphia, who had trouble to find lodgings. Swaine, under date of 4th Sept., 1758, says to Richard Peters, in a note : " After I had sealed this letter, the butcher in town, Anthony Esser, came and informed me Vernon would buy no meat of him, and he hath engaged many beefs, unless he will quit his house, and let it to the commissioners or the Quakers. This will be to the poor man's great loss." There was a contest going on between the govern- ment or proprietary party and the Quakers ; the former endeavored to secure all the good lodgings in the town, and thus crowd out the Quakers from coming to the Indian treaty. John Finley was the mason who laid up the walls of the prison in 1752. The stone wall inclosing part of the prison lot is men- tioned in the commissioners' books; on the 20th January, 1755, at a meeting, the following is entered : — " The same day the commissioners agreed to lay a three-penny tax upon the county, for the ensuing year, and that a stone wall inclosing part of the prison lot for a yard to accommodate the prisoners, and two wells should be built, and that John Finley have the preference of carrying on said work. On the 21st Feb- ruary following, the contract was made with Mr. Finley. The commissioners agreed with John Finley to dig and finish the wells in the prison yard of three feet diameter, at and after the rate of fifteen shillings per foot. Also to build the wall of the prison yard according to the dimensions he shall hereafter receive, at and after the rate of seven shillings and six pence per perch, finding everything necessary for the work, &c. Last, but not least, of the eleven original settlers mentioned by Mr. Parsons is Meyer Hart, the shop-keeper. What the worth of his stock was in 1752 is not stated, but in 1763 his county tax was nineteen shillings, being more than that of any other man in silver tankard, to which. Mrs. Swaine took so great a fancy, that she would not re- turn it to the owners. A suit was afterwards brought for its re-delivery. 64 eastoist. Easton. At this time he owned three houses, several negroes, besides his stock in trade. In 1782 his goods are valued at £439 (near $1200). It may be supposed that in 1752 the value of his stock may have been about $300 to $500. What it consisted of is difficult to determine. In 1755 he furnished twenty pounds of nails towards the building of the school-house. These nails were then worth about twenty cents per pound (being wrought nails). It seems very doubtful whether Miss Grace Parsons or Miss Elizabeth Gordon could be furnished with silk dresses, and hundred dollar shawls, from his stock, and besides this, Miss Parsons wore plainer materials than these when she rode as express for her father to Philadelphia with a letter to the governor, in 1755, when the inhabitants were almost momentarily in expectation of being murdered by the Indians. Mr. Parsons tells us that he had not the money to pay any other express, and therefore was obliged to send his daughter. Meyer Hart had a son named Michael, who, about the commencement of the Eevolotionary war, commenced a store in Easton, in the southeast corner of the great square. This gentleman, from an impediment in his speech, was called the " stuttering Jew," which used to enrage him very much. An anecdote was related of a country-woman, who, going into his store, and not knowing Michael, asked him if he was the stuttering Jew. At this he became very angry; the woman ran out of the store into a tavern on the western side of the street, in the rear of Titus's store, where she hid herself; Michael fol- lowing her into the house in a great rage, required the landlord to let him see her, which was prudently refused. As a good Jew, he abhorred pork; his son one day transgressing in this par- ticular, he charged the son with the offence, and laying hold of him choked him behind the door so severely that the son threw up the offensive matter. As soon as this was done Michael ex- claimed, " IST-n-n-now the devil is out." Conrad Ehrich came to Easton in 1754. A short time before his death (said the late Mr. Higgins to the writer), I visited Mr. Ehrich. He related to me some of the circumstances attending his FIRST CHURCH AND SCHOOL-HOUSE AT EASTON. 65 arrival in America. "When I arrived at Philadelphia (said he), my endeavors to procure work in that city were unsuccessful. The city was full of newly-arrived immigrants, most of whom could obtain no employment. I felt very much discouraged, and wished myself back to Germany. Walking through Market Street one day, I saw large heaps of what I considered pumpkins, and observ- ing people buying them, thinks I to myself this must be a poor country, where they eat the food which we in Germany feed to our hogs. After some days I was directed to go about sixty miles northward, where a town was commenced (Easton). When I arrived there I could get no work; the people were nearly all as poor as myself. I then went over Chestnut Hill, where a man who had settled there lately gave me work at grubbing out the ground oak bushes, and paid me eighteen pence per day." The first church and school-house in Easton was erected in 1755, and was paid for by private subscription. The same building an- swered for both purposes, and was built of logs. A society had been formed in England and Germany in 1751, for the instruction of the poor Germans and their descendants settled in Pennsylvania. Eev. Schlatter, a German Eeformed minister, exerted himself greatly in behalf of the Germans, and the forma- tion of the society owed its origin to his exertions. A large num- ber of the nobility in England contributed liberally. King George the Second subscribed one thousand pounds, the Princess of Wales one hundred pounds, &c. &c. The funds thus created were distri- buted by trustees appointed. William Smith, then President of the University of Pennsylvania, being one of the trustees, subscribed thirty pounds towards the building of the school-house at Easton, William Parsons was very active in the matter. The propriety of receiving the subscriptions of the citizens of Easton in aid of the project occasioned a correspondence between him and Mr. Pe- ters, the Proprietary Secretary. In one of his letters Mr. Parsons remarks "that it would be to the interest of the school if the inha- bitants of Easton were not asked to contribute to the fund," giving as a reason the quarrelsome disposition of the inhabitants, who 5 6Q EASrON. were all Dutch, and so stubborn were they that they quarrelled for every trifle; and as the object of the school would be to educate their children, he added, "if we allow them to subscribe towards the building, every subscriber will think the school must be con- ducted as he suggests, and as they will all have different notions, there will arise a general quarrel amongst them; then, to spite each other, they will not send their children to the school at all, and by that means frustrate the object of it."* The following are the subscriptions for building the school-house in Easton: — We, the subscribers, being truly sensible of the great advantages our posterity may reap from the excellent charitable scheme lately formed in England, for the education of Protestant youth in Pennsylvania, and being extremely desirous to encourage and promote the same, as far as in our power lies, have engaged and agreed, and hereby do engage and agree to and with William Parsons, James Mar- tin, Peter Trexler, Esq., John Lefebre, Lewis Gordon, and Peter Kechline, deputy trustees, mentioned and appointed by the trustees-general of the said charitable scheme, that each of us will pay the sum of money, and do and perform the work, labor, and service, in building and erecting a school-house, which may occasionally be made use of as a church for any Protestant minister, to our names hereunto respectively set down and affixed. Dated Easton, Pa., the 31st day of July, 1755. William Smith, in behalf of £ s. d. John Sevitz, £ s. 15 d. the Proprietor and Trustees, 30 Anthony Esser, 15 William Parsons, 5 George Reichart, 15 Louis Gordon, 3 John Wagle, 1 Nicholas Scull, 3 George Ernst Becker, 1 Nathaniel Vernon, 3 John Rinker, 10 Peter Kichline, 2 N. N., 7 6 Christian Rinker, 1 Daniel Gies, 5 Jacob Bachman, 1 Jeremiah C. Russel, 1 Jacob Miner, 1 Paul Miller, 1 5 Adam Yohe, 1 10 10 John Fricker, Pennsylvania currency, 1 6 Lewis Knauss, Lewis Klotz, £61 1 Henry Becker, 7 Meyer Hart, 20 lb. nails. Geo. Mich'l Shurtz, 15 Paul Reeser, 1000 shingles. * Historical Society's MSS. SUBSCRIBERS TO SCHOOL. 67 Jacob Minor, 1 2 days' work. Stephen Horn, 1 week's work. Henry Allshouse, 5 days' work. John Horn, 5 days' work. John Finley, 6 days' work. John Nicholas Reeder, 6 days' work. Barth'w Hoffman, 5 days' mason work. Robert Miller, 4 days' do. John Henry Bush, 5 days' carpenter w'k. Jacob Krotz, 5 days' carpenter work. James Fuller, 5 (Jays' stone digging. John Chapman, 3 days carting stone. Henry Rinker, 30 bushels lime. Henry Bush and John Weidman, 30 wa- gons stone and digging. Thomas Harris, 50 sash lights. Some of the subscribers to the school-house were not residents of Easton ; for instance, Jeremiah C. Russel was the Presbyterian clergyman of Allen Township, and also school-master at the same time. George Michael Shortz was a farmer on the Dry Lands ; Lewis Klotz, Esq., an inhabitant of Macungy Township, now Lehigh County, where he held a farm of 280 acres of land ; he was one of the justices appointed soon aft*r the erection of the county. In 1754, he was elected a County Commissioner. Christian Rinker lived in Upper Saucon Township, now Lehigh County; he was one of the commissioners when the school-house was built, elected in 1753. John Wagle was Clerk of the Commissioners in 1760, and County Treasurer. Stephen Horn was an Eastonian; in 1777, he was sent to Phila- delphia by the Committee of Safety of Northampton County to learn the art of manufacturing powder ; by trade he was a mason. At the commencement of the Indian war, in November, 1755, the jail had been finished, the school-house built, and the public well dug, and about thirty to thirty-five dwelling-houses erected. The panic created by the murders at Gnadenhutten and other places struck terror into the inhabitants, not only at Easton, but throughout the whole county. All the inhabitants of the county that could leave their homes, fled in the greatest consternation. On the 19th December, 1755, Mr. Parsons wrote to Governor Morris, as follows: — "Honored Sir: Mr. Peters, by his favor of 14th instant, informs me that it was uncertain when you should return to Philadelphia. 68 EASTON. " Therefore having this opportunity, I thought it was my duty to embrace it to inform you that, now our country is deserted all along the Delaware Eiver, on this side of the mountains, quite down to this town, which is now become the only barrier along the river, and we are really in a poor condition to repulse the enemy. By a letter from Mr. Franklin, of the 15th, just now received, he informs me that Mr. Hamilton and himself were to set out yesterday for these parts. I am in great hopes when Messrs. Hamilton and Franklin are with us, they will take measures to put us in a better posture of defence."* The inhabitants of Easton were in hourly danger of their lives, without any means of defence ; they had none, or but very few guns, and were not provided with ammunition. They were all too poor to purchase guns ; their situation in this respect was similar to the thirty resident families in Allentown on 17th Oct., 1763. Colonel Burd, passing through that town, says to Governor Hamilton : " I was in the town of Northampton ; I found only four guns, three of which were unfit for use, and the enemy within four miles of them."f All these frontier towns were settled by the poorest class of people, such as could purchase no lands, or could not procure the necessary implements for farming purposes. Many of them were tradesmen to whom a town was most congenial and pro- bably most to their interest. The County Commissioners did not meet from Nov., 1755, to June 22, 1756. All business was paralyzed ; every other con- sideration put aside ; self-preservation engrossed their whole atten- tion. The treaty in 1756 put a temporary stop to the incursions, but at the commencement of 1757, the former scenes were re-en- acted; and again repeated in 1758. Courts were held at irregular periods, and some of the Commissioners could not attend. " The Indians are in our neighborhood," was usually given as the excuse for non-attendance. Yost Dreisbach gave as his excuse, "I must grind wheat for the forts." A large number of Indians having come to Easton some days * Penna. Archives, vol. ii. p. 539. f Ibid., vol. iv. p. 125. CONFERENCES WITH THE INDIANS. 69 previous to the commencement of the treaty in July, 1756, Mr. Parsons became very uneasy, fearing that they might become incensed, and commit some acts that would put the lives of the inhabitants in danger. He therefore wrote to Secretary Peters the following letter, July, 1756: — " There are now a large number of Indians in our town, and but very few soldiers to take care of them. Our Dutch farmers, when they come to town, always go to see them, and the Indians always beg whiskey or rum of them ; and as the Dutch all drink a great deal of those liquors, arid get drunk in town, and in that state mingle and quarrel with the Indians, I am very fearful that, unless more troops are sent to keep off the drunken Dutch, they will become enraged, and do mischief in town. The Dutch farm- ers are very quarrelsome when they are drunken. They all drink, and it happens but very seldom that any Dutchman leaves town sober. To avoid any trouble you should attend to this matter immediately."* The first conference with the Indians held at Baston since the commencement of the Indian war began on the 24th July, 1756. Robert Hunter Morris, Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania, was present ; also four members of Council, the four Commissioners appointed by the Assembly, and about thirty other gentlemen from Philadelphia. In November of 1756, another conference was held, and another again in July, 1757 ; and others in 1758, '60, '61, and '62. At the first conference, of July, 1756, twenty-four Indians were present, but the parties were not fully prepared, and as the attend- ance was small, the more important matters were deferred until autumn. On the 8th Nov., 1756, the second conference com- menced, which was attended by Delawares, Shawanees, Mohicans, and Six Nations, who were represented by their principal chiefs and warriors. They met Governor Denny, with his Council, Commis- sioners, and Secretary, and a great number of citizens of Philadel- phia, chiefly Quakers. Great pomp was observed on these occa- * Historical Society's MSS. 70 E ASTON. sions. "At three o'clock," says the record, "the Governor marched from his lodgings to the place of conference, guarded by a party of the Eoyal Americans in front and on the flanks, and a detach- ment of Colonel Weisar's Provincials in subdivisions in the rear, with colors flying, drums beating, and music playing ;" which order was always observed in going to the place of conference. Teedyuscung, who represented four tribes, was the principal speaker on the occasion. When the Governor requested of him to explain the cause of the dissatisfaction of the Indians, he mentioned several, among which were the instigations of the French, and the ill usages or grievances they had suffered both in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. "When the Governor desired to be informed what these griev- ances were, Teedyuscung replied: "I have not to go far for an instance; this very ground that is under me (striking it with his foot) was my land and inheritance, and is taken from me by fraud. When I say this ground, I mean all the land lying between Tohic- kon Creek and Wyoming, on the River Susquehanna. I have not only been served so in this government, but the same thing has been done to me as to several tracts in New Jersey, over the river." The governor asked him what he meant by fraud. Teedy- uscung answered : " When one man had formerly liberty to pur- chase lands, and he took the deed from the Indians for it, and then dies, after his death his children forge a deed like the true one, with the same Indian names on it, and thereby take lands from the Indians which they never sold ; this is fraud ! Also when one king has land beyond the river, and another king has land on this side, both bounded by rivers, mountains, and springs, which can- not be moved, and the proprietaries, greedy to purchase lands, buy of one king which belong to another ; this likewise is fraud I" Then the governor asked Teedyuscung whether he had been served so ? He answered — "Yes! I have been served so in this pro- vince; all the land extending from Tohickon, over the great moun- tain to Wyoming, has been taken from me by fraud, for when I GRIEVANCES OF THE INDIANS. 71 had agreed to sell land to the old proprietary (Wm, Perm) by the course of the river, the young proprietaries came, and got it run in a straight course by the compass, and by that means took in double the quantity intended to be sold, and because they had been un- willing to give up the land unto the English as far as the walk extended, the governor sent for their cousins, the Six Nations, who had always been hard masters to them, to come down and drive them from the land. The English made so many presents to the Six Nations, that they would hear no explanations from the Dela- wares, and the chief (Cannasataego) abused them, and called them women. The Six Nations had, however, given to them and the Shawanees, the country on the Juniata for a hunting ground, and had so informed the governor; but, notwithstanding this, the lat- ter permitted the whites to go and settle upon those lands. That two years before the governor had been to Albany to buy more of the lands of the Six Nations, and had described their purchase by points of compass, which they did not understand — including not only the Juniata, but also the west branch of the Susquehanna, which the Indians did not intend to sell; and when all these things were known, they declared they would no longer be friends to the English, who were trying to get all their country from them." He assured the council that they were glad to meet their old friends the English, to smoke the pipe of peace with them, and hoped that justice would be done to them for all the injuries they had received from them. Teedyuscung,* duriDg one of his speeches at the treaty at Easton, * Major William Parsons, of Easton, on the 26th July, 1756, delivered to the Governor, Robert Hunter Morris, and to his council, a diary kept by him, in which is related the great Delaware Indian chief Teedyuscung's behavior during his stay at Easton at the treaty. He is, says Parsons, a lusty, raw-boned man, haughty, and very desirous of respect and command. He can drink three quarts or a gallon of rum a day with- out being drunk. He was the man that persuaded the Delawares to go over to the French, and then to attack our frontiers, and he and those with him have been concerned in the mischief done to the inhabitants of Northampton County. — Penna. Archives, vol. ii. p. 725. i 72 BASTON. July 21, 1856, making use of the word "wish shiksy," Mr. Weiser, who knew the word to have a very extensive and forcible sense, desired the interpreter to ask him what he meant by " wish shiksy" on this particular occasion — he explained himself in the following manner: "Suppose," says he, "you want to remove a large log of wood that requires many hands, you must take pains to get as many together as will do the business ; if you fall short of one, though ever so weak, all the rest are to no purpose, though this being in itself nothing, yet if you cannot move the log without it, you must spare no pains to get it. ' Wish shiksy,' be strong, look around you, enable us to get every Indian nation we can, put the means into our heads, be sure perform every promise you have made to us in particular; do not pinch matters neither with us, nor other Indians; we will help you. But we are poor and you are rich, make us strong and we will use our strength for you, and besides this, what you do, do quickly ; the times are dangerous, they will not admit of delay. ' Wish shiksy,' do it effectively, and do it with all possible dispatch." This conference continued nine days, and at the close of it a treaty of peace was concluded between the Shawanees and Dela- wares and the English. The governor also offered to satisfy them for the lands in the Forks and the Minisinks, but, as many of those concerned in the land were not present, that question, at the suggestion of Teedyuscung was adjourned, and was fully discussed at a subsequent council held at Easton in July, 1757. The old deeds were called for, but could not all be produced. It was at length agreed to refer the deeds to the adjudication of the king and council in England, and the question was quieted for a time. Another council was held here in the autumn of 1758, having for its object more especially the adjustment of all difficulties with the Six Nations, most of the Delawares, the Shawanees, the Miamies, the Mohicans, Monseys, Nanticokes, and Coneys, &c, were represented (in all 508 Indians). The Governors of Penn- sylvania and New Jersey, Sir William Johnson, Colonel Croghan, Mr. Chew, Mr. Norris, and other dignitaries, with a great number . ■■■ r^h PEACE WITH THE INDIANS. 73 of Quakers, also attended. Teedyuscung, who had been very influential in forming the council, acted as principal speaker for many of the tribes, but the Six Nations took great umbrage at the importance which he assumed, and endeavored to destroy his in- fluence. Teedyuscung, notwithstanding he was well plied with liquor, bore himself with dignity and firmness, and refused to succumb to the Six Nations. The council continued eighteen days. The land questions were discussed, especially the purchase of 1754, by which the line was run from near Penn's Creek 1ST. W. by W. to the western boundary of the State. All the land under that purchase beyond the Alleghany Mountains was restored, the deed being confirmed for the remainder, except for lands on the West Branch. All causes for misunderstanding between the English and the Indians being removed, a general peace was concluded on the 26th October, 1758. The other councils in 1761 and '2,* held at Easton, were concerning the Delaware settlement at Wyoming, in which Teedyuscung took an active part. At the time these treaties were held at Easton there was great difficulty in obtaining quarters for those who attended them, owing to their great number — it therefore became necessary for parties intending to visit the place during that time to engage accommoda- tion some time before. The following correspondence will perhaps convey to the mind of the reader some idea of the extent of these difficulties, and the accommodations received. In a letter dated July 7th, 1757, from Eichard Peters, the proprietary's secretary, to Issachar Davis, of Easton, he says : — * Letter of Teedyuscung to Governor Hamilton, May 14, 1762 : — " As Sir William Johnson hath appointed a time to meet at Easton, I desire you, and all such of the gentlemen as are concerned in the land office, to meet us at that place on the 13th of next June. " Now, brother, as it is a very hard time at present for provisions, I desire that you provide some victuals for us, to meet at Bowman's against the time before mentioned, and, as I shall bring a good many old men along with me who will get weary on the road, I beg also to appoint some small beer or cider at some houses, where we shall stop on the road to refresh ourselves." 74 EASTON". ' " The governor intends to live in Mr. Parsons' house (N. E. corner of Hamilton and Ferry Streets) whilst at Easton, which is now empty, Mr. Parsons being indisposed, and on a journey to the seaside for the recovery of his health. " The governor desires that you will look at the house, see what bedding, sheets, table linen, and other linen necessary for the use of a family are left in the house ; what kitchen furniture, wood and water there may be, and what servants. " By what means butcher's meat, and butter, bread, fowls, and other sorts of provisions can be laid in every day, without giving the governor's family unnecessary trouble. " Perhaps Nicholas Scull will undertake to do all, or a part of which is necessary, and to supply provisions and beer. " I suppose clean beds can be got for Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Chew, Mr. Logan, and two members of council, in good and respectable houses." Mr. Nathaniel Vernon (the ferryman), in answer to Mr. Peters, says: — "As to fresh provisions on every day, shall be duly provided, such as fowls, beef, mutton, veal, bread and butter, by me. " At Mr. Parsons' house there can be got two beds, and bedding for to change at any time ; table linens, plenty for twelve persons, no servants nor cooks, but as for kitchen furniture, plenty of all sorts. "Nicholas Scull undertakes to provide servants that shall be necessary for the governor, and what gentlemen that shall come with him, whilst at Mr. Parsons'. No cook can be got at Easton, but good water plenty." During the treaty of 1758 the same difficulty was experienced. Charles Swaine, Esq., prothonotary and clerk of the courts, wrote to Eichard Peters, Easton, Sept. 4, 1758: — Sir: I received the favor of yours, and am glad that rny services are acceptable. Should be fond of every opportunity to oblige Mr. Peters, or any of the gentlemen of the Council, and am concerned at present I cannot do it in so effectual a manner as I would wish, by letting you know particularly what is necessary here, and how LETTER FROM CHARLES SWAINE TO RICHARD PETERS. 75 it is to be managed as to providing. I have spoken to Vernon on that head, and he said in general it will be in the manner as it was before (former years of trea- ties): by which I understand provision is to be daily fetphed from his house, and the gentlemen's servants to dress it. This did not content me, and he promised to call on me this morning to give me further satisfaction, but hath not called before the bearer set out. As to the lodgings, it will be necessary to bring bed- steads, beds, &c. I shall take care to have the several lodging rooms well cleaned. All the houses have chairs, stools, or benches of some sort, and tables ; only it must be considered, those gentlemen who choose to go to Mr. Gordon's house (where three or four might live retired) will have everything to find. We are at no certainty as to the Governor of New Jersey. What was said as to his taking up his residence at Phillipsburg, arose from a report which hath little foundation in it, and therefore desires to be excused from receiving the Governor of the Jer- seys, from some inconveniences which attend his house, and which the Commis- sioners put up with. There is some reason in what he says, but I see he is fond of receiving his old guests. Tea, coffee, sugar, wine, candles, which if not allowed before, will not now. The wine here is very indifferent, and our tea equipages generally earthen cups and pewter spoons. The shed in my yard will be boarded, and I believe it will be found to be too cold to be out of doors, excepting just in the noon of the day. I shall act in the best manner I can, as circumstances offer, and render every place as convenient as possible, and keep those places bespoke, though strong application is made for lodgings here and houses, by letters to various persons. Yours, CHARLES SWAINE. P. S. After I had sealed this letter, the butcher in town, Anthony Esser, came and informed me Vernon would buy no meat of him — and he hath engaged many beefs — unless he will quit his house, and let it to the Commissioners or the Qua- kers. Now the Commissioners have room. This will be to the poor man's great loss. The improvements in Easton were greatly retarded by the Indian wars. The prison which had been commenced in 1752, was finally finished, including the prison walls and the wells, at a cost of about =£400 ($1066 67). The trustees had borrowed £100 from Richard Peters, Esq., in 1752, towards the building, which amount they repaid in 1754, with two years' interest, £112. The account was settled by John Jones with the Assembly, on 12th February, 1763. {Votes of A ss., vol. v. p. 246.) An addition to the jail was made in 1774 at nearly the same expense. Various p&y- ments are found to Jacob Weaver and others, for the maintenance 76 E ASTON. of prisoners, at sixpence per day ; likewise for a number of exe- cutions on Gallows Hill. The bridge over 'the Bushkill Creek at the northern end of Hamilton Street, was the next great undertaking, being com- menced in September, 1762, under the superintendence of Peter Kichlein and John Moore, two of the commissioners. The bridge, including fifteen gallons and three quarts of rum at four shillings and four pence per gallon, and one barrel of cider, at fifteen shillings, which was used at the raising — cost the county £226 15s. 7c?., or $604 73. This first county bridge was laid with plank ; having become dangerous, in 1792 the present stone arched bridge was erected in the same place. The building of the court-house (the venerable pile yet standing on the great square in Easton), gave occasion to several petitions to the Assembly in 1763 and 1765. On the fifteenth October, 1762, the trustees appointed under the act of Assembly passed March 11th, 1752, petitioned the Assembly for an act authorizing the building of the court-house at Easton. This petition was not acted on then. On the 12th January, 1763, other petitions were presented, signed by a great number of the inhabitants of North- ampton County, setting forth " that many inconveniences must attend building a court-house for the said county, at the town of Easton, as directed by a late act of Assembly of this province, and praying leave to bring in a bill appointing trustees to erect the court-house in some more convenient part of the said county, nearer to the centre thereof." Both of these petitions were taken into consideration by the Assembly, and decided by them that it be built at Easton. This act passed finally, Feb'y 17, 1763. (Votes of Ass., vol. v. p. 247.) Another petition was presented after the commencement of the building, viz: — " May 15, 1765. A petition from a great number of the inhabitants of the county of Northampton was presented to the House of Assembly and read, setting forth that, by the law which created the said county, passed on March 11th, 1752, cer- tain persons were empowered to purchase and take assurance to them and their heirs of a piece of land, situate in the town of Easton, in said county, in trust and PETITION AGAINST ERECTING THE COURT-HOUSE AT EASTON. 77 for the use of the inhabitants of the said county, and thereon to build a court- house and prison, sufficient to accommodate the public service of said county, and for the ease and convenience of its inhabitants. "That the petitioners have found on twelve years' experience of the great hard- ship and inconveniency of the said law, by fixing the seat of judicature in so remote a corner of the said county, for that purpose ; that there could not have been a place devised more improper and inconvenient than Easton appears, from its being situated at an extreme corner of the county, environed on all sides with hills and rivers, secluding it (as it were) from the rest of the county, with which it can never have any necessary communication, nor become a thoroughfare or place of traffic, the roads, by means of the aforesaid hills and broken lands there- abouts, being rendered, in the winter season, unsafe for travelling on horseback, and almost impassable for wagons and other carriages ; that the distance of the said town from the west and northwest extreme parts of the county, which contain the chief of the inhabitants, is very great, not less than fifty to sixty miles, so that many persons residing there find the necessary means for recovering their rights attended with so much trouble and expense that they rather choose to submit to the loss of them than attempt their recovery under so great discouragements ; that in particular the road to Easton is extremely inconvenient, passing through a large tract of land called the Dry Lands, so thinly inhabited that, in the distance of twelve miles from Bethlehem to Easton, there is but one or two huts, and not one drop of water, neither in the summer or fall seasons, to refresh either man or horse, so that in winter travellers are in danger of perishing with cold, or of being parched up in summer with heat ; that the remote situation of Easton is grievous, and greatly expensive to all, but in a more particular manner to jurymen, widows, and orphan children, whose attendance is indispensably necessary, and who must travel with great danger and expense to the said town, especially in the winter season ; that it frequently happens that persons who are summoned by the sheriff to attend at the courts on grand and petit juries do neglect or refuse to give their attendance on account of the great distance and expense, to the hindrance and delay of the public service ; that the petitioners, moreover, are put to much greater charge per mileage, payable to the sheriff on all suits, by reason of the remoteness of the said town, to their great impoverishment ; that the petitioners humbly conceive that, as in all good governments, a lesser evil is to be suffered in order to obtain a greater good to the community, so they hope that, in this free government, a greater evil, though established by law, shall not continue and pre- vail, only to obtain a lesser good ; and that, although the inhabitants of Easton, in case of removing from there the seat of judicature, may in some measure sup- pose themselves to be sufferers, yet it is certainly better that they should bear a small inconveniency than that the whole country should languish forever under a law which, at first view, appears so grievous and burthensome ; that the petition- ers could remind the House of several instances of the like kind with that for 78 EASTON. which they pray, but especially one in the county of Bucks, where the seat of judicature was removed from the borough of Bristol, because of the inconveniency of its situation to Newtown, where it now stands, as being more central, and con- sequently more commodious to the inhabitants ; that the petitioners, therefore, most humbly pray the House to take the premises into serious consideration, and to forbid the said trustees from erecting a court-house at Easton, and from engag- ing in or entering upon the said work ; and that the House would likewise be pleased to order a bill to be brought in, and offer the same to his Honor the Governor, for repealing so much of the said law as respects the building of the said court-house, and give power to proper persons to build and erect the same in some convenient place in or near the centre of the said county." (Ordered to lie on the table.) The Barrens, or Dry Lands, to which allusion has been made, are also spoken of in the following letter from Count Zinzendorf to Mr. Spangenberg, of Bethlehem, dated from England, March 15, 1743, and which we here insert to show the value of the land at that time : — " To end as speedily as possible the misunderstanding of the proprietary government concerning a road between Bethlehem and Nazareth, I give this to you as my final determination. Whenever I have resolved to keep Nazareth (the 5000 acre tract) for the Brethren, which perhaps I may not do, inasmuch as it is too remote from our houses at Bethlehem, I would like to be accommodated with a wider road than ordinary to go thither. It would be no more than right for the proprietaries to make us a present of the ground over which it passes, because usually all the roads are given gratis, and because the width of this one is of no account to the proprietaries, the country through which it passes being absolutely a desert without wood or water, and of such a nature that it never can be sold. " But as I am told, and as it appears to me probable, that to make the road straight as possible, it would cut across a little tongue of land belonging to Sir Tho- mas Penn, I resolved to buy all that plantation, which contains 500 acres at most, as it appears in the draft of the lands of the forks made by the proprietaries' agents. Without this tract (for which I would have paid as much as it was worth at the time of the contract), the rest of the road at the rate of £15 per hundred, is an excessive price, inasmuch as those parts of the forks called the Dry Lands are worth nothing at all, and nobody wants them. In order, nevertheless, to do the duty of a good friend of the proprietaries, and of an inhabitant of their terri- tory, I propose to Mr. Peters to purchase this road at this price, and I have so written. But if the proprietaries consider it to their disadvantage, I desist from it. Even if the proprietary made me a present of a road, of a mile in width, from THE COUETS, ETC. 79 Bethlehem, to Nazareth, the country is so barren that they would lose but little by it. The more freely I ask only a king's-road (two rods wide, according to custom), for the convenience of commerce, without intending to purchase. " London, March 25, 1743. ZINZENDORF." This statement would hardly be believed by one now passing through the fertile limestone farms between Easton and Bethlehem, some of which are the finest in the State, and the great fruitfulness of which is well testified to by the extensive barns, fine farm-houses, and healthy looking lads and lasses. The courts from June 16, 1752, to March 6, 1766, were held in different public houses, as Jacob Bachman, Peter Kichlein, Frede- rick Nungessor, Henry Bush, Frederick Shouse, and others. The rents paid were from three to seven pounds per year, including wood and candles. The court did not continue more than one or two days each session from 1752 to 1760. After that time busi- ness increased, and three and four days were consumed every session. Great formality was used by the justices at the courts. It was the custom to escort them from their dwelling or lodging-houses by the constables walking in front and rear, carrying the insignia of their office with them ; the " constable staves." Of these there is an entry, March 18, 1755. An order was drawn in favor of the United Brethren for painting, &c, twenty-five constable staves, £9 7s. 6d., or $25. The judges wore a three cornered cocked hat ; on the bench they looked very grave, and of great importance; the enlightened community standing around the bar apparently absorbed in stupid adoration. The plan of the court-house was taken from Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia. The cost of the building was £1721, or $4,589.67, including eight dollars patent fees, and all the expenses and charges of the trustees. Most of the moneys were paid by the commis- sioners on orders drawn by the trustees in favor of George Taylor. The court-house was graced by the whipping-post and pillory. These emblems of ancient times were placed on the south side of OCT 88 *W 80 EASTON". the public square, in the middle of Pomfret Street. The cost of the boards, iron, and carpenter work, was about ten pounds. We find in the sessions docket that many culprits were sentenced to be whipped at this post, with nineteen to thirty-nine stripes, " well laid on," on the bare back. These scoundrels may have deserved a good whipping, but we find also poor Mary Nickum, who, being overcome in an hour of temptation by the evil one, appropriated some linen to her own use, being the property of another person, to the value of twenty-six shillings and ten pence, was sentenced to have her back exposed to the gaping crowd, and to have there- upon inflicted nineteen stripes, " well laid on." It was not until 1790 that the whipping-post disappeared. The following is a list of the taxable inhabitants in Easton in 1763, with their trades and occupations. Henry Allshouse, carpenter. Jacob Andemeyer, laborer. John Anderson. Jacob Beringer, shopkeeper. Jonathan Barker. Abraham Berlin, smith. Ernst Becker, baker. George Bush, carpenter. Henry Bush, breeches-maker. Ephraim Blum, gunsmith. Jacob Bachman. Henry Barnet, tanner. George Barnet. Stophel Bittenbender. Peter Conrad, weaver. John Dengler, laborer. Widow de Lyon. Peter Eahler, poor. Anthony Esser, butcher. Jacob Grotz, carpenter. Andrew Grotz. Louis Gordon, prothonotary. Peter Holl, carpenter. Meyer Hart, innkeeper. Jacob Hembt, innkeeper. George Held, poor. William Held, skindresser. Bartholomew Hoffman, mason. Stephen Horn, mason. Zachariah Hogelberg. Charles Hyer. John Jones. Henry Kepple. Peter Kichline, Esquire, 1 g. and 1 s. mill. Ludwig Knaus, saddler. Anthony Lerch. Abraham Labar, tailor. Daniel Labar, shoemaker. Michael Lehn, laborer. Nicholas Loch. William Ledley, shopkeeper. John Mush, shoemaker. Isaac Menor. Frederick Nungessor, shopkeeper and innkeeper. TAXABLE INHABITANTS IN 1763. 81 Jacob Opp, innkeeper. Michael Opp, weaver. Jonathan Pettit. Adam Keisser. John Rinker, innkeeper. Edward Rinker, innkeeper. John Ross, tailor. Badtzer Rockel. Friederich Rieger. Paul Reeser, poor. Adam Shouse. John Stell wagon. Frederick Shouse, mason. Widow Snyder. Henry Snyder, shoemaker. John Spering, shoemaker. John Simon, hatter. Ludwig Shaup, carpenter. Herman Snyder, tanner. George Taylor, esquire. James Taylor, esquire. Jeremias Trexler. John Wagle. Henry Young, locksmith. Mathias Miller. SINGLE MEX. Andrew Ledly. Jacob Grotz. Thomas Geitler. Andrew Bachman. Robert Traill, 2 weavers. 2 butchers. 3 laborers. 1 grist and saw-mill. 6 taverns. 3 stores. 5 carpenters. 3 masons. 2 butchers. 1 hatter. 1 locksmith. 1 smith. 1 gunsmith. 2 tailors. 1 skindresser. 1 saddler. Easton increased very slowly in population from 1763 to 1773. In the former year, it contained sixty-three houses ; in the latter, only sixty-nine, nearly all of which were small log dwellings, one story high. Each of the inhabitants owned at least one cow, while the tavernkeepers (of which there were eight), had each two, viz., Jacob Able, Jacob Hembt, Conrad Ihrie, widow Nungessor, Jacob Opp, John Shock, Theophilus Shannon,* Adam Yohe, jr., * Shannon's tavern was in Northampton Street, northwest corner of Fermor Street (now Second). In 1779, during the time George Taylor resided at the forge, in Greenwich Township, N. J., that lot was sold to Shannon, on which he had erected a " stone stable," yet standing, and occupied as a dwelling. Widow Nungessor had rented Col. Weiss's house (built by John Okely, Esq., the Moravian, in 1757). Col. Weiss was then deputy quarter-master. John Herster commenced 6 82 EASTON. and Frederick Wagoner. There were 104 cows, 25 horses, and about 200 sheep, and probably 200 hogs, within the borough of Easton, in 1783. Every family was thus provided with wool for clothing, and with milk, butter, meat, &c, for their support. It was customary to drive the cows out in the barrens, north and west of the town, for pasture. The pigs, in warm weather, were allowed to wallow in the pond near the court-house, and the sheep generally lay panting in the court-house shade, changing their location from the west in the morning, to the east in the afternoon ; George Traxell informed the writer that the stench was intolerable in the court-house from this cause, and added, "I have often seen near two hundred sheep laying around the court-house." There was no borough council to interfere with the arrangements of the citizens, but every one consulted his own convenience. The pig-pens were generally fronting the streets, and built of slabs or rails, the small doors of which were usually opened every morning, giving them permission to take an airing. The cows came home in the after- noon, walking down Ferry Street in single file, accompanied by the music of their numerous bells, the housewives standing ready with the pail, to milk them on the street. It used to be a lively time for the housewives and lassies to squat down in the street, drawing the milk from the cows, as they spoke to each other of their household duties, or, perhaps, of their admirers. Many an agreeable hour was spent by the gallants of the town, who thus had a favorable opportunity of seeing their sweethearts, and having a chat with them, in the meantime giving assistance to them in driving the flies from the animals. The bake-ovens and wood piles graced the streets for many years. These obstructions in front of the dwellings made a promenade, along the streets, in the town, circuitous and dangerous on dark nights. It was not until 1790, the shop-keeping business in 1786, with a stock of goods valued at £50, or $133 33. The valuation of real estate was trifling, and much below its real value ; in 17S2 Michael Hart's house was rated at £500, continental money (then 75 for one), being near ten dollars ; others as low as 15 to 75, or $100, or from 50 cents to $3 each. William Ledley (the father of Dr. Ledley), was a shopkeeper ; his occupa- tion valued at £2, or $5 33 in 1763, PRESENT AND OLDEN TIME CONTRASTED. 83 or later, that pavements were commenced. The first of the pave- ments was from Opp's tavern, toward the public square. The first road into the town, from the west, was along Ferry Street. North- ampton Street had not been opened further than Juliana Street, before 1798, and then only as a narrow pass for one wagon. There was more truth than fiction in the petition in 1768, for the removal of the county business from Easton, to some more central situation, and giving, as a further reason, that the hills at Easton were so steep, that it could be entered only at the risk of one's life. During our researches in the Philadelphia Library, we were somewhat amused by an article we found in a magazine published in the year 1790, which censured severely the indolence and fine- ladyish manners of the women of that day, and contrasting the enervating habits of modern refinement with the simplicity, fru- gality and industry of their grandmothers. At the present time toe look back with regret to the good old times complained of by that same censor, and regard the very matrons whom he stigma- tizes as idle, vain, and frivolous, as models of excellent housewifery and industrious management. No doubt as we recede into the past, we shall find in successive generations similar examples of veneration for a bygone age at the expense of the present, similar instances of contrast, in which the verdict is always in favor of those who have passed from the stage of action. In the next age, probably, the matrons of the present day shall have their turn of being held up as ensamples for the imitation of their juvenile descendants. Now, although much of this is certainly to be attributed to the universal propensity to prize the worth of that which is gone, rather than that which is in possession, it cannot be denied that, in some respects, the world does degenerate as it grows older. It would require a philosophical and statistical knowledge to point out all the matters in which we stand lower than our ancestors, and in which those who "catch the manners living as they rise," are ready to acknowledge that society deteriorates day by day. "We shall not undertake the task, in which the experience and observa- 84 EASTON. tion of each individual would be a more reliable guide in forming a judgment. An incident, however, which occurred many years ago, will throw a light upon the manners of olden times in the quiet village of Easton, and perhaps suggest inquiry to the philo- sophical, as to the effects of luxury and refinement on the manners of the same community. The story was related to us almost upon the spot where the occurrence took place, and is confirmed by the recollection of "the oldest inhabitants." The same story was pub- lished some years ago in Godey's Lady's Book, and was written by that gifted authoress, Mrs. B. F. Ellet. As the style in which it is written cannot be improved, we take the liberty of inserting it in this work, knowing well that it will prove very interesting, not only from the fact of its giving a faithful account of the manners of the olden time in Easton, but also from its having emanated from the pen of so distinguished a writer: — Some eighty years ago, the now flourishing town of Easton, on the Delaware, was but a small settlement in one of the remote and comparatively wild portions of Pennsylvania. At the present day, the compactly built town fills the space between the mountains and the two rivers that here form a junction, while their banks are lined with busy manufactories and the dwellings of men. The lofty hills that rise abruptly from the plain, or overhang the waters, are cultivated in spots ; and the patches of woodland here and there seem spared for the purpose of adorning the landscape, and affording secluded walks to the wanderers who love the beauty of nature. At the period to which our tale carries us back, the scenery of this beau- tiful region was not less enchanting, though far more wild and savage. A dense forest then covered the mountains to their rocky summits, and bordered the rivers for many miles ; the valley, through which flows a sweet stream to mingle with the Delaware, was dark with the shadow of primeval woods, and the waters, un- troubled by the different manufactories for the uses of which their streams have since been diverted, swept in calm majesty along their time-worn channel, scarcely knowing the difference of seasons. Not far from the Delaware, a double row of low-roofed, quaint-looking stone houses formed the most populous part of the set- tlement. Other dwellings, scattered about in different directions, were built in the same style, and evidently inhabited by the same sturdy and primitive Dutch population. Many of these houses are still standing, and give a character to the appearance of the whole place. It has been often remarked how unchangingly, from one generation to another, the habits of the Dutch people are preserved by their descendants, giving a monotony to their life and manners, while their more ' mutable neighbors are yielding themselves, day by day, to the law of progress. THE FATE OF A FLIRT OF THE OLDEN TIME. 85 This inveterate attachment to the old order of things, and aversion to innovations, peculiar to their nation, kept the ancient inhahitants of Easton in the same con- dition with their forefathers, notwithstanding the improvements introduced from European cities into other parts of the colony. Philadelphia, though at that time but a village in comparison to what it is now, was looked upon as a place of luxury and corruption dangerous to the morals of youth. Few of the families composing the settlement at Easton had ever been there, or had visited any other of the pro- vincial cities. They sought no intercourse with the world's great Babel, content with the information that reached them regularly once a week with the newspapers brought by the post-boy, which were loaned to the neighbors in turn by the few who received them. Now and then, it is true, when the business of the day was over, a number of men might be seen seated in the large sitting-room of the old stone tavern, or on the veranda, wearing their low-crowned, broad-brimmed hats, smoking their pipes, and discussing events of which the rumor had reached them, when these were more stirring than common. But these discussions were always conducted quietly, and without the exhibition of any feeling of partisanship. They were terminated at a very early hour, all thought of political matters being usually dismissed with the last puff of their pipes, as the worthy mynheers took their way homewards. As little did the love of change prevail among the good fraus of that day. They were of the class described by a distinguished chronicler, who " stayed at home, read the Bible, and wore frocks." They wore the same antiquated quilted caps and parti-colored homespun gowns, that were in fashion in the days of the re- nowned Wouter Van Twiller ; their pockets were always filled with work and the implements of industry, and their own gowns and their husband's coats were exclusively of domestic manufacture. In cleanliness and thrifty housewifery, they were excelled by none who had gone before, or who came after them. The well-scoured stoops and entries, fresh and immaculate every morning, attested the neatness prevailing throughout the dwellings. The precise order that reigned within, in the departments of kitchen, parlor, and chamber, could not be disturbed by any out-of-door commotion. Cleanliness and contentment were the cares of the household. The tables were spread with the abundance of the good old time, and not small was the pride of those ministering dames in setting forth the viands pre- pared by their own industrious hands. It must not be supposed that all their care and frugality were inconsistent with the dear exercise of hospitality, or other social virtues usually practised in every female community. If the visits paid from house to house were less frequent than in modern times, there was the same gene- rous interest in the concerns of others, and the same desire in each to save her neighbor trouble by kindly taking the management of affairs upon herself, evinced by so many individuals of the present day. In short, the domestic police of Easton, at that remote period, was apparently as remarkable for vigilance and severity in hunting out offenders as it has proved to be in times of more modern civilization. 83 E ASTON". The arrival of new residents from the city was an event of importance enough in itself to cause no small stir in that quiet community. The rumor that a small house, picturesquely situated at the edge of a wood some distance from the vil- lage, was being fitted up for the new comers, was soon spread abroad, and gave rise to many conjectures and surmises. The new furniture that paraded in wagons before the astonished eyes of the settlers, was different from any that had been seen before ; and, though it would have been thought simple enough, or even rude, at the present day, exhibited too much of metropolitan taste and luxury to meet their approval. Then a gardener was employed several days to set in order the surrounding plot of ground, and set out rose bushes, and ornamental plants ; the fence was painted gayly, and the inclosure secured by a neat gate. A few days after, a light travelling wagon brought the tenants to the abode prepared for them. Within the memory of a generation, hardly any occurrence had taken place which excited so much curiosity. The doors and windows were crowded with gazers ; and the younger part of the population were hardly restrained by parental autho- rity from rushing after the equipage. The female, who sat with a boy on the back seat, wore a thick veil ; but the pleasant face of a middle-aged man, who looked about him, and bowed courteously to the different groups, attracted much atten- tion. The man who drove had a jolly English face, betokening a very communi- cative disposition ; nor was the promise broken to the hope ; for that very evening the same personage was seated among a few grave-looking Dutchmen who lingered at the tavern, dealing out his information liberally to such as chose to question him. The new comer, it appeared, was a member of the Colonial Assembly, and had brought his family to rusticate for a season on the banks of the Delaware. This family consisted of his English wife, and a son about seven years old. They had been accustomed, he said, to the society of the rich and gay, both in Phila- delphia and in Europe, having spent some time in Paris before their coming to this country. The information given by the loquacious driver, who seemed to think the village not a little honored in so distinguished an accession to its inhabitants, produced no favorable impression. The honest mynheers, however, were little inclined to be hasty in their judgment. They preferred consulting their wives, who waited with no little patience for the Sabbath morning, expecting then to have a full opportunity of criticizing their new neighbors. They were doomed to disappointment ; none of the family was at the place of meeting, although the practice of church-going was one so time-honored, that a journey of ten miles on foot to attend religious service was thought nothing of, and few, even of the most worldly-minded, ventured on an omission. The non-appear- ance of the strangers was a dark omen. The next day, however, the dames of the settlement had an opportunity of seeing Mrs. Winton — for so I shall call her, not choosing to give her real name — as she came out to purchase a few articles of kitchen furniture. Her style of dress was altogether different from theirs. In- THE FATE OF A FLIRT OF THE OLDEN TIME. 87 stead of the hair pomatumed back from the forehead, she wore it in natural ring- lets ; instead of the short stuff petticoats in vogue among the Dutch dames, a long and flowing skirt set off to advantage a figure of remarkable grace. At the first glance, one could not but acknowledge her singular beauty. Her form was fault- less in symmetry, and her features exquisitely regular ; the complexion being of a clear brown, set off by luxuriant black hair, and a pair of brilliant dark eyes. The expression of these was not devoid of a certain fascination, though it had some- thing to excite distrust in the simple-minded fair ones who measured the claims of the stranger to admiration. They could not help thinking there was a want of innate modesty in the bold, restless wanderings of those eyes, bright as they were, and in the perfect self-possession the English woman showed in her somewhat haughty carriage. Her voice, too, though melodious, was not low in its tones, and her laugh was merry, and frequently heard. In short, she appeared, to the untu- tored judgment of the dames of the village, decidedly wanting in reserve, and the softness natural to youth in woman. While they shook their heads, and were shy of conversation with her, it was not a little wonderful to notice the different effect produced on their spouses. The honest Dutchmen surveyed the handsome stranger with undisguised admiration, evinced at first by a prolonged stare, and on after occasions by such rough courtesy as they found opportunity of showing, with alacrity offering to her any little service that neighbors might render. The women, on the other hand, became more and more suspicious of her outlandish gear and her bewitching smiles, lavished with such profusion upon all who came near her. Her charms, in their eyes, were so many sins, which they were inclined to see her expiate, before they relented so far as to extend toward her the civilities of neighbor- hood. The more their husbands praised her, the more they stood aloof; and, for weeks after the family had become settled, scarcely any communication of a friendly nature had taken place between her and any of the female population. Little, however, did the English woman appear to care for neglect on the part of those she evidently thought much inferior to herself. She had plenty of company, such as suited her taste, and no lack of agreeable employment, notwithstanding her persistence in a habit which shocked still more the prejudices of her worthy neighbors — of leaving her household labor to a servant. She made acquaintance with all who relished her lively conversation, and took much pleasure in exciting, by her eccentric manners, the astonishment of her long-queued admirers. She was always affable, and not only invited those she liked to visit her without ceremony, but called upon them for any extra service she required. It was on one of the brightest days in October that Mrs. Winton was riding with her son along a path leading through the forest up the Delaware. The road wound at the base of a mountain, bordering the river closely, and was flanked in some places by precipitous rocks, overgrown with shrubs, and shaded by overhanging trees. The wealth of foliage appeared to greater advantage, touched with the rich tints of autumn — 88 EASTON". " With hues more gay Than when the flow'rets bloomed, the trees are drest ; How gorgeous are their draperies ! green and gold. Scarlet and crimson ! like the glittering vest Of Israel's priesthood, glorious to behold ! " See yonder towering hill, with forests clad, How bright its mantle of a thousand dyes ! Edged with a silver band, the stream, that glad, But silent, winds around its base." It can hardly be known if the romantic beauty of the scene, which presented itself by glimpses through the foliage, the bright calm river, the wooded hills and slopes beyond, and the village lying in the lap of the savage forest, called forth as much admiration from those who gazed, as it has since from spirits attuned to a vivid sense of the loveliness of nature. The sudden flight of a bird from the bushes startled the horse, and, dashing quickly to one side, he stood on the sheer edge of the precipice overlooking the water. The nest plunge might have been a fatal one, but that the bridle was instantly seized by the strong arm of a man who sprang from the concealment of the trees. Checking the frightened animal, he assisted the dame and her son to dismount, and then led the horse for them to less dangerous ground. In the friendly conversation that followed, the Englishwoman put forth all her powers of pleasing ; for the man was known already to her for one of the most respectable of the settlers, though he had never yet sought her society. His little service was rewarded by a cordial invitation, which was soon followed by a visit, to her house. To make a long story short, not many weeks had passed before this neighbor was an almost daily visitor ; and, to the surprise and concern of the whole village, his example was in time followed by many others of those who might have been called the gentry of Easton. It became evident that the handsome stranger was a coquette of the most unscrupulous sort ; that she was passionately fond of the admiration of the other sex, and was determined to exact the tribute due her charms, even from the sons of the wilderness. She flirted desperately with one after another, contriving to impress each with the idea that he was the happy individual especially favored by her smiles. Her manners and conversation showed less and less regard for the opinion of others, or the rules of propriety. The effect of such a course of conduct in a community so simple and old-fashioned in their customs, so utterly unused to any such broad defiance of censure, may be more easily ima- gined than described. How the men were flattered and intoxicated in their admiration for the beautiful siren, and their lessons in an art so new to them as gallantry ; how the women were amazed out of their propriety, can be conceived without the aid of philosophy. Things were bad enough as they were ; but when the time came for Mr. Winton to depart and take his place in the Assembly, the change was for the worse. His THE FATE OF A FLIRT OF THE OLDEN TIME. 89 handsome wife was left, with only her son, in Easton for the winter. Her behavior was now more scandalous than ever, and soon a total avoidance of her by every other female in the place attested their indignation. The coquette evidently held them in great scorn, while she continued to receive, in a still more marked and offensive manner, the attentions of the husbands, whom, she boasted, she had taught they had hearts under their linsey-woolsey coats. Long walks and rides through the woods, attended always by some one who had owned the power of her beauty, set public opinion wholly at defiance ; and the company at her fireside, evening after evening, was well known to be not such as became a wife and mother to receive. Should this history of plain, unvarnished fact chance to meet the" eye of any fair trifier, who has been tempted to invite or welcome such homage, let her pause and remember that the wrath of the injured wives of Easton was but such as nature must rouse in the bosom of the virtuous in all ages and countries ; and that tragedies as deep as that to which it led have grown from the like cause, and may still do so at any period of civilization. The winter months passed, and spring came to set loose the streams, and fill the woods with tender bloom and verdure. But the anger of the justly irritated dames of Easton had gathered strength with time. Scarce one among the most conspicuous of the neighborhood but had particular reason to have their common enemy for the alienated affections and monopolized time of her husband, so faith- ful to his duties before this fatal enchantment. Complaints were made by one to another, and strange stories told, which, of course, lost nothing in their circulation from mouth to mouth. What wonder was it that the mysterious influence exer- cised by the strange woman should be attributed to witchcraft ? What wonder that she should be judged to hold intercourse with evil spirits, and to receive from them the power by which she subdued men to her sway ? Late in the afternoon of a beautiful day in the early part of June, two or three of the matrons of the village stationed themselves near the wood by which stood the house of Mrs. Winton. Not far from this was a small pond, where the boys amused themselves in fishing, or bathed during the heats of summer. The spot once occupied by this little body of water is now the central portion of the town, and covered with neat buildings of brick and stone. The women had come forth to watch ; nor was their vigilance long unrewarded. They saw Mrs. Winton, accompanied by one of her gallants, dressed with a care that showed his anxiety to please, walking slowly along the borders of the wood. The sun had set, and the gray shadows of twilight were creeping over the land- scape ; yet it was evidently not her intention to return home. As it grew darker, the two entered the wood, the female taking the arm of her companion, and pre- sently both disappeared. " There he goes I" exclaimed one of the women who watched, with fierce anger in her looks, for it was her husband she had seen. " I knew it ; I knew he spent every evening with her !" 90 E ASTON". " Shall we follow them ?" asked the other. "No ! no ! let us go home quick !" was the answer. Such a scene as the night witnessed was never before enacted in that quiet vil- lage. At a late hour there was a meeting of many of the matrons in the house of one of their number. The curtains were closely drawn ; the light was so dim that the faces of those who whispered together could scarcely be discerned. There was something fearful in the assemblage, at such an unwonted time, of those orderly housewives, so unaccustomed ever to leave their homes after dusk. The circum- stance of their meeting alone betokened something uncommon in agitation. Still more did the silence, hushed and breathless at intervals, the eager, but suppressed whispering, the rapid gestures, the general air of determination mingled with cau- tion. It struck midnight ; they made signs one to another, and the light was extinguished. It was perhaps an hour or more after, when the same band of women left the house, and took their way, in profound silence, along the road leading out of the village. By a roundabout course, skirting the small body of water above men- tioned, they came to the border of the wood. Just then the waning moon rose above the forest tops, shedding a faint light over hill and stream. It could then be seen that the females all wore a kind of mask of black stuff. Their course was directed towards the Englishwoman's house, which they approached with stealthy and noiseless steps. A few moments of silence passed, after they had disappeared, and then a wild shriek was heard, and others fainter and fainter, like the voice of one in agony struggling to cry out, and stifled by powerful hands. The women rushed from the wood, dragging with them their helpless victim, whom they had gagged, so that she could not even supplicate their mercy. Another cry was presently heard — the wail of a terrified child. The little boy, roused from sleep by the screams of his mother, ran towards her captors, and throwing himself on his knees, begged for her in piteous accents and with streaming tears. "Take him away!" cried several together; and one of their number, snatching up the child, ran off with him at her utmost speed, and did not return. The others proceeded quickly to their mission of vengeance. Dragging the help- less dame to the pond, they rushed into it, heedless of risk to themselves, till they stood in deep water. Then each, in turn, seizing her enemy by the shoulders, plunged her in, head and all, crying, as she did so, " This is for my husband !" " And this for mine !" " This for mine !" was echoed, with the plunges, in quick succession, till the work of retribution was accomplished, and the party hurried to shore. Startled by a noise as of some one approaching, the disguised avengers fled, leaving their victim on the bank, and lost no time in hastening homeward. The dawn of day disclosed a dreadful catastrophe : Dame Winton was found dead THE FATE OF A FLIRT OF THE OLDEN TIME. 91 beside the water. There was evidence enough that she had perished, not by acci- dent, but violence. "Who could have done the deed ? The occurrence caused great commotion in Easton, as it was but natural it should ; but it was never discovered with certainty who were the perpetrators of the mur- der. Suspicion fell on several ; but they were prudent enough to keep silence, and nothing could be proved against them. Perhaps the more prominent among the men, who should have taken upon themselves the investigation of the affair, had their own reasons for passing it over rather slightly. It was beyond doubt, too, that actual murder had not been designed by the actors in the tragedy ; but simply the punishment assigned to witchcraft by popular usage. So the matter was not long agitated, though it was for many years a subject of conversation among those who had no interest in hushing it up ; and the story served as a warning to give jtoint to the lessons of careful mothers. It was for a long time believed that the ghost of the unfortunate Englishwoman haunted the spot where she had died. Nor did the belief cease to prevail long after the pond was drained, and the wood felled, and the space built over. A stable belonging to a gentleman with whom I am acquainted stands near the place. I have heard him relate how one of his servants, who had never heard the story had rushed in one night, much alarmed, to say that he had seen a female figure, in old-fashioned cap and white gown, standing at the door of the stable. Another friend, who resides near, was told by his domestic that a strange woman had stood at the back gate, who had suddenly disappeared when asked who she was. Thus there seems ground enough to excuse the belief, even now prevalent among the common people in Easton, that the spirit still walks at night about that portion of the town. In 1782, Easton had increased considerably, and contained eighty- five houses and about 500 inhabitants ; among these were families whose descendants are found in the present borough. We have a complete list of the taxables, with their trades and occupations, for 1782, which we would be pleased to insert did our space permit. Jacob Able at that time was the owner of the ferry, and also tavernkeeper. The valuation of the ferry property is stated at £555, and appears to have been the most productive property in the town. The time of establishing the ferry was in 1789, by David Martin, about eleven or twelve years before Easton was laid out. Tn 1755 it passed into the hands of Nathaniel Vernon, in 1762 to Daniel Brodhead, afterwards to Lewis Gordon, and finally to Jacob Able, whose descendants still retain it. David Berringer, it is supposed, was the first tanner in Easton. 92 EASTON. In 1763, Mr. Berringer purchased the house built by John Okely for the Moravians (now part of the Washington Hotel); Berringer, soon after the purchase, went to see the Kev. H. Muhlenberg, which occasioned the following remarks in that clergyman's reports to Halle, in Germany (p. 125, &c.) : " May 13, 1763. A man from Baston visited me, who informed me that the Lutheran congrega- tion of that place had bought a large house for £400 ($1066), which they intend to use for a church and parsonage, and they earnestly entreated the ministerium to obtain a faithful pastor for them." There is no doubt but that the second story had been used as a place of worship. Charles E. Weygandt, Esq., informed the writer that he heard his mother say that she had frequently attended religious meetings in the second story of that house. Peter Kichline, for many years was one of the most prominent persons in the county. As early as 1755, he rented "his large room in his new house, up one pair of stairs," to the commissioners for holding courts, elections, and all other public business. This house he built in 1754. In 1759 he was elected one of the com- missioners, member of Assembly in 1774, sheriff in 1762, justice of the peace, &c. In 1762 he erected a grist and saw-mill on the Bushkill Creek, opposite Mount Jefferson* In 1782 Mr. Kichline was still living; the mill property he had then given over to his son Andrew. Mr. Kichline's name appears on nearly every page of the county's early history. During the Indian war of 1763-4, he is well spoken of by the Moravians for his humane conduct to the savages. In the war of the Revolution he became a colonel of the militia, and was a true patriot and an honest citizen. Adam Yohe, one of the early inhabitants of Easton, was well known as a tavernkeeper in 1755 — his son Adam had taken his * This spot had a name given to it by Dr. Thomas Graeme, a Philadelphian, who frequently visited Easton, in the neighborhood of which he owned several large tracts of land. The place he named "Bellvue." Mrs. Ferguson, through whose agency the government of Great Britain offered 10,000 guineas to Joseph Reed, President of the Supreme Executive Council, was a daughter of Doctor Graeme. WAGONER — TRAILL— SHOUSE — CLEMENS. 93 place at the bar before 1782. Governor Hamilton lodged at Mr. Yohe's house in 1758, at the treaty with the Indians in that year. David and Frederick "Wagoner* are also mentioned in 1782. David had already erected his mill, valued at £1348 ; he was the grandfather of Jacob and David D. Wagoner, the latter of whom is the President of the Easton Bank, and. was in 1829 to 1834 member of Congress. Eobert Traill was the second or third resident lawyer in Easton. Of Mr. Traill it can be said that, in every respect, he for many years was everything to everybody. Any inhabitant getting into difficulty, was told to go to Mr. Traill ; he will tell you what to do ! If any writings were to be drawn correctly — go to Mr. Traill. If any secretary or clerk was wanting at any public meeting, Mr. Traill was called upon to officiate. In 1776-7-8, he was secretary to the committee of safety ; at another time member of assembly ; in 1782 sheriff, clerk of courts, &c. Mr. Traill was highly esteemed by all who knew him. The names of Adam Shouse and Frederick Shouse are also found in the list of 1763. The courts were held in Conrad Shouse's house in 1762, where he rented a room to the commissioners for that purpose at £4 or $10 67 per year, including firewood and candles. John Clemens was a barber, the only one of this occupation in the county. The valuation of Mr. Clemens' trade is the lowest on the list, from which we must conclude that it was not very pro- fitable; most persons shaved themselves, and as to cutting of hair, if that was part of his calling, that also was a poor business, as all the men wore the queues then ; the fashion of cropping the hair was introduced about 1800. A paper written by John Arnclt, Esq., of that date, came into the possession of the writer, in which he deprecates the new fashion of cutting off this adornment of the male sex. Mr. Arndt, a short time previous, had been removed by Governor McKean from his office of recorder of deeds, &c. ; he * The Wagoners' ancestors came to America in 1734, and settled near the Trapp in Montgomery County. Rev. Mr. Spangenberg, the Moravian clergyman in 1739, visited his old acquaintance Mr. Weigener. 94 E ASTON". felt very sore on this point, and ascribing the removal to several gentlemen in Easton, who had lately commenced wearing the hair " a la mode," says, that the legislature should pass a law that every felon who had served out his time in the penitentiary, before send- ing him abroad into society, should have his hair cropped, as a mark to be known by, like unto the mark set upon Cain for killing his brother Abel. Henry and John Young resided in Easton as early as 1760 ; the former was a locksmith, the latter an armorer or gun maker. The Snyders were also early residents in Easton. The names of Herman Snyder, Henry Snyder, and widow Snyder, appear in 1762. Herman was a tanner, and Henry a shoemaker. Herman was elected in 1767 a county commissioner. During the years 1762 and 1763, Nicholas Snyder was clerk to the commissioners, and Peter Snyder in 1765 and 6 is found in the same office. The Horns, Stephen and John, became residents in Easton before 1755. Stephen was a mason and John a carpenter; they assisted at the building of the jail in 1753, and subscribed one week's work, each, to the building of the school-house in 1755. Abraham Horn, joiner, is mentioned in 1782. George Taylor, the representative in Congress from Northamp- ton County in 1776, and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was the son of Nathaniel Taylor, of Allen town- ship. He arrived in America about 1730 to 1735 with his parents from the North of Ireland; George was then about fifteen years old. A few years afterwards, he became a clerk with Mr. Savage at the Durham iron works, whose widow he married when he was twenty- three years old. In 1760, he became possessed of a farm of 331 acres of land in Allen township, at the river Lehigh, including within its limits the present borough of Catasauqua, in Lehigh County. This tract of land is valued in the assessment, in 1770, at <£416, includ- ing six horses, eight cows, and three negroes. The county tax was thirty-seven shillings and two pence ($4 96), 130 acres cleared, and 200 acres wood land, and was the most valuable farm in that township. The whole tract contained originally 500 acres, 200 ME. TAYLOE. 95 acres of which John Taylor (the brother of George), received as his portion, being a part of a large tract purchased by a Mr. Page from the Proprietaries. On his election as a member of the Assembly, in 1764, Mr. Taylor removed to Easton, where he re- mained until 1769. In 1774 he rented Durham furnace and forge, from Joseph Galloway, Esq., for a term of five years. In 1777, Mr. Galloway — fearing the struggle by the colonies, in throwing off the British yoke, would be unsuccessful — left the cause he had so ardently embraced in former years, and threw himself into the arms of his country's enemies. He afterwards escaped to England, where he remained until his death. The estates of Galloway were confiscated. The commissioner of forfeited estates likewise attached the per- sonal estate at the iron works, with the intention of selling it. In this exigenoy, Mr. Taylor petitioned the Executive Council, stating the fact that this personal property, consisting of iron ore, wood, &c, belonged to himself, and not to Galloway. The representation was successful, and yet Mr. Taylor lost thousands of dollars by the detention at the works. In March, 1776, he sold his farm in Allen Township to Mr. Be- nezet, of Philadelphia, for £1800 (or $4800), by whom it was sold to David Deshler. Mr. Taylor was much in the confidence of the people of Northampton County ; upon his removal to Easton, in 1764, he was commissioned a justice of the peace, and during many years generally presided at the courts. And as one of the trustees for the building of the court-house, to which trust he had been appointed by act of Assembly in 1763, all the moneys requisite for that building passed through his hands. During five suc- cessive years he was elected a member of Assembly. On the 21st September, 1774, George Taylor, Peter Kichline, and Henry Kocken, Esqs., were nominated judges of the election for a com- mittee of observation and inspection, conformable to the eleventh article of the association of the Continental Congress, and recom- mended by the General Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania. George Taylor was one of the general committee, and subsequently one of the six of the standing committee. "96 E ASTON'. On January 7, 1775, he was chosen one of the persons to repre- sent the county in the provincial convention, with Lewis Gordon, Peter Kichline, Jacob Arndt, and John Okely. On the 15th July, 1776, he was elected by the provincial con- vention (which had not only entered upon the task of forming the Constitution, but assumed also the legislative power of the State), a delegate to Congress, and, as such, signed the, Declaration of Independence on this day. On the 30th January, 1777, George Taylor and George Walton were appointed by Congress, " to be present and preside at the Indian Treaty to be holden at Easton ;" " they met," says the re- port, "in the German Reformed Church of Easton, and after the shaking of hands and drinking rum, during which time the organ was played," proceeded to business, &c. Mr. Taylor, in 1779, resided in New Jersey, at the forge of Hugh Hughes, in Greenwich township, Sussex County. Mrs. Taylor, his wife, died about 1768. In 1780, Taylor is found again residing in the house erected by Mr. Parsons, in Easton, wherein he died on 25th February, 1781. He had had two children, one a son named James, was a lawyer, in 1765 to 1768; his name is on the appearance docket very fre- quently. James had been married to Elizabeth, the daughter of Lewis Gordon; he died in 1772, aged twenty-nine years, leaving a wife and five children; some of the descendants reside in South Carolina at the present time. Yery little is known of George Taylor. He left a will, appoint- ing Robert Traill and Robert Levers as executors. An inventory of his effects was taken, from which it appears that he had a very valuable library of standard works, and considerable plate and good clothing, all indicating a man of refined habits. The plate was sold by sheriff Ealer, for £37 2s. lie?., on account of an execution in favor of Leonhard Kessler (a butcher and distiller in Williams Township). One of his slaves was sold or exchanged for 280 bushels of wheat ; the other being a cripple, was sold at £15. His effects were insufficient to pay the debts of his estate. ^ l *^ -^*r*/,. po fayusi^Vh / / /^r^^^^^y, LIST OF SLAVE OWNERS. 97 A natural daughter was living in Easton, in 1853, who informed the writer that he had spent a very considerable fortune in the sup- port of the Kevolutionary War. He was buried in the Lutheran graveyard in Easton. A beautiful Italian marble monument has been erected to his memory in the Easton Cemetery. By an act of Assembly, passed March 1, 1780, slavery was abolished in the State of Pennsylvania. One of the sections of this act made it obligatory upon the owners of the slaves to register them in the office of the clerk of the Ses- sions Court in each county. George Taylor having omitted to register his two slaves at the proper time, excuses himself for his negligence in the following letter to the clerk, Eobert Levers. Easton, Penna., 23d October, 1780. Dear Sir : It is but a few days ago that I ever heard of an act of Assembly for recording of negroes, and by mere accident might have been innocently guilty of the breach of a law, before I knew there was such a law in being. I have two negro boys, one of which is the bearer of this, named Tom ; the other is called Sam, both about the same age — I believe thirty years ; you will please to make the proper entries of them, and the fees shall be thankfully paid, the first time I have the pleasure of seeing you. I am, with great truth, dear sir, Your most humble servant, GEORGE TAYLOR. To Robert Levers, Esq., Easton. The following is a list of those who owned slaves in the old county of Northampton, at the time the act was passed : — No, of No. of slaves. slaves. Henry Barnet, Easton 1 William McNair, Allen Township, 1 Meyer Hart, 1 John Ralston, " . 1 Michael Hart, " 2 Derrick Lowe, Mt. Bethel Township, 2 Peter Kichline, " 2 Thomas Ruckman, " 3 Widow Lyon, " 1 Joseph Jones, Bethlehem, 2 David Deshler, Allentown, 2 John Okely, " 1 Jacob Arndt, Forks Township, 2 Jacob Van Vleck, " 2 William Raub, " 1 George Taylor, Easton, 2 Peter Seip, " 1 Nicholas Depui, Lower Smithfield, 2 7 98 E ASTON. No. of No. of slaves William Smith, Lower SmitMeld, 2 Nich. Young, Hamilton Township 1 Henry Shoemaker, " 2 Lawrence Kunkle, " 1 Jacob Stroud, " 3 Theophilus Shannon, Easton, 1 Benjamin Van Campen, " 2 John Deiss, Macungie, 1 James Logan, " 1 Burgkard Minder, 1 John Van Campen, " 1 James Schoonover, L. Smithfield, 1 Joseph Martin, Mt. Bethel, 1 Jacob Van Auken, 1 Walter Berry, Hamilton Township, 1 Levi Barnet, Easton, 1 The Indian wars closed in 1764. The attention of the British ministry, called by the events of that war to the growing wealth of the colonies, were tempted to look to that wealth as an object of taxation, for the double purpose of replenishing the exhausted coffers of the mother country, and of adding to her pampered monopolies the exclusive trade and manufacture for colonial con- sumption. This involved the right of the propriety of taxing a people without their consent — the great question of the American Revo- lution. The odious stamp act was passed on the 22d March, 1764. On the arrival of the stamps from England at Philadelphia in Octo- ber 1765, the vessels hoisted their colors at half mast; bells were muffled, and thousands of citizens assembled in a state of great excitement. Mr. Hughes, of the stamp office, was called on to resign his commission ; but he only agreed for the present not to perform the duties of his office. The opposition to the stamp act was so great that it was repealed on the 18th March, 1769, but the ri°ht of taxation by Parliament was reaffirmed. In 1773, a new era commenced in the American Revolution. The perverse deter- mination of Parliament to tax the colonies was again manifested (in 1769, the taxes which had been laid on goods imported into America were all repealed except this tax — three pence per pound on tea). So long as the Americans refrained from all importation of tea, Great Britain might solace herself with the ideal right of taxation without danger of provoking collision in the colonies. But to test the right, Parliament encouraged the East India Com- EFFECT PRODUCED BY THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 99 pany to make a forced exportation of tea to each of the principal ports in the colonies. This insidious attempt upon their liberties aroused the indignation of the colonies from New Hampshire to Georgia. At Boston the tea was thrown overboard by the people. At Philadelphia it was not lauded. The indignation of Great Britain poured itself out exclusively upon Boston, where the oppo- sition had been the most violent. That port was closed. The first Congress met in September, 1774. This Congress recommended sympathy and aid to the people of Boston, and approved of their resistance to the oppressive port bill. The year 1774 had closed with loud expressions of constitutional loyalty to Great Britain. The spring of 1775 opened with the roar of revolutionary cannon. The battle of Lexington was fought on the 19th April, and on the 17th of June the battle of Bunker Hill took place. George "Washington was placed at the head of the army. Pennsylvania took measures to raise the four thousand three hundred men ap- portioned to the province, and made appropriations for their sup- port. Washington immediately proceeded to Boston with the troops raised, and invested that city. At this time a company was formed at Easton, consisting of sixty-seven men, including the officers. These men elected Alexander Miller, of Mount Bethel, as their captain, and James and Charles Craig as lieutenants, each man receiving £3 ($8) bounty for enlisting.* The independence of the United States being declared on the 4th July, 1776, the news of this event became immediately known at Easton, and on the 8th July was hailed by the citizens of this town and surrounding country by a public demonstration. Cap- tain Abraham Labar, with his company, paraded through the streets with drums beating and colors flying, and was followed and joined by the citizens " en masse." They met in the court-house, where the Declaration of Independence was read by Bobert Levers.f * MSS. of Committee of Safety, Easton Library Company. + Henry Miller's German newspaper of July 10, 1776. Hist. Soc. Arch. 100 EASTON, New York being in danger of falling into the bands of the British, who had been compelled to leave Boston,* ten thousand men were ordered to be raised for its relief, called the "flying camp." The quota of Northampton County was three hundred and forty-six. In the beginning of August, 1776, these men joined "Washington's army on Long Island opposite New York, near Brooklyn. The Americans were fifteen thousand strong under the command of Major-General Sullivan ; the British army num- bered twenty-three thousand. A battle occurred on the 27th August, in which the Americans were beaten and forced to retreat, which they did in a masterly manner on the 29th August. The American loss in killed was upwards of one thousand men. One of the companies from Northampton County was commanded by Captain John Arndt, of Forks Township. Mr. Arndt lost many of his men, and he himself was severely wounded, and Colonel Peter Kichline was with Mr. Arndt taken prisoner, &c. The following is the muster roll of the company of Captain John Arndt, of Colonel Baxter's battalion of Northampton County, Pa. 7 of the "Flying Camp."f * After the evacuation of Boston by the British under Howe, in March, 1776, Washington, apprehending that the city of New York would be the next point of attack, moved thither with the main part of his army. " The troops already here. Congress had determined to reinforce by thirteen thousand eight hundred militia, from New England, New York, and New Jersey, while ten thousand more from Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, were to form a ' flying camp' to cover and protect the neighboring State of New Jersey." — BartoletVs History of U. S. f Another company was raised in Lehigh County. " One hundred and twenty recruits from Allentown and vicinity passed through (Bethlehem) on their way to the 'flying camp' in the Jerseys, to which our county has been called on to con- tribute three hundred and forty-six men. Every volunteer is entitled to a bounty of three pounds." — Bethlehem Souvenir, p. 166, CAPTAIN JOHN ARNDT S COMPANY. 101 Captain — John Arndt.f 1st Lieut. — Joseph Martin, } Robert Scott,f Andrew Herster,§ Philip Arndt,t Andrew Keifer,§ 1 Daniel Lewis, f 2 Benjamin Depue,} 3 Thomas Sybert, 4 John Wolf,} 5 Christian Roth,} 6' James Hindshaw,} 7 John Middagh,f 8 Alex. Sylliinan,! 9 Jacob Diiford,§ 10 Jacob McFarran,f 11 Robert Lyle,! 12 John Ross,} 13 Richard Overfield,§ 14 Jacob Miller,f 15 Martin Derr,§ 16 Henry Siegel, 17 Christian Stout,f 18 Jacob Andrew,} 19 Joseph Stout,§ 20 Jacob Weidknecht,§ 21 Henry Onangst,! 22 George Fry,§ 23 John Smith, 24 Jost Dornblaser, 25 John Bush,} 28 Maeheas Steininger,§ 27 Jacob Wagner,f 28 Con'd Bittenbender,} 29 Henry Bush, Sr.,§ MUSTER ROLL. 2c? Lieut.- — Peter Kichline.! n.} 3c? Lieut.- —Isaac Shimer.} Corporals. Drummer. Jacob Kichline,! John Arndt.} George Edelman, Peter Richter,! Fifer. Elijah Crawford.! Henry Allshouse} Privates. 30 Paul Reaser,} 59 Peter Lehr,§ 31 John Shurtz,} 60 M. Deal,} 32 Lawrence Erb,§ 61 Philip Bosh,§ 33 Isaac Berlin,} 62 Peter Frees, § 34 Adam Yohe,! 63 Henry Wolf, Sr.,} 35 Frederick Rieger,} 64 Isaac Shoemaker,! 36 J. McCracken,! 65 Dan'l Sailor,! 37 James Farrel,! 66 Fred'k Wagner, | 38 Jacob Engler}, 67 Sam'l Curry,} 39 Geo. Ryman, 68 Henry Fretz,} 40 Conrad Smith,! 69 Henry Bosh, Jr.,} 41 Geo. Essigh,! 70 Henry Strauss,} 42 Val'n Yent,! 71 Isaac Koon,} 43 Philip Reeser, 72 Chr. Harpel,} 44 Lewis Collins,} 73 Joseph Miner,} 45 Joseph Keller,} 74 Bernh'd Miller, § 46 Peter Byer,§ 75 John Falstich, 47 Conrad Metz, 76 Henry Weidknecht.} 48 Peter Kern,§ 77 Ad. Weidknecht,} 49 Henry Fatzinger,! 78 J. Fraunfelter,} 50 John Kessler,! 79 John Yent,! 51 Geo. Shibly, 80 Geo. Eddinger,} 52 M. Kress,! 81 Ab. Peter, § 53 M. Kailor,! 82 Adam Bortz,} 54 Wm. Warrand,} 83 Jacob Kreider,} 55 F. Wilhelm,} 84 Christ'n Harpel,} 2d. 56 A. Frutchy,§ 85 Jos'h Chass,} 57 Henry Wolf, Jr.,! 86 John Harpel,§ 58 A. Everts, 87 James Symonton.y } Rallied next day at Elizabethtown. (33 men.) } Killed or taken prisoner at Fort Washington. § Killed or taken prisoner at Long Island. 102 EASTOK Captain John Arndt, after his release from confinement, returned to Easton, in September, 1780, and was appointed a commissary with David Deshler for the supplying the sick and disabled troops with the necessaries of life. The services of John Arndt, during the ^Revolution, were mentioned in a publication in 1799, and says, " It is well known that John Arndt turned out in 1776, a time which tried men's souls, and assisted in toil and danger, against the British foe, got wounded and crippled, and declined soliciting a pension, to which he was by law entitled, accepted of an office in this county, in the conduct of which he is known to have been the true friend of the widow and orphan. In 1777, he was appointed register of wills, recorder of deeds, &c, and clerk of the Orphan's Court," and was the most efficient member of the Committee of Safety. In 1783, he was elected a representative in the council of the censors, to propose amendments to the Constitution of Penn- sylvania. In 1783, Dickinson College, at Carlisle, was incorporated,, of which Mr. Arndt was appointed one of the trustees. He was chosen one of the electors of President and Vice-President of the United States, and cheerfully gave his vote to the illustrious "Washington.* During the war, he advanced money out of his own private funds, towards the recruiting service, thus practically illustrating his devotedness to the cause. The exigencies of the States were then so great, that actions testing the patriotism of the citizens favorable to liberty were called for continually. Their lives and fortunes were to be risked, and John Arndt was not found wanting. The following is a letter from Joseph Eeed, President of the Executive Council of the State of Pennsylvania, to Mr. Arndt. In Council, Phila., April 2d, 1781. Sir : Your favor of the 25tli ult. has been received, and we are much concerned that the treasurer of the county is unable to answer the draft, and the more, as it is not in my power to send you money. The State treasury has not ten pounds in the treasury. We hope you will have patience to hear with some difficulties, and we shall do everything in our power to relieve you. Yours, JOSEPH REED, President. * Mr. Arndt, in 1796, was a candidate for Congress, hut was defeated by ninety votes. CAPTAIN JACOB ARNDT. 103 During the insurrection in 1799, by John Freas, Jarret, Haaney, and others, his utmost exertions were used to preserve law and order. As a mineralogist and botanist, he held no mean rank. His correspondence with Eev. Mr. Gross, and other clergymen, show that he was a pious man. In 1796, a law was passed, rendering it necessary that the county records should all be at the county town, which occasioned his removal from his mills to Easton. On the election of Governor McKean, he was removed from office, after which he devoted his life to mercantile pursuits until his decease, in 1814. Jacob Arndt, the father of John Arndt, was born in Bucks County; his father's name was Bernhard Arndt. During the In- dian wars, he was in active service. In 1755, as captain, at Fort Allec, near Mauch Chunk, and in 1758, major of the troops at Fort Augusta. His reports to the governors are found in the Penna. Archives, and other publications of transactions, during that war. In 1760, Mr. Arndt purchased a mill property, about three miles above Easton, on the Bushkill Creek, from John Jones, and soon afterwards removed to the mill. Easton was a very diminutive town, when Mr. Arndt first visited it, in 1760. He had engaged to meet Mr. Jones in Easton, to receive the deeds for the mill pro- perty ; when for that purpose he came to Easton, " he hitched his horse to one of the forest trees in the square, and attended to his business ; it did not appear to him as much of a place." In 1763, when the Pontiac Indian war commenced, he was elected the captain of a company by his neighbors, who associated them- selves together for the purpose of protecting themselves against the savages, under the following agreement : — "We, the subscribers, as undersigned, do hereby jointly and severally agree that Jacob Arndt shall be our captain for three months, from the date of these presents, and be always ready to obey him, when he sees occasion to call us toge- ther, in pursuing the Indians, or helping any of us, that shall happen to be in distress by the Indians. Each person to find arms, powder, and lead, at our own cost, and have no pay, but each person to find himself in all necessaries ; to which article, covenant, and agreement, we bind ourselves in the penal sum of five pounds, lawful money of Pennsylvania, for the use of the company, to be laid out 104 E ASTON. for arms and ammunition, unless the person so refusing to obey, shall have a law- ful reason. "Given under our hands and seal 13th October, 1763." Signed by Jacob Arndt, Peter Seip, Michael Lawall, Adam Hay, Paul Able, and thirty-four others. Mr. Arndt was elected, with George Taylor, Peter Kichline, John Okely, and Lewis Gordon, to the Convention for forming a Constitution of the State, in 1774. In 1776, he was a member of the Executive Council of Penna. In 1796, he removed to Easton from the mill; a copy of a letter from John Arndt to Dr. Gross, speaks of him, in 1803 : " Kespect- ing his health, it is tolerable for his age ; but time has and continues to press bodily infirmities heavily upon him. His eyesight is almost gone, his feet begin to get weak, and cannot for a long time bear the weight of his body ; but his appetite is good, and for to live happy and contented, depends upon himself;" he died in 1805. Companies, such as mentioned above, were afterwards formed upon the same plan in various parts of the county; in Easton, Lewis Gordon became the captain, on 8th December, 1763, having twenty-three rank and file. This was the whole military force of Easton at that time. {Penna. Archives, vol. iv. p. 143.) The defeat on Long Island, at the close of 1776, was a gloomy period of the Eevolutionary War. General Washington, with the remains of an army, constantly diminishing by desertion, and the expiration of the terms of enlistment, had retreated through New Jersey, before the British army under Howe and Cornwallis, and crossed into Pennsylvania. The enemy posted themselves along the Jersey side of the Delaware, waiting for the ice to form a bridge by which they might reach Philadelphia, while the Americans guarded the ferries from New Hope to Bristol. At this time, the militia from the eastern part of Pennsylvania flocked to Washing- ton's standard in considerable numbers. The following letter (in possession of Jno. M. Siegfried, Esq., of Easton) from Washington, is the call for troops from Northampton County. REQUISITION FOR MILITIA. 105 Head-Quakteks, Bucks Co., Dec. 22d, 1776. To Colonel John Siegfried — Sib : The Council of Safety of this State, by their resolves of the 17th instant, empowered me to call out the militia of Northampton County to the assistance of the Continental army under my command, that, by our joint endeavors, we may put a stop to the progress of the enemy, who are making preparations to advance to Philadelphia, as soon as they cross the Delaware, either by boats, or on the ice. As I am unacquainted with names of the colonels of your militia, I have taken the liberty to inclose you six letters, in which you will please to insert the names of the proper officers, and send them immediately to them, by persons in whom you can confide for their delivery. If there are not as many colonels as letters, you may destroy the balance not wanted. I most earnestly entreat those who are so far lost to a love of their country, as to refuse to lend a hand to its support at this critical time, they may depend upon being treated as their baseness and want of public spirit will most justly deserve. I am, sir, your most obedient servant, GEORGE WASHINGTON. A number of companies of the militia of the county, upon this requisition, immediately marched, and were engaged in the battles of Trenton, Germantown, and Brandywine. In a diary left by Col. Siegfried, he states that he was in those battles, as also at Red Bank and Monmouth. Soon after the battle of .Germantown, Col. Siegfried received the following letter from Washington. The destitute condition of the army rendered it necessary that stringent measures be taken to supply the soldiers with clothing, &c. Sm : By virtue of the power and authority given to me by the honorable Con- gress, I hereby request and authorize you to appoint such and so many persons as you shall see fit, to collect, for the use of the Continental army, all such blankets, shoes, stockings, and other articles of clothing, as can possibly be spared from the inhabitants in your section of country, giving receipts therefor, to be paid by the clothier-general. Obtaining these things from the Quakers, and disaffected inha- bitants is recommended, but at all events to get them. Given under my hand and seal, Philadelphia County, 6th of October, 1777. GEORGE WASHINGTON, To Col. John Siegfried. 106 E ASTON. The following account, from the Bethlehem Souvenir, p. 183, (published 1857), will show that the order was carried out in that town, in October, 1777. " In this month, orders were issued for the collection of clothing for the soldiers of the army. General Woodward generously protected us from lawless pillage, not unfrequently resorted to in the execution of these orders, and made the con- tribution from our side optional. " We made several collections of blankets for the destitute soldiers ; also shoes, stockings, and breeches, for the convalescent in the hospital, many of whom had come here attired in rags, swarming with vermin, while others had, during their stay, been deprived of their all by their comrades." (What authority General Woodward had to make the contribution optional, is not said. The order of General Washington is imperative. This extract from a diary, shows the feelings of the Moravian clergy to the cause of freedom. In this instance, they made a virtue of the necessity of the case.) It is really most interesting and instructive to every intelligent mind, to be transported back to the time of the Eevolationary struggle, and to observe the courage, fortitude, and self-denial of our forefathers, amidst so many surrounding dangers, difficulties and privations — their unconquerable love of freedom — the resist- ance they manifested to tyranny in all its shapes, and the final success of their efforts to preserve the freedom and independence of their country. During the year 1777, an act was passed called the test act, under which it became necessary that every man should take an oath of allegiance to the government of the United States ; such as signed the test oath were called the " associators" and such as did not sign or take the oath before a magistrate were called non- associators. To the honor of the citizens of Northampton County, we find the names of 4821 persons who had taken this test oath (the most of them in the latter part of 1777, and a number in 1778). Some few may have had scruples of conscience about taking this oath of adherence. Only fifty-nine persons appear in the records of the proceedings of the Committee of Safety* for the * There is a MS. of the proceedings of the Committee of Safety for Northamp- ton County of 1774 — 1778 (containing about sixty pages), in the keeping of the EIGHT MONTHS TAX. 107 county, who, in committing overt acts against the test law, were arraigned before that tribunal. These persons, upon their sub- mission to the test act, escaped punishment, and in no case were proceedings instituted except the holding of some few to bail for a time. Sixty-nine Moravians and some Mennonists professed to have religious scruples about taking an oath under any circumstances, and this plea was admitted by government, but they were obliged to pay a double tax. Previous to the passage of the law imposing this double tax, there had been " an ordinance" passed on the 14th September, 1776, subjecting all "non-associators" to pay the sum of three pounds and ten shillings ($9 38), entitled "An ordinance rendering the burden of associators and non-associators in defence of this State as nearly equal as may be." "By virtue of this ordinance, the following commissioners and assessors of Northampton County met at Easton on the 14th day of October, A. D. 1776, viz : Peter Burkhalter, Jacob Opp, and Henry Lawall, commissioners ; and Peter Kohler, Abraham Arndt, Benjamin Depue, Peter Beisal, and John Van Camp, assessors ; and appointed the following persons to make return of the ' non-associators' by the second Monday of November next, agreeably to the said ordinance," viz : — Easton — John Ball, Bethlehem — Michael Lawall, Williams — Leonhard Raub, Lower Saucon — Peter Lynn, Forks — Philip Odenwelder, Jr., Upper Saucon — Abraham Snyder, &c. &c, in all the twenty-six townships of the county. The requirements of the ordinance were performed, and the tax paid before the 4th January, 1777. During the year 1781, a United States tax, called the "eight months tax" (from its being divided into monthly instalments), was raised, of £93,522 10s., which at the then rate of depreciation of sixty for one was equal to £1558 15s. The double tax of the assessment amounted to £5803 5s., or £96 16s. Of this amount, £81 18s. was assessed in townships now in Lehigh County, leaving only £14 18s. to be paid by inhabitants now forming Northampton County, from which we must infer that " non-associators" were few in the " Forks." In some townships there was not one. Library Co. of Easton, from which extracts have been made by the writer. In general it would be uninteresting to the reader, and therefore here omitted. The paper was written by Robert Traill, who acted as their secretary. 108 E ASTON. The advantages the colonies had derived from a paper currency under the British government, suggested to Congress, in 1775, the idea of issuing bills for the purpose of carrying on the war — and this, perhaps, was their only expedient. They could not raise money by taxation, and it could not be borrowed. The first emis- sions had no other effect upon the medium of commerce than to drive the specie from circulation. But when the paper substituted for specie had, by repeated emissions, augmented the sum in circu- lation much beyond the usual quantity of specie, the bills began to lose their value. The depreciation continued in proportion to the sums emitted, until one hundred paper dollars were hardly an equivalent for one Spanish milled dollar. With this depreciated paper was the army paid; and from 1775 to 1781, this currency was almost the only medium of trade, until the sum in circulation amounted to two hundred millions of dollars. But about the year 1780 specie began to be plentiful, being introduced by the French army, by a private trade with the Spanish Islands, and by improper intercourse with the British garrison in New York. This circum- stance accelerated the depreciation of the paper bills, until its value had sunk almost to nothing. The whole history of this continental paper is a history of public and private fraud. Old specie debts were often paid in a depre- ciated currency. The expedient of supplying the deficiencies of specie by emis- sions of paper bills, was adopted very early in the colonies (in Pennsylvania in 1723). In many instances these emissions pro- duced good effects. These bills were generally a legal tender, in all colonial or private contracts, and the sums issued did not gene- rally exceed the granted requisite for .a medium of trade ; they retained their full nominal value in the purchase of commodities. But as they were not received by the British merchants, in pay- ment for their goods, there was a great demand for specie and bills, which occasioned the latter at various times to depreciate. There was introduced a difference between the English sterling CONTINENTAL MONET. 109 money and the currencies of the different States, which remains to this day * Great exertions were made in every county of the State to keep up the value of the continental money. In. the summer of 1779 meetings were held to induce the community to have entire con- fidence in its eventual redemption. In Northampton County a meeting was held at the house of John Siegfried, in Allen Town- ship. Eesolutiohs were passed recommending to the public the importance of this subject. Colonel Henry Geiger presided at the meeting, Eobert Traill being secretary. All these exertions proved of no avail ; notwithstanding the people of the United States will- ingly hazarded their lives in support of the cause of freedom, their fortunes were dearer to them than life itself, and therefore the representative of money in the form of continental bills lost their credit, and after 1781 were worth no more than waste paper.f The following receipt of an Easton innkeeper, for supplies fur- nished some travelling emissary of the State during the Revolution, will serve to show the depreciation of that kind of money: — Easton, March 17, 1781. To nip of toddy, 10 dollars. To 1 grog, 8 dollars, " cash, 8 (( " 1 bowl of punch, 30 " " cash, 12 « " 21 quarts of oats, 62 " " 1 bowl of punch, 30 u " hay, 90 " " 1 bowl of punch, 30 (I " 12 meals victuals, 260 " " 1 grog, 8 It. " lodging, 40 " " washing, 49 a " 1 bowl of punch, 30 a 667 " Received the contents of the above, JACOB OPP, Innkeeper. * A dollar in sterling money is 4 shillings and 6 pence. But the price of a dollar rose in New York to 8 shillings, in New England to 6 shillings, in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland to 7 shillings and 6 pence, in Virginia to 6 shillings, in North Carolina to 8 shillings, in South Carolina and Georgia to 4 shillings and 8 pence. This difference, originating between paper and specie, or bills, continued afterwards to exist in the nominal estimation of gold and silver. — Franklin's Mis- cellaneous Works. f Samuel Hazard, Esq., of Philadelphia, informed the writer that many tons weight of this paper money was collected in the city and sent to the paper mills of the neighborhood. 110 E ASTON. The meeting at Col. Siegfried's house was held upon the recom- mendation of this letter to Abraham Berlin, who was then the chairman of the Committee of Safety for Northampton County : — Allen Township, July 5, 1779. Sir : Notwithstanding the unhappy depredations committed on our frontiers, and the alarming situation that our defenceless inhabitants are exposed to, we must invite you cordially to take into consideration the case on which our invete- rate enemies, the instigators of our present contest with Britain, are endeavoring to accomplish, viz : The separation of our councils, the urging of the weak and less informed in the situation of our affairs, to have and entertain an aversion to our just contest, and by every means in their power either to discourage, or cause them totally to forsake it, by representing us entirely therefor, on account of not having men or money requisite for war. You are well acquainted with the un- happy pi'oceedings of too many of our even Whig neighbors, whose love of money has prompted them to demand or even receive double if not sixfold the value of many of the necessary articles of life. That our currency may be brought to its just value as a medium of trade, and the base designs of our enemies frustrated, a number of the most respectable inhabitants of Philadelphia, having assembled for the purpose of giving it its proper value, reducing such extravagant prices as were demanded for all the neces- saries or conveniences of life, having in some measure answered the valuable purpose of their meeting, it appearing unto us necessary that their laudable ex- ample be copied after — We request you to send at least those of your members as a committee, to con- sult on such mode of proceeding in the present state of affairs, as may co-operate with our brethren in the different counties, which committee are requested to meet the different committees of each battalion of this county, at the house of Colonel John Siegfried, on Thursday the 29th instant, at ten o'clock in the forenoon. By notifying the different captains in each township, the inhabitants thereof may be informed on what day they may choose their committee — the sooner the better, that they may be in readiness to attend the place appointed. Your most ob't serv'ts, John Siegfried, Jno. Brisbon, Matthew McHenrt, Step. Balliet, Conrad Kreider, Peter Burkholder, b.obt. lattimore, j. kohler. Peter Beissal, To Abm. Berlin, Esq., Easton. Northampton County never became the theatre of war. No battle had been fought within its borders, excepting the attack of SOLDIERS HUNG. Ill the British and Indians upon the New Englanders at Wyoming; yet Easton and Bethlehem frequently became the hospital of the contending armies. The largest buildings at Easton were the court- house and the German Reformed church. These were often crowded with sick or disabled soldiers. After the repulse at Gowanns, or Brooklyn Heights, Washington withdrew his troops to New York, and soon afterwards evacuated that city, which fell into the hands of the British. This loss was followed by those of Fort Washington and Fort Lee in quick succession. At this crisis of the continental army, the removal of the hospital in which two thousand sick and wounded were at this time lying, from Morris- town to some point in the interior, was a measure which allowed of no delay. In the beginning of December, 1776, some of these sick and wounded reached Easton. General Washington passed through Easton during the year 1778. The Bethlehem recollections are that " he arrived at that place accompanied by one of his aids, where, after partaking of a dinner, he hurried on to Easton." General Mifflin left orders with Quartermaster Hooper on the 24th June, 1777, concerning some stores at Bethlehem. General Gates passed through Easton on the 11th April, 1777, on his way to " Ticonderoga." Many other pro- minent men, both civil and military, visited Easton durino- the Eevolution. During July, 1779, General Sullivan, with an army of two thousand five hundred men, and about two thousand pack horses, passed through Easton on his expedition to Wyoming, and from thence up the Susquehanna into the country of the Iroquois Indians (or Six Nations as usually called). After destroying the Indian vil- lages and driving the Indians away, the army returned to Easton in October. In his journal is recorded: "On the 10th of October the army began their march from Wyoming to Easton," arrivin a- at Easton on the 14th. Three soldiers belonging to the Pennsyl- vania regiment, commanded by Colonel Hubley, were hung at Easton, upon Gallows Hill, for murdering a tavernkeeper beyond Stroudsburg, into whose house they came in a state of intoxication and demanding more liquor of the landlord, which being refused. 112 E ASTON. they shot the man at his own door. The army lay at Easton several weeks, and while there were quartered upon the inhabitants. Mr. Troxell relates that an officer proceeded from house to house, and upon each door marked the number to be quartered. " We were obliged," said he, " to receive seven of the soldiers at our house, one of which had his wife with him ; whenever this man got drunk, he threatened to shoot his wife, and others that came near him. His wife complained of his bad conduct to an officer, and he had his musket taken from him ; they were altogether " a wild set." " One of their many pranks was, that a large party of them one day rode in a state of nudity to the Delaware Eiver to swim their horses, and in this manner returned again." The court- house yet bears the marks of the soldiers' occupation, by employ- ing some of their idle time in chipping and cutting on the window boards and sills.* After the peace with Great Britain, the old controversy on the * In whatever manner this expedition was set on foot, which took place in 1779, after the evacuation of Philadelphia and the diversion made by de Estaing's squadron, the greatest difficulty to surmount was the long march to be made through woods, deserts, and morasses, conveying all their provisions on beasts of burden, and continually exposed to the attacks of the savages. The instructions given by General Sullivan to his officers, the order of march he prescribed to the troops, and the discipline he had the ability to maintain, would have done honor to the most experienced amongst ancient or modern generals. It may fairly be asserted that the journal of this expedition would lose nothing in a comparison with the famous retreat of the ten thousand Greeks, which it would resemble very much, if we could compare the manoeuvres, the object of which is, attack with those which have no other than the preservation of a forlorn army. General Sul- livan, after a month's march, arrived without any check at the entrenched camp, the last refuge of the savages ; here he attacked them, and was received with great courage, insomuch that the victory would have been undecided had not the Indians lost many of their chiefs in battle, which never fails to intimidate them, and they retreated during the night. The General destroyed their houses and plantations, since when they have never shown themselves in a body. However slight and insufficient the idea may be that I have given of this campaign, it may neverthe- less astonish our European military men to learn that General Sullivan was only a lawyer in 1775, and that in the year 1780 he quitted the army to resume his profession, and is now civil governor of New Hampshire. — Chastellux, v. ii. p. 316. ZMBBAMD BT JOEN~ SABTAIjV. _ PffllA IHIdDRS.A.IH.iraEIEID) DISPUTE ABOUT LAND TITLES. 113 subject of land titles in the Wyoming Valley was renewed, and soon after grew into a civil war. This war, like the. one in 1769 and 1770, &c, was marked by sieges of forts, capitulations only to be broken, seizures by sheriffs, lynching — in which Col. Timothy Pickering suffered some* — petitions, remonstrances, and memorials. The parties in that war were known by the name of Pennamites on one side, and Connecticut boys or Yankees on the other. In 1784, twenty-seven of the Connecticut people were taken prisoners, and conveyed to Easton jail, viz., William Slocum, Joseph Carey, Gideon Church, Nathaniel Cook, Benjamin Jenkins, William Jen- kins, Abraham Pyke, Lord Butler, John Hurlbut, Daniel Sullivan, William Jackson, Eichard Halstead, Edward Inman, Thomas Heath, Nathaniel Walker, Thomas Eeed, Walter Spencer, John Gore, Jonathan Burwell, Prince Allen, Jeremiah White, Thomas Stod- dart, Elisha Gaharda, Justus Gaylord, John Platner, and Abraham Nesbit. After several months' confinement, these prisoners effected their escape, in the manner related by Peter Ealer, the jailer: — " On the 17th September, 1784, about four o'clock P. M., I ordered Frederick Barthold up stairs in the prison where the prisoners were confined, to let out of each room (they were in two rooms) two prisoners, as there were two handcuffed together, in order to fetch water, as usual ; and going up through an iron gate, and after the same was shut again, he heard him, the said assistant, say, that the bread which was to be brought up at the same time ought or might be got ready to be carried up when those prisoners were to be put up again that were to be let down, and he and his wife were getting the bread to carry it through the iron gate, that when they (the deponent and his wife) opened the gate, the gate was seized by some of the "Wyoming prisoners, who were hid, at the same time, in a crack leading to the stairs going up, and that he endeavored to shut the gate again, but was overpowered and squeezed and kicked very much ; seeing that, he called to his wife to shut the front door, and as the key was not in the lock, she could not shut it fast enough ; he then called to her to alarm the neighbors, as he saw he would be overpowered, and ran to the front door himself in order to lock the same, and was overpowered again and bruised very much, so that he feels very unwell * It is well known that this celebrated gentleman was a native of Pennsylvania, and for some years a resident of Easton. Under the presidency of Washington he became Secretary of State. 114 E ASTON. yet, and all the prisoners from Wyoming, twenty-five in number, ran out, and that he pursued them and apprehended one." George Troxall (yet living at Easton) informed the writer that there was a great excitement in Easton at the time of this escape, and that he saw some of the prisoners running up the hill into the barrens at the head of the town. The Wyoming dispute was finally arranged a few years afterwards. Old Northampton County, in all national emergencies, has re- mained true to the spirit of 1776. She has never faltered in her patriotism. In the year 1794, two companies of her infantry took part in the western expedition against the " "Whiskey Boys," as the insurrectionists in Pennsylvania, who undertook to resist by force a tax imposed by government upon distilleries, were called. One of the companies was commanded by Captain John Arndt. They were absent from the county several months ; and though by the submission of the insurgents no opportunity had been afforded for "flashing the maiden sword/' their patriotism was shown in obeying their country's call ; they had not proceeded farther than Carlisle, when they received orders to return. In the war of 1812, North- ampton County responded to every call made upon her, and sent forth her sons to repel the aggressor, with an alacrity and hearti- ness worthy of her character and fame. We might dwell at some length upon this manifestation of her patriotism, but it is not essential at this time; there are men yet living who have been actors in that war with England, and whose memories comprehend the whole of that glorious period, and who have by their firesides made their children familiar with its history. We had prepared a complete list of the officers and privates from the counties of Northampton and Lehigh who participated in the war of 1812, with the intention of inserting them, but our space will not permit. The patriotism exhibited on that occasion, by the inhabitants of this section of country, will be shown by the following narrative of an old soldier, who was a member of one of the companies that started from Easton for Camp Dupont : — THE WAR OF 1812. 115 " You must know that we were all anxious to receive the news from the seat of war as early as possible, particularly so as the last news informed us that the enemy was marching towards the capital ; so we hired an express rider to go and meet the Philadelphia stage, and bring us the news in advance. I remember well the day we expected the news ; we had all assembled at the old stone tavern, looking anxiously towards the old Philadelphia road, each one trying to catch the first glimpse of the rider — and ever and anon the mischievous boys, to while away the time, would cry 'here he comes, here he is,' &c. ; we of course would all rush to the spot — only to find that a stray cow or sheep that had chanced to pass the road had been taken for our express rider. Our patience was finally rewarded by the appearance of the rider himself, who came galloping up the street with his horse covered with foam, and himself calling out ' the capital is burned ! the capital is burned !' and coming towards us, he threw us a paper which contained a full account of the transaction. One of our number taking the paper, got upon the topmost step and read it to the assembled multitude, for the news had spread like wildfire, and there had congregated at this place several hundred men and women. After the populace had heard of this base and cowardly act of the British army, their indignation knew no bounds ; meetings were called, the court-house bell was rung, martial music paraded the streets, and the people in fact could not have been in a greater excitement had the enemy been within a mile of the place. This fuss and show was of some account — for by evening we had formed a rifle com- pany, and had collected over sixty names. We elected as our captain Abraham Horn — and I think I can say this Horn family was one of the most patriotic in the State, for in the company we had seven brothers and one brother-in-law. The ladies of the town appeared to have imbibed the same spirit. As soon as they had ascertained the company had been organized, they formed themselves into sewing societies, and within three days had provided us with uniforms, clothing, blankets, knapsack, and everything their tidy little hands and noble hearts could do for our comfort and their country's honor. On the morning we left, our captain paraded us through the streets of the town — and the country people from all quarters came to see us. During our march we were presented with a flag by Miss Rosanna Bidleman, which had been made by the ladies as a parting tribute. In presenting the flag, the fair donor said : ' Under this flag march on to victory and glory !' Our ensign, who was a thorough Dutchman, received it with all the grace he could command, and with a polite bow exclaimed, 'I is de man!' This speech, as we called it, served us many an hour's sport with the poor fellow — but we were all satisfied that had he have had an opportunity to have shown his valor on the battle-field, the enemy would have had ample proof that he 'was de man!' " Before proceeding to describe the present appearance of Easton, with its extensive factories, handsome residences, and numerous public buildings, we will take the liberty of inserting a few ex- 116 EASTON. tracts from letters written by several distinguished travellers who visited the town about the close of the eighteenth century, and who give a general description of the place and its trade at that time. The Duke de la Kochefoucault Liancourt, vol. ii. p. 414 of his Journal of Travels in America, in 1797, says: — " Eastern is built on the conflux of the rivers Lehigh and Delaware ; it is the capital of the county of Northampton, which has nearly 26,000 of inhabitants. The land which is the site of the town is about two hundred acres in extent, lying compactly between the river and the mountains ; it is nothing but sand and peb- bles, and the mountains which surround it are composed of calcareous stone. The situation of this ground, its composition, and a comparison of it with other lands around, leave no doubt that it must have formerly been the bed of the rivers that have changed their course. This city, consisting of one hundred and fifty houses, many of them of stone, contains the public buildings of the county. The inhabit- ants are mostly Germans and their descendants. The city was began to be built in 1750, and has gradually increased. Almost the whole of the land, as well as a great part of the land in the neighborhood, belonged to the family of Tenn. At the time of the Revolution a great number of persons seized upon it unlawfully, and it was not till 1784 that the Penn family were restored to their rights upon a set- tlement with the possessors, and received from them a price not equal to the present value, but considerably more than it was worth at the time of the usurpation ; those who refused were compelled by law. "Easton has a considerable trade in corn (wheat) with Philadelphia. There belong to this city, and stand within seven miles around it, eleven good mills, upon the same construction as those of Brandywine. They send annually thirty- flve thousand barrels of flour to the Philadelphia market. A part of Jersey, in the neighborhood of the Delaware, and which enjoys no creek capable of turning mills, sends their corn (wheat) to the mills about Easton, as do all the county of Northampton. The Delaware is navigable for vessels of a considerable burthen a hundred miles higher than Easton. The vessels from Easton to Philadelphia carry seventy barrels of flour. " The town lots, which are twenty feet front and two hundred in depth, are sold from two hundred and forty to five hundred dollars, according to their situa- tions. The lands in the neighborhood are worth from twenty-five to one hundred dollars the acre. This country, like all the rest of Pennsylvania, is covered with fine orchards ; they seem to begin to know something of the differences of the kinds of trees and the advantage of grafting. The laborers are paid from four to five shillings a day in the country about Easton. Masons and carpenters receive in the town a dollar and a quarter. Meal costs five pence a pound, and is in great EASTON IN 1798. 117 abundance. Board costs here three dollars a week, and houses let at forty-five dollars." The following description of Easton, is from the pen of Joseph Hopkinson, Esq., an eminent lawyer in Philadelphia, who for many years practised at the Northampton County bar. The de- scription is dated August, 1798, and was published in the Phila- delphia Magazine at that time : — " Little more than half a century has elapsed since naught but dreary wilds, the gloomy haunts of the wild savage Indian occupied the place where now stands the flourishing and sprightly borough of Easton. It was founded and laid out by William Parsons, Esq., under the directions of the then Proprietaries of Pennsyl- vania. " The town consists of about two hundred dwelling houses, generally frame and log buildings, and some of stone, built with neatness and elegance ; it contains about fourteen hundred inhabitants, chiefly Germans ; and is the county town of Northampton, where the public offices are established, and the courts of justice held. It is situated on a beautiful plain, at the confluence of the rivers Delaware and Lehigh, about sixty miles north of Philadelphia. " From its central and commodious situation, and its being a general market, to which produce of every kind is drawn from the interior parts of the country down the Delaware and Lehigh, and the numerous streams connected with those rivers, Easton is possessed of advantages highly calculated to sustain the importance it justly holds among the inland trading towns of Pennsylvania, and there is at all times a constant communication between it and Philadelphia. " That the means of intercourse between the upper parts of New Jersey and Easton may be rendered more easy and practicable, a company was some time ago incorporated for the purpose of erecting a wooden bridge over the river Delaware at Easton. " Mr. Palmer, from Newburyport, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is employed as the architect for building this noble structure. The work was com- menced last summer (1797), and is now prosecuting with all ardor that a busi- ness of this nature will admit of. It is thrown over the river opposite Northampton Street, the principal and most central street of the town, where the Delaware is near six hundred feet wide, and is to be of three arches, and thirty-four feet wide, suitably divided into carriage and foot ways. Another bridge, also of wood, two hundred and eighty feet in length, and twenty -two feet wide, built by Abraham Horn, Esq., over the river Lehigh, opposite Pomfret Street, on a new plan of a single arch, will be finished in the course of this summer. Works of this kind, whilst they reflect honor on the legislature, to whose public spirit, manifested on many occasions, and the enterprising genius of the citizens of Pennsylvania, they 118 E ASTON. are to be attributed, will also be productive of incalculable benefit, not only to the neighborhood more immediately interested, but to the two adjoining States at large. " In the centre of the town, at the intersection of Northampton and Pomfret Streets, stands the court-house, a handsome stone building, two stories high, with an open dome or cupola, and a bell in it ; near it are the prison and the building destined for the safe keeping of the public records, and in which the civil offices are kept. It is perfectly fire-proof ; it was built in the year 1792, is one-story high, of an oblong form, with a wide entry through the middle, communicating with two spacious rooms on eacb side — each of the rooms are arched over ; the floors are all plastered ; the casements of the windows are of stone, and the whole of the doors and shutters are of iron. It is situated on the southeast corner of the court- house. " A little towards the northeast of the court-house, in Pomfret Street, is the church, a large and handsome structure, in which Divine service is performed both by the Lutherans and reformed persuasions in common. " In the year 1793, a printing-office was also established in this town. On a beautiful eminence, near the river Delaware, between Northampton and Spring Garden Streets, is erected an academy, two stories high, called the Union Academy, which commands a beautiful and incomparable prospect over the town to Phillips- burg, and other parts of the State of New Jersey, as also up and down the river Delaware ; it was originally designed as a college, but only schools for teaching the English and German languages, have as yet been established. " There are a number of manufactories, of various kinds, within the borough. " On Bushkill Creek, which empties into the Delaware on the north side of Eas- ton, over which a stone bridge of three arches is erected, are four grist-mills, four saw -mills, an oil mill, and two bark-mills, with three tanneries, where business is carried on very extensively. " In the years 1796 and 1797, many thousand barrels of flour were manufactured and transported to Philadelphia, in boats carrying from 100 to 200 barrels. " Two stages ply constantly between this place and Philadelphia ; one of them runs twice a week in summer, and once in winter. " The situation of Easton being pleasant, the air fine and salubrious, and the water good, renders it an exceedingly healthy place, insomuch that it has of late become a fashionable summer retreat to many of the citizens of Philadelphia. " The prospects which this town commands — though not very extensive — being bounded by hills beyond the river Delaware on the east, the Lehigh on the south, and the Bushkill on the north, and by a hill towards the west ; it is still truly charming, and has a very romantic appearance." Easton, the seat of justice of Northampton County, was incorpo- rated as a borough in 1789, and received the second charter of PRESENT APPEARANCE. 119 incorporation in 1823 ; it is at the present time one of the largest boroughs in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, containing be- tween 11,000 and 12,000 inhabitants. The original plan of the town extended from the Lehigh River to the Bushkill Creek, in one direction, and from the Delaware River, to the top of the hill, in the other ; but such has been the rapid increase of the town since 1830, that it has overstepped the bounds originally allotted to it, and " the top of the hill," formerly the western boundary, has become the centre of the town. Its increase, prior to the great works of internal improvement which centre here, was singularly regular and progressive. Its popula- tion in 1810, was 1650 ; in 1820, 2450 ; in 1830, 3700 ; showing a regular increase of fifty per cent, for each ten years. Between the years 1830 (about the time the first public improvements were being made), and 1852, when the first railroad was completed to Easton, the population had increased much beyond the regular rate, and since that time the increase has been still greater, which may be fairly attributed to the increased business which the con- centration of so many public improvements has occasioned. Easton well deserves the title of a city, as there is nothing rural in its appearance ; the streets and alleys are laid off at right angles, some of which are paved, and others macadamized ; at night they are well lighted by a liberal supply of gas. The drainage of the town is done by means of culverts and sewers, which empty into the different streams surrounding the town. The footwalks are about fifteen feet in width, and are well laid with brick and North River flagging ; the curbs are of uniform width, and are made of hammer-dressed limestone, which gives to the streets and alleys a neat and substantial appearance. The houses are generally built of brick, and those of modern date are lofty, and compactly arranged. Of late years, some of the wealthier citizens have erected magnificent and costly residences, and many, for want of sufficient room within the old borough limits, have taken advantage of the many fine locations surrounding the town for this purpose, among which we may mention more especially the grounds of 120 E ASTON. Lafayette and Olive Parks. The court-house — as in all the older proprietary towns — is situated in the centre of a square, at the inter- resection of the two principal streets (Third and Northampton Streets); within this square are also located the county buildings, Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank, market-house, &c. &c. The Delaware Eiver is spanned at this place by two bridges, one a wagon bridge, and the other the double railroad bridge connecting the Lehigh Valley Eailroad with the New Jersey Central, and the Belvidere Delaware Railroads. The wagon bridge is the one spoken of by Mr. Hopkinson, in his description of Easton in 1798, on page 117, and connects the town with that of Phillipsburg, New Jersey. This bridge was erected under the supervision of Cyrus Palmer, of Massachusetts, the same architect who erected the permanent bridge over the Schuylkill at Market Street, Philadelphia. It has stood the test for many years, and has proved a strong and sub- stantial structure. In 1841, it was the only bridge on the Dela- ware, north of Trenton, that withstood the memorable freshet of that year. Its construction is a combination of the truss and arch principle, is about 600 feet in length between the abutments, and consists of three arches, of nearly 200 feet each. The original act of incorporation was passed by the legislature of Pennsylvania, on the 13th of March, 1795, and by the legislature of New Jersey on the 18th of the same month. The stock was divided into shares of $100, and the Company was to be incorporated as soon as one hundred shares of stock should be subscribed by twenty-five per- sons or more. Nearly half of the stock subscribed was paid in between the years 1795 and 1799, and a large quantity of material was procured, but the building did not progress until 1803, when the late Samuel Sitgreaves took it in hand, and assumed the active superintendence of its. affairs, and to his care and attention much of the credit is due for the present prosperous state of the finances of the Company. The whole cost of the bridge was $61,854 57. The amount of stock actually subscribed for was 297 shares, amounting to $29,700. This, in connection with the proceeds of a lottery authorized by law, and amounting to $12,500, was BRIDGES ACEOSS THE DELAWARE. 121 paid upon the cost of the bridge, leaving the Company in debt $19,654 57. The bridge was ready for crossing in October, 1806, but was not entirely completed until May, 1807. The tolls for the six years following its completion, were devoted to the payment of the above debt. It now pays a dividend of twenty-four dollars per share per annum, and has a contingent fund sufficient to rebuild the bridge in case of its destruction. The present officers are Hon. James M. Porter, President, and James Hackett, Esq., Treasurer. The rail- road bridge, which spans the Delaware just below the mouth of the Lehigh Eiver, is probably the only similar bridge in America; its colossal proportions strike with astonishment the mind of every traveller who views it. The peculiarity of the bridge is that upon it are two tracks, one about twenty feet above the other, the upper one connecting the Lehigh Valley Kailroad with the New Jersey Central Railroad, and the lower one with the Belvidere Dela- ware Railroad. The tracks are built thus one above the other, because the grade of the one road is higher than the other; after having crossed the bridge, the track of the Central Railroad gradually descends, while that of the Belvidere Delaware Rail- road ascends in the same proportion, until at the distance of about a half mile they meet upon a common level, and are switched off upon the same track; by this arrangement a continuous line of railway is obtained between the mines, furnaces, and manufacturers of the Lehigh Yalley, and the cities of New York, Trenton, New- ark, &c. &c. The bridge now spanning the Lehigh River at Easton is the fifth one erected upon the same spot. The first was erected in 1798, by Abraham Horn, and consisted of but a single arch, which spanned the river from shore to shore. After the bracing was taken from under it, it stood but a few days — a person by the name of Stover had just crossed it, with a load of salt, when it fell with a tremendous crash. As the bridge had not yet been ap^ proved by the County Commissioners, the loss fell upon the con- tractor. By the aid of subscription from his friends, he afterwards erected another; but, profiting by his former experience, supported 122 EASTON. it by two piers, instead of depending upon the air alone, as he appeared to have done with the first. This bridge stood a number of years, but was finally destroyed by high water, and was replaced, in 1811, by a chain bridge; this bridge was suspended on four chains, hanging in two loops and two half loops, having two pass- ways for teams, and a foot walk between, which was guarded by hand-railings. This bridge remained for many years, but was finally removed, being considered unsafe, and a bridge similar to the present one erected in its place ; during the great freshet of 1841 this bridge was destroyed, and the present structure erected on the same piers and abutments. The Bushkill Creek is crossed by three stone arched bridges. The one at Hamilton Street (now Fourth) was originally erected in 1763, rebuilt 1792 ; the second, at Pomfret Street (now Third), in 1833 ; and the third, at Front Street, in 1850. In its natural scenery, Easton exhibits many points of attraction, and its history affords many objects of interest. Taking your position on any of the heights which surround the town, pic- turesque views meet the eye, the scenery is delightful and varie- gated. From the peculiar location of the town, not more than one-third of it can be seen from any one point. At the north of the town rises Mt. Lafayette, to the height of about one hundred and fifty feet, and upon which is located La- fayette College. The view from this hill is one of the finest that can be had in the neighborhood, and perhaps is the best that can be had of the town and the improvements surrounding it. Lafayette College had its origin in the public spirited exertions of the Hon. James M. Porter, and a number of other intelligent citizens of Easton, its success may be attributed to the persevering industry of its first president, the Eev. George Junkin, D. D. Be- tween Front and Second, and Northampton and Spring Garden Streets, rises Academy Hill, to the height of about fifty feet ; on this hill and the surrounding grounds are located the public schools for Lehigh and Bushkill Wards; here also are located the male and female high schools, conducted under the same system as EASTON WATER COMPANY. 123 those of Philadelphia; in this school the male pupils are prepared for college, and the young ladies are instructed in the higher branches of female education. Besides the school buildings located here, there is another large academy situated in West Ward, it being that part of the town which Mr. Parsons, in his description of Easton, 1752, called the "Barrens," but which now contains some of the finest buildings in the place. On the northwestern part of the original town plan, rises Mt. Jefferson, to the height of about 200 feet. This mountain is the most conspicuous in the town, and from its being easy of access, is a place of great resort for pedestrians during the summer evenings. The election of Thomas Jefferson to the presidency was celebrated on this eminence, and from thence originated the name. We would be pleased to describe to our numerous readers the many beautiful views to be had from the hills which surround the town ; but our space forbids. The most prominent eminences in the neighborhood are Mt. Washington, Mt. Lafayette, Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Taylor, Mt. Parnassus, Mt. Ida, Mt. Lebanon, Chestnut Hill, Lehigh Hills, Marble Hill and Academy Hill. The Easton Water Company was incorporated by an act of Assem- bly, March 24th, 1817. The water was brought from an elevated spring on Chestnut Hill, about one mile from Easton, and conveyed to the reservoir on the " top of the hill" (now called Sixth Street) ; from this reservoir the water was distributed to the few hydrants which were placed in different parts of the town, for the conveni- ence of the inhabitants. The supply from this spring appeared to have been inadequate from the first. A resolution passed by the Board of Managers, and signed by the president of the company, George Wolf, " earnestly enjoined on the innkeepers in an especial manner, to use all possible means in their power to prevent the farmers and others from watering their horses out of the hydrants, and to urge them to take their horses to water either to the Bush- kill Creek or the rivers Lehigh or Delaware. The water supplied by this company in connection with that obtained from the old 124 E ASTON. pumps, of which there were a large number, supplied the town until 1840, when the company erected new works on the Delaware River, just above the mouth of the Bushkill Creek. Here are used two steam engines for the purpose of forcing the -water into the reservoir which is situated on College Hill, about half a mile distant. After the completion of these works all the hydrants in the streets, and many of the old pumps were removed, thus com- pelling every family to have the water taken into their dwellings ; notwithstanding the many protests against this mode of proceeding, there are but few families now that would part with the conveni- ence. The supply from these works is ample for that part of the town known as the Bushkill and Lehigh wards, and would, in fact, be sufficient for the whole town, had it not to overcome a hill which divides the West Ward from the two wards above mentioned, and prevents a steady supply to the western part of the town. To remedy this the citizens of West Ward associated themselves into a company, under the title of the West Ward Water Co., and was incorporated May 4th, 1854 ; they erected a house and the neces- sary pumping and forcing apparatus on the Lehigh River, near the borough line ; these works are not yet completed. This company have, since their organization, purchased all of the works of the old Easton Water Co., excepting that part made in 1817. The works of this company, after completion, will, in connection with those at present in operation, give to Easton as abundant a supply of pure water as any other place possesses or can have. The president of the company is T. R. Sitgreaves, Esq. Easton also possesses an excellent set of gas works, the buildings of which are situated near the corner of Bushkill and Front Streets; the company was incorporated March 14th, 1850, with a capital of $40,000, and the privilege of increasing to $100,000. The works were com- menced in June, 1851, and were completed six months after, with four miles of pipe, besides service pipe for 200 families ; the works have increased in size since that time, and now supply the majority of families in Easton, as well as those in South Easton and Phillips- BANKS AND INSURANCE COMPANIES. 125 burg. The cost of the works was near $100,000. The president of the company is M. Hale Jones, Esq. There are two banks in Easton, one, the old "Easton Bank," situated at the corner of Northampton Street and Bank Alley, was established in 1815, with a capital of $400,000, and of which Samuel Sitgreaves was president and Col. Thomas McKeen cashier. After the decease of the first president, Thomas McKeen was elected president and James Sinton cashier. This bank has been rechar- tered several times ; the Easton Sentinel says : " When the intelli- gence reached Easton in 1852 that the bank had been rechartered for 15 years, the strongest symptoms of rejoicing were manifested by the citizens ; cannons were fired, bands discoursed music throughout the streets, houses were illuminated, and, in fact, every means of giving vent to their satisfied feelings were demonstrated." In October, 1857, the bank was again rechartered, with an increase of $200,000 to the original capital. The present officers are Hon. D. D. Wagner, president, and William Hackett, cashier. The Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank of Easton is situated on the south side of the public square, and was incorporated in 1851, with a capital of $400,000 ; and at which time Peter S. Michler was elected president, and McEvers Forman cashier, both of whom have continued to fill these offices up to the present time. Both of these banks have been ably and faithfully conducted, and have always maintained a high degree of credit. A branch of the Bank of Pennsylvania was formerly located here. There is also a Mutual Fire Insurance Company in Easton; it has been in existence nearly thirty years. The company was in- corporated March 12th, 1880, and was one of the first of the mutual insurance companies in the State, since then become so popular. Since its organization this company has paid a large sum for losses, but owing to the large number of its members, the amount paid by each has been but trifling compared with the cost in stock com- panies. The number of members at the close of the first year was thirty-nine, in 1854 it had increased to 1164 members, and the deposits for premiums amounted to over $60,000. There must at 126 E ASTON. this time be over $5,000,000 worth of property insured in this office. By a supplement to the charter of the company, passed February, 1846, the liabilities of members for losses at any one time is limited to three times the amount of their deposits. John Green, now deceased, was the originator of this company, and was the president for many years. At the present time the officers are : President, Abraham Miller ; Treasurer, Anthony McCoy ; Secretary, Hon. H. D. Maxwell. The Easton Cemetery was incorporated in 1850. It is located on the Bushkill Creek, about half a mile from the court-house, upon a high and pleasant site retired from the busy hum of life. The tract of land contains about forty acres, and is laid out in beautiful walks and carriage ways. Previous to 1851, the inter- ments were made in the burial grounds attached to the different churches, but since that time they are generally made in the ceme- tery, and many of the bodies that were interred in other burial grounds have been removed to this beautiful spot. There has been many beautiful private or family monuments erected within the last few years, together with one to the memory of George Taylor, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. The foundation of this monument, which is plain, consists of several blocks of marble, is six feet in breadth and depth by two in height, and the blocks are gut- tered at the jointings so as to give the greatest relief and boldness. Upon this the monument proper commences with the plinth, which is four feet two inches by one foot two inches in height, with suitable head and moulding forming the base proper. Upon this rests the part which we may call the pedestal. It is three feet and one inch square at the bottom and tapers to two feet ten at the top, its height being three feet five. On each corner is carved an inverted torch, and the sides are occupied with inscriptions. Above this is a superb cornice three feet ten, by one foot ten in height. This completes the work to the column. Upon this cornice stands the base of the column, which is admirably adapted. On the sides are the arms of Pennsylvania. The whole base of the column is near three feet in height, and is two feet four inches on the sides. Next we have the shaft, which is one foot eight inches on its sides, at the bottom, and tapers to one foot one at the top, being in height about ten feet. The sides are entirely plain until about mid- height, where, inclosed in a neat raised work, the name of " Taylor," stands out upon the shaft. Over the top of the shaft hangs the American flag in crape, the FAIR GROUNDS. 127 stars resting upon the upper part and the folds falling gracefully down the shaft for nearly half its length. Upon the flag and surmounting the whole work, is a large spread eagle, the bird of his country watching over him, and guarding his country's flag. Nothing could have been more appropriate for the monument of a patriot. The work is full of significance. It tells of noble deeds ; of worth ; of renown ; a patriot's death — a country's loss — a nation's grief. The whole monument is composed of the purest white Italian marble, is about twenty-five feet in height, and occupies one of the most prominent points in the cemetery. It was dedicated on the 20th of November, 1855. The first Agricultural Fair of Northampton County was held at Easton, on the 5th, 6th, and 7th days of October, 1853. The second exhibition was held at Nazareth the following year. After this exhibition the association were desirous of securing a location upon which they could erect suitable and permanent buildings for the accommodation of exhibitors and visitors. It was desirable for the benefit of the association in making this selection to make choice of the place most easy of access, and most likely to attract the greatest number of visitors. The members of the company from Easton claimed the right, for many reasons, to have it located there. The Bethlehem members advanced the same arguments in favor of their town. After considerable cross-firing through the papers of each place, the matter was compromised by locating the grounds at Nazareth, seven miles from Easton and ten from Bethle- hem. During the following year, some of the more enterprising citizens of Easton established another agricultural society, and were incorporated under the title of the Farmers' and Mechanics' Institute of Northampton County. About thirty acres of land were purchased just west of the borough line, upon which the proper buildings were erected. The main building is a splendid edifice, 150 feet in length by 60 feet in depth, and two stories high, with a handsomely ornamented front; the whole being surmounted with a dome 40 feet high, and from which a splendid view is had of the adjacent country. The driving track is half a mile, measuring three feet from the inner edge of the track. It is fifty feet wide, constructed without 128 EASTON. short curves, and is altogether one of the finest tracks in the State. At the entrance is the Stewart's or overseer's house. 30 feet front, with an office of ten feet front on each side. Stables and sheds have also been erected for the various animals brought hither for exhibition. The grounds belonging to the association are inclosed by a high fence, and cost, in connection with the buildings thereon and improvements, about $85,000. The first exhibition of this Institute was held in 1856, on 23d, 24th, 25th, and 26th days of September ; the enterprise has proved entirely successful, and has been the means of attracting to the town from 15,000 to 30,000 strangers every fall. The Easton Sentinel, speaking of the first exhibition says : " It was one of the most stupendous affairs ever gotten up in this part of the State ; on the 25th about 15,000 per- sons attended the fair, and during the four days not less than 40,000 persons were in the inclosure." Notwithstanding the great popu- larity of this Institute, the fairs of the old Northampton Society, which were held at Nazareth the week following, were well at- tended, and presented a very creditable display. Both institutions appear to be in a flourishing condition. The officers of the Farmers' and Mechanics' Institute, are Samuel Yohe, Esq., presi- dent, Jacob B. Odenwelder, vice-president, George W. Yeates, secretary, and Philip Lerch, Jr., treasurer. Easton at the present time contains thirteen churches, viz : — 1. German Reformed Church, cor. of Third Street and Church Alley. Rev. John Beck, Pastor. 2. First Presbyterian Church, cor. Second and Bushkill Streets. Rev. John Gray, D. D., Pastor. 3. Trinity Church (Episcopalian), cor. of Spring Garden Streets and Sitgreaves Alley. Rev. J. J. Elsegood, Rector. 4. St. John's, Lutheran, Ferry St. between Third and Fourth Streets. Rev. B. Sadtter, Pastor. 5. Methodist Episcopal, cor. Second Street and Pine Alley. Rev. M. D. Kurtz Pastor. 6. Christ's, Lutheran, cor. of Fourth and Ferry Streets. Rev. E. Greenwald, Pastor. 7. St. Bernard, Catholic, Fifth Street between Ferry and Lehigh Streets. Rev. Thomas Reardon, Priest. CHURCHES. 129 8. Jewish Synagogue, Sixth Street between Northampton and Ferry. Edward Rubin, Rabbi. 9. Universalist, cor. Ferry Street and Sitgreaves Alley. Vacant. 10. Baptist, Ferry St. between Fourth and Fifth Streets. 11. Dutch Reformed, Fifth Street north of Northampton Street. Rev. C. H. Edgar, Pastor. 12. Brainard (Presbyterian), Spring Garden and Sitgreaves Alley. Rev. G. W. McPhail, D. D., Pastor. 13. German Evangelical Methodist, Northampton Street above Sixth Street. The majority of the churches are handsome and costly struc- tures, and generally have parsonages attached to them. Eev. J. W. Kichards, the pastor of St. John's Church, at the close of his ministry in Easton, preached a sermon on the 9th day of March, 1851, giving a full account of the early history of the Lutherans in and near Easton, of which the following is an ex- tract : — " The first church of the Lutherans was about one mile from Easton (the ruins of which are still visible), in the southeast corner lot formed by the old Philadel- phia road, and the road leading past Leonhart Walters. Rev. Birkenstack preached there from 1740 to 1748 (two baptisms are recorded for 1733). About 1747, Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg had procured from the proprietary govern- ment, through Conrad Weiser, a piece of ground on which to erect ' a log school- house, or church.' From 1749 to 1754, this congregation, named the 'Forks,' toge- ther with Saucon, Upper Milford, &c, was faithfully served by the Rev. Ludolph Schrenk ; he then removed to Raritan, and Muhlenberg says ' a vagabond crept into the congregation at the forks of the Delaware, and caused distraction.' " In 1762, the congregation on the old Philadelphia road abandoned its place of worship, and seems to have been incorporated with the one at Easton, which now became more prominent and consolidated. Muhlenberg writes thus: 'May 13, 1763, a man from Easton visited me, who informed me that the Lutheran congre- gation of that place had bought a large house for j£400 ($1066), which they intend to use for a church and parsonage, and they earnestly intreated the ministerium to obtain a faithful pastor for them.' In June, 1763, the Rev. Mr. Hausili received and accepted a call from Easton (removing thither from Reading, Pa.), at which place he remained until, probably, the year 1769. He was succeeded by the Rev. Mr. Shait, A. D. 1769. He it was who commenced the first church records of bap- tisms, &c, and of vestry meetings, which the congregation now possesses — what- ever else they may have had, if any, being lost." 9 130 E ASTON. The Union Church, now the German Eeformed, was erected in 1776, by the German Eeformed and Lutheran congregations, and is described by Mr. Hopkinson, in 1798, as a " large and handsome structure ; it is said that the persons who had contracted for the mason and carpenter work were paid in continental currency, and, by its depreciation, lost nearly their entire earnings; the writer has been thus informed by the descendants of those persons. It ap- pears from the acts of Congress, and the Assembly of Pennsylvania, that a certain scale of depreciation was enacted, commencing with one per cent., and increasing to seventy-five, for one dollar. It is most probable that the workmen were paid at an early time, when the depreciation was but trifling, and that by keeping it in their possession to the time of its greatest depreciation, the allegation of the mason, Mr. Meixel, that for all the mason work at the church the money received was sufficient to buy a bag of wheat, and no more, might be true. There being a debt remaining unpaid of four hundred pounds, the trustees petitioned the legislature for license to permit Mr. Hellick* to collect the amount by subscription, which was granted. In 1832, the church was repaired and a steeple erected, which until the present stands conspicuously forth in a view of the town. The Lutheran congregation worshipping in the Union Church, desirous of erecting a church of their own, sold their interest in it for the sum of $1,600 to the German Reformed congregation, and on the 31st of May, 1830, laid the corner stone for the church, which they named the St. John's Church, situated in Ferry Street, below Hamilton Street (now Fourth Street). In 1843, a division took place, and the seceding party built a church, in 1844, called the " Christ's Church." The inhabitants of Easton were nearly all Germans at the time of the erection of the Union Church, in 1776, and were either of the German Reformed or Lutheran persuasions; no other church was needed for many years. About the year 1800, the number of Presbyterians in the town began to increase, and in 1819 they * The schoolmaster. CHURCHES. 131 erected the First Presbyterian Church. In the Easton Sentinel, of that year, we find the following communication : — ■ " After a lapse of more than forty years, we behold with pleasure the erection of another house of public worship in this place. Whilst we look with veneration on that noble pile of building erected by the forefathers of our German brethren in the year 1777, we consider the church just completed by the English Presbyterians, as a beautiful specimen of the taste of the times in which we live. It is proposed to open the new church for Divine service on Sunday the 22d instant, at 10 o'clock in the forenoon, by the Rev. David Bishop, assisted by one or two other Rev. gentlemen. Much liberality has been experienced from Christians of other de- nominations, and it would be gratifying on this, as on every other occasion, to afford them an opportunity of enjoying a seat in the house which they have gener- ously contributed to erect." The Episcopal church was erected in 1820, principally through the liberal aid of Samuel Sitgreaves, Esq. A Methodist church was erected in 1835, in Fermor Street (now Second Street) between Northampton and Ferry Streets. This church was destroyed by fire in 1855, and in 1856 rebuilt at a cost of about $10,000. The first Methodist in the neighborhood was Mr. Philip Reese, of Phillipsburg, who commenced holding meetings in his house near the New Jersey Eailroad Depot, about the year 1830, which soon attracted the attention of other persons from Easton ; meetings for some years were held in private houses at Easton, which occasioned such an increase that the society was encouraged to erect the church in 1835. In a journal of events occurring in Bethlehem, in 1777 (see page 174 Bethlehem Souvenir), it is stated, "Captain Webb, the Methodist preacher, arrived with his family. He is a prisoner on parole, with permission to remain at Bethlehem until exchanged." This officer was one of the first Methodists in the United Colonies (or States); "whilst at New York he commenced preaching, generally clothed in his military dress." The other churches have all been erected since 1843. Easton is well supplied with both public and private institutions for the ad- vancement of education ; to the late Governor George Wolf, a resi- dent of Easton at the time of his election to that office, are the citizens of Pennsylvania indebted for the liberal system of educa- 132 E ASTON. tion they are now enjoying. The first school-house, as we have before stated, was erected in Easton, in 1755 ; the difficulties and trials attending its erection are fully given on page 66 of this work. This building was sufficiently large to accommodate all the scholars for many years. In 1794, the Academy (still standing on the hill by that name) was erected ; a number of private schools and semi- naries have been established since that time, some of which have proved eminently successful. There are but few young men in and around Easton, that have not attended the excellent boarding and day school of the Rev. John Vanderveer, which for many years was considered the stepping-stone to the Lafayette College. In 1850, the Opheleton Female Seminary was established, E. Dean Dow, A. M., as Principal; a large, well-arranged and tasteful edifice, surrounded by ample grounds, handsomely laid out and orna- mented, was erected in 1852 ; for some cause this institution was discontinued in 1856, and the property purchased by Hon. P. S. Michler, who has since converted the building into a private resi- dence. Below we give an outline history of the Easton Academy, it being for many years the only building in the place devoted to the purpose of education. On 21st April, 1794, the trustees of the Union Academy of the borough of Easton were incorporated under the certificate of the Attorney-General and the Judges of the Supreme Court, agreeably to the articles of association, drafted by Samuel Sitgreaves, Esq. By these articles the affairs of the corporation were to be managed by fifteen trustees, five of whom to be of the German Lutheran, and five of the German Reformed denominations, and the ministers of those congregations, in the borough of Easton, always to be members of the board of trustees. After the election, five trustees were to be annually elected to serve three years, preserving the pro- portions of the religious denominations before stated. The school- house was erected in the same year, about $1800 having been sub- scribed by the citizens, and the trustees having taken possession of UNION ACADEMY. 133 the vacant lot on Fermor Street between Church Alley and Spring Garden Street. As early as 1796 steps were taken to obtain from the proprie- taries a title for the lots. In 1800 Mr. Butler, the agent for the proprietaries,* having expressed a willingness to convey the five lots (now constituting the Academy property) for the use of the schools of the Institution, Mr. Christian Bixler was authorized and requested by the trustees to contract with him for those lots, on the best terms he could obtain, and take the deed in his own name; he having, with a spirit of liberality, signified his consent to ad- vance the money which should be necessary, and execute the de- claration of trust, to secure the trustees in the title, and indemnify Mr. Bixler for his advance of money. Accordingly, on the 6th of February, 1800, John Penn and Eichard Penn, by their attorney Edmund Physic, conveyed the five lots, Nos. 26, 28, 30, 32, and 34, to Christian Bixler in fee ; and on the 21st of March, 1800, Mr. Bixler executed the declaration of trust proposed. On the 31st of July, 1805, Christian Bixler and wife conveyed the pre- mises to " the trustees of the Union Academy of the Borough of Easton, in the county of Northampton," their successors and as- signs forever. There were repeatedly subscriptions taken up, and the legisla- ture voted the usual appropriation of $2000 to the academy as a county institution. After a considerable lapse of time, the elec- tions of trustees were not regularly attended to ; and in the year * In 1800, when Mr. Butler was at Easton, the collection of the proprietary's rents occasioned a great disturbance in the town ; many of the inhabitants who owned lots had never heard of any rent being due on their property, and therefore were not prepared to pay the sums demanded of them. Their displeasure broke out in threatening language to Mr. Butler, and at one time, by a public demonstra- tion of it, by making him in effigy and marching through the streets with it ac- companied by drum and fife, proceeding with the same to the top of Mount Ida (also called Mount Washington), and there publicly burning the effigy amidst the imprecations of the people who were present. Mr. Butler had collected at various places about $40,000, with which he ab- sconded, the proprietaries losing the entire amount. 134 EASTON. 1834:, on examination, it was discovered they had been entirely neglected from the year 1826, and there had been no meeting of the board of trustees after 1827. In this condition of things the town council took up the matter and unanimously passed a resolu- tion on the 9th of Januar} 7 , 1834 : — That they believe the charter of the Union Academy was for- feited in consequence of a failure for some time to elect trustees, agreeably to the charter of incorporation ; that the academy build- ing and premises were suffering for want of proper attention, and the occupants for some time had not paid their rents ; and resolved to present a petition to the legislature, praying that the property might be vested in the corporation of the borough of Easton, to be used for the purposes of education in said borough, and that the corporation be authorized to collect arrearages of rent due for said premises. The matter v/as not definitely acted on by the legislature until the next session, when, on April 14th, 1835, an act was passed declaring the charter of the trustees forfeited, and vesting their right, title, and interest in the borough of Easton. Pursuant to this act the corporation proceeded to erect a wall on Ferraor Street, preparatory to the improvement of the property, and with a view to grade and ornament the same, by planting trees and fitting it up. Subsequently the wall was taken down and the materials used elsewhere, and a considerable part of the south side of the hill dug off, and carted away, to fill up the foot of Ferry Street, which had been washed away by the breaking out of the dam in 1840. The following history of the public school system in the borough of Easton was obligingly furnished by E. T. Stewart, Esq. : — Public Schools of Easton. — The educational system of this borough has met the fondest expectations of its friends. But a few years have elapsed since its in- troduction ; then it was an experiment, now the most cheering results follow in its train. The efficiency of the common school no longer remains an unsolved prob- lem. It is a truth that has been fully demonstrated at every fireside in the district. The common school system was established here in 1834, under most unfavorable THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM. 135 auspices. Strenuous efforts were made to crush it in its incipiency. The opposi- tion prevalent in the early stages of its existence, did not abate, as the utility of the system developed itself. The common school, unprotected save by legislative enactment, during nineteen years, had but a nominal existence only. Viewed as an institution of charity, the patronage of which was regarded as a mark of indigence, the wealthy not only refused it their support, but encouraged the establishment of private schools. These schools nourished whilst the public schools awakened no interest, and exhibited no marked advantage by way of mental development. The question may be asked, what were the causes of this apathy ? A variety of answers may be given. First. There was no uniformity in school-books. Second. There was no regular method of instruction. Third. There was no adjustment of classes. Fourth. There was no classification of schools. Fifth. The teachers were employed on the ground of favoritism or on the prin- ciple of alms-giving, rather than that of qualification, mental and moral. Sixth. The importance of appropriate school edifices had been a matter of no consideration. Prior to the year 1853, no portion of the public school fund had been employed in the erection of buildings. Of those in use, the old academy was the only one originally designed for school purposes. This was built in 1794, many years prior to the passage of the common school law, and by voluntary contribution. Seventh. The importance of ventilation had not been cousidered. The school- rooms were in a condition that jeopardized the health of the pupils. Eighth. The School Board patronized private schools. Their official actions seemed to be merely to meet the requirements of the law, while their preferences were in an opposite direction. A new era dawned. In 1853 the present system was adopted. The classification and arrangement of the schools were made to conform, as far as practicable, to the plan pursued in the city of Philadelphia. The plan adopted has been rigorously applied. The general classification of the schools, the internal arrangement of each school, and the course of study, were all made in conformity to the law of progres- sion. We note the following as some of the fruits of the system. 1st. The effect on the public mind. Public opinion has been revolutionized. Animosity has, if not wholly destroyed, been allayed. The citizens feel proud of their educational advantages. The public school is regarded as a powerful instru- ment in determining the future destiny of the borough. It no longer needs the law alone for its support. It is upheld by the arms of an intelligent community. It has the vigilant guardianship of an interested people. Hence the patronage is universal. Select schools scarcely exist. The crowd of children representative of every social grade, that throngs the public schools of this place, is indicative of the confidence manifested in the system. 186 EASTON". 2d. The effect upon the teachers. The standard of teaching has been elevated. A drone can get no employment here. Appointments are made on the basis of qualification, and not on that of favoritism or poverty. Self-culture has been thus promoted. The system provides for the promotion of teachers, upon the condition of progress as exhibited by increased efficiency. The interest thus awakened in the teacher has given life to the system. The zeal of the teacher has been in- fused into his pupils. The culture of the preceptor is shown in the advancement of his scholars. 3d. The effect upon the pupils. The principle of progression is applied as well in the advancement of pupils as in the promotion of teachers. The object is to elicit personal force. Individuality of character is carefully studied. The great aim is to train each pupil for the particular avocation in life to which he seems adapted. There is a regular gradation from the primary department to the High School. The latter is the ultimatum of advancement. The design of this school is known to the public. It is the converging point of all the previous instruction in the other public schools ; without it, the system would be incomplete. It is the purpose of the directors to combine in this school all the facilities for acquiring a complete education. Hitherto private schools have been the only source for instruction in the higher branches of an education. Our common schools had confined themselves to the primary and elementary branches ; now, however, they look to a wider sphere, and we know of no more inviting field than our own borough. This institution is deserving of public patronage. There is nothing inherently superficial in the public school system. That it has not been adapted to all the educational needs of society, has not been because of inherent inefficiency, but because there has been no demand of wider and higher culture. Thus a healthful moral influence has been checked, and our public schools have been shorn of their legitimate power, or denied the exercise of their real strength. The cry of oppressive taxation has always deterred the school directors from making that liberal provision which the necessities of the population really required. Now the people are beginning to look at the subject in its proper light. All classes of society have a wider educational horizon. The common mind is in- quisitive. The struggles of the age are leading men into an examination of the foundation of rights and duties. The domains of science, philosophy, and polite literature invite the children of toil to their rewards. Labor and science have joined hands. The school-house has become the college. The children of the day-laborer may expect attainments equal to the acquisitions of the most favored sons of wealth. This is republicanism practicalized. It is equality applied to one of the vital interests of the State. It is the true philosophy of progress. It is the only process by which the indigent and ignorant can be brought upon the basis of equality. The public school system has been more fully developed since the establish- ment of a borough superintendency. This is to be accounted for because of the LAFAYETTE COLLEGE. 137 immediate intercourse between the superintendent and the teacher. The super- intendent can visit the schools each day. He can see defects, and apply the necessary remedy ; can reprove the unfaithful teacher, and counsel unruly scho- lars. He can protect the pupil from any injustice on the part of the teacher, and can advise parents as to the best methods of securing the progress of their children. In fine, he can closely watch the workings of the machinery, no matter how complex, and keep it in regular motion, and accelerate that motion. The following are the statistics from the records of the Borough Superintend- ent : — DIRECTORS. Number of schools . 30 Dr. Traill Green, President. n pupils 1,825 Adam Yohe, Secretary. a teachers . 34 Geo. Slabach. u public examinations 2 Henry S. Carey. a school edifices . 5 Edward T. Stewart. a district school rooms 27 Robert T. Horn. a months taught per Owen Reich. year 10 John Micke. w. W. COTTINGHAM, Samuel M. Cummings. Borough Superintendent. Peter Bellis, Treasurer. Lafayette College is located on one of the most beautiful hills that overlooks the borough. The edifice is 112 feet long by 44 feet deep, containing in all 60 rooms, and has received the name of Brainard Hall, in memory of that devoted missionary, who labored among the Indians in the cause of religion in this region.* There are two literary societies, the Washington and Franklin, and a missionary society, named the Brainard Mission- ary Society, attached to this college. The college at the present time numbers some 85 students, and since its erection many have graduated who are now adorning the professions of law, physic, and divinity. The students are enabled to receive at this college as thorough an education as at any other collegiate institution. The faculty is composed of men of talent and learning, and the institution has assumed an honorable rank among her elder com- petitors. We are indebted to a gentleman connected with the college for the following account of that institution: — * Brainard, in 1744 and 1745, lived in a cabin erected by himself near the junc- tion of Martin's Creek with the river Delaware, in Lower Mount Bethel Township, on lands now owned by the heirs of Mr. Baker. 138 EASTON. Lafayette College owes its origin to the liberality and enlightened zeal for sound learning of some prominent citizens of Easton in the year 1824. Pursuant to a public notice a meeting of the citizens was held on Monday, 27th December, of that year, at the Easton Hotel, then kept by William White. The late Col. McKeen was appointed chairman, and Mr. Jacob Weygandt secretary. After full discussion, it was resolved, "That it is expedient to establish at this place an institution of learning in which the dead languages and the various branches of education and science usually taught in colleges, together with the French and German languages, civil and military engineering and military tactics, shall be taught." It was further resolved, " That, as a testimony of respect for the talents, virtues, and signal services of Gen. Lafayette in the great cause of freedom, the said institution be named Lafayette College." A committee was then appointed, con- sisting of Hon. James M. Porter, Hon. Joel Jones, and Jacob Wagener, Esq., to draft a memorial to the legislature for a charter of incorporation and for legislative aid. In their memorial the committee discuss at some length the influence of liberal education in perpetuating our national freedom, and then unfold the plan upon which the institution was designed to be conducted. It is worthy of remark that they lay great stress upon thorough instruction in the English, which they say is "the language most neglected in our seminaries of learning." And, in this con- nection, we may say that to Lafayette College belongs the honor of first establish- ing in this country a Professorship of the English Language, and of teaching the great English classics in the same critical and philological manner as the great Greek and Latin authors are studied.* The charter of the college, obtained March 9, 1826, nominated the following gentlemen as Trustees : Robert Patterson, John Hare Powell, Peter A. Browne, Andrew M. Prevost, Benjamin Tilghman, Silas E. Weir, and John M. Scott, of Philadelphia; Samuel Sitgreaves, Thomas McKeen, Peter Miller, Philip Mixsell, Jacob Weygandt, Jr., John Bowes, James M. Porter, Christian J. Hutter, Jacob Wagener, Geo. M. Barnet, John Carey, Jr., Wm. Shouse, Peter Ihrie, Jr., John Worman, Joel Jones, John R. Lattimore, Thomas J. Rogers, Joseph R. Swift, Geo. G. Howell, Peter S. Michler, Jesse M. Howell, Philip H. Mattes, Geo. Hess, Jr., Jacob Kern, Geo. Weber, and Anthony McCoy, of Northampton County ; Walter C. Liv- ingston, of Lehigh County ; and Wm. Long, of Bucks County. At their first meeting, on the 15th of May following, the Board elected the fol- lowing officers : — Hon. James M. Porter, President. Hon. Joel Jones, Secretary. Col. Thomas McKeen, Treasurer. * Mr. Heston, of the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania, in opposing the bill to incorporate Lafayette College, objected to the study of the dead languages, the knowledge of which, he contended, would not furnish a single idea that could not be communicated in English ; and, said he, " it adds no more to scientific knowledge than the croaking of frogs." LAFAYETTE COLLEGE. 139 Proper measures were taken to secure a President and Faculty, and to raise funds for the erection of suitable buildings, and for the purchase of apparatus, library, &c. It was not, however, until March, 1832, that the college duties were actually commenced, under the presidency of the Rev. Dr. George Junkin, the teaching of military tactics being dispensed with by a supplement to the charter, granted by the legislature April 7. On the evening of October 10 the first public exercises of the students were held, in the presence of a crowded assembly, at the Presbyterian church. The building first occupied by the students was on the south side of the Lehigh, near the river, and the property of Mr. Christopher Middler. The grounds now occupied by the college were purchased from William Snyder and John Shick, April 12, 1833, and Messrs. James M. Porter, Peter S. Michler, Geo. Hess, Jr., and Jesse M. Howell were appointed a committee to erect suitable buildings. The corner-stone of the main college edifice was laid on the following 4th of July, in the presence of an immense crowd of citizens ; the military and various civic societies joining in the ceremonies. An address was made upon the hill by the Rev. B. C. Wolf, and afterwards an oration was delivered in the German Reformed church, by the Hon. Joseph R. Ingersoll, of Philadelphia. When the building was completed, Dr. Junkin was formally inaugurated President in the College Hall, May 1, 1834. On this occasion addresses were delivered by Dr. Junkin and the Hon. J. M. Porter, President of the Board of Trustees. The first regular commencement was held in September, 1836, when the follow- ing students, having completed the full college studies, received their degree of A. B., viz: George W. Kidd, David Moore, James B. Ramsey, and Nathaniel B. Smithers. Since this time about 700 students have attended upon the instructions of the college, of whom 235 have completed the full course and received their diplomas. After Dr. Junkin's resignation, Dec. 25, 1840, the College was under the Presi- dency of the Rev. Dr. J. W. Yeomans till Sept. 7, 1844, when Dr. Junkin was again elected President. He was succeeded by the Rev. Dr. C. W. Nassau in 1849. Oct. 30, 1849, the College was placed under the care and patronage of the Synod of Philadelphia (Presbyterian), though students of every denomination have, as before, an equal right to all its privileges. The Rev. Dr. D. V. McClean, being nominated by the Synod, was elected to the Presidency by the Trustees, Oct. 18, 1850. The present President, Rev. G. Wilson McPhail, D. D., was inaugurated July, 28, 1858. The following gentlemen comprise the faculty at present. Rev. G. Wilson McPhail, D. D., President, and Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy. James H. Coffin, A. M., Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. Traill Green, M. D., Professor of Chemistry. Rev. William C. Cattell, A. M., Professor of the Latin and Greek Languages. 140 EASTON". Francis A. March, A. M., Professor of the English Language, and Lecturer on Comparative Philology. Rev. John Leaman, A. M., M. D., Professor of Natural History, and Lecturer on Human Anatomy and Physiology. Rev. James R. Eckard, D. D., Professor of Rhetoric. Charles Corss, A. M., Tutor. At the present time there are six weekly and two daily papers published in Easton, viz. WEEKLY PAPERS. Democrat and Argus, W. H. Hutter, Editor. Easton Sentinel, D. H. Nieman, " Easton Journal, J. P. Hetrich, " Independent Democrat (German), Josiah Cole, " American Free Press, W. H. Brown, " Northampton Correspondent, A. H. Sensemen, " DAILY PAPERS. Daily Evening Express, Davis & Eichman, Editors. Daily Morning Times, S. P. Higgins, Editor. The weekly publications have a combined circulation of be- tween 6000 and 8000 copies, circulation of the dailies between 1800 and 2000 copies. In 1793, Jacob Weygandt commenced the publication of a German news- paper at Easton (a very diminutive sheet), with a very limited number of sub- scribers, not exceeding three hundred per week during the first year. As a large portion of the inhabitants of the county were unable to read their own or any other language, one newspaper generally served a whole neighborhood of three or four miles in circuit ; the paper was sent from house to house, and generally read by the schoolmaster, if there chanced to be one. Very few of the Germans were able to write their own names. The writer has observed on petitions to the county courts in 1760-70, that nearly one-half of the signers made the X, and one instrument then presented with nine names, has seven of these insignas of ignorance, and the remaining two so execrably written as to be barely intelligible. In the Sessions office is a paper, professedly an inventory, the spelling so strange that no other person than the learned justice of the peace (D. Brown) himself, who wrote it, can make out the meaning ; one word is therein spelt, "kaughy bud" for coffee pot. To impute to the present generation such errors would, as a general thing, be wrong. The early settlers were more expert with the grubbing hoe than the pen ; and they had not become a reading people. Well patronized journals are only found in those com- PUBLIC LIBRARY — LITERARY SOCIETIES, ETC. 141 munities where intelligence and enterprise abound. There is no surer test of general thrift than this. The presence of a newspaper in a family is a proof that the seeds of education have been sown therein ; and where education has germi- nated, good fruit, with rare exceptions, is the product. Mr. Christian J. Hutter commenced the publication of a German newspaper, the "Northampton Correspondent," in 1801, and on first July, 1817, the first number of the English newspaper called the " Centinel," was published by Christian J. Hutter & Son. Previous to the commencement of the Centinel, by Mr. Hutter & Son, they had a paper, the People's Instructor, being both English and German, one column being in German, and the translation in English in another column, and thus alternately throughout the whole sheet. In 1799, J. Longcope published an English paper, called "The American Eagle ;" from want of patronage, it was discontinued in a few years. So also, Hugh Ross became a publisher of an English paper called the Exposition, in 1822 ; this also, soon expired. In 1S19 the Mountaineer was published, but could not sustain itself for any length of time. The Easton Argus, an English paper commenced during the anti-masonic excitement, by Innes & Weygandt, has for many years been published by Mr. W. H. Hutter (the present postmaster). The Easton Whig (lately changed to the Easton Journal), has been published for more than thirty years by Josiah P. Hetrich. Easton has also a public library, founded in 1811, containing nearly 5000 volumes in the various departments of literature, a Dime Savings Bank, Building and Loan Association, Young Men's Christian Association, several Literary Societies, Amateur Musical Association, Missionary and Belief Societies, Bible So- cieties, Beneficial Association, Masons, Sons of Malta, Odd Fel- lows, Sons of Temperance, American Mechanics, Boating Clubs, Chess Clubs, Cricket Clubs, &c. Easton now boasts one of the best bands of music in the State ("Pomp's Cornet Band"), and will soon possess another (the Jaeger Band), which promises to be no mean rival of the first named. Pomp's Cornet Band is one of the oldest musical organizations in the country, and as it is considered one of the institutions of the place, we will give a short sketch of its rise and progress. The first band or musical association ever formed in Easton, was that known as the "Artillerist Band," which was organized in 1818, and attached to the company from which it took its name, com- manded by Capt. William E. Sitgreaves. The leader of the band, 142 EASTON. Mr. John D. Weiss, of Bethlehem, was a musician of considerable ability, whose instructions were attended with eminent success, and soon wrought from the material afforded him, an organization which Easton might be proud of to-day. No doubt many of the elderly citizens remember, with pleasure, the performance of the first band, and will revert to the incidents which this allusion to the organization will naturally call up, with a feeling of heartfelt satisfaction. We are all of us more or less imbued with a love for the "things of old," and can readily appreciate the chastened and mournful fondness with which those who composed that organiza- tion, look back to the meetings and parades of " their bandy The roll list comprised the following names : — John D. Weiss, Leader, Peter Pomp, Joseph Herster, John Branham, Abraham Miller, Jonathan Lick, Frederick Mattes, Jacob Wilhelm, John A. Everitt, Isaac Levan, Joseph Howell, John Tilton, William Bixler, Geo. Luckenbach, Charles E. Wolf, David Nyce, Henry Wagener, Joseph Snyder, Wm. Bittenbender, John Heckman, Thos. E. Weygandt, George Sigman, Jacob Sigman, Samuel Yohe, James Doran, Melchior Horn. On July 1, 1833, the name of this organization was changed to the Citizens' Band, when Peter Pomp became Leader. The follow- ing members then composed the band : — P. Pomp, Leader, C. Kitchen, Geo. Luckenbach, W. H. Pomp, Philip Pv-eichard, Frederick Seitz, H. E. Wolf, Jacob Noll, James Doran, B. S. Shultz, J. M. Hampton, David Barnet, Jos. Snyder, Jacob Wilhelm, George Sigman, F. L. Crane, Samuel Wilhelm, Andrew T. Sigman, Timothy Rosmus, Benjamin F. Stem. In the year 1838 the name was changed to the Philharmonic Society. In 1842 all wood instruments were dispensed with in the band, and brass substituted in their place. The name was then changed to the Easton Brass Band ; Wm. H. Pomp, Leader ; Peter Pomp, Conductor. In 1852 the name was again changed to the MILITARY FORCE — FIRE DEPARTMENT. 143 one by which they are now known, viz., Pomp's Cornet Band, and German silver instruments substituted for brass. They now num- ber 20 active members; W. H. Pomp, Leader; Prof. Thos. Coates, Conductor. The military force of Easton at the present time consists of four companies, together numbering about 200 men, rank and file. The following are the names of the companies : — Easton Artillerists National Guards National Grays Easton Jaegers Capt. Jacob Dachradt. " J. E. Titus. " B. Clemmens. " Chas. Glantz. We had prepared a lengthy account of the various military or- ganizations formed in Easton since the revolution, but our space will not allow its insertion. The fire department of Easton at the present time consists of five companies, viz : Humane Hose Company, No. 1 ; Phcenis Hose, No. 2 ; Washington Hose, No. 3 ; South wark Hose, No. 4 ; Keystone Hose, No. 5 ; having in all about 250 active members. These companies have divided among them eight hose-carriages, four suction-engines, and about 6,000 feet of hose. The first fire company was organized in Easton January 19, 1807, and went into service March 7 of the same year. The com- pany was composed of 35 citizens of Easton, under the title of the Easton Humane Fire Company. Their engine was built in 1797, by Philip Mason, of Philadelphia, and is still in possession of the company. All of their hose, which consisted of but four sections, was carried in a square basket between the levers of the engine. This was entirely destroyed at the fire of Messrs. Kutz, Meixell, and others, in Church Alley, in 1831. The following is a list of the members composing this company, all of whom, it appears, held some office : — Engine Directors — Naphtali Hart, William Barnet. Inspector — Nicholas Traxsell. Rowmen — John Herster, John Barnet, Henry Osterstock. Guardmen — Michael Hart, Christopher Hartzell. 144 EASTON. Axemen — John Traxsell, John Carey, Jr., Jacob Grotz, William Richer. Laddermen — Thos. Sebring, Abm. Horn, Jr., Frederick Mattes, Jos. Dawes, John Yohe, John Nagle. Hoohmen — George Ihrie, Samuel Findley, Abram Grotz, Valentine Weaver. Engineers — Nicholas Kern, Jacob Hart, John Trittenbach, Henry Eyreman, Abm. Force, Chas. Hay, Adam Heckman, Fred. Wilhelm, Benj. Green, John Young, Jr., Abm. Osterstock, Michael Seip, Geo. Traxsell, John Horn, John Heckman, and Conrad Rohn. As there were no water- works at that time, the engines were filled with water that was pumped from the wells or carried from the river in buckets. Every family was compelled to provide itself with a certain number of leather fire-buckets, which were used for this purpose. In case of fire, a row or line of people was formed from the river to the engine, for the purpose of "passing along the water" to fill the engine. The person who stood next the river would fill the buckets and pass them to the person who stood next to him, this person passing them to the next, and so on until they had reached the engine and the water was disposed of. Generally there were two rows formed, one of men and one of women, the men passing the filled buckets from the river to the engine, and the women returning the empty ones. In this manner there were sometimes a hundred or more buckets in continual motion. The men who attended to the forming of these rows were called Eowmen. We extract the following account from an Easton paper, of a fire that occurred there on December 13, 1819 : — " Miss Simon, daughter of John Simon, stood in the Lehigh River, notwithstand- ing the cold and frozen state of the water, and dipped the same into buckets for a considerable length of time, which was conveyed by the line to the engines. Mrs. and Misses Sitgreaves, Erb, Cooper, Spering, Moore, Hays, Barnet, Young, and others, fell into the ranks forming the line to the river. The two engines were thus supplied." In the year 1830 the number of fire companies was the same as at present. The companies then were the Humane, Phoenix, Northampton, Columbia, and Neptune Engine Companies, all of which have been disbanded, with the exception of the first two ^ ut is being digitized, and will be inserted at future date. 174 BETHLEHEM. thorpe* (the governor of that province, and then in London) re- specting their passage, equipments, &c. These colonists sailed from Gravesend, in England, on the 3d of February, 1735, accom- panied by Mr. Spangenberg, and arrived safely at Savannah in the spring. In February, 1736, another company of Moravians arrived in Georgia accompanied by Bishop David Nitchman, Peter Boehler, &c. In the same ship came General Oglethorpe (the Governor), accompanied by John Wesley, whom the Governor had engaged as an Episcopal clergyman in the town of Savannah. "This man," says Spangenberg, " frequently visited us ; he had a remarkable gift of presenting to his hearers the Gospel with great power, and most forcibly pressed upon them the absolute necessity of an entire change of heart. I soon perceived that the grace of God wrought powerfully upon his heart, and we in a short time became very intimate, and done to each every favor we possibly could." The Moravians who emigrated to Georgia were all very poor. Immediately after their arrival, they proceeded to the land assigned to them, five miles from Savannah, on the Savannah Eiver, where * Mr. Spangenberg, during his stay in London, had frequent conversations with General Oglethorpe ; occasionally the topic was on religion. At one time the Gen- eral said that one of his friends had described the Moravians to him as a fanatical sect, to which he had answered, that the same was said by the Jews of the first converts to Christianity ; that the best method of judging of others is by their walk and conversation, this in itself elicits truth. "For," said he further, "if we believe every report, we are apt to fall into error ourselves, as, for instance, it was formerly said of Englishmen that they had long barbed tails, and," said he, "theo- logical reasoning could adapt itself to every manner of sophistry (and as examples the General gave the following in illustration), viz. : — "You do not believe what I believe, neither do Mohammedans believe as I do. Therefore you are a Mohammedan. Or another : The Socinians explain a passage of Scripture differently than we do, you also explain it different, consequently you are a Socinian!" The renewed Brethren's (Moravian) Church, by adopting the rules and discipline of the Brethren's Church of the 15th century, drew upon themselves the attention of the Christian world. Zinzendorff strongly opposed the revival of the old disci- pline, yet was obliged to succumb to the majority. Many of those rules, by admit- ting them with all their absurd singularities, were not suitable to the times, and induced many persons to doubt their sincerity in their religious worship. A per- secution followed in the publication of numberless pamphlets, the most of which made erroneous charges against them. The Moravians gloried in these persecu- tions as suffering for the Gospel's sake; but as they might have avoided persecution without sacrificing any essential doctrinal, point, the assumption is improper. REV. JOHN WESLEY. 175 they remained from two to three weeks without any shelter, until they had cut timber and put up a house for their accommodation, after which they proceeded to clear some lands, &c. They also procured a pair of horses and a wagon, from which source they derived considerable support, being occasionally employed by the citizens of Savannah. Spangenberg says (Risler's Life of Spaiigen- herg, p. 127) that at one time the person who had charge of the wagon, &c, became very sick of a fever. " In this exigency," says he, "I went to the brother's bed, and told him to pray the Lord to make him well ; I also knelt down at his bedside and prayed for his recovery. After having arisen from my knees, I said to him, ' Now arise, and believe yourself cured !' and took him by the hand ; the brother believed, rose up out of bed, and proceeded to his work as usual, entirely recovered." Wesley, upon his return to Europe, visited the Moravians at Herrnhuth and other places, but he soon found that they differed somewhat on doctrinal points. The greatest difficulty, however, was occasioned by the difference of opinions on church government, and as neither party would succumb to the other, they separated. A correspondence was kept up for some time, without any pro- pitious results. In one of the letters to "Wesley, the Moravians strongly deprecate the promiscuous intercourse (in his assem- blages) of the sexes, which practice, they say, will be deleterious to true piety ; so also the audible groaning, shouting, &c, of his followers, which they compare to "a bottle of spirits left uncorked;" by which was intimated that all such, either expressive or joyful sensations, should be suppressed or kept under, and not shown to others ; as the bottle of spirits, by being left uncorked, would lose its strength, so would the spirit of Grod depart with the audible expressions; and it is prophetically added in one of those letters,* that he (Wesley) with his adherents, would in a short time " go to the wall." The Moravian settlement in Georgia, in consequence of a requirement by the government to bear arms in the war declared between England and Spain in 1738, was broken up. Some of * Buedingisclie Sammlung, vol. ii. 176 BETHLEHEM. them proceeded to Pennsylvania in 1738, others followed in 1739, conducted by Bishop Nitchman, and the remainder in 1740 under the conduct of Peter Boehler. The following account of their settle- ment at Nazareth and Bethlehem we extract from a letter written by the Eev. Levin T. ReicheL* of Nazareth, to the writer of these notes : — In 1740, when P. Boehler left Georgia with the last Moravian settlers, he became acquainted with Whitefield on board the sloop. The latter was going to Pennsyl- vania to buy some land for the purpose of erecting a school for negroes. A certain Mr. Seward was to lend the money. This man wrote, April 22d, in his journal : "Agreed with Mr. Allen for 5000 acres of land on the forks of the Delaware, at £2200 sterling, the conveyance to be made to Mr. Whitefield, and after that assigned to me, as security for my advancing the money. Mr. Whitefield proposes to give orders for building the negro school on the purchased land, before he leaves the province." Whitefield requested P. Boehler, with whom he spent a day at Schippach (April 24) to inspect the land for him with some of his brethren, at the same time offering them to give them the superintendence of the building, and to pay them for the carpenter's work. This offer was accepted, and after Whitefield had bought the land, which he called Nazareth, and his commissioners had selected the spot for the building, the brethren began the work in May, but were by rainy weather and disappointments of the masons engaged for the work so much de- tained, that in September only the cellar walls were finished, £300 sterling having been expended. Seeing no possibility of finishing the house before winter, they built a two story log house, and made a temporary covering to the larger building when the first story was up, the marks of which can still be seen. Meanwhile, Whitefield had returned again to Philadelphia. He had been in Georgia, and had begun there a theological dispute with the only yet remaining Moravian, Hagen, concerning predestination and reprobation. Seeing that Boehler defended his brother, and hearing many ill reports concerning the Moravians from envious Irish neighbors, he ordered them away from his land. A certain Mr. Irish heard of these summary proceedings of Whitefield, which were highly disapproved by him, and offered them a tract of 500 acres, on which Bethlehem was built. P. Boehler returned to Europe January, 1741. Mr. Seward, who had lent the money for the Nazareth tract, died the same year, and Whitefield found himself obliged to offer his land for sale. Boehler and Spangenberg consulted together, and resolved to buy it for the Moravians. Whitefield was willing, provided he might retain 500 acres for himself. Spangenberg objected to this condition, knowing that only religious disputes would be the consequence, and Whitefield was at last obliged, for want of means, to sell the whole tract of land to the Brethren (1742), who refunded the original sum of £2200, and bore all the expenses for the building. In September, 1743, the building was continued, and finished before the close of the year. In December, a large company of German emigrants arrived, and January 2, 1744, the first religious meeting was held in the house. On July 27, 1746, Whitefield paid a visit at Ephratah in company with Brother Henry Antes. He was very friendly, and quite astonished to see so many improve- ments of all kinds. Especially was he pleased to see some Indian girls in the small * Moravian Historian. FIRST HOUSE ERECTED. 177 boarding-school connected with the establishment. One little girl (who had been baptized by him in Georgia), named Rebecca Burnside, he found there also. She was the first person that died in this school. In December, 1755, more than three hundred refugees were, during the Indian war, quartered here and in the neighboring places. In the same year, a stockade was made. The economy of Ephratah and Nazareth was broken up in 1764. The 500 acres mentioned by Mr. Keichel were purchased by the Moravians from Mr. Irish.* On the 22d December, 1740, a party of Moravian Brethren left Nazareth (where they had been engaged since April in building a large building for the celebrated George A-Vhitefield, and intended by him as an asylum and a school for negroes), and commenced felling trees on the spot where Bethlehem now stands. It is said that David Nitchman felled the first tree to build the first house (which fact is inscribed on his tombstone). This man was familiarly called Father Nitchman, to distinguish him from the Bishop, David Nitchman. Early in the spring of the year 1741 the first house was completed, and stood until 1823, when it was removed to make room for the stablinsr of the Eagle Hotel, which was opened about that time in the "old stone building." By the end of June, 1741, the timber was squared for the erection of a more commodious dwelling, and on the 28th Sept. the corner-stone was laid with appropriate cere- monies, by Bishop David Nitchman, in the presence of seventeen brethren and sisters, whose names, inscribed on parchment, were deposited in the stone, on the southeast corner of the building. The house is still standing, and is the west wing of the old row in Church Street, next to the Moravian church. This building is unquestionably the most interesting of the few remaining memo- rials of the past that have come down to us after the lapse of a century. It is invested with peculiar interest. In this house, during a number of years, resided the Bishop and ministers of the church. Here they met to deliberate on the condition of the work * This was one of the three 500 acre tracts owned by Mr. Irish in this vicinity. Mr. Irish was a justice of the peace in Bucks County in 1742. He resided then at his mill at the Saucon Creek, near its junction with the river Lehigh, and is mentioned as the officer to whom Moravians applied respecting the removal of the Indians from the Nazareth tract of land. 178 BETHLEHEM. of God among the heathen ; here they knelt and prayed ; from here ascended to a throne of grace ardent and humble petitions for guidance, assistance, and direction in their arduous duties. In this house were congregated frequently the sons of the forest, depu- tations from the rude savage tribes of the Wyoming Valley ; the Nanticokes, Mohicans, Delawares, and the fiercer Shawaneese, decked in their savage finery of feathers and deer-skins, here met with a kind welcome and good-will, and smoked the friendly pipe, and entered into covenants of peace. Here also was knit more closely that tie of brotherly love which cements the Moravians of the four quarters of the globe into a family of brothers. Count Zinzendorff* arrived at New York in November, 1741, and came to Bethlehem in December, and in this house the cele- bration of the nativity of Jesus Christ took place on the 24th of that month. This celebration suggested to the Count a name for the new settlement, and it was accordingly called Bethlehem. In 1742, another company of colonists arrived from Germany, con- ducted by Rev. Peter Boehler, and on the 25th of June of that year the congregation was organized, there being 127 Moravian brethren and sisters present. After the buildings above described were erected, the improve- ments were continued in the village, a description of which is given in the Bethlehem Souvenir.^ " Whoever has visited Bethlehem must * Lewis, Count Zinzendorff, was a Saxon nobleman of wealth, and of great talents and piety. In 1722, he received, on his estate (Bertholdsdorff), in Upper Lnsatia, a company of Moravian exiles, descendents of followers of the reformer and martyr John Huss, who had left their homes, for conscience sake, on the 17th of June, in the same year, and Herrnhuth, the seat of the first Moravians, was commenced. As the ordinances and discipline of the old church of the Moravian and Bohemian Brethren were here retained, and thus perpetuated, the present church of the Brethren is a continuation of the former, and as such, the oldest of the Protestant churches, dating March 1, 1457, as the day of their origin. Professor Ebeling, part vi. p. 165, History of Penna., speaking of Zinzendorff, says : " The count, notwithstanding all his energy, had too little consideration, with a lack of gentleness, and a mind not sufficiently illuminated, so that his con- versions amongst Christian sects, as well as Indians, left no abiding effect. The confusion amongst the Germans was rather increased than diminished by him. Already in 1743, he left America very much dissatisfied ; his more sensible brethren built Bethlehem." f Published in 1857. UNIQUE APPEARANCE OF THE TOWN. 179 have been struck with the unique appearance of the venerable pile (viz., the l old row' east of the Moravian Church), built in a style of architecture so different from what is met with in this country, even in settlements which have their origin more remotely in the past than Bethlehem. The hip roofs and double row of dormer windows, the massive masonry supported by heavy buttresses, and the curiously wrought belfry capping the centre, are so many features borrowed from the manor houses and churches of the European homes of our forefathers. This compact assemblage of buildings constituted in itself, for a number of years, the entire settlement. In it lived all the divisions of the congregation. Of the log build- ing at the west end mention has been already made. The wing was next completed in 1751, its upper floor constituting the public place of worship (consecrated July 10th, of the same year), and the lower a common refectory. The centre was built as early as 1743; it contained a kitchen below and dwelling-rooms above. The portion to the right, which forms the third side of the square, was built at different times, a part in 1744 and a part in 1752. The latter stands on the corner of the square, and was originally intended for the young men or ' single brethren.' The extreme east wing dates back as far as 1773 (these two last mentioned are at present the houses for 'single sisters'). On the removal of the 'single brethren,' in 1748, to their new ' choir house' (the present old school building of the Young Ladies' Seminary), the entire eastern portion of the edifice was assigned to the young women or ' single sisters.' The erection of such spacious houses in a new country naturally led to strange and erroneous surmises on the part of per- sons who were unacquainted with the regulations upheld by the Brethren. The calumnious assertions that they were 'Papists in disguise' was impressed on the minds of many who, through igno- rance, recognized in these houses veritable representatives of monasteries and nunneries. In our own enlightened day there are those to be found whose imperfect acquaintance with the church of the United Brethren and that of Rome leaves them unable to dis- criminate between the usages, customs, and spirit of the two." 180 BETHLEHEM. The prominent features of the organization consummated on the 24th of June, 1742, and mentioned above, were — Firstly. An entire coincidence with the doctrines of the Moravian Church in Germany. Secondly. The like disposition of the sexes and various conditions of life into classes or "choirs," as was usual in the German congre- gations — who resided in separate houses, and each in charge of a special spiritual adviser. Thirdly. Keeping holy both Saturday and Sunday. This was a deviation from the custom of the Moravian Church in Germany, and was here introduced by Zinzendorff, as he held that the com- mand to keep holy the Sabbath did not apply to the Sunday; but as he reverenced the Sunday in commemoration of the resurrection of Christ, therefore he considered that Christians were under obli- gation to keep both, and abstain from all unnecessary secular em- ployments on both days* Fourthly. This feature was peculiar to Bethlehem. That after the example of the first church of Christians at Jerusalem, all the proceeds of labor were to be put into a common stock. This com- munist system was called "an economy." The doctrinal belief of the Moravians has always been a very undefined and unsettled one. They constantly avoid argument or dispute on these points. Their distinctive features are pre-emi- nently of a moral, practical, and social character, by which, indeed, they are widely distinguished from most other denominations. They profess to receive the Augsburg confession as the clearest statement of their belief, and hence, in absence of any creed of their own, they point to that as the one which comes nearest to their views. The chief doctrinal opinions are : They believe in the inspira- tion of the Scriptures, and their ample sufficiency and authority as * This resolution was strictly followed for some time, Tout on account of inter- fering with the secular employments of the Brethren, the custom gradually fell into disuse ; yet the principles upon which the resolution was founded were acknowledged by all to be correct and in accordance with a strict construction of the Bible command respecting the observance of the Sabbath. PECULIARITIES OF THE MORAVIANS. 181 the sole revelation of divine truth. They believe in the Trinity, and give great prominence to the history, nature, works, sufferings, and death of Christ. They carefully avoid abstruse argument on every topic of theology, and endeavor to make practical piety the principal aim of their teachings. They reject absolute predestina- tion, and they believe in a future state of rewards and punishments. The separation or keeping apart of the sexes has always (being a novelty), from the commencement of the renewed Brethren's Church, been a fruitful theme of comment. Persons outside the Moravian community have represented it as an institution similar to the usages of the Eoman Catholics, and the names of monasteries and nunneries to the Brethren's and Sisters' Houses were usu- ally applied. Curiosity prompting people to see for themselves, it follows, therefore, that almost every visitor at Bethlehem during the last hundred years has desired to be admitted into these houses, while the larger number of them (more particularly in the early part of that period) were not satisfied unless they had pried into every nook and corner, in order to satisfy or correct their suspi- cions. The good-natured Moravians patiently submitted to this annoyance (for such in reality it was).* The usual custom was to * From the earliest time three brethren had been appointed to attend to strangers visiting the town. The traveller, Chasteleux, mentions Nicholas Gar- rison as one ; another was John Bonn. This brother had been the steward at Christian's Spring for a number of years. His name appears already in 1762 as collector of taxes for Bethlehem township. Familiarly he was called Pappy Bonn. He was a great favorite with the young ladies at the Seminary. To him succeeded Francis Thomas. His name was as familiar as a household word to those persons who visited Bethlehem from 1788 to 1822. Daddy Thomas's office was to conduct visitors through the school ; to show them objects of interest in the town ; to carry letters to and from the post-office ; and to notify the principal of the school of the arrival of patrons with daughters or wards. His leisure permitted him to be present also at festivities and holiday enjoyments. He visited the school almost daily. In the capacity of letter carrier he was always welcome. How it pleased the old man, on entering the yard by the west gate with a budget on post-day, to be greeted from the windows by the impatient girls who anticipated his coming, and the accustomed joke made to their own cost and disappointment : " A letter for me, Daddy Thomas ?" " one for me ?" and " one for me ?" " And why not ?" he would reply, gravely handing the eager Miss one superscribed with her neigh- bor's name. "There, my dear!" "That's too bad, Daddy Thomas, you love to tease me." How friendly his manner, when escorting visitors through the house. His mirthful jests never tired by repetition, nor did his happy comments on the 182 BETHLEHEM. take the visitor into every apartment, which, in the case of the timid females (the single sisters) who were always busily employed at their work, was exceedingly indelicate, inasmuch as they were compelled to submit to being stared at by gentlemen as if they were creatures of another race, which produced many a blush of offended womanly modesty. Brethren's and Sisters' Houses were in themselves admirable retreats, where either males or females could economize their earn- ings with more ease than otherwise, and with no loss of the com- forts of life. The origin of these establishments was by a voluntary act of twelve single sisters, in Herrnhuth, in 1730, who combined to live together under one roof, and who agreed to devote their lives in serving the Lord, and receive no offer of marriage unless it were brought to them by one of the ministers of the congregation. The single brethren subsequently formed an association of somewhat similar character. These houses, being found to forward piety, were, therefore, established at Bethlehem, &c, and were greatly beneficial there, under the peculiar principles of organization which circumstances forced them to adopt. Mr. Spangenberg, during the greater part of the twenty years continuance at the " economy" (from 1742 to 1762), was the prime mover in and superintendent of the Moravian affairs in America. He was eminently qualified for performing the multifarious duties which devolved upon him, and amidst many difficulties and dan- gers, by an indomitable perseverance and well directed efforts, he carried his dear family (as he termed the association) through them all with an astonishing success. Spangenberg was an able man. To carry out his plans, he was aware that a combined effort was absolutely requisite. The Duke de Rochefoucault* properly re- appearance of objects and individuals in the room. " How well you look to-day, young ladies ! all pictures of health ! and here is your beautiful needle-work ! you can make the strawberries, but you can't eat them !" Thus, the old man became a universal favorite. Year after year he made new friends with succeeding genera- tions. He died in 1822, in the 90th year of his age. — Beth. Souvenir. * See his Travels through America. MORAL STATE OF THE GERMANS. 183 marks, "one single will animated the whole," and this will was centred in Spangenberg. The establishment of Moravian congregations in America had in view the single object of propagating the gospel among the Indians. To do so conveniently the lands were purchased, by which it was intended to give a place of refuge to such missionaries, who, by reason of age or other circumstances, were disabled from perform- ing efficient service. Bethlehem was neither more nor less than a missionary station. What has been done by the Moravian mission- aries, the confined limits of these notes will not permit us to recount. In fact, it is before the world in many other publications ; but we may venture to remark that they have performed a great deal more good in the missionary cause than any other church. That they were the pioneers in the good cause, is well known to all, and the success attending their labors may, in a great measure, be attri- buted to their perfect missionary system. " Communities" (the fundamental principles of which is com- monalty of property) have, in Pennsylvania, always proved failures. That this arrangement prospered for a time in Bethlehem, was owing to a cause not existing in other cases. It was the outside pressure that rendered it firm ; as soon as that pressure subsided, the compact loosened, and at length dissolved. The following is given in explanation : — Heinrich Muhlenberg, Schlatter, Zinzendorff and others, in de- scribing the moral and religious state of the Germans in Pennsyl- vania in 1742 to 1750, &c, all agree that there was a very general lack of both. In one passage, Muhlenberg remarks : " I could shed tears of blood over the poor Germans of Pennsylvania ; they are really fast verging towards a state of heathenism." His reports to Germany teem with such lamentations for his countrymen. Schlatter and Zinzendorff reiterate like sentiments. Spangenberg says it was usual to designate a person who professes no religion, that he was of the " Pennsylvania religion." The Germans, at the time of their emigrating to America, pos- sessed some degree of knowledge, and their settling upon the wilds 184 BETHLEHEM. of Pennsylvania, where there were no churches or schools within a distance of ten to twenty or more miles, the children, of course, grew up as uneducated as the Indians ; the grandchildren were, if possible, more in darkness; they retrograded more and more; therefore the inhabitants where the earliest settlements were made in Pennsylvania, as Berks, Lancaster, and York Counties, are even at the present time less informed than those of the same class in Northampton and Lehigh. Many persons of observation testify to this fact, and the school reports of 1857, &c, corroborate it also. Another cause (and probably the main one) that contributed to this effect, was the sudden appearance of this six hundred well educated and enlightened Moravians upon the stage of action in Northamp- ton County in 1742 to 1746. Such an occurrence has not taken place in any other of the United States, and the effect produced by six hundred intelligent persons, dropping, as it were,, from the clouds into a region of darkness such as is described by Muhlen- berg and others, may well be imagined. This " light set upon a hill," shedding abroad its refulgent rays, spread terror into the minds of those who came within its piercing effects. Their de- formity, heretofore obscured, became visible, and, consequently, this light was simultaneously attacked from every quarter. The German and the Irish population of the county, who previously had always met at daggers' points, were in this case united in depre- cating the intrusion. Both the Irish and the Germans, in their quarrels among themselves, after having exhausted their vocabu- lary of expletives, in describing a bad man, to cap the climax, were wont to add that such a one was as bad as a " d — d Herrnhutter." Spangenberg says that, " the Moravians dreaded the Irish more than the more savage Indians." As early as 1746, the Moravians had established fifteen schools in the camp of the enemy, where the children were taught gratis,, and frequently furnished with board and lodging. These schools were opened and continued very fre- quently under imprecations and threats, but when one door was closed against them, another was almost miraculously opened. The most prolific theme of remark, by persons outside of the MORAVIAN MARRIAGES. 185 Moravian connection, was the manner in which their marriages were arranged. That these were singular, cannot be denied, yet it does not follow that they were unreasonable, or do not admit of a favorable construction. Many queer accounts have been published respecting the attending circumstances, &c. For example, Lieu- tenant Anbury,* who, in the course of his travels, visited Bethlehem in 1778, says: "If a woman objects to marry a man proposed to her, she is put at the bottom of the list, which contains upwards of sixty or seventy, and the poor girl stands not the least chance of a husband till she arrives again at the top." Another account appeared in a Philadelphia newspaper, February, 1859, stating : " No man or woman knew who was to be the partner of his or her life, until the moment the indissoluble union took place. Some- times the blooming and beautiful maiden found herself tied to the object of her aversion and contempt, and so also the vigorous and athletic young man suddenly discovered that some feeble, deformed,, and sickly creature of the opposite sex had become his partner for life." This and similar stories are of course fabricated. Where- the latter writer (who appears to be a clergyman) met with these ideas, does not appear. The writer of this work was a member of the Moravian Church for nearly fifty years, and believes himself somewhat acquainted with these matters ; but as Benjamin Franklin inquired about it when in Bethlehem in 1756, we will listen to his statement :f "I inquired,"' says he, " concerning the Moravian marriages — whether it was true- that they were by lot ! I was told that lots were used only in par- ticular cases. That generally, when a young man found himself disposed to marry, he informed the elders of his class, who con- sulted the elder ladies that governed the young women. As these elders of the different sexes were well acquainted with the tempers and dispositions of their respective pupils, they could best judge what matches were suitable, and their judgments were generally acquiesced in. But if, for example, it should happen that two or * A British officer who had been taken prisoner by the Americans, f Jared Sparks' Life of Franklin, vol. i. p. 203. 13 186 BETHLEHEM. three young women were found to be equally proper for the young man, the lot was then recurred to. I objected, ' If the matches are not made by the mutual choice of the parties, some of them may chance to be very unhappy.' 'And so they may,' answered my informer, 'if you let the parties choose for themselves;' which, in- deed, I could not deny." This version is not very far from being correct, excepting that the lot was resorted to in all cases. There were other things taken into consideration besides those alluded to — such as the ability of the man to maintain a family, the ex- pediency of the marriage in regard to the society in general, which points were separately investigated by the conference (or secular tribunal), as well as some other matters by the clergy, assembled in the capacity of a conference. These things in many cases pre- vented the candidate for marriage from having his wishes gratified. It is not to be doubted but that the two hundred and nineteen single Moravian men on the list of 1756, residing in different parts of the county, would nearly all have been willing to marry, if no other impediments had existed. There being allowed only one married couple to each of the trades in the town, no other could be placed in the stead of the incumbent before his death, &c. More than one-half of the two hundred and nineteen, with all their willingness to marry, died bachelors; not from any choice of their own, but from necessity. It may be asked, " Why did they then remain with the society?"* The answer is this: Every Moravian, from 1742 to * From about the year 1800, the Moravian Society in the county of Northampton may date the commencement of their decline. The marriage restriction becoming unpopular, some left the connection. Those persons generally remained in the county, where by degrees the most of them rose to posts of honor. Wherever a Mo- ravian settled, his services, in all cases requiring educated persons, were brought into requisition, and it was by such means that society in general was benefited. As parties began to come in close connection with each other, prejudices were laid aside, and harmony encouraged. The clergy, with all their power, and by holding on to the purse strings, exerted themselves to the very utmost to retain the reins of government, but their influence over the minds of men became gradually weakened. Concessions were made from time to time to the growing power of the members, which, instead of satisfying them, rendered them more bold in demanding greater freedom, and which finally hastened the compromise of 1844, after which time the great hierarchy of the Moravian Church became to some extent subdued, but not overthrown or annihilated. MORAVIAN MARRIAGES. 187 1800, willingly submitted to every inconvenience rather than leave the society; for outside the society, he could never expect to have a friend. A runaway Moravian was in fact considered an unfit associate for any one ; he was kicked and cuffed by all outsiders, as well as despised by all Moravians, who looked upon him as one who was temporally and eternally lost. If he possessed any moral and religious feelings at his departure, he was hated and mocked by those outside, whom the Moravians called " the world." This is what we mean by the "outside pressure;" without it, the Moravian system of communism could not have existed for five years. The single men in the Moravian towns, who were largely in ex- cess of the other " choirs," were considered the bone and sinew of the society, and the experiment then making depended upon their work. Married persons could not be expected to be as useful, while other duties interfered. Spangenberg, writing to Germany for more colonists, always added, "send us strong and hearty young men," fitted to work on the farms, &c. Persons unacquainted with the system characterized the Moravian clergy as being unfa- vorable to the married state. This conjecture was erroneous. The 219 single men were, with few exceptions, very poor. If they had married, the erecting of the dwellings would have devolved upon the society, which it had not the means of doing, and, besides this, it would have destroyed the object which was had in view in making the settlements. To return. The keeping separate persons of opposite sexes was very strictly enforced, consequently the unmarried had very little knowledge of each other, and very frequently never heard each other's names previous to the marriage ceremony, or, at the farthest, but a few days before. The whole arrangement was left to the clergy. Sometimes it happened that an English woman was mar- ried to a German, neither of them being able to understand one word of the other's language. (The writer is acquainted with an old lady who spoke and could understand no other language but the English, and who married a German who did not know one word of English. They lived very happily together for many 188 BETHLEHEM. years.) It is very questionable whether by being deprived of the " courting season," in any degree detracts from the prospects of happiness in the married state. The writer has never heard of more than one case in which the Moravian method of marriage by lot has proved unfortunate, and the records of the county do not show that one suit for divorce has ever been entered during a whole century by any Moravian. This test speaks in favor of mar- rying by lot. The wedding ceremony was always performed in the church in the presence of the whole congregation. The first night after the wedding the newly married couple always slept in the minister's house. In connection with this, an Episcopal clergyman, who visited Bethlehem in 1799 (J. G. Ogden), says: "According to con- stant practice, single beds are used by unmarried persons. When a couple are united in holy wedlock, and become heads of a family, these two beds and bedsteads are placed so contiguous to each other that they are covered with a general blanket or counterpane. This outer covering designates the lodging of some married per- sons. It is convenient, in case of the sickness of either party, or the nursing of children. These bedsteads have head, foot, and side-boards." The married women were known by wearing a light blue silk ribbon as a cap tie under the chin. These caps were very close fitting, made of fine cambric, with a broad band of lawn around the forehead, to keep the cap down. In German it was called a schnepfen haube (snipe-bill cap), owing to the cut being in the shape of a snipe's bill. It remained in use until 1818, and notwithstanding the great exertions made at various synods in Germany, by the Ame- rican deputies, to be permitted to dispense with its use, it found so much favor with the clergy there, that it was continued ; and even in 1818 it required all the eloquence of the American deputies to be relieved of this absurd relic of antiquity. Great was the rejoic- ing among the Moravians in America when the clergy consented to grant the petition. Every female above twelve years old was MORAVIAN CHILDREN". 189 obliged to wear this symbol of Moravianism. Girls between the ages of 12 and 18 years, wore dark red ribbon as a tie; single women above 18 years of age, wore light pink ribbon, and widows a white ribbon. Most of the clergy of former days adhered to trifles in dress •with as much tenacity as if the salvation of the people depended upon them. The current fashions were avoided for such a length of time that Moravian females, with their oddities, became the laughing- stock of all around them. This cap assisted, in a great measure, to preserve the Moravian exclusiveness, being the badge that every sister was distinguished by. At the commencement of the nine- teenth century some began secretly to lay it off when on a visit to cities, or elsewhere abroad. During the continuance of the "economy," from 1742 to 1762, the fathers and mothers being constantly at work,* their children were taken from them (sometimes when not even one year old) and kept in large houses (or nurseries), where they were cared for by old or disabled brethren and sisters. These children were also put to work early. Spangeuberg tells us that they could spin and pick wool when they were four years old. Great care was taken to keep the children free from everything that had the least semblance of evil, and therefore they were not allowed to come in contact with persons whose associations were of a worldly character, but were brought up in all purity and holiness. They were not allowed to be out of the sight of those under whose charge they were, and even during the hours of recreation the supervision was not the less strict. The boys were in nowise allowed to associate with the girls; every precaution was taken to keep them separated, and a transgression was always followed by its appropriate punishment. Children, on arriving at the age of twelve, were transferred from the nursery to the sisters' house and the brethren's house, where they were taught trades of various kinds. At that age they were formally received into the boys' or great girls' " choirs." The great * Married persons met together only once or twice a week. The brother lived in the men's house and the sister in the women's house. For some years there was a lack of dwelling-houses. 190 BETHLEHEM. girls had their rooms separate from the single sisters, and contained from 10 to 12 in each room, and were under the charge of their spiritual adviser, who was a single sister, in whom the clergy had confidence, as also under the more immediate supervision of another elderly sister in each room, who watched all their movements ; and every word uttered by them, a laugh, or even a smile, received an interpretation ; and it may be said with truth, these superintendents became acquainted with their " almost every thought." This sister was under obligations to make a daily report to the spiritual adviser, who reported her observations every week to the clergyman under whose charge they were more immediately placed. The clergy of the different " choirs" met weekly to confer on the reports of each "choir." Nothing remained unknown or unobserved. In church, the females sat on one side and the males on the other. The clergy placed themselves in front, facing the congregation, together with all their assistants, or those that in anywise had supervision over any of the " choirs." Thus they could observe any deviation from the rules. If perchance one of the great girls or single sisters (those above 18 years old) should be caught in a look towards the men's side, she was, immediately after service, cited to appear before her superior and sharply taken to account for the misdemeanor ; but if this did not suffice, she was brought before the assemblage of the clergy, and was there sentenced to be punished and degraded before the whole sisterhood. After several weeks of contrite con- duct, she could hope for absolution. The great girls had no per- mission to walk out into the village unless accompanied by one or the other of her superiors ; and if, on passing a male, she should unconsciously look at him, a severe reprimand was sure to follow. Walks along the Lehigh Eiver or other localities were generally taken on Sunday afternoons, when they were obliged to walk two by two, attended by the superiors ; the young brethren likewise walked out at the same time, attended by their superiors : and the precaution was used that if the sisters went eastwardly, the breth- ren's orders were to go westwardly ; for both to walk in the same direction or vicinity was strictly forbidden, for fear of meeting each INTERCOURSE BETWEEN THE SEXES PROHIBITED. 191 other. If by some unforeseen accident a meeting of a sister and brother could not be avoided, the orders were that they should both look downwards or sideways, to avoid the sin fraught with such great danger to their souls. Bidding the time to each other was consequently strictly forbidden. A brother had at one time so far transgressed this rule as to greet a sister with a "good morning," at which the sister became so much frightened that the blood rushed up and crimsoned her cheeks, and after arriving at home she was indisposed for some time. It is said, however, that she outlived the occurrence. In conversation together, the sisters were forbidden to mention the name of any of the male sex (excepting the clergyman), even the name of a brother was not exempted from this restriction ; every thought of the male sex was endeavored to be eradicated. No sister would have dared to walk along the pavement in front of the Brethren's House, and no brother was at liberty to extend his walk to the neighborhood of the Sisters' House. An infringe- ment was sure to be followed by punishment, or even the threat of the "consilium ab eundi." Among many other ridiculous absurdi- ties was the washing process. The habiliments of the male and female were not permitted to be put promiscuously into the tub, as it was considered by the clergy that the contact they were sub- jected to encounter might prove dangerous to the virtue of the wearers ; and it is a well known fact that the timid sister of 1742 to 1764, would have shrunk from or recoiled at touching anything that had been handled by a male, for fear of contamination. It is true that the females, through this absurd training, were not only kept in pristine simplicity and innocence, but likewise in total ignorance. All letters written or received passed the inspection of the supe- riors. Governor Denny on one occasion having appointed Bethlehem as the meeting place of the Indians and commissioners, to negotiate the treaty in 1757, Mr. Spangenberg strongly protested against it, for fear that the brethren and sisters by coming in contact with so 192 BETHLEHEM. many people might peradventure receive harm to their souls. The treaty (in consequence of this opposition) was held at Baston. Most frightful ideas were inculcated into the minds of the young of both sexes in regard to people outside the congregation, called "the world." A threat of being sent away from the congregation struck terror to the heart of the inexperienced Moravian. This threat was used with much success by the clergy until about the commencement of the present century, when it began to fail in its effects, and it was the great bugbear by which the system was upheld. The following acknowledgment of errors in the Moravian Church will answer this question fully; and coming from the oldest and yet living bishop of the Moravians, deserves due credit. Mr. Benade has always been considered as a true and honest Christian, but it appears that he taught false doctrines, which he herein recants :* — It appears proper that I should, in this place, make a few personal ohservations. Born and educated in the Brethren's Church, I was engaged in the service of the same in various ways and places for nearly sixty years. During all this time I believed and taught what the Brethren's Church believes and teaches. About eight years ago I retired from active service in the Church, and, during this period of my retirement my time has been chiefly devoted to reading and studying the sacred Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, to the end that I might see the truth, and, by the grace of God, might think, and speak, and act according to it, and with the prayer that the Lord would himself lead me by His Spirit into all truth. This study of the Bible has proved of immense value to me. Many, many portions of Holy Writ, which had remained dark and inexplicable, have become clear and open in the unfolding of their true sense. New views and convictions concerning the true nature of Christianity have been given me ; and I have learnt to know better, and to perceive more clearly what the true but invisible church of Jesus Christ is, and what the so-called Christian churches are, as recognized by different names in visible Christendom. Thus, also, have I obtained a different view of the Brethren's Church, which convictions are the result alone of the teachings of the Word and of the Spirit of truth. And since I do verily believe that the idea which has hitherto obtained in the Brethren's Church, in reference to the Eldership of Jesus, is both erroneous and injurious, I cannot otherwise than desire that it should be entirely removed from the mind and thought of the whole church. I would ask, what but the notion that Jesus Christ was himself the Chief Elder of the Brethren's Church — a notion which has no ground whatever in the Word of God, but is an addition made by men, and forbidden, Deut. iv. 2, and Rev. xxii. 18 — and that for this reason the Brethren's Church enjoyed His special and immediate leading and guidance, could have induced such a declaration as * Extract from a printed pamphlet directed to the Provincial Synod, of which Mr. Benade was a member. ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF ERRORS. 193 the following, that we can say with entire truth — " We surely are a work of His own hand, and can clearly perceive how He has ruled us as His people from the first!" Synodal Results of 1848, par. 12, p. 29 — an assumption which is not war- ranted and justified by the true state of the Brethren's Church during the various periods of its existence, and more especially by its condition at the present time. Too long has this unscriptural doctrine of the Eldership of Jesus upheld in the minds of men, both within and without the church, so exalted an idea of it, that many in their simplicity have imagined that if they were so fortunate as to belong to such a church, and to have their names inscribed upon its books as members, they might regard themselves as already in the outer courts of heaven, and secure of their salvation, and on that account have forgotten to make sure their calling and election, and so have a care that their names were written in heaven. (Luke x. 20.) Too long has this doctrine been the means of nourishing and sustaining a spiritual pride in the Brethren's Church, which has caused it to look down with contempt upon other churches, and has induced the belief and remark, at least in times past, that those who did not belong to them were necessarily of the world, and therefore must be lost with those who are of the world. Such are some of the sad consequences of the Church's aberration from the letter and spirit of the sacred Scriptures. Therefore should we reflect whence we are fallen, and do such work of repentance, that the infinite value and divine authority of the precious Word of God might come to be fully recognized and acknowledged throughout the Brethren's Church. This Church is in a very critical position at the present time, being like unto " a house which is divided against itself, and therefore cannot stand." (Matt, xii. 25.) The differences of opinion, however, which divide the Brethren now do not relate to fundamental articles of Christian doctrine, faith, or life, but to matters of which the one has a merely imaginary value, and the other is of no essential importance. A church heretofore united, although its several provinces have been situated in various countries of the world, should not be brought into disunion by any non-essentials, but should rather humble itself before the Lord, acknowledge and confess its backslidings and errors, and pray to Him that if its continued existence be according to His will, it may be built up and anew united in that ivhich is the chief and better part, upon the ground of the apostles and prophets, of ivhich Christ is the chief Corner-Stone. In conclusion, I may be permitted to express the fervent desire that the Breth- ren's Church, and all other churches, may regard as the first and highest object of their strivings, and as the privilege most specially to be sought after, the coming of the kingdom of God to them, and its manifestation in their life, as a kingdom, which is righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost (Rom. xiv. 17), so that through them, by works of love to God (1 John v. 3), by works of charity towards the neighbor (1 Cor. xiii. 13), the one and true Church of Jesus Christ may be more widely spread throughout the whole earth. ANDREW BENADE. Bethlehem, August 9, 1856. The experiment by the Moravians of preventing intercourse be- tween the sexes was an unnatural restriction, uncalled for by the laws of God or man. It was carrying a precaution for prevention of evil to an unwarrantable extreme, for nature never intended such a separation as was exemplified by them; and even admitting 194 BETHLEHEM. that "prevention is better than cure," yet conduct founded upon such principles altogether would entail upon us far more harm than good. If the secret results of the operation of this unnatural ex- periment had been exposed to view, it would have been discarded many years previous to the time of its actual abandonment. The sys- tem prior to 1762 had become so unpopular that a partial alteration then took place, and its continuance is to be ascribed solely to the fanatical hierarchy of the then Moravian Church. The Moravians were always fond of music ; both males and females sang anthems, and here the precaution of preventing both sexes to come too near each other was also used. The males were placed at one end of the church, and the females at the other. To show that Moravian females even in the nineteenth century were not much acquainted with the world at large, a lady mentioned to the writer that she had never heard an oath (and then on shipboard by sailors), until she was seventeen years old, in 1825. We may readily suppose that many lived a much longer time, and died without having heard God's name taken in vain. The single men, of course, could not be so strictly guarded ; their employments necessarily brought them more in contact with per- sons who were not Moravians, yet every possible avenue was care- fully closed by which that contact would be deleterious to them. Whenever it could be done, the older and more trustful brethren transacted all the business ; their duty was to watch all others, and in case of any deviation immediately report the same to the clergy. In the evening no young man, under any circumstance, could leave the Brethren's House, unless attended by an elder; and if by some chance he was found speaking to a young sister, both parties were sent away from the congregation instanter, and it was generally considered that they were lost both for time and eternity.* The writer's sentiments in regard to Moravians are so well * About the year 1815, the Brethren's House had lost all of the original design of its organization. The young brethren could not be held any longer under the control of the existing rules. These rules were openly transgressed by the whole brotherhood. The clergy were defied to apply the " consilium ab eundi," which formerly had been so unsparingly applied. The clergy, by various means, endea- FORMATION OF BETHLEHEM TOWNSHIP. 195 expressed by the author of the revised edition of Chasteleux's Travels, in 1827, that the passage is copied. " The Moravians are a set of Christians, so distinguished hy the purity of their manners, the scrupulous morality of their principles, and the virtuous and bene- volent effects of their doctrines and examples, that children of the most rigid of other denominations are sent to them for education. If sectarians are driven by the violence of despotic governments into extreme fanaticism, it is not so in a country where ' error of opinion may be safely tolerated when reason is left free to combat it.' In the United States, where no separate church or denomination is established by law, many of the singularities and asperities of the heterodox per- suasions or sects have vanished before the liberty of discussion, the friendly inter- change of opinion, and the harmony of social intercourse. Many of the rites and practices formerly imputed to the strange schismatics which spring up in every country where they are permitted to exist, are now matters of recollection only, and no part of the present faith and practice." On the 10th of March, 1746, the following petition was presented to the Bucks County Court for the formation of Bethlehem Town- ship, viz: — To the Honorable the Court now met together in Newtown : The Humble Petition of the Inhabitants of Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Gnadenthal, in Bucks County, sheweth : That your petitioners being desirous of settling a town- ship to be also called Bethlehem, between the east and west branches of the river Delaware ; and whereas, there will be more townships in the forks of said river, that each of them may have a proper share of barren land for the use of roads, as well as of good land ; therefore, Your petitioners humbly request this Honorable Court will grant them liberty to have their said township line run in breadth east and west about seven miles, across the Managers' Creek, and in length about nine or ten miles towards the Blue Mountains. And your petitioners shall thankfully acknowledge the same. Signed, Henry Antes, Frederick Cammerhoff, J. Spangenberg, Nathaniel Seidel, Christoph. Pyrleus, George Neiser, John Brownfield, J. Okely, Jasper Payne, Sam. Powell, Jas. Burnside, Joseph Powell. Mathias Weiss, The petition was read, and it was agreed that they might have a township ; but it was not surveyed before 1762, when it was done by George Grolkowsky. It appears from the following petition vored to recall some of them to a sense of duty, under the impression that by accomplishing this they could retain their power over them, and by sending a few refractory ones from the congregation the revolt could be quelled ; but this not succeeding, the Brethren's House was abolished in Bethlehem, and the Boarding- School took possession of the Brethren's House in 1815. In Nazareth, also, soon after, the Brethren's House was discontinued, and the building rented to private families. The abolishment of these houses had become a matter of necessity. 196 BETHLEHEM. that no taxes had been paid before 1746, and then not more than seven pounds per annum. After the formation of Northampton County, a tax was assessed on the single men, of nine shillings each, which increased the taxes of the Moravians very much, as they had such a large number of single men among them. This gave rise to a petition to the Assembly. Wm. Edmonds was elected for the purpose of carrying the matter through the Assembly; he, however, signally failed. The petition of 1759 is for the same purpose ; this also failed. There are some very odd arguments used by Spangenberg in the petition. On the 28th of March, 1759, a petition was presented to the Assembly by Wil- liam Edmonds, in behalf of the United Brethren residing at Bethlehem, and other parts of their settlement in the County of Northampton, setting forth That the said Brethren have paid, for several years past, great taxes for the sun- dry large tracts of land which they occupy in six several contiguous townships in the said county, for the valuable improvements they have made thereon, and for the considerable stock of cattle they have raised, for the trades they exercise, but particularly and chiefly on account of the number of single men among them ; that the said lands, goods and chattels are encumbered by mortgages, and other ways, by means whereof the yearly revenue of the said estate is much lessened, and, nevertheless, the said lands, in comparison with other lands, goods and chattels in this province, are rated to the highest value they could possibly bear ; that the Brethren settled on the said lands have, at this time, four hundred and twenty-eight youth, from one and under, up to the age of sixteen years, besides one hundred and thirty-four persons employed in " attending and educating them." From which great number, supported at the charge of the said estate, very little labor can be expected ; that the Brethren likewise maintain a consider- able number of widows, superannuated and sick persons, the township never having been required to contribute anything towards the expense of the poor amongst them ; that the whole economy of the said Brethren is an institution of charity, intended for the promotion of the Gospel in America, not only among the white people, who want instruction, but also among the negroes and savages ; that many of their community are actually now employed in this and other provinces as ministers and schoolmasters, besides some as missionaries to the negroes, all prin- cipally at the charge of the said economy, and that these, and other necessary expenses, are borne, for the most part, by the labor of the single men amongst them, who receive no wages for their work, and cannot pay a poll-tax for them- selves ; which tax has therefore hitherto been paid out of the common stock of the said economy, over and above the taxes the said lands and goods are charged with ; that the petitioner, on behalf of the Brethren, apprehends that by the laws for laying the said taxes, the single men in the said economy are liable to the payment of the said poll-tax, and ask if they cannot, in consideration of the premises, be relieved by a proper act for that purpose. The petitioner therefore prays the House will be pleased to give the said Breth- ren an opportunity of laying a true state of their property before them, and of being heard thereon; -whereby the House may be enabled to form a better judg- LETTER FROM REV. MR. SPANGENBERG. 197 ment of the grievance complained of, and afford such redress as the particular circumstances of the single men in the said community may appear to require. This petition was laid on the table, but taken up on the 30th of March, and, after a hearing being given to Wm. Edmonds in sup- port of the claim, the question was taken on it, when the petition was unanimously negatived. The following letter, from Mr. Spangenberg to Governor Denny, is in reply to a request made by the latter for statistics, &c. of the Moravian brotherhood: — LETTER FROM REV. MR. SPANGENBERG TO GOVERNOR DENNY. * Bethlehem, November 29, 1756. May it please your honor: These are to return to your honor our most humble thanks for the favor of so kind a visit of your honor at Bethlehem. As we are a people more used to the country than to cities, we hope your honor will excuse what may have been amiss. So much I can say, and this from the bottom of my heart, that your honor's person and place or station is sacred unto us. We all do wish unanimously that your honor may prosper and meet with a blessed success in all undertakings for the good of this province. Mr. Horsefield having told us that your honor wants a complete catalogue of all men, women, and children belonging to our economy, I have ordered one to be made, and have added some memorandums or observations, which I suppose will give you a clear idea thereof, f I recommend myself and all my brethren who live in this province, again in your, honor's protection. As for our circumstances, we are at a loss how to act with those Indians that come out of the woods and want to stay at Bethlehem. They are very troublesome guests, and we should be glad to have your honor's orders about them. Our houses are full already, and we must be at the expenses of building winter houses for them if more should come, which very likely will be the case, according to the account we have from them who are come. And then another difficulty arises viz., we hear that some of our neighbors are very uneasy at our receiving such murdering Indians, for so they style them. We, therefore, I fear, shall be obliged to set watches to keep off such of the neighbors who might begin quarrels with or hurt any of them. Now we are willing to do anything that lays in our power for the service of that province where we have enjoyed sweet peace for several years past. But we want your honor's orders for every step we take, and we must humbly beg not to be left without them. The more so, as we have reason to fear that somehow an Indian may be hurt or killed, which would certainly breed new troubles of war. We had * Penna. Archives. f For want of space the names of the inhabitants are here omitted ; their num- bers were as follows : — 157 married couples . . 314 219 single men . . 219 288 children .... 288 67 single women . 67 14 widows with 16 children . 30 17 widowers with 18 " . 35 953 persons. 198 BETHLEHEM. least a case last week that some one fired at an Indian of Bethlehem, but a little way from Bethlehem, in the woods. I hope Mr. Horsefield will give your honor a particular account thereof, and so I will add no more. SPANGENBERG. MEMORANDUMS OF SPANGENBERG. 1. Bethlehem contains a certain religious society intended for the furtherance of the Gospel as well among the heathens as Christians. 2. Forty-eight of the above-mentioned brethren and sisters are actually employed for that purpose among the heathen, not only on the continent of America, as Pennsylvania, New England, Berbice, Surinam, &c, but also on several islands, as St. Thomas, St. Cruz, Johns, Jamaica, &c. 3. Besides those mentioned just now, there are fifty-four of them employed in Pennsylvania, New York, New England, Jersey, and Carolina governments in preaching of the Gospel, keeping of schools, and the like; 4. Sixty-two of them are merely employed in the education of our children at Bethlehem and Nazareth as attendents and tutors. 5. Forty-five single men and eight couples of married people are gone to Caro- lina governments to make a new settlement there, and fifty more who have come for that end from Europe will go there soon, 6. There are seventy-two of the above-mentioned brethren in holy orders, viz., four bishops, twelve ordinaries (priests), and the rest deacons, and as many acotu- chi, who are preparing for the ministry in the congregation, and now and then are made use of like deacons. 7. About ninety of the children at Bethlehem and Nazareth have their parents abroad, mostly on the Gospel's account. 8. Four hundred and twenty-five of those in the foregoing list are under age. 9. Not all who are named in this catalogue live in Bethlehem township, but some in Saucon, some in Lisby, and some in another township adjoining Bethlehem township. 10. There are eighty-two Indians besides those young Indian women who live with our young women, and besides the savages, who are going and coming, and staying longer or shorter with us. SPANGENBERG. The " economy," or the system of common property, which was instituted in 1742, was discontinued in 1762. The property which the congregation was in possession of in 1763 was the following:* — Bethlehem, Allen, and Lower Saucon townships . . 3700 acres. Nazareth tract . . . . . 5000 " Friedensthal tract . . . . . 260 " 8960 Cleared on Nazareth tract .... 1223 do. Bethlehem tract . . . . . 532 do. Allen and Lower Saucon tract . . 500 2257 acres. Cleared about 110 acres per year, for 20 years. 300 head of cattle ; of these about 200 were at Christian's Spring, Gnadenthal, Nazareth, and Friedensthal, and 100 at Bethlehem. * Assessment lists. SINGLE MEN". 199 22 horses, principally at Christian's Spring, &c. 20 sheep. 1 grist-mill at Bethlehem, 1 grist-mill at Christian's Spring, 1 grist-mill at Fried- ensthal, 2 tavern-houses (Bethlehem and the Rose), oil and fulling mills, saw-mills, one store at Bethlehem, tanyard, hlacksmithery, nail smithery, stocking weaver, chandlery, pottery, bakery, apothecary, &c, and private dwellings, the large stone "old row" at Bethlehem, the Brethren's house, hall at Nazareth, other large stone buildings at Nazareth, Gnadenthal, Christian's Spring, &c, together with a number of barns, stables, &c. &c. Soon after the dissolution of the " economy," part of the houses, &c. were sold to individuals, from 1762 to 1763, as follows : — Abraham Andres, Silversmith, 1 house. John Okely, Scrivener, 1 house. Thomas Fisher, 1 " Abraham Trainer, Smith, 1 " Henry Krausse, Butcher, 1 " Andrew Shober, Mason, 1 " Gottleib Lange, Saddler, 1 " Anthony Smith, Locksmith, 1 " In the succeeding twenty years, from 1762 to 1782, the following houses were erected by the persons named : — AT BETHLEHEM. Andrew Borheck, Weaver, 1 house. George Shindler, Carpenter, 1 house. William Boehler, Wheelwright, 1 " Francis Thomas, Joiner, 1 " Ludwig Huebner, Potter, 1 " Dewalt Kornman, Skindresser, 1 " Daniel Kunkler, Shopkeeper, 1 " IN NEW NAZARETH. John Beitel, about 1774, &c, Breeches maker, 1 house Jacob Christ, Hatter, 1 " Melchior Christ, Nailer, 1 " Charles Culvert, Bricklayer, 1 " Jacob Eyerly Smith, 1 " Frederick Dancke, Shoemaker, 1 " Adam Erd, Farmer, 1 " August H. Franke, 1 " Andrew Kindig, Farmer, 1 " In Schceneck, George Clauss.* 1 " Also erected by the society 1 store and tavern and other buildings in New Naza- reth : the store was kept by John Youngberg, the tavern by Michael Moering. In 1756 there were 219 single men at the different places, viz. : Bethlehem, Christian's Spring, Old Nazareth, Gnadenthal, and Friedensthal. These numbers were greatly reduced after the disso- lution of the Communist System in 1762. In 1764 there were only * Clauss erected this house of brick about 1780. It was the first brick house erected in the county, and is yet standing in the village, about one mile from Nazareth. John Lesher, Miller, 1 house, John Smith, Baker, 1 u Melchior Smith, Tinker, 1 u August Schloesser, Saddler, 1 a Peter Worbas, Carpenter, 1 it John Dealing, Silversmith ,1 u William Henry, (1780), Armorer, 1 ti Joseph Otto, Physician, 1 u 200 BETHLEHEM. one hundred and fourteen remaining, and in 1782 the number was further reduced to thirty-nine. The first and second houses in Bethlehem have been referred to previously, as well as those others in the "old row" in Church Street, &c. In 1743, the grist and saw-mills at the Monocacy were built, and also the fulling and oil mills a few years subsequent to this. In a petition for a road from Saucon mill (erected by Jede- diah Irish in 1738, near the mouth of the creek of that name) through Bethlehem to Nazareth, the want of the road is stated to be for the purpose of getting to the Bethlehem corn-mill. The petition is dated March, 1744. Grain was not to be had in the neighborhood of Bethlehem at the time of the arrival of the Moravians. For several years they were obliged to get their supplies from Tulpehocken, in Berks County, about fifteen miles above Beading. The principal millwright employed in the building of the Mora- vian mills at Bethlehem, Christian's Spring, and Friedensthal, was Christian Christianson, a Moravian brother from Denmark ; he also was the projector of the water-works in Bethlehem, in 1750. It was the practice not to admit more than one person of any trade or occupation in Bethlehem and Nazareth, and other Moravian towns in the United States; and this system was pursued until 1828, with a view to prohibit rivalry. For this reason there was also only one store and tavern in each place. The stores and taverns and several other branches or trades continued to be owned and carried on by the Society, until the last branch was finally sold a few years ago. The last was the Sun Hotel, at Bethlehem, sold about 1848. The agents who attended to these separate concerns since 1762, received a yearly compensation of from three to four hundred dollars, exclusive of some other privileges, such as the education of their children, a yearly stipend in old age, &c* The first tavern was the " Crown," built in 1743, near the * During eighty or more years there were probably hundreds of agents acting in this capacity, in which they had in charge large amounts of moneys ; but there never has been more than one or two cases of a misapplication of funds or viola- tion of trust, and even now there is in the hands of irresponsible persons near a THE "SUN" TAVERN. 201 Lehigh bridge, on the south side of the river. This house was re- moved several years ago, to make place for the North Pennsylvania Kailroad Depot. In 1763, Ephraim Culver was both the ferryman and landlord. " In those days of loyalty to the house of Brunswick it bore the crown of George the Second on the panel of the south door, the main entrance to this humble host- elry. Here the horseman emerging from miles of lonely forest, would rein up his beast, and enjoy the frugal hospitalities of the house : a breakfast of tea or coffee at four pence ; dinner at six pence, and with a pint of beer eight pence ; supper at four pence, or, if hot, six pence ; lodgings at two pence ; night's hay and oats for his horse at twelve pence." — Beth. Souvenir. In 1782, Valentine Fuehrer kept the tavern, and Massey Warner was ferryman. In 1794, on the completion of the bridge,* the tavern was converted into a farm-house. "In July, 1754, the expediency of erecting a house of entertainment for travellers on this side the river was considered, and the spot on which the 'Sun' now stands was selected, as being without the limits of the settle- ment. "f This house was not finished before 1759 or 1760. The first license was granted by the June court of the latter year, upon the petition of Mathew Schropp, the warden of the congregation. In 1768, it is found in the assessment rated at £13 4s. ($35.20), paying $2.65 tax.J In 1777, Just Johnson was the landlord of the "Sun." million of dollars belonging to the Society, without any security given. This fact speaks louder in favor of religion, or the truth of it, than anything else could do, for, "By their acts ye shall know them." * This bridge was incorporated in 1792. It was the first bridge over the Lehigh River. It remained uncovered. At the high freshet of January 8, 1841, it was carried off by the flood. Another was erected the same year. f Bethlehem Souvenir. % " The 20th June, 1760, the license was granted for retailing spirituous liquors at this house, being in the 33d year of the reign of the Sovereign Lord, George the Second, by the grace of God, King of Great Britain, France, Ireland, &c, upon a petition by Mathew Schropp, warden of the Moravian congregation of Bethlehem." — Sessions Docket On the 20th June, 1860, a century since its erection will have passed. The present proprietor, James Leibert, will probably by a public demonstration of the event celebrate the day. There are many things incident to this ancient building that should not be forgotten. Under its portals have entered our beloved Wash- ington, John Adams, and almost every other President of the United States, not omitting James Buchanan, our present Chief Magistrate. Nearly all of those patriots who signed the Declaration of Independence have been in it. The greater number of the Generals of the Revolution. Dukes from France and Peers of England have dined or supped here. Most persons of note in the United States have graced it 14 202 BETHLEHEM. Upon making application to the court for a renewal of his license, it was granted upon condition that he take the oath of allegiance. This, however, he refused to do at that time. He, with sixty-eight other Moravians, took this test oath in 1786, after the battles were won and independence declared. This man was almost "a host" in himself, having had the reputation of being very strong and powerful. A certain iron master in Lancaster County, named Curtis Grubb, a great bully and lighter, attracted to Bethlehem by Brother John- son's reported strength, appeared one day at the "Sun," and endea- vored to provoke him to battle for some time without effect. At last the peaceable man, being outrageously abused whilst standing on the front porch (on the sides of which was an iron railing), took hold of Grubb's breech and coat-collar, and landed him on the pavement over the banisters, saying, in half English and half German language, "God bless meiner soul, I drows you over de gelender" (God bless my soul, I throw you over the banisters). Grubb, finding that he had found his match, became satisfied, and very pleasantly told him the object of his visit. In later times the " Sun" tavern became noted as the head-quar- ters of the famous land speculator, Nicholas Kraemer, of Allentown, Pa., who held his weekly courts in it during many years (from 1800 to 1817). This man bought and sold lands at exorbitant prices. Sellers and buyers sometimes met here by scores and hundreds. His purchases were made with a promptness that was astonishing. If offered a tract of land, such was his knowledge of the country, that he at once knew its value, and bought or refused it without any further circumlocution or bargaining ; and thus also in a sale he demanded a price, from which he never deviated. He was entirely uneducated, and could not write his name or make a figure; yet he had attained such a proficiency of calculating pro- bable loss or gain, that a few minutes sufficed for a nice calculation. His profuseness was proverbial; on his court day he paid all ex- witli their presence. It is one of the most famous hostelries in all the land, and though much improved and modernized, has still enough about it to remind all beholders of the good old times when houses were fortresses, as much designed for protection from without as for comfort within. LETTER FEOM WILLIAM EDMONDS. 203 penses, occasionally amounting to hundreds of dollars in one day. His bills at the "Sun" were thousands of dollars per year. The disarrangement of money matters in 1817 finally ruined him, and he died very poor. The first store was kept by William Edmonds,* who commenced in a small stone house (which is still standing in Market Street near the residence of Ernst F. Bleck, Esq.) in 1753. In the assessment of 1763 it is valued at £8 ($21 33). Edmonds was an English- man ; he came to America in 1743, with Okely and others, and in * The annexed letter gives an idea of the difficulties encountered in travelling from Bethlehem to New York, one hundred years ago. The relater was William Edmonds, the storekeeper in Bethlehem, as well as the representative in the Assembly from Northampton County. Mr. Edmonds, in addressing the clergymen of the Moravian Society, in great humility says : — " Bethlehem, February 13, 1759. " My Dear Brethren : Without losing more time, I will relate herein my late misfortune to you. In preparing for my journey to New York, I put up a three pound New York bill and some Jersey bills, old and new, amounting together to j£6 13s. 6d., which I noted down. Of these, I took the good ones and put them in my pocket-book to bear the expenses, but left the large York bill and some Jersey bills to be put in the saddle-bags. My wife put them in as they were, in the brown paper, but I never noted the separation down. We hurried a little too soon from Brunswick, lest the ice should melt, as it thawed that day, and before the tide was much fallen ; though I would have waited, but we wanted to reach the saddler at Elizabethtown that day. We were both concerned, and went twice over the ice to view it, before we took the horses on. But what shall I say : there were several lads there acting as pilots, to one of whom I gave my horse to lead, and went myself behind the pack-horse and Vanderbilt's, to drive them on. After a while, the boy stood still with the horse about twenty or thirty yards on the ice, where he broke through. I immediately ran to him. When he got his fore feet on the ice, it broke down again, so I supported his head by the bridle, that the stream did nor carry him under, and set the boy to loosen the bags, but at last the strap broke off the girth, and Brother Horsefield gave the other horses to boys, and, slipping the crupper, got off the saddle, and I got him to hard ice, where I got on. But the saddle-bags had water in them, which I did not turn out till we came off the ice, and then we proceeded that day, and next at Vanderbilt's I searched the bags in order to dry the things. My shoes were in paper, and in the bags I found a piece of paper cleaved to the side, which I threw on the floor with- out examining, and the next morning set off without examining my linen, where I thought the money to be, and at New York 1 my first sorrow began, which I told Brother Gottlieb . Now, what shall I say ? I have no cash to pay the loss just now, but will do it when the Lord helps me, your poor brother, "WILLIAM EDMONDS." 1 The loss was probably $10 to $12. The journey from Bethlehem to New York consumed four days. 204 BETHLEHEM. 1755 was elected the representative in the Assembly for Northamp- ton County, and again from 1770 to 1774. It appears from some papers that a single brother named Oberlin wished to have this lucrative situation, and thereby occasioned considerable trouble to Edmonds in endeavoring to advance his own interest. The show window, once hung with powder-horns, shot-pouches, rifles and baskets, is yet recognized by its dimensions. The new store was built about 1784, Christian R. Heckenwelder being then the storekeeper. That building now forms part of the Eagle Hotel (Mr. Yohe's). For many years Owen Rice, Sr., and subsequently Owen Rice, Jr., was the storekeeper. About 1822 the store was removed to the building in which Augustus Wolle & Co. have their store. Mr. Wolle purchased the remaining stock on hand from the Society in 1838, and kept the store on his own account. The only apothecary store in Bethlehem was in the house at present owned and occupied by Mr. Rau, and used now for the same purpose. Dr. Matthew Otto was the first apothecary in Beth- lehem and in the county, and commenced his laboratory about 1745. The medicines prepared here were chiefly sent to Phila- delphia, their superior qualities recommending them to the physi- cians in that city. The profit arising from this business was the greatest of all the various branches carried on in the village, and is said to have yielded annually from $800 to $1000 clear of ex- penses. In 1782, Timothy Horsefield appears as the apothecary. Subsequently Eberhard Freitag for many years occupied this post. Other trades were carried on in Bethlehem. Among the most lucrative were the fulling-mill, tannery, and pottery. These were all established soon after the commencement of the town in 1742, and being the first establishments of the kind in the county, some of their customers were from a great distance. The cloth worn in the country was made by the farmers as soon as they had a stock of sheep. No imported cloth was worn. The tannery used no other than country hides. Every farmer killed one or more head of cattle per year ; their hides were taken to Bethlehem, and tanned for a fixed price per pound. By a law TKADES AND PKOFESSIONS. 205 then in force, tanners were under obligation to perform the tanning well, to dress the skins properly, cutting off a certain portion of flank, &c. &c. There were several inspectors of hides and leather ap- pointed to guard the farmer from imposition on the part of the tan- ners, who were subject to fines and penalties if the leather was not tanned perfectly. So also the farmer was liable to a fine if the hide was damaged when brought to the tannery. The price of shoes was fixed at six shillings and sixpence for men's, and five shillings for women's, per pair. The kind of leather used was also prescribed — what part of the hide to be taken from, and how much of the flank was to be used, and what kind of thread was to be taken for the sewing. Pottery, for many years carried on by Lewis Huebner, was a very lucrative trade in Bethlehem, and in 1782 that business was rated at <£130. It is said that the demand could not be supplied, more particularly in years when apples were plenty. Apple butter boil- ing by the farmers was universal, and earthen crocks to preserve it in were in great demand. Mr. Huebner also made the tiles used for stoves, as well as the common tiles for the covering of houses, barns, and stables. Por barns they were in use many years, and some of them may be seen to this clay. When tile could not be had, barns and stables were thatched. Pipe heads were also made by Mr. Huebner in large quantities. Many of the trades and professions followed at Bethlehem were the first in the county — such as stocking-weaver, baker, chandler, doctor, locksmith, nailsmith, fulling, store, potter, &c. In 1762 they also had the first printing-office ; Brother Henry Miller was the printer, yet he continued but three years, removing his press to the city of Philadelphia, where he published a German news- paper. Several files (printed during the Eevolution) are in the possession of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. His office, while he resided in Bethlehem, was located in one of the three log houses situated on Market Street, near the graveyard. After the melancholy tragedy at Gnadenhutten, on the 24th November, 1755, of the murder of eleven of the Moravian mission- aries by the Indians, the Moravians at Bethlehem immediately took 206 BETHLEHEM. precautionary measures for protecting themselves at their various stations by placing guards, and encircling their towns and houses with palisades, and erecting of block-houses. The palisades were formed by placing logs of about nine to twelve inches in diameter, and about fifteen feet in length, in a perpendicular position, firmly posted about three feet in the earth, close together (leaving several gateways). These defences were in general use against attacks from Indians, and had always been found to be sufficient, with the addition of a few guards. Spangenberg, in a letter to Governor Denny in 1757, gives the following account of the defences at the various Moravian stations : — " In these times of trouble and danger, being become the frontier, the brethren, for the defence of themselves and neighbors, have, under the Governor's commis- sion for that purpose, established military watches in all their places. "In Bethlehem there are five persons, viz., two married and three single, con- stantly kept as a night watch. " In Nazareth there are three night watchers, and all other persons, except seven, are provided with arms. " In Gnadenthal two are employed as night watch, and all the inhabitants have arms, &c. "In Christian's brun (Spring), one single man as night watch, and eighteen others are provided with arms, &c, and frequently range the woods, &c. " In Friedensthal mill they have all arms, and watch by turns. They also have thirteen Indians, whose business it is to act as a guard to those working in the fields, &c. &c."— Perm. Ar., vol. iii. p. 242, 1757. Previous to the Gnadenhutten murder the Brethren were fre- quently accused of being the instigators of Indian depredations and murders. Mr. Spangenberg relates (page 316, Risler) that the inha- bitants who had accused them of being in league with the Indians, immediately after the murder at Gnadenhutten, were convinced of the falsity of their accusations, and many persons came to them and acknowledged their error, and, with tears, begged pardon for having harbored such suspicions, averring that they had been misled by general report, as well as by letters published in the newspapers. One letter-writer in particular professed to have received informa- tion from Canada of a coalition between the French and the Mora- vians, and it being universally credited that the Moravians had received three thousand stand of arms to supply the Indians with> to be used in the murder of the inhabitants, they became very FALSE ACCUSATIONS. 207 odious, and were looked upon with distrust by the anti-Moravian inhabitants of the country. Spaugenberg, when on a journey to New York, upon entering a tavern to get his breakfast, was attacked by the landlord, who, with a club in one hand, and the newspaper giving that account in the other, threatened to knock him down. Spangenberg, desirous of defending himself, denied its truth; but the landlord replied that it would not have been published if un- true, and would not be appeased. Although the principles of the Moravians did not permit the use of arms in self-defence, the foregoing account of watchers will show that in some cases they did not carry them out (and in fact 110 stand of arms had been received from New York for the specific object of defence in 1763). Spangenberg says that the watchers' orders were not to shoot the Indians or others in case of an attack, but only to use the gun in frightening away the attacking party by aiming either too high or too low, at each volley, "as it is our wish at neither of our places to shed blood." Whether this precaution would have been adhered to in case of an attack is a nice question; yet, as it never had been tested, it remains in an uncertainty even now. After the Gnaclenhutten murder all the inhabitants north of the Moravians' places at Bethlehem, Nazareth, &c, fled from their homes, and about 600 of them sought a refuge at these various places, and were all taken in and provided for during the winter, besides all the Indians who had lived at Grnadenhutten. Spangenberg relates (page 322, Risler) that he "kept a true and just account of all the expenses, and presented the bill to govern- ment for payment," and adds, "a bad man came and accused the Brethren of making erroneous and exorbitant charges ; but the Governor spake a good word for the Brethren, and thus stopped his slanderous mouth." On a careful examination of the proceedings of the Assembly, we find that upon presentation of the bill some of the members objected to its full payment on account of exorbitant charges in various items, on the ground that no payments could be made before the accounts were examined, which was undoubt- 208 BETHLEHEM. edly the boundea duty of every legislator to do. Therefore, Mr. Spangenberg, in using the words "a bad man" and "slanderer," appears to have been too harsh for the occasion. There is no inti- mation in the debate of the House of Assembly that questioned the honesty of the Moravians.* Spangenberg occasionally used flattery to the Governor, in order to attain his ends. The law passed in 1777, called the test law, rendered it obliga- tory upon every man over twenty-one years of age to take the oath * In a late work published in 1859, called "Sketches of Moravian Life and Cha- racter" (written by a Moravian), we find on p. 117 the following passage in reference to the Indian wars : " It may well be imagined that this outpouring of generosity exhausted the means of the Moravians." The author obtained this view from some other Moravian publication, in which an undue credit is taken for " gene- rosity." The Moravians, in fact, did no more than any other society of human beings would have done in receiving into their strongly fortified villages the in- habitants of the country, during the panic occasioned by the murders then com- mitting by the Indians. It is true that they expended some moneys in providing for them during several months. That they did do so was by order of the Governor, and they were paid every cent of the expense out of the provincial treasury. These payments, from April 16, 1756, to August 13, 1763, amounted to £1684 9s. 6fd., or $4491 97. This sum would have boarded near three hundred persons for three months at the Crown Hotel, at the established prices charged per single meal. Nor was this all the money that the Moravians received from the Provincial Assembly. Other large sums were appropriated for the use of the Indians, and expended by T. Horsefield, David Zeisberger, J. F. Post, and others, in their behalf. Spangenberg was too good an economist to spend the means of the Moravians upon others, when he had a proper claim upon the government, which undoubtedly was the case. About the year 1760 to 1762, the Moravians were in great pecuniary difficulties. The whole system was nearly failing. Some of them, in order to find the cause, attributed it to the Indian wars ; this being the most convenient way of account- ing for it. The real cause was, however, widely different. It was that the system of the " economy" was then found to be erroneous, and, for this reason, was abandoned in 1762. The truth of the matter was, that the members of the Society, and more particularly the single men in it, by whom the plans of the " economy" were being carried out, were beginning to wake up to their condition as serfs. Many of them began to be careless in their work, the farms in consequence did not yield any profits, and every other branch of business by degrees yielded less profits. This (the real cause of the decline of the system) the Moravian writers (who were the clergy) found great delicacy of admitting, as being their favorite measure, and by throwing the blame upon the Indian wars, bedimmed the vision of the members and others. It appears, however, that Brother Cunow, one of their clergymen in 1784, honestly admitted this fact to the Duke de Rochefoucault, and admitted further that the farms were carried on very slovenly at that time from the same causes. THE TEST LAW. 209 of allegiance to the United States. About one-fourth or one-third of the Moravians subscribed their names and took the oath of alle- giance. The remainder, being sixty-nine persons, refused to take the oath, professing to have conscientious scruples against taking any oath. This matter occasioned great confusion among the Moravians. The clergy and older members were opposed to the oath. The younger were generally in favor of the Revolution, and therefore subscribed to the oath. Acting against the wishes of the clergy gave great offence, and if there had been only a few dissenting persons, they would have been dismissed from the con- gregation for violation of the rules ; but the number being so large, and young, they could not be dispensed with ; and even then many members had lost some of the fear of the power of the clergy that had bound them at an earlier date. The non-abjuration of the sixty-nine Moravians subjected them to fines, which they wished to be rid of, and therefore petitioned the legislature to that effect. The matter was given to a committee of the House, who reported the following : — " The committee appointed to set forth the reasons which induced the House not to grant the petition of the Moravians, was read a second time, and is as follows : That the House appears to your committee to be influenced by the following rea- sons, so far as the said petitions relate to the dispensing with the abjuration of allegiance to the King of Great Britain, contained in the test of allegiance required by law of the inhabitants of this State, beg leave to report — " First. Because the honorable, the Continental Congress, in their Declaration of Independence, have declared " that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, and that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." " Secondly. Because, though the present glorious struggle for liberty and the natural rights of mankind against the tyrannical power of Great Britain is, at this time, well understood ; yet many persons amongst us, preferring a slavish depend- ence on the British king, from prejudice, expectations from lucrative offices, or the most unworthy motives, and screening themselves from the notice of government, by a professed neutrality, have, nevertheless, as soon as opportunity offered, de- clared themselves in favor of our enemies, and become active against the liberties of America ; it is therefore absolutely necessary, that whilst the good citizens of this State are freely exposing their lives and fortunes to protect what is still dearer to them than either of these, a proper discrimination be made, that may distinguish our friends from our enemies. 210 BETHLEHEM. " Thirdly. Because it cannot be conceived that any person can bear true alle- giance to the United States of America, and at the same time refuse to renounce his allegiance to that power who, without any just pretence, is now carrying on an offensive and cruel war against us, laying waste, burning, plundering and destroy- ing our country by his fleets and armies, and committing every outrage that refinement on savage barbarity can invent. " Fourthly. Because the petitions on this subject make it evident that the people on whose behalf they are presented, do consider a general test of allegiance to the State to be, in some sort, consistent with a reservation of allegiance to the King of Great Britain, and the alteration in the test required by law, upon the present petitions, would be an acknowledgment, by this House, of the propriety and justice of such a construction of a general test. " Fifthly. Because the Germans in particular have the less reason to object to the oath of allegiance as directed by law, as they have heretofore generally renounced allegiance to a royal family which had forfeited its pretensions to the British throne, by acts not less outrageous and insulting on the rights of the subject, than those which the present king has been guilty of towards the people of America. " Sixthly. Because the House, in all their deliberations and proceedings, have carefully avoided giving offence to any religious society, by granting any indulg- ence or preference to another ; and as many of the good people of the Moravians as of every other society, have freely and voluntarily taken and subscribed the oath or affirmation of allegiance and fidelity, as directed by the laws of the state, this circumstance affords a just ground to infer that the objections made are really the objections of individuals only ; but were it otherwise, this House cannot grant relief to the petitioners without giving just grounds of suspicion and offence to those who have already taken the oath or affirmation aforesaid. " And thereupon it was Resolved, That this House do adopt the said report, and that the House is, nevertheless, ready and willing to grant to the petitioners every encouragement and protection in their power, which may appear consistent with the duty they owe to their constituents, and the welfare of the United States of America." — Votes of Assembly, May 25, 1778. The vacillating conduct of the Moravians in regard to their ad- herence or non-adherence to the revolutionary movements, occa- sioned them a great deal of trouble, and at various times the danger became imminent. This induced them to petition the legislature the second time in the latter part of 1778, wherein they plead the resolution attached to the report of May 25, 1778, which they con- strue to their advantage. The reply of the House of Assembly was, that that resolution did not give them any protection further than their own individual persons were concerned, and not against any other person ; neutrality by any society or person was not legalized — this being the desire of the Moravians — and is fully explained in the above report to be impossible. The Moravians expressed themselves, as we have just shown, OATH OF ALLEGIANCE. 211 unwilling to render military service, but said they were ready to aid the cause of humanity apart from national or sectional preju- dices. " It is our desire," they write in 1775, " to live at peace with all men. We wish well to the country in which we dwell. Our declining to exercise in the use of arms is no new thing, nor does it proceed from certain considerations, being a fundamental principle of the Brethren's Church — a point of conscience which our first settlers brought with them into this province. We never have, nor will ever, act inimically to this country ; we will do nothing against its peace and interest, nor oppose any civil rule or regulation in the province or country wherein we dwell. On the other hand, we will submit ourselves in all things in which we can keep a good conscience, and not withdraw our shoulders from the common burden." The Bethlehem Souvenir says: "This declaration was made in good faith, and its promises honorably fulfilled. Nevertheless, it was insufficient to secure the Brethren from the persecution of a neighborhood who had long envied them the prosperity of their settlement, and gladly took advantage of the condition of affairs to excite against them the animosity of the country at large." That the declaration was fulfilled we will admit, but the last asser- tion is an unjust charge against the inhabitants of Northampton County, and which we consider our duty to refute. The true cause of hostility (as is admitted by the better informed Moravians of the present day) was their unwillingness to take and subscribe to the oath of allegiance. The object of this oath has already been given, and the report of the committee of the House will show what was expected from all who were willing to aid in secur- ing the independence of the country. It is natural to suppose that the surrounding people, who had nearly all taken this oath, would entertain the same opinion of those who refused to take the oath as did the committee of the House of Assembly, the substance of which was that no person could bear a true allegiance to the United States, and at the same time refuse to renounce his allegiance to Great Britain. It is true that the situation of the Moravians during the war was one of peculiar difficulty. As a principle, they pro- fessed to be opposed to taking an oath at any time and under any circumstances : the necessity of the case might have induced them to violate this ; yet if they had done so it would have placed 212 BETHLEHEM. them in a position of hostility to the British government, and would consequently have been the means of jeopardizing their missionary stations in the British West India Islands, or even their congregations in England itself. But, notwithstanding their opposition to taking an oath, we find that in 1786, after the decla- ration of independence, when there was no more danger from British supremacy, sixty-nine Moravians — included among whom was Bishop Bttwein — did sign their names to an oath of allegiance commencing with the words, " We do swear." An act of the Legislature passed March 4, 1786, gave such persons who had not taken the test oath of abjuration in 1777, an opportunity to regain their citizenship by taking a prescribed oath ; so that rather than remain deprived of all the privileges of citizens they signed the oath, which reinstated them in the citizen's right to vote at elec- tions, hold real estate, &c. &c* But to return: nothwithstanding their unwillingness to take the oath of allegiance, we find they rendered considerable service to the government at different times by their many acts of kindness to the sick and wounded. A diary was kept at Bethlehem during the Kevolutionary War; but as our space will not permit the copying of the whole of it, the following extracts, which we take from the Bethlehem Souvenir, will show, in a measure, the many sacrifices the Society made for the comfort of the army : — " The years 1776 and '77 were peculiarly times of distress and danger for the settlement. " At the close of January and commencement of February," says the diary of 1776, " large numbers of the prisoners, who had been detained in Canada since the disastrous invasion of last autumn, passed through Bethlehem with their families and baggage, some on foot and others on sleighs. A party would occasionally halt here to spend the night, and we improved such occasions in pro- viding the destitute with clothing, especially the females and children. " After the losses at Brooklyn Heights, Fort Washington, and Fort Lee, Washing- ton crossed the North River, and continued his retreat to Newark, New Brunswick, Princeton, and Trenton, and thence crossed to the Pennsylvania side of the river Delaware, closely pursued by Cornwallis. General Lee's division of three thousand men, under command of General Sullivan, reached Bethlehem on the 17th Decem- * We are forced from this test act to infer that their unwillingness to take the oath did not proceed from conscientious scruples, but was assumed as a matter of expediency. EXTRACTS FROM DIARY. 213 ber, and encamped for the night on the south bank of the Lehigh. At this crisis in the affairs of the Continental army, the removal of the hospital, in which two thousand sick and wounded were at this time lying, from Morristown to some point in the interior, was a measure which allowed of no delay, and on the 3d of December the following announcement reached Bethlehem by express : — " ' According to his excellency General Washington's order, the General Hospital of the army is removed to Bethlehem, and you will do the greatest act of humanity by immediately providing proper buildings for its reception.' " " In the evening of the same day Drs. Warren and Shippen arrived, when arrange- ments were made for the reception of two hundred and fifty of the hospital sick in the "Brethren's House," The next morning they entered the settlement, a pitiable spectacle to behold, totally destitute, gaunt, and famishing ; " and," says the diary, " had Bethlehem not supplied them with food, many of them would have perished, for three days elapsed before the arrival of the supplies intended for their use." " Before the close of the winter, one hundred and ten of their number were re- leased from their suffering and distress by the hand of death. " July 15th. Our team from Hope, in the Jerseys, arrived after an uncalled-for detention. Passing through Easton, heavily laden with flour, it was suspected of secretly carrying munitions of war, and accordingly the ' Associators' despatched some of their number in pursuit. The wagon was overtaken a short distance from town and summarily searched." " Feb. Qth — 1th. Three hundred men from Ticonderoga halted here for eight days, and were quartered in the workshops and private residences mainly, as the Breth- ren's House could accommodate only ninety of the number. " Feb. 24th. Sixteen wagons with Continental stores, consisting of ammunition, wine, and rum, arrived from Morristown, with orders from the Generals to be stored here. "May Qth. Colonel McLean with a troop of light horse reached here from Phila- delphia, expecting to find Lady Washington, whom he was to escort hence. The lady and her retinue had, however, struck off on the Durham road, and thus missed Bethlehem. " Sept. 2d. Early this morning an express from Reading brought the unwelcome intelligence that two hundred and sixty English prisoners, under a large escort, would be conveyed here for safe keeping. The large family house was chosen for their accommodation. Against this we protested. As our objections were ineffec- tual, it was resolved to lay our grievances in writing before the council of war. This was done at once, and the following reply received on the 6th of the month : — " ' War Office, Sept. 5th, 1777. " ' Gentlemen : The Board have received a representation from you in behalf of the inhabitants of Bethlehem. They are extremely sorry that any inconvenience should arise from the execution of an order of theirs relative to the prisoners to be stationed at Bethlehem. But the necessity of the case requires the measure, and the good people of your town must endeavor to reconcile the matter as well as they can. If the guards, or the persons employed, deport themselves improperly, any grievance the inhabitants complain of on this account will be immediately redressed ; and as soon as circumstances will admit, the prisoners will be removed. "' RICHARD PETERS, Secretary.'' " 214 BETHLEHEM. " Sept. 1th. This afternoon the prisoners arrived by way of Allentown, tinder guard of one hundred Americans, and were taken to their quarters. Two hun- dred of the number were Highlanders. " Sept. 16th. **#*■*., **A long train of heavily laden wagons from French Creek arrived, bringing intelligence of Washington's order to have the military stores removed thence to this place. We expressed our dissatisfaction at the pro- ceeding, but it was useless. The wagons were unloaded near the tile-kilns,* and put in guard of forty men. " Sept. l&th. Eight tories from the Jerseys, under escort, were brought to-day for safe keeping among the prisoners quartered in the family house. ***** A report was current that the army is on its way hither. In the evening of the 19th of the month, we received the following from the Director-General of the Conti- nental Hospital : — " ' Gentlemen : It gives me great pain to be obliged, by order of Congress, to send my sick and wounded soldiers to your peaceable village ; but so it is. We will want room for two thousand at Bethlehem, Easton, and Northampton,! and you may expect them on Saturday or Sunday. These are dreadful times — consequences of unnatural wars. I am truly concerned for your society, and wish this stroke could be averted, but 'tis impossible. " ' WILLIAM SHIPPEN.' " " Seeing ourselves under the necessity of relieving the distress of the country, on the next day we gave orders for the evacuation of the Brethren's House by its residents, and its clearance from basement to attic. ****** This second occupation of the Brethren's house continued from Sept. 20, 1777, to June, 1778. " Sept. 23d. The whole of the heavy baggage of the army, in a continuous train of seven hundred wagons, directly from the camp, arrived under escort of two hundred men, commanded by Col. Polk, of North Carolina. They encamped on the south side of the Lehigh, and in one night destroyed all our buckwheat and the fences around the fields. % * The locality of this kiln is yet pointed out on the Monocacy, half a mile north- west of Bethlehem. It was erected at an early day, and was used for burning roofing-tiles for the Moravian settlements. f Now called Allentown. % The Moravians allege to have lost £1500 during the last three months of 1777 by the American army. There was no need of loss by individuals during the Revolution, for in 1784 a proclamation by the commissioners of each county was issued, calling upon the inhabitants to deliver their bills of losses sustained during the war. In Northampton County seventy-five persons availed themselves of this proclamation, the bills, amounting to £6996, were honorably discharged by the government of Pennsylvania. If the Moravians did not avail themselves of this mode of reimbursement, they ought not to complain of having " their new wheat fed to horses." {Beth. Sou., p. 169.) So, also, the fines they were obliged to pay are adverted to. If the Moravians chose to violate the laws, or try to circumvent them, they had no reason to complain of the consequences. That they were treated with great leniency during the exciting time of the Revolution, there can be no question of, and it is one (if not the only one) of the few instances during that war in which the transgressors escaped unscathed ; therefore it ill becomes Mora- vian historians of the present day to cast any odium upon " the neighbors," or government. EMPLOYMENTS OF THE SISTERS. 215 " Oct. 22c?. A number of wagons with sick arrived. As no accommodations could he provided, they were forwarded to Easton. Upwards of four hundred are at present in the Brethren's House, and fifty in tents below. "During the month of December, 1777, large numbers of sick were brought to Bethlehem from the Jerseys,' generally in open wagons, often amid snow and beat- ing rain — pitiable objects, with clothing insufficient to shelter their fevered limbs from the piercing cold. The hospital list daily increased, and between Christmas and New Year upwards of seven hundred invalids were crowded into the Breth- ren's House alone. Numbers died, especially in the upper stories, where filth and pollution were intolerable. Here was a field for Christian benevolence which the Brethren cheerfully entered." In consequence of the removal of the hospital to Bethlehem, the place was visited by many persons of distinction ; among whom were Gen. George Washington, Marquis de Lafayette, Count Pu- laski, Baron de Kalb, John Adams, Gen. Armstrong, Gen. Gates, Gen. Mifflin, Gen. Schuyler, John Hancock, Henry Laurens, and Benj. Franklin. It was during this time that Count Pulaski was complimented for his gallantry by the" presentation of a banner, embroidered by the single sisters, as a token of their gratitude for the protection he had afforded them, surrounded as they were by a rough and uncouth soldiery. The banner was made of crimson silk. On one side the capitals U. S. are encircled by the motto "unitas virtus fortior ;" on the other the all-seeing eye of God, in the midst of the thirteen stars of the Union, is surrounded by the words "non alius regit." These designs were embroidered with yellow silk, the letters shaded with green. A deep green bullion fringe ornaments the edges. The size of the banner was twenty inches square. It was attached to a lance when borne in the field. The banner was received by Pulaski with grateful acknowledgments, and borne by his regiment through the campaign, until he fell in the attack on Savannah, in the autumn of 1779. It is now in the possession of the Maryland Historical Society, at Baltimore. Longfellow has immortalized the incident in a beautiful poem. Many of the sisters were expert with the needle in the manufac- ture of curious embroidery, and not only was ornamental work done by them, but they also followed more useful employments, such as spinning, knitting, and weaving. Washington was here in 216 BETHLEHEM. 1778, and was introduced into the various rooms by Bishop Ett- wein, where, finding in the room the mother of the writer, who, among others, was at work, he remarked, "Ladies, I am pleased to find you all busy at work." Ettwein replied to him, "Yes, it stands written in the Bible, those that do not work shall not eat." The General purchased several pair of knit hose for himself, and the sisters presented him with a dress pattern of " blue stripe," for his lady, which he said she should wear. On his coming into the village, accompanied by his adjutant, he was received with music on the trombones from the Belvidere on the Brethren's House. One of the Brethren, many years afterwards, who had seen Wash- ington and his aid in their military dress, walking through the streets of Bethlehem with the Bishop between them, in his plain dress, the former being very tall and the latter very small in sta- ture, said that the oddity of this appearance struck him forcibly. In the spring of 1778, "Washington again passed through Bethlehem on his way to Easton ; but did not stay longer than was necessary to get some dinner for himself and aid, and feed for the horses. From the diary kept at Bethlehem during the revolutionary war, and from which we have heretofore quoted, we learn that Lafayette came to that place on the 20th of September, just after the battle of Brandywine. Mr. Charles Beckel, of Bethlehem, says: "This young French general lodged at our house. He had been wounded in the foot at the battle of Brandywine. I had an aunt who was then about seventeen or eighteen years of age. She was the Marquis's nurse. Being very handsome and lively, my grandfather became very uneasy about her forming an intimacy with the volatile and witty Frenchman. In 1823, when Lafayette visited the United States, though old and an invalid, she expressed a great desire to see him ; but her wish was not gratified." The following descriptions of Bethlehem and its institutions will be read with interest, not alone from their being "relics of the olden time," but also from the fact of their having been written by distinguished travellers, who obtained their information concerning the customs of the Moravians at that time from some of their clergymen : — LIEUT. ANBURY'S ACCOUNT OF BETHLEHEM. 217 The annexed descriptions of Bethlehem, by three distinguished travellers who had visited it, will serve to show the interest and curiosity with which the Moravians were looked upon even by Europeans at those early dates. Lieut. Anbury's Travels in America, 1778. " The tavern* at Bethlehem is upon a good plan, and well calculated for the con- venience and accommodation of travellers. The building, which is very exten- sive, is divided throughout by a passage near thirty feet wide. On each side are convenient apartments, consisting of a sitting room, which leads into two separate bed-chambers. All these rooms are well lighted, and have fireplaces in them. On your arrival you are conducted to one of these apartments, and delivered the key, so that you are as free from intrusion as if in your own house. Every other accommodation was equal to the first tavern in London. " You may be sure our surprise was not little, after having been accustomed to such miserable fare, at other ordinaries, to see a larder displayed with plenty of fish, fowl, and game. Another matter of surprise, as we have not met with the like in all our travels, was excellent wines of all sorts, which to us was a most delicious treat, not having tasted any since we left Boston, for, notwithstanding the splendor and elegance of several families we visited in Virginia, wine was a stranger to their tables. For every apartment a servant is appointed to attend, whose whole duty is to wait on the company belonging to it, and who is as much your servant during your stay as one of your own domestics. The accommodation for horses is equal. In short, in laying the plan of this tavern, they seem solely to have studied the ease, comfort, and convenience of travellers, and it is built upon, such an extensive scale, that it can with ease accommodate one hundred and sixty persons. " General Phillips was so much delighted with it that, after he quitted Virginia, not being permitted to go to New York, on account of some military operations being on foot in the Jerseys, he returned back some forty miles merely on account of the accommodations. The landlord accompanied us to the intendant, or the head of the society (Bishop Ettwein), who, with great politeness, showed us everything worthy of observation in the settlements. The first place he conducted us to was the house of the single women, which is a spacious stone building, divided, similar to the tavern, into large chambers, which are, after the German mode, heated with stoves. f In these the young women pursue various domestic employments, and some are employed in fancy and ornamental work : in all these apartments are various musical instruments. The superintendent of these young women con- ducted us to the apartments where they slept, which is a large vaulted room, the whole dimensions of the building, in which were beds for every woman. The women dine in a large hall in which is a handsome organ, and the walls are adorned with Scriptural pieces, painted by some of the women who formerly belonged to the society. This hall answers the purpose of a refectory and chapel, but on Sun- days they attend worship in the great church, which is a neat and simple building. * Present Sun Hotel. f These stoves were formed of tiles about five feet high. Some of them were totally of these tiles, others part of tile and part cast-iron. The warm air obtained by a clay is more agreeable than that by an iron stove. — Ogden, p. 30. 15 218 BETHLEHEM. The house cf the single men is upon the same principle as that of the women, upon the roof of which is a belvedere, from which there is not only a delightful prospect, but a distinct view of the whole settlement. We observed that the building was much defaced, which the superintendent informed us was occasioned by the Americans taking it from the young men, and converting it into a hospital for the sick and wounded after the battle at Germantown, and, added he, 'it is incredible what numbers perished for want of proper care and attention, and the hospital being ill supplied with drugs.' Pointing to an adjoining field, he said, 'there lie buried near seven or eight hundred of the American soldiers, who died during the winter.' All manner of trades and manufactures are carried on dis- tinctly, one of each branch : at the various occupations the young men are employed. Every one contributes his labor, and the profits arising from each goes to the gene- ral stock. These young men receive no wages, but are supplied with the neces- saries from the various branches of trade. They have no cares about the usual concerns of life, and their whole time is spent in prayer and labor, their only relaxation being concerts, which they perform every evening. These people are ex- tremely shrewd and sensible : in a manner foreseeing the ill consequences attending a civil war, they had, before its commencement, laid in great quantities of European goods, which they sent to the various farms interspersed around the settlement. The Moravians are not only very assiduous, but ingenious too. They have adopted a sort of marriage, but, from the manner of its celebration, you cannot suppose those mutual tender endearments and happiness to subsist between the parties as with us. A young man feels an inclination to marry, which does not proceed from any object he is enamored with, for he never sees his wife but once before the cere- mony takes place, it being contrary to the principles of their religion to suppose it is from the passions of nature, but merely to uphold the society, that it may not sink into oblivion. The young man communicates his inclination to the priest, who, consulting with the superintendent, she produces her who is the next one in rotation for marriage. The priest presents her to the young man, and leaves them alone for an hour, when he returns. If they both consent they are married the next day. If there is any objection, their cases are very pitiable, but especially the woman, as she is put at the bottom of the list, which amounts to near sixty or seventy, nor does the poor girl stand the least chance of a husband till she arrives again at the top, unless the man feels a second inclination for marriage, for he never can obtain any other woman than the one he had the first interview with. This, I am induced to think, is the reason of there being so many old women among the single ones. Thus you see, my friend, that marriage and its inexpres- sible enjoyments is not the result of the passions, but a piece of mere mechanism, set to work and stopped only by necessity. When two parties meet and are united in marriage, a house is provided for them by the society, of which there are great numbers around the town, very neat habitations with pleasant gardens. Their children, of either sex, at the age of six years, are taken from them and placed in the two seminaries, consequently they can have little affection for them. When either of the parties die, if the woman, the man returns to the apartments of the single men ; if the man, the woman retires to the house built for that purpose. The religion of the Moravians resembles more that of the Lutherans than Calvinists; in one point it greatly differs from both, by admitting of music and pictures in their places of devotion. Prayer constitutes almost a third of their employment, for, exclusive of their daily public devotions, they attend service in their own chapels, morning, noon, and evening. Setting aside their ridiculous manner of CHASTELEUX'S ACCOUNT OF BETHLEHEM. 219 entering into the marriage state, and which to them is of little moment, I could not but reflect, if content is in this life they enjoy it. Far from the bustle of a troublesome world, living in perfect liberty, each one pursuing his own ideas and inclinations, and residing in the most delightful situation imaginable, which is so healthy that they are subject to few, if any, diseases. As want is a stranger, so is vice. Their total ignorance of the refined elegancies precluding any anxiety, or regret that they possess not wealth to enjoy them. Nevertheless, they possess what many are strangers to, who are surrounded with what are termed blessings, those true and essential ones, health and tranquillity of mind." Chasteleux's Teavels in America, vol. ii. p. 314, 1782. " We had no difficulty in finding the tavern, for it is precisely at the entrance of the town. This tavern was built at the expense of the Society of Moravian Brethren, to whom it formerly served as a magazine, and is very handsome and spacious. The person that keeps it is only the cashier, and is obliged to render an account to the administrators. As we had already dined, we only drank tea, but ordered our breakfast at ten o'clock the next morning. The landlord telling me there was a grouse or heath bird in the house, I made him bring it, for I had long had a great desire to see one. I soon observed that it was neither the poule de Pharoon nor the heath-cock ; it was about the size of a pheasant, but had a short tail and the head of Lasson, which it resembles also in the form of its body, and its feet were covered with down. This bird is remarkable for too large transverse feathers below its head. The plumage of his belly is a mixture of black and white ; the color of his wings of a red gray, like our gray partridge. When the grouse is roasted, his flesh is black, like that of the heath-cock, but it is more delicate, and of a higher flavor. I could not derive much information from my landlord on the origin, opinions, and manners of the Society, but he informed me that I should next day see the ministers and administrators, who would gratify my curiosity. The 11th, at half past eight, I walked out with a Moravian given me by the landlord, but who was likewise ill informed, and only served me as a guide. He was a seaman* who imagined he had some talent for drawing, and amuses himself with teaching the young people, having quitted the sea since the war, where, however, he had no scruple in sending his son.f He subsists on a small estate at Reading, but lives at Bethlehem, where he and his wife board in a * Capt. Garrison. f The translator of Chasteleux's Travels remarks : " It is remarkable enough that the son of this Moravian, whose name is Garrison, should have served on board a vessel with me, and was, without exception, the most worthless, profligate fellow we had in a mixed crew of English, Scotch, Irish, and Americans, to all of whom his education had been infinitely superior. Neither bolts nor bars could prevent, nor any chastisement correct, his pilfering disposition. In a long winter's voyage of thirteen weeks, with only provisions and water for five, this fellow was the bane and pest of officers, passengers, and seamen. Whilst every other man in the ship, even the most licentious in prosperity, submitted to regulations laid down to alle- viate our dreadful sufferings, and preserve our lives, this hardened, unreflecting wretch, ignorant of every feeling of sympathy and humane nature, seemed to take a savage delight in diffusing misery around him, and adding to the distresses of his fellow sufferers. He had been well educated in the humane principles of the Moravians, but he truly verified the just adage of, corruptio optimi passiona." 220 BETHLEHEM. private family. We went first to visit the house for single women ; this edifice is spacious and built with stone. It is divided into several large chambers, all heated with stoves, in which the girls work ; some do coarse work, such as spinning cotton, hemp, and wool ; others are engaged in works of taste and luxury, such as embroidery, either in thread or silk, and they excel particularly in working ruffles, little pocket-books, pincushions, &c, like our French nuns. " The superintendent of the house came to receive us. She is a woman of family, born in Saxony ; her name is Madame de Gersdorff, but she does not presume upon her birth, and appeared sixrprised at my giving her my hand as often as we went up and down stairs. She conducted us to the first floor, where she made us enter a large, vaulted room, kept perfectly clean, where all the women sleep, each haviDg a bed, in part of which are plenty of feathers. There is never any fire in this room ; and, though it be very high and airy, a ventilator is fixed in the roof like those in our play-houses. The kitchen is not large, but it is clean and well arranged. In it there are immense earthen pots upon furnaces, like in our hos- pitals. " The inhabitants of the house dine in the refectory, and are served every day with meat and vegetables. They have to pay three shillings and sixpence cur- rency per week (about fourpence per day) to the common stock ; but they have no supper, and I believe the house furnishes only bread for breakfast. This expense, and what they pay for fire and candles deducted, they enjoy the produce of their labor, which is more than sufficient to maintain them. This house also has a chapel, which serves only for evening prayer, for they go to their church on Sun- days. There is an organ in this chapel, and I saw several instruments suspended on nails. We quitted Madame de Gersdorff, well pleased with our reception, and went to the church, which is simple, and differs little from that we had seen at Moravian Mill (at Hope, in New Jersey). Here, also, are several religious pictures. " From hence we went to the house of the single men. I entered the apartment of the intendant (Jacob Van Vleck), whom I found copying music. He had in his room an indifferent piano forte, made in Germany. I talked with him on music, and found he was not only a performer but a composer ; so that, on accompanying us to the chapel, and being asked to touch the organ, he played some voluntaries, in which he introduced a great deal of harmony and progressions of base. This man, whose name I have forgotten, is a native of New York, but resided seven years in Germany, from whence he had lately returned. I found him better in- formed than those I had yet met with, yet it was with some difficulty I got from him the following details : — " The Moravian Brethren, in whatsoever quarter of the world they live, are under the discipline of their metropolitans, who reside in Germany, from whence com- missaries are sent to regulate the different establishments. The same metropoli- tans advance the sums necessary for forming them, which are paid in proportion as these colonies prosper ; thus, the revenues of the mills I have spoken of, as well as the farms and manufactures, are employed in the first instance to pay the expenses of the community, and afterward to reimburse the sums advanced in Europe. Bethlehem, for example, possesses a territorial property purchased by the Moravians in Europe, which consists of fifteen hundred acres of land, forming a vast farm, which is managed by a steward, who accounts for it to the community. If an individual wants a lot of land, he must purchase it of the public, but under this restriction, that in case of defection from the sect or congregation from the place, he shall restore it to the community, who will reimburse him the original payment. KOCHEFOUCAULT'S DESCRIPTION OF BETHLEHEM. 221 " Their police or discipline is of the monastic kind, since they recommend celi- bacy, but without enjoining it, and keep the women separate from the men. There is a particular house for the widows, which I did not visit. The two sexes being thus habitually separated, none of those familiar connections exist between them which lead to marriage. Nay, it is even contrary to the spirit of the sect to marry from inclination. If a young man find himself sufficiently at his ease to keep house for himself and maintain a wife and children, he presents himself to the commissary and asks for a girl, who (after consulting with the superintendent of the women) proposes one to him, which he may refuse or accept, but it is contrary to the custom to choose a wife for himself. Accordingly, the Moravian colonies have not multiplied in any proportion to the other American colonies. That at Bethlehem is composed of about six hundred persons, more than one-half of whom live in a state of celibacy, nor does it appear that it has increased for several years. Every precaution is taken to provide for the subsistence of the brethren, and in the houses destined for the unmarried of both sexes, there are masters to teach them different trades. " The house of the single men, which I saw in detail, does not differ from that of the women. I shall only take notice of a very convenient method they have of awakening those who wish to be called up at a given hour ; all their beds are numbered, and near the door is a slate, on which all the numbers are registered. A man who wishes to be awakened early, at five o'clock in the morning, for ex- ample, has only to write the figure five under his number. The watchman who attends the chamber observes this in going his rounds, and at the time appointed, the next morning, goes straight to the number of the bed, without troubling him- self about the name of the sleeper. " Before I left the house I mounted on the roof, where there is a belvedere, from whence you see the little town of Bethlehem and the neighborhood. It is composed of seventy or eighty houses, and there are some others belonging to the colony at the distance of a mile or two ; they are all handsome, and built with stone. Every house has a garden, cultivated with care. In returning home, I was curious to see the farm, which is kept in good order, but the inside was neither so clean nor so well kept as in the English farm-houses, because the Moravians are more barbarous than their language. At length, at half past ten, I returned to the inn, where I was expected by my moor-fowl, two wood-hens, and many other good things ; so that I was still better satisfied with my breakfast than with my walk. At twelve, we set out to travel twenty miles further, to Kalf's tavern, a German house, very poor and filthy. We had passed the eastern branch of the Delaware, a mile from Bethlehem. Dec. 24, 1782." Duke de Rochefoucault's Travels in America, vol. ii. p. 397, 1785. " Bethlehem is inhabited by the Moravian Brethren. It was the first and most considerable of their settlements in America, and has thence acquired much cele- brity. I have read in books of travels so many different recitals respecting the government of their society, their community of goods, their children being even taken away from the authority and superintendence of their parents, as belonging to the society at large, and respecting several other points of. their government, that I was desirous to judge, myself, of the truth of these assertions, and I have found at Bethlehem fresh reason not to credit, without proof, the recitals of travel- lers. This indisputable truth is, however, rather delicate to be averred by one who is writing travels. I shall not go back to the origin of the Moravians, which 222 BETHLEHEM. their historians fix at the year 1424, to their persecution in Europe, to the almost dissolution of their society at the commencement of the seventeenth century, nor to their renewal in 1722, under the auspices of Count Zinzendorff. I shall say nothing of their doctrines — all these facts are unconnected with their temporal government at Bethlehem, which is the only point I wished to know, and which, I think, is at this time interesting. In 1740, the Count Zinzendorff purchased from Mr. Allen, who held of William Penn, the district now called Bethlehem, with the view of there forming an establishment for the society of the Moravians. Although some trees were cut down in 1741, it was not till 1742 that the settlement was begun. One hundred and forty Moravian Brethren and Sisters arrived from Ger- many and settled there. These families were poor, had no other dependence but their labor, and everything was to be done to form a settlement in this desert. They lived there in one general community, contrary to the rules and usages of their society, but only from the necessity of circumstances, which would have ren- dered the general progress of their society more slow, and the situation of the individual families more inconvenient, if their labors and productions had been divided. This deviation from the constitution of the unity (for thus they call the whole society) was prescribed by the synod, which makes and alters the laws of the Moravian people. Thus, under the order of the chiefs of the congregation established at Bethlehem, they cleared the woods, made roads, and cultivated the lands ; the women spun, wove, made their clothes, and prepared their victuals. One single will animated the whole, and the product of each individual labor served indiscriminately to the support of the whole brother and sisterhood. The fathers and mothers being constantly employed in labor, could not, without incon- venience to the community, give their attention to the children. The society, therefore, set apart some of the sisters to take care of the whole. The authority, however, and the superintendence of the parents, was neither taken away nor diminished. At that time, even, notwithstanding their community of goods, the Brethren that received any money from their families or friends, had the predis- posal of it. If any of them vested their property in the common stock, it was voluntarily, and the effect of a zeal and disinterested act, of which there were few examples. The Brethren, possessed of any private property, had frequently their children with them ; they clothed them better, and the care which they took of their infancy — a charge considered a relief to society — was a proof that at Bethle- hem the children were not, as has been alleged, the property of the community, and that it was no part of the constitution to make members renounce all pri- vate property. In proportion as the settlement advanced their labor became less urgent, and the virtues of man have nearly everywhere the same character. The active brethren killed themselves with work, while the idle took little trouble. Those who reflected, discovered that whatever fatigue they endured, their situation was nowise ameliorated, and that industry, the indisputable property of every man, afforded them not a single advantage. Reflection, then, had the same effect on the industrious, as the natural disposition had on the idle ; the ardor for labor no longer continued, and the society did not prosper, and the most of its members were dis- contented. These joint considerations induced them, in 1762, to change the system of the society. The Society of Bethlehem was now established on the rules of the societies in Europe, and, agreeably to the true system, it has been regulated since that epoch, as well as all the other Moravian congregations established else- where in America. By the present ordinances, the communism of property is done away in favor of the individuals, it only continues as to the government of the Society, and exists partially. ROCHEFOUCAULT'S ACCOUNT OF THE MORAVIANS. 223 "The territorial property, as well as the profits of the tavern, the store, the farms, the saw-mill, the oil-mill, corn-mill, and fulling-mill, the tannery and the dyeing manufactory, belong to the Society, which from these funds is enabled to provide for the poor, for the payment of debts, and of the public taxes. In all other respects, every brother enjoys the absolute property of whatever he can earn by his labor, be it what it may, and of the gifts he may receive. The government of the Society is vested in the bishop, the minister, and the intendant, and the in- spectors, male and female, of the different divisions of the Society, which are five in number : the young men unmarried, the unmarried sisters, the widows, the married brethren and sisters, and the schools. The intendant has the exclusive administration of the property of the Society, but he must advise with a committee composed of from eight to ten members chosen by the Brethren at large : in the name of the intendant they carry on all their transactions, grant leases of houses and lands, securities for borrowed money, discharges, &c. All the houses, how- ever, erected in the town of Bethlehem, and the four thousand acres belonging to it, are not the property of the Society, nor even the greater part of them ; they belong to brethren who have built upon land for which they pay rent to the Society. The amount of this rent is twopence the foot in front by twenty feet in depth. The house built by the brother is his absolute property ; he can leave it to his wife or children, in the same way as he can his other effects, or he can sell it — only he cannot convey it but to a brother who has obtained permission from the directory to buy it, with the burthen of the rent attached to it, and which perpetually remains. The directors having the government of the Society must admit those only into their territory, who they think will not disturb the Society. In the contract of lease made by the intendant with the advice of the committee, to those intending to build a house, or to those who purchase a house, it is always stipulated that if the proprietors shall be desirous of quitting it, and shall not find a purchaser who may be agreeable to the Society, the Society is to purchase it at a price declared by law, which also fixes the terms of payment. Garden ground or land in the country, is let at six shillings the acre. Besides the government farm, appropriated to the benefit of the Society, there are six or seven smaller farms belonging to it. These are let to tenants, who pay a third part of their produce, and who also pay six shillings rent for their garden grounds. These tenants are all, at present, Moravians. Sometimes the farms were let to other persons, only the Society must be satisfied as to their character and behavior. The town of Bethlehem is inhabited by between five and six hundred inhabitants, all of the brother and sisterhood." One hundred and eighteen years have passed since the first tree on the site of Bethlehem was felled by David Nitschman, for the building of the first house. Upwards of three-fourths of a century has elapsed since the scenes last related have been enacted. Those who during the trying times of the revolutionary war had shared in the joys and trials incident thereto, have all passed away. Their accustomed places have been supplied by others. The anxious and greatly troubled Bishops Cammerhof, Seidel, and Ettwein, sweetly 224 BETHLEHEM. sleep in the graveyard of the Moravian congregation; resting from their multifarious labors ; awaiting the general resurrection, with most of their co-workers at their sides. Their children and grand- children now occupy their places. Those palmy days of Moravian. Bethlehem have passed away. But we love to commune with the memory of the past; we love to review the lives of our forefathers; and we love to revert to our own accustomed places of resort, where the hours of leisure were spent, as well in youth as in riper years. They teem with reminiscences, and associated with them are the forms of beloved companions, and by their means voices and names long since forgotten are heard and recognized anew. All will admit that at Bethlehem nature has adorned her rural haunts with peculiar charms. The eye, it is true, takes in no wide extended panorama; but still there is mountain, valley, stream, and woodland scenery, varying the lovely landscape which is spread out as a garden southward of the elevation on which Beth- lehem stands. From the steeple of the large Moravian church northwardly we have a dim outline of the country called the " dry lands," designated by Count Zinzendorff as an absolute desert waste that never could be tilled, now teeming with the busy hum of thou- sands of harvesters gathering the luxuriant wheat, corn, rye, &c, being the very garden of the county. Southward is seen a picture, designed and executed in all its grace of outline and magic coloring only by the Great Artist himself. In the valley below once lay the "crown farm" of 1200 acres, which, in 1762, was valued in the assessment at £42 (or $112). The Crown Tavern was situated on this tract, near the bridge, and was occupied by Ephraim Culver. Three hundred of the 1200 acres were then already cleared. This was the favorite farm of the olden time.. The wealth of the church in her infancy was in a great measure drawn from this farm, when agriculture was her main stay and furnished the means she needed to spread the gospel among the Indians. The old landmarks are wellnigh gone : orchard, farm-house, and broad field are fast dis- appearing at the requirement of the present age of enterprise and progress. A thriving iron foundry and machine shops, extensive EEFLECTIONS. 225 zinc works, and the Lehigh Valley and North Pennsylvania Kail- roads have usurped the places where the sheep were of old pas- tured by the shepherd, and to which the reapers repaired for the harvest, amid the sounds of festive music* A quarter of a century has done much to impair the beautiful picture. Nearly all the quaintness of Moravian life and character has disappeared, and though many of the self-same structures re- main that made their hold upon the imagination, new designs of architecture have, in general, supplanted the old and destroyed the poetry of the past. The old bridge over the Lehigh was swept away by the flood of 1841, and one of modern structure has taken its place. The woody slopes of the mountain have to a great extent been cleared, and the din of the railway and busy traffic mark the progress of civilization. Yet, through the vista of these changes, it is delightful to look back into the past; for the strong contrasts of the picture as it is, and as it was, lend additional charms to that which is gone and cannot be restored. As the traveller stood upon the old bridge, and dwelt upon the landscape, the waters of the Lehigh flowing beneath him, and the southern mountains thrown into partial shade by the declining sun, his eyes rested upon that wilderness of forest trees covering the spot known as the "Island." Umbrageous boughs invited the rambler, and suitable provision was * The spirit of pious simplicity which characterized the social and religious regulations of the early brethren, while it astonishes us at the present day, cannot fail to elicit admiration of their honesty of purpose and determination to live the life of " every day" Christians. No occasion, however trifling, but was sanctified with the ceremonies of religion. The following, bearing on the context, is but one of the numerous instances to the point. The diary of 1754, under date of July 8th, says : "Our musicians of the church choir, performing hymn tunes, accompanied the harvesters as far as the river, on their way to cut the rye on the new farm, which was put under cultivation last fall, near the Crown. As the weather was fine, all who could assist repaired to the fields — men, women, and children — alto- gether ninety persons. — Beth. Souvenir, p. 233. In connection with this pastoral simplicity mentioned, Spangenberg, in describ- ing Nazareth farm in 1746, in his own quaint style, says in regard to the brethren and sisters engaged there : " Never, since the creation of the world, were there made and sung such lovely and holy shepherds, ploughing, reapers, threshing, spinners, knitters, sewers, washers, and other laboring hymns, as by these people. An entire farmers' hymn book might be made by them." — Risler's Life of Spangenberg, -p. 221. 226 BETHLEHEM. made for amusement and meditation ; and thus the place became a constant resort for all — for the denizen as well as for him who spent the summer months at Bethlehem. Above and around the "Island" the Lehigh rushes along, and the music of its waters animates the study which nature here presents. In its present aspect the " Island" varies little from its former appearance, and although it it is in some degree shorn of its attractions by the encroachments of the railway on the southern bank of the river, and the privacy of its solitude invaded by the locomotive, yet in its native growth of forest trees it possesses an inextinguishable charm. Skirls line the shore, and the current is stemmed by those who navigate the stream in order to approach and land upon the "Island." In the evening, as the boats glide near the pleasure ground, music floats upon the waters, and many gay and picturesque scenes, as in times of yore, delight the eye. " The Island," though unsung in verse, its image is embalmed in the minds of thousands. Nearly every visitant at Bethlehem during the past century has repaired to it with feelings of exquisite delight. What with its open glades, its sheltered coverts, and the green lawn, shaded by towering trees, all hidden from the world, we do not wonder that its pleasant borders were early chosen as most genial for grateful relaxation. With the return of seasons, it has witnessed the gayeties of Mayday, holiday, and picnic, and all their attendant song and mirth, mingling with the lulling flow of the water, and awakening echo from the hill beyond. But there are other haunts which dare not be overlooked. The northern slope of the mountain* abounds in them. Here is the " Old Man's Place," or " Hermitage," with its few remaining indica- tions of the spot where stood the cabin of the first settler, the * This is the so-called South Mountain, referred to in the deed of 1718 from the Indians to -William Penn. The writer has frequently passed over and along this mountain in various directions, and is led to believe that it contains within its bosom vast quantities of magnetic iron ores. At several localities indications of this ore are unmistakably presented. In a few years it will have been developed at different places. The discovery will add largely to the manufacture of iron in the Lehigh Valley, and give employment to many hundreds of workmen. CHANGES. 227 murmur of the brook, as it tumbles in its rocky bed through brier and brake, alone disturbing the forest stillness around. The " Spring" on the river's bank, its shady precincts once so faithfully visited, but now forsaken except by the thundering train which dashes above the little reservoir that collects the cooling fountain deep in the hill-side below, and the romantic pathway up the moun- tain to " the Hydropathic Institute," winding through kalmias and rhododendrons, all overarched by the monarch of the wood. Or the prospect from the summit of the mountain, commanding the fertile plains of " Saucon Valley," where the orchards blossom in profusion, and the sheaves of ripened grain dot the landscape for many a mile, when autumn hastens apace to tarnish the summer's freshness with her russet hues. "Bartow's path," which, with its avenues of trees, led along the bank of the Lehigh, at the foot of Nisky Hill, is yet named only to awake recollections of all that is lovely and delightful in nature. In 1828, it made way for the Lehigh Canal, and now no vestige of it remains. The heights of "Nisky Hill"- are still the resort they were three-fourths of a century ago. Since their selection, in 1850, as a site of a rural cemetery for the Moravian church, much labor has been expended in beautifying the grounds, and preparing them for their intended use. Along the brow of this hill was the Indian town of Friedenhutten, built in 1746 as a temporary home for the Indians; but, being considered too near to Bethlehem as a perma- nent residence, in the same year two hundred acres of land were pur- chased on the Mahoni Creek, in Carbon County, and the Indians removed thither. The vineyards, where the first attempt was made to grow grapes in 1827, have made way for town lots in the rising village of West Bethlehem. The old stone bridge over the Monocacy, on the way thither, was removed in 1854, to make room for one of ampler dimensions. At the same time, the two noble willows which, since * " Niskeu" is a Delaware Indian word, implying a swamp or wet place, in allu- sion to the swampy grounds at the foot of the hill. 228 BETHLEHEM. 1791, stood sentinels at the pass, fell victims to the destroying axe. The dusty streets of South Bethlehem, heaped with coal and lum- ber, are fast pushing up the river, and encroaching on the green fields which border the public walks along its banks. The " Penn- sylvania and Lehigh Zinc Works," erected in 1853, have become the nucleus of a thriving settlement on the " Farms," southeast of the bridge. Bethlehem itself is growing rapidly. In 1814, the so-called "lease system" was abrogated, a measure which led to the sale of town lots, on ground rents, to persons of other denominations as well as to Moravians. On the incorporation of the Moravian con- gregation of the place in 1851, irredeemable ground rents became redeemable. These steps, in connection with the completion of the Lehigh Valley and North Pennsylvania Eailroad, have proved con- ducive to the growth of Bethlehem. In 1845 it was incorporated, and since then has more than doubled its population. At present, a thriving borough of about five thousand inhabitants, in the heart of a rich agricultural and mineral region, with speedy access to the great northern emporiums of trade, it ranks among the important inland towns of the State. It is true, as the Bethlehem Souvenir says, that strangers meet with but few indications of its once having been a Moravian settlement. Excepting the old row in Church Street, the lower Seminary building, and an occasional antiquated stone dwelling, its well-graded streets are built up closely with brick houses of modern style. The cleanliness and order which characterized it when a village under its original proprietors have, through Moravian influence, been preserved to the present day. In this respect it differs widely from other towns. There are no idlers at the corners, no vagabonds and dirty urchins staring or gaping at passers-by ; every one appears to be usefully employed. They are cheerful, affable, and respectful to each other as well as to strangers; their very looks denote contentment. With its beautiful scenery, and its proverbial healthfulness, Bethlehem still continues to be a favorite resort for numbers who desire to spend the summer months from the confinement of the city, without fore- MOEAVIAN" SCHOOLS. 229 going the pleasures and comforts of society in the retirement and solitude of the country. The Moravians have always been eminently successful in edu- cating their youth, and training them to a high standard of excel- lence in the more useful branches. Their schools are noted through- out the United States. The school for girls was first opened in Bethlehem on the 5th of January, 1749, with sixteen scholars, in the central building of the old row, directly east of the Moravian church. Here the daughters of the missionaries, of ministers of the Gospel, and of the Brethren of the settlement were received from time to time. On the 2d of October, 1785, this institute was closed, and arrangements made in the house to receive pupils from abroad. In their quiet way, the Brethren acquainted the public, through their friends, of the arrangement just completed for the reception of young ladies for education. Some time elapsed before it received a response. In 1786 the first application was made, which was soon followed by others from the West Indies, New York, Connecticut, Maryland, and other States. Applications and admissions continuing to increase, the principal suggested the ex- pediency of erecting an additional building at an early day. The project was favorably entertained, and in August, 1789, its speedy execution finally agreed on. The building was located in the rear of the old row, and was completed in 1791. In 1815 it was va- cated by the Seminary, and in the early part of 1857, was removed for the purpose of erecting on its site a building in which to hold the day school for the children of the Moravian congregation. The pupils were transferred in 1815 into the old " choir house," now known as the Seminary building, which was originally built for the single Brethren in 1747-48. A large addition was made to this building in 1854, on the eastern end, and, at the present time, another addition is being made on the western end. Within the last few years much labor has been expended upon the pleasure- grounds attached to the school, which afford a convenient and de- lightful retreat from the noise and crowd of the school-room. The Bethlehem Moravian Day School has been in operation for a 230 BETHLEHEM. number of years. Several years ago it was found necessary to re- organize the schoo], and place it on a broader and firmer basis. A large school-house was accordingly built at a cost of about $20,000, and dedicated in February, 1858. Since that time the system of education pursued in the institution has been very essentially changed under the superintendence of the Eev. Ambrose Rond- thaler. This change has produced excellent results. The principal manifests the greatest faithfulness in the discharge of his arduous and responsible duties. His system of instruction is thorough and highly practical. He is assisted by eight teachers. The whole number of pupils during the year ending June 30th, 1859, amounted to 225. This school is intended for the children of the Moravian congregation only. The children of other denominations are ac- commodated in the public schools. The whole number of public schools is five, which are' all in one building ; the number of scho- lars taught is about 225, under the management of three male and two female teachers. Unchanged by the hand of time, in the centre of the town, lies the Moravian graveyard. Here no costly monument marks the rich man's grave, nor does neglect consign the poor man to oblivion. Here it is easy to learn the lesson of equality ; for side by side, buried according to age, rest the Bishop, the Indian, and the negro. The horizontal marble slab, resting above the remains of each, bears only the impartial record of their lives. To a stranger these grounds resemble a park or garden, so neatly are they kept. Here at all times parties sit and stroll about, and the pleasures of earth do not appear to be overclouded, in the least, by the proximity of the grave. The new cemetery, as we have before stated, at Nisky Hill, now forms one of the most pleasant walks that the town affords. But the most striking features in Bethlehem are the few remaining edifices that once constituted the most important part of the ancient village. The sisters 1 house, to which we have already alluded, an antique-looking pile of gray stone, with its huge but- tresses and its receding angles, still stands there. This institution still to some extent fulfils its original design, and is the residence REMNANTS OP THE PAST. 281 of a moderate number of elderly maidens — a lingering remnant of the past who still cling to old images, and look with sorrow upon the new. The sisters' and widows' houses still preserve their primitive interior arrangements, and we still find the broad oaken staircases, the flagged pavements, the small windows, the low ceil- ings, and solid walls of masonry which speak of the past, when the design of architecture was endurance and strength, rather than beauty and show. The Moravian church in the immediate neighborhood has always been held in regard for its chaste and unassuming architecture. It stands upon an elevated terrace at the corner of Main and Church Streets, and confronts us upon entering the town. The present ministers are Rev. H. A. Shultz and Rev. D. Bigler. In the in- terior of this church the Moravian rule of dividing male and female is still observed, and the old-fashioned benches are still used instead of pews. The organ was built by Geib and Son, of New York, and was considered one of the finest in the country. Within the vestry- room may be seen a small gallery of portraits by Haidt, represent- ing the fathers of the church, and those identified with the early history of the Brethren. The paintings bear an antique look, the artist having lived more than a century ago. Besides this church, there are several others which have been erected within the past few years, viz: — Lutheran and German Reformed, corner of High and Broad Streets. Rev. C. Welden and Rev. Heister, pastors. English Methodist, Centre St., opposite Wall St. Rev. T. B. Miller, pastor. German Methodist, New and Union Streets. Rev. S. Rhoads, pastor. English Catholic. Bethlehem has also several very fine public buildings, such as the Citizens' Hall, Concert Hall, Masonic Hall, and Odd Fellows' Hall, which are used for lectures, concerts, and meeting rooms for the different societies which have of late years been organized in the 232 BETHLEHEM. town. Among the societies may be mentioned the Masons, Druids, Sons of Temperance, American Mechanics, several benevolent societies, Christian associations, and missionary societies. Amono - the most prospering societies is the Young Men's Missionary So- ciety, organized in 1840, for the purpose of aiding the foreign missions of the Moravian Church. In 1858 the Society was re-organized, and added another department to its former efforts — that of mental and social improvement among its members. In pursuance of this, a reading room has been established, and a library commenced, which is rapidly filling up. The Society now numbers some 300 members. In 1841 they formed a museum, thereby hoping to increase the funds devoted to the missionary cause. The museum was kept formerly in the Odd Fellows' Hall, but after the completion of the Moravian day school it was removed into the basement of that building. Visitors to Bethlehem should not leave the place without devoting a short time to the inspection of the small, but exceedingly interesting collection of curiosities. The collection itself is rather unique, as but few if any of its curiosities are such as are common to museums. No Captain Cook's clubs, or mermaids, or other such astonishing curiosities are found here, but, on the contrary, only such as are au- thentic. Several of these curiosities deserve particular mention : The old sundial, the old cannon, and the old spinet. The first is a solid mass of stone, several feet in length, and about half as broad. It must be more than a century old, as the date on its base has been deciphered MDCCXLVIII, but still its preservation is very complete. The figures are still legible, although the projecting angle of iron is broken off. Its original position was the former Brethren's House (now the female seminary), but was discovered some years ago as a sill to a pig-sty, from which ignoble position it was removed to its present more honorable station. It is inscribed " Gloria Pleura," one of the devotional terms of the Brethren a hun- dred years ago. The old cannon or swivel is indeed a curiosity, when compared to the highly finished and elegant cannon of the present day. It brings with it memories of the past, when the present town was confined to the dozen or so large buildings. Then it was, during the French and Indian war, that this rusty and broken swivel was placed, with five of its companions, behind the simple fortifications of the Brethren. Its further history is involved in obscurity. Years ago it was found, with the others, buried in the ground, and was used for several years by young Moraviandom to celebrate the 4th of July. Concerning the old spinet or piano, but little can be said, besides that it is a very old and interesting curiosity, show- ing what limited advantages the former generation of musicians enjoyed in the pursuit of their art. It is about four feet long, with only five octaves, and now totally devoid of sound except the twanging of the wires. Besides these, there are many curiosities, mostly gifts of the missionaries of the church, consisting of the work, weapons and implements of Africans, Chinese, South American Indians, Esquimaux and Greenlanders ; portraits of the most celebrated men of the church, such as Spangenberg and Zinzendorff ; a few speci- mens from Pompeii ; specimens of natural history, reptiles, insects, snakes of all kinds, and a valuable collection of minerals, shells, &c. BETHLEHEM WATERWORKS. 233 Besides the societies last mentioned, there are several musical associations, conspicuous among which are the Philharmonic So- ciety, C. F. Beckel, Leader, and "Beck el's" celebrated "Cornet Band," L. F. Beckel, Leader ; and to keep up with the spirit of the age, several excellent volunteer military companies have also been organized, and are commanded by competent and faithful officers. The companies are — Bethlehern Artillerists ..... Capt. W. Wilson. Washington Grays . . . . . " J. L. Selfkidge. Bethlehem Cavalry ..... Col. Geo. Wennek. The fire department of Bethlehem is also active and vigilant, and consists of three companies : Perseverance, No. 1 ; Diligent, No. 2 ; and Reliance, No. 3. The Perseverance Engine is claimed to be one of the first of its kind imported into this country. It was purchased in London by the Moravian congregation in 1762, at an expense of £77 12s. 2|r/. It is now preserved as a curious relic. The waterworks at Bethlehem were the first in Pennsylvania, and it is said that a committee of the council of the city of Phila- delphia came to see these works when it was in contemplation to erect the waterworks in that city. The works are located on the Monocacy Creek, and are propelled by a water-wheel. The water is drawn from a spring of delightful cool water. The following facts in regard to the works has been kindly furnished at our request. The waterworks were commenced in 1761 and completed in February, 1764. Hans Christian Christenson, a native of Copenhagen, was the projector and mas- ter millwright, and received 4 shillings a day for his services. Demuth and David Bithoff were his assistants. The water was forced to an elevation of about 100 feet by 3 single-stroke iron pumps (which cost £9) to the top of a wooden tower, 55 feet high, erected on the ground now occupied by the Moravian church, and from there distributed through wooden mains to all parts of the village. The small distributing pipes were lead. The entire cost of the works, as originally constructed, was £522 4s. 1\d. The heavy wrought-iron crank which propelled the pumps was made by hand by Stephen Blum, assisted by the well-known Adol- phus Jorde, at that time apprentice to the blacksmith at Bethlehem, and was con- sidered a masterpiece of ironwork. When the wooden mains were decayed, leaden pipes were substituted, and the first iron pipes were introduced in 1818. In the same year, the reservoir in Market Street was built, and the one north of Broad Street in 1833. The original building is still in existence and occupied as a dwell- ing house. The cost of the new works was $20,000. 16 234 BETHLEHEM. The Bethlehem Gas Company was chartered in 1853, and the works erected during the same year, going into operation in Janu- ary, 1854. The capital paid in was $23,300, with the privilege to increase to $50,000. The cost of the works was $23,500. There are now laid some 12,000 feet of main pipe, which supply about 207 dwellings, beside a large number of street lamps. The first newspaper printed in Bethlehem was in 1845, in the German language, and called Die Biene, and was published by Julius Held. In 1852, a monthly pamphlet, called The Moravian Church Miscellany, printed in English, was published by the so- ciety. In 1853, the first English newspaper was published, and called the Lehigh Valley Times, edited by E. H. Eauch. This paper was published for about five years, but finally was discontinued. At the present time, there are two papers published, both English : The Moravian, a monthly paper, published by the society, and The Bethlehem Advocate, a weekly, published by H. Reude. Manufacturing, in the borough proper, has not increased much (owing no doubt to the inconvenience of access to the railroads and canal), but in South Bethlehem and what was formerly known as Wetherill, on the opposite side of the Lehigh, large manufac- turing establishments have been erected, which have proved of great benefit to Bethlehem. We will give separate accounts of the different establishments, as they are located in what we shall term the three portions of Bethlehem : Bethlehem proper, South Bethle- hem, and the southern addition to Bethlehem (formerly called Wetherill). The following manufactories are located in Bethlehem : — One piano forte manufactory. J. C. Malthaner. Three carriage manufactories. H. A. Sellers, Ritter & Hoffman, and H. Sense- bach. One brewery (lager beer). Shilling & Saurbrumm. One distillery. F. Luckenbach. One tannery. W. Leibert. One buckwheat flour-mill. L. Snyder. One merchant and grist-mill. Luckenbach & Son. This is one of the original mills of Bethlehem congregation, having been built in 1744. One brass foundry. B. E. Lehman. MANUFACTURING ESTABLISHMENTS. 235 South Bethlehem is situated in Lehigh County, and is separated from Bethlehem by the Monocacy Creek, which is part of the dividing line between Northampton and Lehigh Counties. There are two hotels in the place, besides several stores and a number of manufacturing establishments. Here are located the sash factory and pianing-mill of Transue & Bros., agricultural implement manu- factory of C. F. Beckel, iron foundry of Beckel & Son, barrel manufactory of the Pennsylvania and Lehigh Zinc Company, and the saw and pianing-mill and woollen factory of Mr. Lewis Doster. The saw-mill was erected originally by the Moravian Society about the year 1743, and carried on by them until 1836, when it came into possession of the present proprietor, who has greatly enlarged it and added a pianing-mill to it. The Monocacy woollen mills were established in 1836 by the present enterprising proprietor, Mr. L. Doster. In 1841, the buildings and machinery were en- tirely destroyed by the great freshet, but were rebuilt the following year. In 1850, the present site was selected, having the advantage of an excellent water power furnished by the Lehigh Canal Com- pany. This establishment was the first and most extensive woollen mill in the valley. On the opposite side of the river from Bethlehem borough and South Bethlehem, within the triangle formed by the Lehigh Val- ley and North Pennsylvania Eailroads, lies the town of Wetherill, or, as it is now called, the "Southern addition to the Borough of Bethlehem." This town was laid out by Augustus Luckenbach, Esq., of Bethlehem, who called it Augusta, and several lots were sold under that name. At the present time the greatest part of the manufacturing is carried on in this portion of Bethlehem. Here are the extensive foundry and machine shops of Abbott & Cortright, who employ between forty and fifty men, and turn out a large number of coal, ore, and gravel cars ; also the extensive pianing-mill and sash and blind factory of Messrs. Steckel & Co. and the Zinc Metal Works of Gilbert, Wetherill, Baxter & Co. which last bid fair to do a thriving and remunerative business. This is one of the largest establishments of its kind in the country, 236 BETHLEHEM. employing over a hundred hands. At present, the company manu- facture the white zinc paint exclusively, but are makiDg active preparations for the erection of furnaces for the manufacture of metallic zinc. The works are now under the management of Jo- seph Wharton, Esq., as general manager, and Mr. Nathan Bartlett, superintendent. In addition to the extensive mines owned by this company, within the last few months several new ones have been opened, a few miles from Bethlehem. As this branch of manu- facture is of great importance in the Lehigh Valley, we give the following somewhat lengthy but interesting history and description of the works, &c, which, at our request, has been kindly furnished to us : — The Pennsylvania and Lehigh Zinc Company was incorporated May 2d, 1855, "for the purpose of mining zinc ore, and other ores found in connection therewith, and of manufacturing zinc paint, metallic zinc, and other articles, from said ores in the counties of Lehigh and Northampton, and of vending the same," with a capital of $1,000,000, divided into shares of five dollars each. All of the directors, and most of the stockholders of the company, are Philadelphians. The zinc works of this company are substantial brick buildings, occupying a tract of four acres of land on the southern bank of the Lehigh river, opposite the town of Bethlehem, and between the Lehigh Valley and North Pennsylvania rail- roads. The building of these works was commenced in the spring of 1853. In the fall of the same year they were put in operation, and they have since then been run almost continually. Many improvements and additions have, however, been made from time to time, so that the present capacity of the works is much greater than it originally was, and their total cost has largely exceeded $100,000. At this establishment the zinc ores from the company's mines in Saucon Valley are manufactured into white oxide of zinc, superior in quality to any other made in America, and nearly approaching in excellence to the best imported. The several patent-rights under which the company works, have cost them large sums of money, and form, with the heavy outlay required for mines and factories, a barrier to the starting of rival enterprises. The entire process of manufacture practised here consists, in effect, of the fol- lowing operations, viz: The ore, pulverized and mixed with coal, is strongly heated in furnaces which are fully supplied with air ; the metallic zinc which is thereby extracted in the form of vapor, is instantly oxidized, and the oxide of zinc thus formed, being an exceedingly light powder, is carried immediately from the furnaces by a strong artificial draft, together with large quantities of gases, and such ashes, &c, as are light enough to float in a current of air. These ashes are taken first and separated and deposited with the coarser particles of zinc oxide in rooms provided for the purpose ; a part of the pure zinc oxide is afterwards caught in chambers, and finally tb tses are all strained out by an immense apparatus of flannel and muslin ba r , to t ner surface of which the last and finest of the zinc oxide adheres, wlv .ce it is rt ved at proper intervals. PENNSYLVANIA AND LEHIGH ZINC COMPANY. 237 The zinc oxide which is thus collected in the chambers and bags, is in the form of a very white, fine, and fiocculent powder, which is compressed by proper' appara- tus into much smaller bulk, and is then carefully packed into strong, tight, paper- lined casks. The process is on the whole a remarkably simple one in theory, and is conducted with very little manual labor ; but of course to produce an article of the excellent and uniform quality made by the Pennsylvania and Lehigh Zinc Company, requires constant care and a complete knowledge of the business. These works are now capable of turning out about 2500 tons of zinc oxide per annum, and the production can be extended as the demand increases, without very much enlarging the present building, to nearly double that quantity. It is not so generally known as it should be, that a large proportion of the so- called " French zinc paint" sold in this country is made of the zinc oxide produced at this establishment, by grinding it carefully with good oil, and with little or no adulteration, while a large part of the lower grades of zinc paint, such as are sold under various fancy names, and are supposed by consumers to be the best Lehigh zinc, or the best American zinc, are made of this same zinc oxide, with different degrees of adulteration, and more or less carefully ground. The casks and barrels used for packing the zinc oxide are made by the company at their barrel-works, on the north bank of the Lehigh, with machinery driven by the water-power of the Lehigh Canal ; the company also own a paint-mill, which is on the same premises with their barrel-works. The company's zinc mines are believed to be practically inexhaustible, and to be surpassed by very few in the known world. They are situated near the village of Friedensville, in Saucon Valley, four miles south of Bethlehem, on the main road to Philadelphia, and close to the southern foot of the southernmost spur of the Lehigh Mountain. At this place the company own, in fee simple, about 160 acres of land, besides the mineral right of other lots adjoining, embracing, altogether, the entire range, from the top of the mountain to the village of Friedensville ; the great deposit of calamine known as the " Ueberroth Zinc Mine," lies nearly in the centre of the company's land. The deposit of zinc ore was first discovered by Mr. T. H. Roepper, of Bethlehem, about the year 1845 ; but several years elapsed before it attracted much attention, and no considerable mining was carried on there until within the last six years ; in that period about 40,000 tons of zinc ore have been taken out, and the mine now exhibits to a practised eye, greater resources than at any previous time. About one acre has been uncovered, and worked out to an average depth of 35 feet, but shafts sunk from the surface around this opening prove that a much greater area is underlaid with ore, and borings now being made in the bottom of the mine, which have reached the depth of over 110 feet, show that the zinc ore extends at least to that depth. Geological observations and comparison with old European mines indicate that the ore continues, in all probability, to a depth of several hundred feet. The ore found here is mostly silicate of zinc, though great masses of carbonate of zinc also occur, both of most excellent quality. It exists in masses varying from thousands of tons to small veins mingled with clay, filling the large cavities and interstices of the dolomite or magnesian limestone, which is here the prevail- ing rock ; a sort of schist or slate appears in some places near the zinc ore, par- ticularly near its southern limit. Some persons of intelligence suppose that the 238 BETHLEHEM. primitive rocks of the mountain already mentioned, will be found to underlie the dolomite and zinc ore, at the depth of some hundreds of feet. At this mine the company have efficient washing and pumping machinery, driven by steam, together with substantial and appropriate engine-house, work- shops, &c. All their land not actually required for mining purposes is in a high state of cultivation as a farm, and is provided with all suitable buildings and ap- paratus for that purpose. Numerous and expensive explorations have been made in all directions, for miles around the " Ueberroth Mine," but all, with a very few exceptions, have failed to develop a particle of zinc ore. It has been very pertinaciously asserted of some of these trial shafts (especially in the vicinity of Allentown,) that they cut through abundance of zinc ore. But competent examination of the spots, and analysis of authentic specimens have disproved the existence of zinc, except in the few places above alluded to. Some of these have yielded good specimens of zinc ore, and two have even been worked to some extent ; but none has yet proved to be more than an outlying pocket or deposit, subordinate to the central mass in the Ueberroth Mine, just as similar streaks and pockets occur in the neighborhood of the princi- pal European zinc mines. It may be proper to remark that the early career of the Pennsylvania and Le- high Zinc Company was very injuriously affected by the unsound manner in which its operations were commenced, by a party of New York speculators, who were ignorant of the business, and whose arrangements looked no farther than to a speedy sale of the company's stock, at the highest possible prices. Now, how- ever, that the concern has passed into the hands of men of sufficient means and business ability, who have established it under a charter from the State of Penn- sylvania, and have worked through the principal difficulties incurred by its originators, it seems to stand on a solid basis, especially when it is considered that in regard to the important matters of cheap mining, cheap coal, and short lines of transportation to the markets of New York and Philadelphia, no zinc mine could be better situated in the United States, than the Ueberroth Mine, while all now known to exist are very far inferior to it. In estimating the value of the Pennsylvania and Lehigh Zinc Company's opera- tions to the valley of the Lehigh, it must be borne in mind that the $300,000 worth of merchandise which it can produce annually, is made exclusively from the natural productions of that valley, and it is past doubt that the importance of the zinc interest in this region will be vastly increased when the manufacture of spelter or metallic zinc is added to that of zinc oxide. This will surely be done before long, since it is certain that no locality in the world has greater natu- ral advantages for spelter-making (unless cheapness of skilled labor can be so called), and recent experiments by the Pennsylvania and Lehigh Zinc Company, and by other parties, have actually produced considerable quantities of spelter of most excellent quality, at a cost low enough to demonstrate that no difficulties exist in the way of making it to a profit, except such as can be overcome by per- severance and further study of the business. Besides the different manufacturing establishments in this part of Bethlehem, and the large number of dwellings erected for the accommodation of the employees, we may mention the handsome country seats of Kobert H. Sayre, Esq., Superintendent of the TRAVELLING A CENTURY AGO. 289 Lehigh Valley Eailroad; 0. H. Wheeler, A. Fiot, and others, which, from being situated on the mountain side, afford an exten- sive and magnificent view of the surrounding country. Here is also located the celebrated Hydropathic Institute of Dr. Opplett, which has been for many years the resort of invalids for the reco- very of their health. Among other things in this neighborhood, worthy of note, is the natural cave a short distance above the depot. The cave is about eighty feet in length and fifteen high, and was discovered a few months ago by some workmen who were engaged in making some excavation at that place. In 1857 the North Pennsylvania Eailroad was completed to this place. This road is about fifty-five miles in length, and at its terminus at the Bethlehem station is 227 feet and llf inches above tide-water. It is one of the best constructed and managed roads in the country. Bethlehem, at the present time, is its northern ter- minus, but the company are now making active preparations for its completion to Easton, and from thence on to the Delaware Water Gap and Stroudsburg. By means of this road passengers from Philadelphia reach Bethlehem in two hours and a half, it being the shortest and most expeditious route from Philadelphia to the Lehigh Valley. In contrast with the present rapid manner of travelling, we will take a retro- spective view of the century which has passed since the commencement of Bethle- hem. In doing this, we find that in 1742 the first settlers came along the great and well-trodden Indian trail that led from the city of Philadelphia northwardly. This trail or path crossed over the West Branch of Delaware (as the Lehigh River was generally called) at Jones's Island, about one mile below Bethlehem. In his- tory and in the earliest records of Northampton County it was known as the old Minisink path, and for many centuries had been used by the Minsi Indians, whose principal habitations were north of the Blue Mountains. David Nitchman and his company of about one hundred persons came to Bethlehem in 1742, along this path, on foot, with pack-horses which carried some of the necessary imple- ments for the commencement of the settlement, &c. In 1745 the first roads in this section of Northampton County were laid out ; the former mode of travel, however, remained the same for many years. During the Indian and Revolutionary wars from 1755 to 1782 all public business was transacted by means of expresses on horseback. Travelling to Philadelphia by private individuals of Bethlehem was, during that period, very rarely undertaken ; and, with the exception of the storekeeper and tavern-keeper of the village, who visited Philadelphia twice a 240 BETHLEHEM. year to purchase their supplies of goods, but very few, if any, Bethlehemites visited. the city during the course of a year. On the first day of July, 1792, the post-office at Bethlehem was established, with Joseph Horsefield appointed as postmaster. Then commenced the era in which stages came into vogue. During the first several years a trip to Philadelphia occupied nearly two days' time, and was afterwards reduced to a day and a half; and in 1798 we find in the Philadelphia Advertiser an advertisement by five pro- prietors of the mail-stage between the city and Bethlehem, &c, that they propose to run the stage through in one day, and, with more and less expedition, these stages continued in use until the completion of the North Pennsylvania Railroad, in January, 1857. The shortest trip made by stages was about eight to nine hours. In regard to travelling by private members of the Bethlehem Moravians, the rules of the society made it incumbent upon them to have the consent and ap- proval of the clergy to leave the town for even a day's time, and the undertaking of a journey to Philadelphia or New York was first taken into serious consideration by the town council (or Overseers' College, as this tribunal was called), as well as by the clergy in general conference assembled. Moravianism was carried out in the travelling article as well as in every other. The most rigid precautions were taken so that no one of its members (unless imperious necessity intervened) would or could come in contact with " the world." Very few of the Moravians availed themselves of the public stages in the early period of their use. Their retired habits made it very uncongenial to them to be in the company of strangers. They betrayed a certain awkwardness, which all outsiders readily observed, and consequently they very frequently became the butt if thrown into a promiscuous society. And, in fact, the Moravians at Bethlehem, from 1742 to 1800, whilst they lived in the world, were not of " the world." There- fore a more congenial method of travel was adopted, in order to avoid the annoy- ances mentioned. There was a private stage in Bethlehem, owned and conducted by one of the church-members ; this was hired by parties for the purpose. It was customary, whenever a person had any business call from any town, to defer attending to it until others had similar motives inducing them to take a journey; in this wise six or eight persons associated themselves, and hired Mr. Adam Luck- enbach and his stage. To carry out this intention frequently required several weeks' negotiations until the company was formed. Before starting, several days or more were consumed to make the needed preparations for the journey. All manner of cakes and pies were baked, hams boiled, coffee ground, &c. &c. The event created great interest in the town ; and in the families of the members of the party a commotion was observable that portended an unusual occurrence. This preparation was necessary. In elucidation of it we must add that our tra- vellers did not stop at any of the taverns along the road. The stage-driver took with him a bag of oats, which was safely stowed under the seat of the stage, a bucket for watering the horses swung under the body of the stage, and a trough for feeding the horses, which was tied on behind. Thus provided, he fed his horses at a spring or brook alongside the road, whilst the passengers regaled themselves out of the store of provisions in their baskets. Upon arriving at a tavern or farm-house in the evening, they asked the use of a coffee or tea-pot ; the exhilarating beverage being prepared by them, each recurred to his or her basket, and appeased their appetite out of it. This manner of travelling was consonant to the feelings of Moravians. BEAUTY OF THE COUNTRY. 241 "We have endeavored thus far to give to " the world" a general description of the peculiarities of the early Moravians and their institutions. Much more might be written did our space permit, but as we have already overstepped the bounds allotted to us for this interesting subject, we will close the article with the following entertaining letter of a visitor, descriptive of the place and the means of reaching there. Three hours in the cars of the North Pennsylvania Railroad will introduce the weary, toil-worn citizen to this rural town. It is always well in travelling to take things as comfortably as possible, and, therefore, if you have a choice between starting in the morning and reaching your destination in the middle of the day and starting so as to arrive at your proposed stopping-place towards the cool of the evening, by all means take the latter course. Acting upon this principle, we took the afternoon train for this place in preference to the morning train, which gets in about noon. The ride on the North Pennsyl- vania Railroad was delightful. The cars are comfortable, the road well and solidly laid, so that there was but little jar, and there was scarcely any perceptible dust. The absence of dust, which is one of the great annoyances of railroad travelling, was owing to the fact that the road throughout its entire length is ballasted with stone. The country through which the road passes is of itself well worthy of attention. The rich farms of Montgomery and Bucks Counties were to be seen in all their beauty and perfection. The long-continued rains of the early summer had kept the scorching suns of the last few weeks from so parching the ground as to deprive vegetation of its verdure and beauty. The hay crop had mostly been gathered, but here and there a luxuriant field of clover lay green in the sunlight, the delicately tinted blossoms mellowing and adding richness to the general hue of the field. The broad acres of oats and wheat stood waving their golden and life- sustaining burden, ready for the reaper ; or long rows of grain already cut and bound in sheaves awaited transportation to the ample barns. Numerous fields of corn in dark and glossy green showed careful farming and a favoring season. It was a bright, clear afternoon, and the atmosphere without even a haze. Far off on the left, as we passed through the lower part of Montgomery, the hills on the other side of the Schuylkill stood out against the western sky, the distance giving a faint bluish tinge to their forest-crowned summits. A mile or two beyond Sellersville is the tunnel, twenty-one hundred and fifty feet long, cut through Landis's Ridge. The road-bed is here four hundred and thirty-three feet above the level of the sea. Still ascending as we advance, about ten miles beyond the tunnel we reach the summit at Same's Gap, five hundred and ninety-seven feet above tide-water, and just on the boundary between Lehigh and Bucks. And now we begin to descend, following the valley of the Saucon Creek, till about two miles this side of Bethle- hem, when the road takes a westerly direction, and soon strikes the banks of the Lehigh, and, keeping close along the river, connects with the Lehigh Valley Road at the Bethlehem station. Omnibuses are in waiting to take travellers to the different hotels. We found our way to a hotel, where we were speedily made comfortable, and the sound of the tea-gong was not unwelcome after our three hours' ride. Where can we journey to find a spot more attractive in its early history and 17 242 BETHLEHEM:. associations, or one more truly beautiful in all its rich surroudinngs, than Bethle- hem ? The beautiful Lehigh which runs along its borders, the great hills which encircle it, the pleasant valleys which spread themselves out for your admiration, are a constant and never-failing source of pleasure to the lover of the beautiful in nature, while the quaint old buildings of the town are a study to those who love the antique in architecture. Here, in the early evening, a fleet of boats, filled with gay company, crowd the river ; and in these aquatic sports we have seen as much skill displayed by young and beautiful girls as we are accustomed to witness in the amateur rowers of our own fair Schuylkill. An island, richly planted with tree's, and lying a short dis- tance above the town, is the favorite resort of those who row upon the river. It is a cool, shady spot, embracing some twelve or fifteen acres, sacredly guarded by the authorities, to be held forever as a pleasure-ground for the people. Another famous place of resort is Nisky Hill. Here the grounds are handsomely laid out with gravelled walks, and well planted with a varied collection of trees. A shady walk, extending along the bluffs of the Lehigh, affords the visitor some of the finest views the eye of man ever rested on. The close borough system of the early, pious settlers has at length yielded to the outside pressure ; the barriers erected around the missionary establishment by the pioneers of the wilderness have been broken down by the throng of admirers who sought to fraternize with the followers of Zinzendorf. All men may now purchase land within the borough limits, and live under the shadow of their own vine. The brother who feels disposed to take upon himself the cares of a family may woo and win the fair one of his choice. The days of the lot have passed away forever ! Bethlehem is full of interest to the student of Pennsylvania history. It lies within the celebrated Walking Purchase. The headquarters of Heckewelder and other venerable missionaries among the children of the forest were at this village. It was the scene of the sufferings of the survivors of the massacre at Wyoming, as they made their forlorn journey over the mountains back to their early homes in Connecticut. It was the resting-place of Lafayette after the battle of Brandywine ; here his wounds were healed under the kind care of the good Moravians. Here, too, that gallant Pole, Pulaski, received from the fair sisters of Bethlehem that crimson banner, beautifully wrought by their own hands, which he gallantly bore at the head of his column through many a martial scene, until he fell in conflict at Savannah. The event has been em- balmed in verse by Longfellow. " Take thy banner : May it wave Proudly o'er the good and brave," &c. The visitor to Bethlehem enjoys the advantage of many a pleasant walk and ride through a beautiful country, presenting many diversified features in its landscape ; and, even while reposing after the fatigue of healthful exercise, the eye is charmed and never wearied with looking out upon the mountain sides covered with forests and watching the changing effects of light and shade upon the dark, rich foliage as the fleecy clouds, gently wafted through the blue sky above, cast their shadows over the sunny hill-sides. If you have but a day to spare, come here. You will find the people kind-hearted and generous, the women fair to look upon, and the men strong in the knees. Soon after leaving the railroad station at Bethlehem we take leave of the county of Northampton and enter that of Lehigh ; we PHYSICAL APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY. 243 are carried along at a rapid rate in the cars of the Lehigh Valley Company for the distance of six miles, when we reach the beautiful and enterprising borough of Allentown, the seat of justice of Lehigh County. The road from Bethlehem is lined on both sides the greater part of the way with excellent and well-cultivated farms, among which is the one (now the Geisinger farm) which was owned, in 1737, by Solomon Jennings, one of the walkers of the so-called " Walking Purchase." Before entering into a descrip- tion of Allentown, we will give a short sketch of the county and its resources. LEHIGH COUNTY. Lehigh County was separated from Northampton County by an act of Assembly passed the 6th of March, 1812. It is bounded on the northwest by the Blue Mountains, separating it from Schuyl- kill and Carbon Counties, northeast by Northampton, southeast by Bucks, and southwest by Montgomery and Berks Counties. It contains three hundred and eighty -nine square miles, or two hun- dred and forty-eight thousand nine hundred and sixty acres. The physical appearance of the country is diversified. The sur- face is generally level, in some places rolling, in others rugged and somewhat broken. The South Mountain crosses the southeast portion of the county. This mountain range is a primary forma- tion, abounding with iron ore. Between the South and Blue Mountain is the fertile Kittatinny valley, perhaps unsurpassed in agricultural wealth, and is highly cultivated by an industrious class of our worthy fellow-citizens, Germans by descent, whose habits of industry and frugality they still retain, and whose lan- guage they speak. The valley portion of the county is nearly divided between the limestone and clay slate formation. The most important productions are those of agriculture. In a fertile region 244 LEHIGH COUNTY. like this an industrious population naturally look to the tillage of the soil as their surest dependence for support and profit. Con- siderable progress has, however, been made in many branches of manufacturing industry, and the development of the mineral re- sources of the country within the last ten or more years shows that there are vast deposits of iron ore in the county, which now supply a number of furnaces, with an aggregate number of tons amounting to upwards of one hundred thousand per year. Along the northern portion of the county are found vast beds of excellent slate, which have of late years been raised and manufactured for roofing, school slates, and ornamental purposes; and we may confidently calculate that in a quarter of a century (or probably only half of that time) the manufacturing interest of the county will largely overbalance the agricultural, notwithstanding the latter, by scientific improve- ments, may have doubled in the same period. The editor of the AUentown Democrat, in speaking of the advantages possessed by this county, says : " Our county is small — a disadvantage in some respects — but it is one of the sixty-four that go to make up the State of Pennsylvania — the keystone in the arch of this great confederacy. We are aware that many portions of the State have natural advantages that we have not and never can have; yet our county possesses others equally to be prized that they do not. First we shall see what Lehigh County presents to the beholder on its earth's surface. Let hay-making and harvest tell. But recently you could behold fields of yellow waving grain as far as the eye could reach. Not a nook, hill, or dell but what yields bountifully, answering to the work and desires of the farmers as faithfully and truly as does the noble ship to its helm on the bosom of the stormy ocean. As an agricultural county, there is none superior in the State, and especially do the rich townships of Saucon, the two Macungies, the two Whitehalls, Salisbury, and Hanover, yield a plentiful return to the honest, hard-working farmer; of which their splendid houses, barns, outhouses, fences, and the magnificent con- dition of their farms, is the best proof. The land in these townships is a yellow clay, a limestone soft, mixed in part with sand ; it is MINERALS. 245 interspersed with hill and dale, and there is, indeed, very little that cannot be cultivated. The land in the townships of the two Mil- fords, Lynn, Heidelberg, Washington, Lowhill, and Weisenburg, is mixed partly with gravel and slate, and no soil, with the judicious use of lime, can add more to the wealth of the farmer, of which they appear to be fully aware, as thousands of bushels of lime are yearly used by the cultivators of these townships, and with excellent success, as their land not only produces the fullest and healthiest grain, but always brings a higher price in market than any other. "We possess a climate healthy all the year round. We have no sickly seasons of fevers, of cholera, and other epidemics, which usually prevail throughout the land. Having come down this far, we will say something about the mineral wealth of the county. We have inexhaustible beds of iron ore, zinc, copper, manganese, copperas, &c. Iron ore is found in abundance in the townships of North and South Whitehall, Upper and Lower Macungy, Hanover, Salisbury, and Upper and Lower Milford, in veins from four to forty feet thick, and so near the surface as to be mined with the greatest ease; it is of different kinds, such as rock, pipe, shell, kidney, and black and red sheer, which yield from seventy to ninety per cent. In Saucon, they have rich and valuable beds of zinc. Copperas is plenty, but is not mined. We also have fire clay, porcelain clay, and hydraulic cement of the best quality and in inexhaustible quantities. " There are many other objects in Lehigh County which might be used as a handle to boast with, but boasting is not our province at present; we simply wish to show that although we are an unas- suming people, we possess within our limits more of real value than many other counties more favored and less deserving of the works of art than we are." The following statistics from the Census Bureau exhibit the pro- ductive industry of the resources of Lehigh County in the year 1850, a year which, by the way, was by no means remarkable for general prosperity : — 246 LEHIGH COUNTY Number of acres of improved lands Value of farming implements and machinery Value of live stock Quantity of wheat grown, in bushels " rye " " Indian corn " oats " " buckwheat " potatoes " pounds of butter " tons of hay " gallons of wine 141,935 $404,(548 $725,382 261,301 327,505 397,048 289,669 28,265 181,482 838,816 30,332 995 At the time of taking the last census (1850) rye appeared to have been the main crop, but since that time the farmers have turned their attention almost exclusively to the cultivation of wheat. From the breadth sown last year, and the extraordinary yield of this great staple, the crop of the present year in this county will hardly fall short of eight hundred thousand bushels. All other crops are said to have yielded a corresponding increase over 1850. Farming is, throughout Pennsylvania, little less than well organ- ized systematic labor; but still only a monotonous routine of physical toil, too seldom relieved by mental exercise or enjoyment. This is unfortunate. It is the result of old established prejudices, deeply rooted in our German population, who, resisting every modern innovation, hold fast to the time-honored principles, pre- cepts and examples of their forefathers, and regard it as a moral duty to " follow in their footsteps." They therefore, with few ex- ceptions, plough, plant, and reap pretty much in the old way, without deviating to the right or left, but by industry, frugality, and close attention to their affairs, generally gather a fair share of wealth, which is finally distributed amongst their children, who, in turn, will possibly travel over the same beaten track of agricultural life. Farming in early times was different from the present. After the building of a small log house, the farmer proceeded to clear some acres of land which generally yielded a good crop ; the second, third, and succeeding years more land was cleared. The first cleared, after yielding several crops, became impoverished, MODES OF FARMING. 247 and then was left lay " fallow" for some years ; tbis, in the course of eight to ten years, increased the " fallow" lands of the farm so much, that it became necessary to depend mostly upon the new made grounds. The " fallow" fields being once more made use of did not yield so well as new land, and thus in process of time became in a great degree almost worthless by repetition of the process. About 1770, many of the now best farms did not yield more than one to two hundred bushels of rye, which now yield one to two .thousand bushels of wheat and rye. A traveller through the township of Macungy in 1784, remarks: "The dry limestone soil appears not to be well adapted for raising of wheat," and adds, that " some persons have of late thought to renovate it, by applying lime over the surface of it, but this procedure will, in my opinion, not have the desired effect." In 1787, the first agri- cultural society was formed in the city of Philadelphia; experi- ments were made with plaster and lime ; through this society a change was wrought, which, about the commencement of the nine- teenth century, had been the means of introducing the new method into this county, after having conquered all obstacles and preju- dices, which were many and great. Many thousand acres of lime- stone lands north, east, and west, of the borough of Allentown were left in their pristine state, unsold and unoccupied until after the Eevolutionary War; the very name of a settler upon these lands had become a byword; to be called a "Drylander," implied a poverty-stricken individual ; many a time has the writer in his youth heard it thus applied. The term applied to the lords of the soil of South Whitehall, Macungy, and Hanover, would be very inapplicable at the present time. These despised lands have be- come the most luxuriant in the county. In the year 1773, it is shown by the assessment that there were 37,394 acres of improved lands, of which were sown in grain 8,869 acres, in the following townships, viz: — 248 LEHIGH COUNTY. Cleared. Grains. Upper Milford . 7096 acres. 1283 acres. 156 farmers Macungy 6459 it 2002 " 136 " Whitehall . 6070 it 1223 " 117 Upper Saucon . 5792 a 1028 " 84 " Lynn 3412 a 860 « 118 Heidelberg 2905 it 904 " 101 Salisbury . 2400 u 572 " 48 " Weisenburg 2189 a 562 " 78 Lowhill 1131 a 435 " 48 " 37394 8869 886 This shows that only about one-fourth of the lands were then improved, upwards of 180,000 acres being in woodlands, or in the pristine state. The following list shows the tradesmen in the townships named in 1763. Upper Milford . . Upper Saucon . Macungy Salisbury . . . Heidelberg . . . Whitehall . . . Weisenburg . . Lynn .... Lowhill .... Allentown . . . Totals 50 56 20 14 11 22 112 13 4 2 1 177 The list of tradesmen in the territory comprising Lehigh County (with the exception of Hanover, which then was included in Allen Township, and there could not readily be adapted for the purpose of this investigation) will show that the tradesmen were very few in proportion to the farmers; this clearly establishes the fact that the farmers performed the necessary work themselves in most instances. In a large number of houses stood the weaver's loom, in a corner of the lower room of the farm-house, upon which the females wove the flax and hempen and tow linens, for the supply of the family, the flax and hemp for which had been raised on the TAXES ON LAND. 249 farm, and spun by the females; it is evident that the fourteen weavers could not do the work for the eight hundred and eighty- six farmers, neither could the twelve shoemakers provide shoes for them, notwithstanding one pair of shoes sufficed for a year's wear; so, also, the eleven carpenters and the seven masons could not erect the buildings which were yearly put up. There is no other statement that could be made that would give us a clearer or more minute idea of the habits and practices of the "olden time," than can be elucidated from this list, and further, we must take into consideration that, however, the persons represented as the tradesmen they were occupied at those trades only part of the time, as nearly every one of them had from twenty to one hundred acres of land to attend to and farm in the proper season. The taxes on the land were trifling in comparison with the present rates. A farm of about two hundred acres paid from eighty cents to one dollar and fifty cents. John Lichtenwalder, of Macungy, paid the greatest amount of taxes, $2 42 for four hun- dred acres of land, &c. The laborers paid ten to twelve cents, and for rents of houses and lots, about $4 to $8 per year, including firewood, some acres of land, &c. The fifty poor people paid no taxes (though some of them owned thirty to forty acres of land). The farmers raised wheat on the new lands for the first and second crop, subsequently rye and buckwheat (Indian corn was not planted before 1780). The wheat was carefully husbanded, being the only resource for obtaining money; it was taken on wagons to the mills, in the vicinity of Philadelphia, and there sold ; only upon an extraordinary occasion a loaf of wheat bread appeared upon a table of the inhabitants ; rye and buckwheat were altogether used by the farmers and others, excepting, perhaps, Jacob Moore, the baker at Allentown, who, we may infer, supplied the lads and lasses with gingerbread, made of wheat flour, at the frolics in Allentown, to which they flocked from all parts of the county. The upper part of the county was overrun by the Indians in 1763 ; for we find that on the 15th of October, 1763, Governor Hamilton called the attention of the Assembly to the sad condition 250 LEHIGH COUNTY. of the settlers of Lynn, Heidelberg, Whitehall, and Macungy Township, of the then county of Northampton. Their houses were destroyed, their farms laid waste, barns, grain, fences, &c, burnt to ashes, and eighteen persons murdered. All the inhabit- ants fled to places of safety. The persons murdered were inoffend- ing Germans, who had never molested an Indian. At the early period, when our forefathers were building small log houses (with light admitted into them by means of oiled paper in- stead of glass), sheds for stables, and clearing new land and fencing it chiefly with poles or brush, a hearty, sincerely good will for each other generally prevailed among them. They all stood occasionally in need of the help of their neighbors, who often resided several miles distance from them through the woods. Chronic ailments were then not so frequent as at present, which was, perhaps, owing to the wholesome diet, brisk exercise, lively manners, and cheerful and unrefined state of the mind. But acute diseases, such as fevers in various degrees, those called long fevers, dumb agues, fever and agues, sore throats, and pleurisies were much more common than now. The natural smallpox was peculiarly distressing, was mostly severe, and often mortal, and nothing strange that it should be so. The nature of the disorder being but little known, it was very im- properly treated. A hot room, plenty of bedclothes, hot teas, and milk punch, or hot tiff, were pronounced most proper to bring the eruption out, and to make it fill well, and the chief danger was apprehended from the patient taking cold by fresh air or cold drink. This mode of ill-directed kindness produced scenes of afflicting distress, nearly whole families being ill at once. Rum was esteemed absolutely necessary for the sick, and nearly as much so for the attendants ; a dram, either raw, sweetened, or with worm- wood and rue juice, and chewing, but more commonly smoking tobacco, were used as antidotes against infections or offensive smells. A dram, or the pipe, amused the vacant time, and was supposed to be useful. As money was scarce, laborers few, and business often to be done that required many hands, friends and neighbors were commonly USE OF ARDENT SPIRITS. 251 invited to raising of houses and barns, grubbing, chopping, and rolling logs, that was to be done in haste, in order to get in the crop in season. Rum, and a dinner or supper were provided on these occasions, and much competition excited in the exercise of bodily strength and dexterity, both at work and athletic diversions. Reciprocal assistance, being much wanted, was freely afforded and gratefully received, and, notwithstanding the rude and un- polished state of mind and manners that may be expected to have prevailed in the first settlers in a wilderness country, and in a much more marked degree in those who succeeded them, yet from their mutual wants and dependencies, the social and active vivacity of their simple nature, and, perhaps, more than all these, a kind and unaffected friendship, formed a prominent principle of their general character. When false impressions, or ignorance, have so far gained ground as to influence general habits and customs, it re- quires much labor, and a long time to wear them out. This appears evident in the use that is made of spirituous liquors and tobacco. It is probable that the first settlers used these articles to ward off infection ; and spirits were principally used to prevent the bad effects of drinking water, to which they had not been accustomed in Europe. They imagined the air and water of this hot climate to be unwholesome. The immediate bad effects of cold water, when heated with exercise in summer, and the fever and agues which seized many in autumn, confirmed them in this opinion ; the drinking of rum being countenanced by general opinion, and brought into general practice as far as their limited ability would admit. Bottles of rum were handed about at vendues, and mixed and stewed spirits were repeatedly given to those who attended funerals. An act of Assembly was passed, prohibiting the giving of spirits at vendues, and though the law was not much re- garded for many years, and the practice continued, yet this mis- chievous and dishonest practice is now almost wholly disused. At births many good women were collected, and wine, rum, and whiskey for the guests were esteemed suitable to the occasion. Rum was believed to be essentially necessary for a lying-in woman. 252 LEHIGH COUNTY. The new-born infant must be straitly rolled around the waist with a linen swathe, and loaded with clothes until it could scarcely breathe ; and when awake or fretful, was dosed with rum and water stewed with spicery. It is plain that their manners and customs were not yet changed from the rude and unpolished practices of antiquity, to the proper standard of propriety. A great degree of roughness and rusticity of mind and manner prevailed for some time, and increased in the generations that succeeded the first set- tlers. For this there are several reasons ; first, the great want of schools, the small stock of learning in master and pupil, but more than all, the free use of rum in haytime, harvest, etc. On all these occasions, quarrels and fights frequently occurred, and among the lower class of people a low degree of knowledge and want of respect to themselves or others prevailed, so that much might be seen and heard among them that was "low lived" in the full sense of the term. i Previous to the year 1755 (the commencement of the " Indian war"), the Indians who resided in the county were kind neighbors to the white people, whom they frequently supplied with meat and sometimes with beans and other vegetables, which they always did as charity, bringing presents to their houses and refusing pay. The Indian children were sociable and fond of play ; a harmony was kept up between them until 1755. Native simplicity reigned then in its greatest extent. The difference between the families of the white man and the Indian was not great, when, to live was the utmost hope, and to enjoy a bare sufficiency the greatest luxury. Before this time, no occurrence happened, materially to disturb the general tranquillity ; everything, both public and private, went on in an even and regular routine, their moderate wishes were fully gratified, necessaries and conveniences were gradually increased, but luxuries of any kind, except spirituous liquors, were rarely thought of or introduced. The preceding account will apply with general propriety to the state of things until the Eevolutionary War. The quota of men drafted in Northampton County, as the portion of the ten thousand RECRUITS FOR THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. 253 men for the Flying Camp (as it was called), was three hundred and forty-six; of this number about two hundred came from that por- tion of the county embraced in the present Lehigh County, and we find from the Bethlehem Diary, that on the 30th July, 1776, " one hundred and twenty recruits from Allentown and vicinity passed through this place to the " Flying Camp in the Jerseys," and on the 10th February, 1777, the Diary says that, " for the past week, we have been informed of threats made of some militia in the vicinity of Allentown, against us and our town." (The threat we may suppose to have arisen from the Tory principles of many of the inhabitants of Bethlehem.) The inhabitants of the country comprising Lehigh County were not backward in showing their attachment to the principles of the Kevolution.* Yet there were a few who, for private gain, violated the laws enacted for the further- ance of the highly prized liberties we now enjoy ; one of these laws, from its singular restrictions, is here introduced in a case (occurring in the county), for the purpose of preserving the knowledge of it, as well as the difficulties which attended the revolutionary move- ment, and made the enacting of such a law expedient or necessary. It is entitled an act "To prevent forestalling and regrating, and to encourage fair dealing," passed January 2d, 1778. (See McKeen's Laws, p. 97, 1778.) Under this law a prosecution was brought in Northampton County, of which the following is a copy : — The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania -| For purchasing a number of cattle with- vs. L out a permit to do so, contrary to an act John Peter Miller, of Macungy. J of General Assembly to prevent forestall- ing and regrating, and a complaint lodged by Mich'd Shaefer, committee-man of Macungy Township. John Peter Miller, tent in . . . . £500 Upper Milford, farmer Peter Miller 250 Macungy, " Peter Fox 250 " tailor Taken the 3d Sept., 1779, cond'n for app. of J. P. Miller, at the next Court of * There was no battle fought in Lehigh County, as has been stated by some historians, and the enemy never invaded its territory. In the Bethlehem Diary, page 181, it is stated that upon the refusal of the Americans to have the laboratory for the manufacture of cartridges at that place, it was removed to Allentown. This was on 23d September, 1777. 254 LEHIGH COUNTY. Gen. Qr. Sessions, to be held at Easton, &c, int. to be of good behavior, &c. A true copy, &c. ROBERT LEVERS, C. D. Peace. Taken and acknowledged before ROBERT LEVERS. The object of this act of Assembly was to prevent the enemy from purchasing cattle for the supply of their armies, by agents whom they employed, and who paid a higher price for cattle in gold than the American government paid in the depreciated con- tinental bills. The temptation to transgress the law, it would ap- pear, Mr. Miller could not resist ; but the vigilant Mr. Shaeffer, whose duty it was, as the committee-man for Macungy, to inform the General County Committee of Safety, prevented Mr. Miller from profiting by the transgression. The necessities of the Ameri- can army were oftentimes very great, and cattle, through the fre- quent levies made throughout the whole country, became scarce ; farmers themselves, in many instances, could not retain a sufficient supply for family use; this, among other methods of economy, in- duced them to supply the place of tallow for candles by substituting the so-called candleberry bush for that purpose. It is stated by a traveller through this country in 1779, that on his arrival at a public tavern (which, from the description, was Dorney's, near Cedar Creek, on the road to Reading), a candle was brought in the even- ing of a greenish color ; inquiring of the landlady, he was informed that she made the candles herself from a bush growing along the fences of the farm. Desiring a description of the process, the tra- veller was informed that^the bushes were taken and cut into small pieces and boiled in a kettle, and the wax or tallow swimming on the surface skimmed off with a ladle, and thus continued until a sufficient quantity was obtained. The candles burned with a very clear light. It may not be out of place here to allude to the great scarcity of salt during the Eevolutionary War. Mention is made in the Beth- lehem Diary of Br. Horsefield's going to Philadelphia in 1777 to pro- cure some, at which time he only could get one bushel, for which he paid eight dollars. At other times, there was none at all to be had for "love or money." Many persons in the county used a TRIALS FOR TREASON. 255 certain plant as a substitute, which was dried and rubbed fine. This, strewed over meat, preserved it very well ; it also answered in their other culinary purposes. The plant was of the fern species. The Indians, from whom the white people obtained the knowledge of the plant, were (on the arrival of Sir Walter Ealeigh's expedition in America, in 1583) found using it for the purpose of giving flavor to their broth. Mark Lane, a scientific gentleman attached to that expedition, alludes to it, and it is likewise mentioned by Jno. Smith, the founder of Jamestown in Virginia, in 1606. Lehigh County having been part of Northampton, its early his- tory is merged in that of the county from which it was formed. In 1798 and 1799 scenes occurred of no ordinary interest, a principal part of which transpired in this county, and therefore here noticed. Shortly after the election of John Adams to the Presidency of the United States, several acts were passed by Congress which were obnoxious to a portion of the people of East Pennsylvania, in consequence of which Berks, Bucks, and Northampton pre- sented scenes of excitement. In Northampton, which then included Lehigh, a party, headed by one John Fries, resisted the attempts by the federal government to collect a direct tax, well known by the name of the "house tax." The following extracts are from a report of the trials published in Philadelphia, in 1800, by "W". W. Woodward. Eeported by Thomas Carpenter, in short hand. Trial of John Fries and others for Treason. Mr. Samuel Sitgreaves (of Easton) opened the trial on the part of the United States. The following are extracts from his speech : — It will appear, gentlemen, from the testimony which will be presented to you, that during the latter months of the year 1798, discords prevailed to an enormous extent throughout a large portion of the counties of Bucks, Northampton, and Montgomery, &c, and that considerable difficulties attended the assessors for the direct tax in the execution of their duties. That in several townships associa- tions of the people were actually formed, in order to prevent the persons charged with the execution of those laws of the United States from performing their duty, and more particularly to prevent the assessors from measuring their houses ; this oppo- sition was made at many public township meetings called for the purpose ; in many instances resolutions in writing were entered into, solemnly forewarning the officers and many times accompanied by threats — not only so, but discontents prevailed to 256 . LEHIGH COUNTY. such a height, that even the friends of the government in that part were com- pletely suppressed by menaces against any who should assist those officers in their duty ; repeated declarations were made, both at public as well as at private meetings, that if any person should be arrested by the civil authority, such arrest would be followed by the rising of the people, in opposition to that authority, for the purpose of rescuing such prisoners. Indefatigable pains were taken, by those charged with the execution of the laws, to calm the fears and remove the misapprehensions of the infatuated people. For this purpose they read and explained the law to them, and informed them that they were misled into the idea that the law was actually not in force, for that it actually was : at the same time warning them of the consequences which would flow from opposition : and this was accom- panied with promises that even their most capricious wishes would be gratified on their obedience. The favor was in many instances granted, that where any opposi- tion was made to any certain person executing the office of assessor, another should be substituted ; in some townships proposals were made for people to choose for them- selves, but notwithstanding this accommodating offer, the opposition continued. The consequences were, actual opposition and resistance ; in some parts violence was actually iised, and the assessors were taken and imprisoned by armed parties, and in other parts mobs assembled to compel them either to deliver up their papers, or to resign their commissions, that in some instances they were threatened with bodily harm, so that in those parts the obnoxious law remained unexecuted in consequence. The state of insurrection and rebellion had risen to such a height, it became necessary to compel the execution of the laws, and warrants were in consequence issued against certain persons and served upon them ; in some in- stances, during the execution of that duty, the marshal met with insult, and almost with violence ; having, however, nearly the whole of the warrants served, he appointed head quarters for these prisoners to rendezvous at Bethlehem, where some of them were to enter bail for their appearance in the city, and others were to come to the city in custody for trial. On the day thus appointed for the prisoners to meet, and when a number of them had actually assembled, agreeably to appointment, a number of parties in arms, both horse and foot, more than a hundred men accoutred with all their military ap- paratus, commanded in some instances by their proper officers, marched to Bethle- hem, collected before the house in which were the marshal and prisoners, whom they demanded to be delivered up to them, and in consequence of refusal, they proceeded to acts very little short of actual hostility, so that the marshal deemed it prudent to accede to their demands, and the prisoners were liberated. This, gentlemen, is the general history of the insurrection. I shall now state to you the part the unfortunate prisoner at the bar took, in these hostile transactions. The prisoner is an inhabitant of Lower Milford, Bucks County. Some time in February last, a public meeting was held at the house of one John Kline, in that township, to consider this house tax ; at that meeting certain resolutions were entered into, and a paper signed (we have endeavored to trace this paper so as to produce it to the court and jury, but have failed) ; this paper was signed by fifty- two persons, and committed to the hands of one of their number. John Fries was present at this meeting, and assisted in drawing up the paper, at which time his expressions against this law were extremely violent, and he threatened to shoot one of the assessors, Mr. Foulke, through the legs, if he proceeded to assess the houses ; again the prisoner, at a vendue, threatened another of the assessors, Mr. S. Clarke, that if he attempted to go on with the assessment, he should be committed OPPOSITION TO THE COLLECTION OF TAXES. 257 to an old stable, and there fed on rotten corn. The assessor in Lower Milford was intimidated so as to decline making the assessments, and the principal assessors, together with three other assessors, were obliged to go into that township to execute the law. At the house of Mr. Jacob Fries, on the 5th March, Mr. Chapman (the assessor), met with the prisoner, who declared his determination not to submit, but to oppose the law, and that by next morning he could raise seven hundred men in opposition to it. (Fries and his partisans continued to follow and persecute several of the asses- sors, chasing them from township to township, in parties of fifty to sixty, most of whom were in arms, with drum and fife. Fries was armed with a large horse pistol, and accompanied by one Kuyder, who assisted him in command. Thus equipped, they went to Quakertown, seized two assessors, and attempted to fire at another, who ran away, but the firearms did not go off. They examined the papers of the assessors, and exacted a promise that they should not proceed in the valuation of the houses in Lower Milford. They abused a traveller who had the independence to stand up for the government. At Quakertown, learning that the marshal had taken a number of prisoners, they resolved to effect their rescue ; the people of Milford were invited to assist in this business, and a paper setting forth their design was drawn up by Fries, at his own house, and signed by the party.) On the morning of the next day, twenty or more of them met at the house of Conrad Marks. Fries was armed with a sword, and had a feather in his hat. On the road as they went forward they were met by young Marks, who told them they might as well turn about, for that the Northampton people were strong enough to do the business without those from Bucks County. Some were inclined to do so, but at the instance of Fries and others, they went forward, and actually proceeded to Bethlehem. Before their arrival, a party going on the same business had stopped at the bridge near Bethlehem, where they were met by a deputation from the marshal, who advised them to return home. They agreed to halt there, and send three of their number to declare to the marshal their demand. During this period, Fries and his party came up, but it appears, when they came, Fries took the party actually over the bridge, arranged the toll, and ordered them to proceed. With respect to the proceedings at Bethlehem, it cannot be denied but that he was then the leading man. With the consent of his people he demanded the prisoners of the marshal, and when told by that officer that he could not surrender them except they were taken from him by force, and produced his warrant for taking them, Fries harangued his party at the house, and explained to them the neces- sity of using force ; and that none should mistake his design, it was proven that he declared " that was the third day which he had been out on this expedition ; that he had had a skirmish the day before, and if the prisoners were not released he should have another that day. ' ' "Now you observe," resumed he, "that force is necessary; but you must obey my orders. We will not go without taking the prisoners. But take my orders you must not fire first, you must first be fired upon, and when I am gone you must do as well as you can, as I expect to be the first man that falls." He further de- clared to the marshal that they would fight till a cloud of smoke prevented them seeing each other, and executing the office of command of the troops, which at that time overawed the marshal and his attendants. He harangued the troops, desir- ing them to obey his orders, which they did. The marshal was really intimidated and liberated the prisoners; and, the object accomplished, the party dispersed amid the huzzas of the insurgents. After this affair at Bethlehem, Fries frequently 18 258 LEHIGH COUNTY. avowed his opposition to the law, and justified that outrage, and when a mooting was afterwards held at Lower Milford to choose assessors, he refused his assent, and appeared as violent as ever. Most of the ahove statements were proved, including a variety of other details. Fries, after two trials, in both of which he was found guilty of treason, was sen- tenced to he hung, hut was subsequently pardoned by John Adams. Several others from the same vicinity were tried, and generally found guilty of the subordinate crimes of sedition, insurrection, and riot. They were imprisoned for a time, and heavily fined, and held to bail for good behavior. George Gittman and Frederick Hainey were also condemned for high treason. Among the dis- affected who had been taken prisoners by the marshal, and who were rescued by the insurgents, was one Jacob Eyerman, a German minister who had lately arrived from Germany. He seems to have exerted nearly as much influence as Fries in stirring up the people in Chestnut Hill and Hamilton Townships. History does not state to what sect he belonged, but the testimony would seem to show that he strongly favored the "church militant." One of the assessors testified, that while on his round of duty in Chestnut Hill Township, the prisoner (Eyerman) came in and began to rip out in a violent manner against this taxation, saying that Con- gress had made laws which were unjust, and the people need not take up with them ; if they did, all kinds of laws would follow, but if they did not put up with this, they need not with those that would come after, because it was a free country : but in case the people admitted of those laws, they would certainly be put under great burdens. He said he knew perfectly what laws were made, and that the president nor Congress had no right to make them. That Congress and the government only made such laws to rob the people, and that they were nothing but a parcel of damned rogues (or spitzbube). To the question, " Were the people of the township much opposed to the law ?" the witness replied, "Yes, they were so violent that I knew but one man on the same side as myself." " Would this have been so, if it had not been for the par- son ?" "I am fully convinced it would not." "Did Eyerman appear to be a simple sort of a man, easily to be led away or deluded ?" " No, he was not thought so, he was always a very good preacher." Question by the prisoner. " Did I not pray for the government, president, and vice-president ?" "Yes, you did when in the pulpit, but when you were out, yon prayed the other way." John Snider deposed that he lived in Hamilton Township, and knew the prisoner ; as much as he understood, the prisoner meant to take arms against it. He said if we let that go forward it would go on as in the old country, but that he (Eyerman) would rather lay his black coat on a nail, and fight the whole week, and preach for them on Sundays, than that it should be so. " How long has this man been at Hamilton ?" " About eighteen months. " " The township was always peaceable, I suppose, before he came among you ?" " Yes, and I believe if he had not come, nothing would have happened of the kind." Another witness said that the prisoner came to his house, where conversation began about the house tax, whereupon he said he did not care whether they put up with it or not, for he had no house to tax. A person present answered : " But you have a great quantity of books to tax." The prisoner answered, that " If any- body offered to tax his books, he would take a French, a Latin, a Hebrew, and Greek book down to them, and if they could not read them, he would slap them about their ears till they would fall to pieces." The prisoner continued preacher BlffGULAB OCCURRENCE, 269 to that con [regal on till he was taken "p. After the rescue he fled to New Iforl State, i" 1 ' was apprehended and brought back, and found guilty of conspiracy, &e &e,, was sentenced to be imprisoned one year, pay fifty dollars fine,and give • eurity for his good behavior one year. About thirty others were convicted, and fined and Imprisoned according to the, degree oi crime. Profi '.< Ebeling,inhi Historyoi Penn plvania, part 0tb, page 500, atti the disturbance in Northampton and Bucks Counties in a • over bearing di po ition and conduct of Jacob Byerly, who had been appointed by the President of the United States tlwrofficer to collect the direct taxes in Northampton County, and charges him likewi (e with having loft the Republican party by whom he had been elected a representative in the State Legislature i" L700,and gone over to the Federal! it party, &c. &c, Mr, Bbeling's authority foi h re principally founded upon the view ta1 en by the editor of the Awora (a Democratic paper In the city of Philadelphia), and in the whole, theentire affair Is made to appear rery trifling, and the Republicans deridingly (warranted byoi i ircumstanoe ) called the "Hot Water War." Mi i rerlyre ' ;, 'i in Nazareth next to the house of William Henry, at this time aent throughout several counties. Mr. Byerly frequently received anony in', ii letters, threatening to burn down hi beta i , '•> injur'-, him in his person, one of which had been long preserved by the writer as a curiosity ; on the | drawn a pistol andasword with the inscription; "With these things we will punish the damned tax men." r n,<-, writer, being then only ten years old, was tinder apprehension of mischief being done to his father as well as Mr, By* William Henry carried on a manufactory of mt ■ ' , nd at the time of gre< '• i five oi his vorl men employed in watching the premises with and! bayonei ' ; ": ng the night for two or three months. Byerman was taken prisoner upon a warrant I iued by William Henry, ■■■ ■ him, Thewritei vas present when the-eonstable brought him, and recoiled that he was a tall man and dressed in his preacher's suit of black cloth. /ill the Gierman population of Northampton County m re more or le affected by pirit of opposition to the hot etax. The exeitemenl ■ that of inhabitants, uiding all i ' brl of the better informed pi allay the adverse feeli We tvill close thi ilight sketch of Lehigh Countywith an account of the follow- tng singulai occurrence which tool place some time during the Revo i o War, in Salisbury Township,and which i : . yetcredited bymany of the inhabif of that part of the county. A farmer who had been of a quarrel lome di po lition, and engaged in man/ Bghi , tiel i oed, died, and w& buried in th< d at tached to the Salisbury church, on a December afternoon, 'i his church was a small log building with a pulpit of the tulip-shape, having logs with boards laid there ' iticufl , under the prompting influence of the favorite beverage*. On 260 LEHIGH COUNTY. the Sunday following the funeral of their neighbor, his death became the subject of conversation, his character whilst living discussed, and his feats recounted. Amongst the company present was one man, who, on a late occasion, had received from the deceased a complete drubbing, the marks of which he yet bore. This man, with some others, remained with the host until the moon had arisen in a cloudless sky. When, after partaking of a few parting glasses of their favorite beverage, the company dispersed, he, in company with another, whose home lay beyond the churchyard, past which their road lay, proceeded tottering along through a small sprinkle of snow of several inches in depth, that had fallen on that afternoon. The one who had had the fight with the deceased, when nearing the graveyard, became very much excited, called upon the deceased by name, and with the most horrid imprecations dared him to come forth from his grave to fight, and when he came to the graveyard he scrambled over the stone wall with which it was inclosed, and taking off his coat and rolling up his shirt sleeves, standing upon the new made grave, demeaned himself in such a furious manner that his companion (whose sight was also somewhat dimmed by the landlord's rum) imagined that he saw the evil one rising up to take the part of his victim. Upon this he decamped as fast as his legs could carry him. Next morning, having become sobered, he returned to the spot where he had left his companion ; with several passers who were attracted by his calls, a search was commenced at the grave, where a severe tussle seemed to have taken place ; following the track over the wall towards a clump of trees near by, they found under one of them marks of blood and portions of clothing, and what appeared to them like marks or prints of hoofs. On looking up on one of the saplings, they discovered clotted blood adhering to it. Some of the bark seemed torn off as if in desperation, with here and there pieces of flesh and parts of clothing up to near the uppermost branches of the tree, and it was thought by one of them that he could smell brimstone on some of the rags of clothing which they found. Nothing further was ever heard of this man. His mysterious disappearance for many years formed the theme of the evening conversations at many a farmer's house. Hundreds of persons from far and near came to view the locality, and all left the spot convinced that the Devil had taken the man to his sooty mansion, notwithstanding his determined resistance. The story is not yet forgotton in Salisbury and many other neighborhoods in Lehigh County, and full credit is given to it in all its details. The old churchyard was for many years deserted, and the walls and building suffered to decay, as a haunted spot. Within the last few years, however, a neat new brick church edifice has been erected on the spot, where the neighbors wor- ship without fear of any unhallowed person. ALLENTOWN. The borough of Allentown, the seat of justice of 'Lehigh County, was incorporated by act of Assembly in 1826. It is situated at the junction of the Lehigh River, and Little Lehigh Creek, seventeen miles from Easton, sixty miles from Philadelphia, and ninety-two miles from New York. Allentown derived its name from its founder, James Allen, who laid it out in 1762. Originally it is found to have received the name of Northamptontown, thus stated in the assessment list from 1762 to 1800, when the name of Allentown is first found. In 1826 the former name was again resumed in the act of incorporation of the borough, but, this occasioning innumerable mistakes, the name of Allentown was re-assumed by an act of legislature in 1838. "William Allen, the father of James, speculated very extensively in lands, and in 1760 owned three thousand acres in the present county of Lehigh, on a part of which the town was laid out. James Allen came into possession of this tract in the same year in which he laid out the town. William Allen was once one of the most prominent citizens of Philadelphia ; he had been appointed chief justice of the Supreme Court in 1750, which office he held for many years. His father's name was also William. In Proud's History of Pennsylvania, it is said, "William Allen was the son of William Allen, who died in Philadelphia in 1725. He had been an emi- nent merchant in the city, and a considerable promoter of the trade of the province, a man of good character and estate." (Proud, vol. ii. p. 188.) William Allen (the younger) was a particular friend of the Penn family, and his daughter Ann was married to Governor John Penn. Secretary James Logan, in a letter to Thomas Penn in England ; says of Mr. Allen in reference to his land speculations 262 ALLENTOWN. that " he had a method of procuring a knowledge of the quality or worth of the lands, which he effected by private agreements he made with the surveyors who traversed the wild lands of North- ampton County, to whom he gave douceurs ; in this manner he became the wealthiest of the land speculators, as persons desirous of purchasing good tracts would purchase from him in preference to all others." Judge Allen had married the daughter of Andrew Hamilton, one of the former deputy governors under William Penn. He had three sons, Andrew, James, and "William. In 1777, the Judge not sympathizing with the revolutionary movements, re- tired to England, where he died in 1780. Andrew also went to England, where he died in 1805. William had joined the American army as colonel of a regiment, but likewise, in 1777, put himself under Lord Howe's protection at New York, and subsequently went to England. James died in 1777 in Philadelphia, leaving the property at Allentown to his children, Mrs. Greenleaf, Mrs. Tilgh- man, and Mrs. Livingston. Some of the descendants of James Allen for many years resided at Allentown, where they had elegant mansions in or near the town. The last of the family, Walter 0. Livingston, Esq., left the borough a number of years ago, and is now a resident of Phila- delphia, where the writer has met and obtained from him a part of the foregoing history of the family. The olden history of the borough possesses a considerable degree of interesting matter. The first notice of the site upon which the town was subsequently laid out, is found in the draft of a road laid out in 1753 from Easton towards Eeading, surveyed by J. Schulze. Upon this draft is laid down upon the site where Allentown is, the words "Allen's House ;" and other records show that the more familiar name that distin- guished that gentleman's house, was "Trout Hall." The name of " Trout Hall" indicates a practice among the mem- bers of the Allen family, of coming to this their country place frequently accompanied by large parties of their friends and ac- quaintances from the city of Philadelphia, during the proper season for fishing and hunting. The delicious trout was then very plenty INDIAN MODE OF CATCHING FISH. 263 in the streams in the neighborhood. The governor occasionally formed one of the party. A passage in one of the volumes of the Pennsylvania Archives states, that upon a call of some gentleman at the governor's house, in the city of Philadelphia, he was informed that the governor was not at home, "having gone with Mr. Allen to his fishing place." Yarious laws had been passed before the Revolutionary War, tend- ing to the preservation of fish in the rivers Delaware and Lehigh, one of which had a rather singular penalty attached to it, in sub- jecting the seller of rockfish under twelve inches in length, to a fine and forfeiture of the fish so offered ; the object was to preserve the species from destruction. In the early period of the settlement along the Lehigh, and before the erection of dams in the Lehigh Eiver rendering it available for the transportation of coal to Phila- delphia, it was a resort of the shad, which, in the spring season, found their way from the ocean far up into its fresh waters to deposit their spawn. The faithful journalists of Bethlehem inform us that on the 10th of May, 1752, 1000 shad were taken ; May 18, 1785, 900 were caught; May 5, 1786, 700; May 21, 1787, 180 shad and SO rockfish. The mode of catching the shad or other fish was borrowed from the Indians. ''When the shad came up the rivers the Indians run a dam of stones across the stream where its depth will admit of it, not in a straight line, but in two parts, verg- ing towards each other in an angle. An opening is left in the middle for the water to run off; at this opening they place a large box, the bottom of which is full of holes. They then make a rope of the twigs of the wild vine, reaching across the stream, upon which boughs of six feet in length are fastened at the distance of two fathoms from each other. A party is now dispatched about a mile above the dam with this rope and its appendages, which be- gins to move gently down the current, some guiding the ends, while others keep the branches from sinking by supporting the rope in the middle with wooden forks. Thus they proceed, fright- ening the fish into the opening left in the middle of the dam, where a number of Indians are placed on each side, who, standing on the 264 ALLENTOWN. two arms of the angle, drive the fish, with poles and a hideous noise, through the opening into the box or inclosure. Here they lie, the water running off through the holes in the bottom, and other Indians, stationed on each side of the box, take them out, and fill their canoes." In 1753, a road was laid out from Bake-oven Knob, at the Blue Mountain, towards the place where Allentown is situated ; it passed the spring now called " Helfrech's," near the Jordan Creek, about two miles northwardly from Allentown. The cave at this spring was then called " Gunner's Hole." The name is significant of the fact that the hunters on the neighboring heaths therein deposited their game for a time in order to preserve it from taint ; the cave> being cool, was well adapted for this purpose. A petition was presented to the court of Northampton County for a road, signed by Peter Kohler, Paul Balliet, Lorenz Guth, and others, from Peter Kohler's mill, in Upper or North Whitehall Township, to pass " through the town, then being laid out, to be called Northampton." This, in the absence of other testimony, fixes the period of the laying out of the town to 1762.* The first notice of the town, given in the assessment lists, is in 1764, when thirteen families resided in it. It may be possible that some houses had been erected in 1763, and also in 1762, yet this does not appear. " Trout Hall," or " Allen's house," was very probably erected soon after the grant of the road in 1753. The thirteen houses in 1764 we may with great certainty conclude to have been the small, one-story log shanties, some of which the writer recol- lects having seen at the place about fifty years ago, and there is no doubt but that some of the inhabitants of Allentown are living that will recollect the first houses in the place. The inhabitants were then all of them miserably poor, being Germans who had but recently immigrated to America, and, therefore, generally very helpless, slow in erecting proper dwellings, particularly as each man was forced by necessity to be his own architect, carpenter, and mason ; the axe, or adze, and trowel were all the tools used, and a * Also corroborated by Walter C. Livingston, Esq., of Phila. X) jspfe ■■■r\ £& \i 6. ll/y IfltUslsl TRADESMEN IN 1776. 265 plane was not seen in Allentown for many years. In 1764, the following were the inhabitants, viz : — Leonhard Able, laborer. Simon Brenner, carpenter. David Desbler, shopkeeper and beer- shop. Martin Derr, wheelwright. Martin Froelich. George Leyendecker, locksmith. George Lauer. Dan'l Nunnemacher. Abraham Rinker. Peter Schwab. Peter Miller, tailor. George Wolf, tavernkeeper. In 1765, the following are added : — Tobias Titus, baker. Lorentz Hauch, butcher. Frantz Kuper, cooper. Phillip Kugler, mason. Phillip Klingenschmidt. Frederick Schachler, shoemaker and tavernkeeper. In 1766, the families numbered thirty-three, and in 1774, forty- nine. In 1766, it appears that some of the first inhabitants had removed, as other names are found in three places. Doctor Gott- fried Bolzius had then purchased Deshler's shop and beer-house ; his practice of the Esculapian profession of itself was probably insufficient for his support. Several paid rents of $4 to $8 for houses. Martin Marthage paid .£15, or $40, rent for the house and distillery he occupied. In 1776, there were fifty-four houses, seven of which were taverns, viz., Nicholas Fuchs, Henry Hagen- buch, Michael Kelchner, Michael Schroeder, George Weiss, and Phillip Klotz; two shopkeepers, viz., George Graff and Phillip Boehm ; one potter, Abraham Albert ; one mason, James Preston ; one doctor, Gottfried Bolzius; one hatter, Peter Berger; one wheel- wright, Joseph Derr; one smith, Martin Froelich; three shoe- makers, viz., Henry Gross, Phillip Klotz, and George Schreiber ; three tailors, Andrew Gangwehr, Peter Miller, and Abraham Savitz ; one tobacconist, Peter Keiper ; one saddler, Peter Lynn ; one gunsmith, John Moll ; four carpenters, Jacob Newhart, Jacob JSTunnemacher, John Miller, Jr., and Dewalt Miller ; one butcher, Michael Nagel. It appears from this list that there were seven taverns, or about one to every eight houses, and already in 1764 there were two taverns and a beer-house to the sixteen families ; the supply was probably " equal to the demand." 266 ALLENTOWN. In 1776, James Allen received ground rent of seventy-one lots at nine shillings sterling for each. He then possessed six hundred acres of land, which was valued at £8 per one hundred acres ; his taxes in the aggregate were $9 60, provincial tax. The number of inhabitants was about three hundred and thirty in 1776. The houses and lots were generally rated in the tax lists of 1762 to 1766 at twelve shillings, or $1 60 each, and the taxes from 10 cents to twenty cents. Taverns were assessed at $6 to $10. In 1782, the town contained fifty-nine dwellings, owned by the following persons : — Abraham Albert, potter, 1 house. Conrad Krumback, 1 house. John Bishop, tailor. and 50 acres of land. George Breiner, shoemaker. Michael Kuntz, joiner, 1 " Jacob Bachman, laborer, 1 (i John Keiper, tobacconist, 1 " George Blank, tailor, 1 a Andrew Young, shoemaker, 1 " James Preston, mason, 1 it Jacob Yeohl, 1 " Gottfried Bolzius, doctor, 1 it John Moll, tailor, 1 " Christ'n Bemper, shoemaker, 1 a John Miller, joiner, 1 " John Dyler, laborer, 1 a Peter Miller, tailor, 1 " David Deshler, 1 a John Murphy, watchmaker, 1 " grist and saw-mill and 75 acres of land. Thomas Mewhorter, tanner, 1 " Charles Deshler, shopkeeper. Henry Nunnemacher, weaver, 1 " Michael Erhard, shoemaker. and 23 acres of land. Martin Froelich, 1 a Jacob Neihard, joiner, 1 " Nicholas Fox, innkeeper, 1 a Leonhard Nagel, laborer, 2 houses George Gangewere. Nicholas Ott, mason, 1 house. William Gall, laborer. Phillip Riller, laborer, 1 " George Graff, 1 a Peter Rhoads, shopkeeper, 1 " Jacob Gens, laborer, 1 tt George Reeser, laborer, 1 " Andrew Gangwere, tailor, 1 a Andrew Reel, innkeeper, 1 " Frederick Gabel, carpenter, 1 a Matthew Ringel, smith, 1 " Henry Gross, inkeeper, 1 a Abraham Rinker, hatter, 1 " Mat'w Gangwere, wheelwright . Christ'n Schick, laborer. Barthol Huber, tanner, 1 it George Shreiber, 1 " John Horn, hatter, 1 it and 25 acres of land. Peter Hertz, laborer, 1 tt Henry Shade, 2 houses Lawrence Hauck, laborer, 2 houses. Michael Shrader, 1 house. Peter Horbach, laborer, 1 house. Richard Steer, skindresser, 1 " Henry Hagenbnch, inkeeper, 1 it John Spade, laborer, 1 " Peter Hauck, shoemaker, 1 a Joseph Smith, shoemaker, 1 " Abraham Henry, skindresser, 1 a George Weiss, innkeeper, 1 " Jacob Huber, shoemaker, 1 tt Jacob Weiss, tailor, 1 " Barthol Hittal, innkeeper, 1 a Joseph Wartinton, tailor. Widow Krumback, innkeeper, 1 tt Conrad Worman, 200 acres of land. Phillip Klotz, shoemaker, 1 it Frederick Winsch, laborer. EAELY RESIDENTS. 267 Casper Weaver, ferry and 80 acres of Geo. Ad. Blank. land. Jobn Reesomer. Conrad Zettel, 200 acres of land and one Jobn Gable. grist-mill. Bernhard Kline. Yost Dornblaeser, laborer. Dawall Young. Elizabeth Allen, 1 bouse. Jobn Moor. 1510 acres of land. Casper Smith. Isaac Greenleaf, 200 acres of land. Rudolph Smith. Adam Turner, 90 acres of land. Samuel Greter. Jacob Knaus. SINGLE MEN. Jobn Smith. Jobn Widcler. 59 houses Henry Heisser. 102 cows. Jacob Fink. 8 horses. In looking over the names of the early residents of Allentown, we find that of David Deshler, whose father, Adam Deshler, was among the first settlers at Egypta, in the upper part of North Whitehall Township, where he arrived about the year 1730. In 1782, he owned four houses and lots in Allentown. Soon after he came here he purchased the mill property at the Little Lehigh Creek from Rothrock. During the Revolutionary War he became one of the most prominent persons in Northampton County. He acted as commissary of supplies for the army, and with John Arndt, Esq. (also a commissary, and his colleague) in 1780, when the treasury of the United States, as well as the State of Pennsylvania, had no funds, paid and advanced moneys out of his private means. This act in itself must endear his memory to every true American. In the petition of the 10th of October, 1763, his name appears as one of the defenders of the town at the time of the threatened mas- sacre by the Indians, and we may infer that he, as the wealthiest inhabitant of the place, had the only gun fit for service. (We are informed by the report of Colonel Burd to Governor Hamilton that there were but three in the town, and two of these not fit for service.) The Rinker family also for many years held an honorable posi- tion in the county ; the name of Abraham Rinker is mentioned as lieutenant of the gallant defenders in 1763 ; in 1753, Christian Rinker, probably the. father of Abraham, was elected one of the 268 ALLENTOWN. county commissioners. Abraham "became a captain of a company during the Eevolutionary War, and he is frequently mentioned in the proceedings of that period in various capacities, sheriff of the county, &c. &c. Peter Ehodes is also mentioned. In 1763, his son Peter as well as the elder Peter wielded a great influence in the town and county. Peter Ehodes, Jr., for many years was one of the associate judges of Northampton County ; in 1777, '78, and '79, the elder Peter was a member of the legislature, and held other offices of distinction. The first church was erected in 1762, and was a union church of the Lutheran and German Eeformed persuasions. It appears from the following petition that a number of Catholics were also there in 1767; these, desirous of erecting a church, petitioned the governor for license to collect the necessary funds ; there is, how- ever, no account that the project had been carried out. The petition of the congregation of Roman Catholics of the town of Northampton, Sept. 25, 1767 (P. A., v. iv. p. 279), humbly sheweth :— That your petitioners are about to build a church for the worship of God in the town of Northampton, and have already provided materials for putting their design into execution. But they fear the inability of your petitioners is likely to render their good intentions fruitless, unless they are at liberty to ask assistance from charitable and piously disposed people. They therefore humbly entreat your honor to grant them a license for the said purpose, whereby they may have the peaceable and quiet enjoyment of their religion according to the laws of the province, and reap the benefit of those privileges granted them by your honor's benevolent ances- tors, &o. JOHN RITTER, J. GL ENAX, and others. The Catholic inhabitants of Allentown came there amongst the first settlers in 1763 and '64. There were only sixty-eight men and sixty-two women of German, and seventeen Irish Catholics in the whole county of Northampton in 1757. This was so reported by the priest, Theodore Snyder, in consequence of a requisition made in order to ascertain their numbers in Berks and Northamp- ton Counties ; this was rendered necessary in order to ascertain the correctness of very serious charges brought against them by many representations from the inhabitants of Eeading who state the dan- ger they were in from their machinations in their vicinity, charging MURDEKS BY THE INDIANS. 269 them of meeting with. French officers and a large number of Indians, in order to concoct measures to murder all the white people, and that they had three hundred stand of arms concealed at their church in one of the lower townships of Berks County. 1 The defeat of General Braddock left the country open to the depredations of the Indians in 1754, and the Indian murders in 1755, '56 and '57 by the French Indians, the French being Catholics, those Catholics in these counties became suspected, and were persecuted by all other people. In 1763, there were murders committed in Whitehall Township by the Indians ; the following petition will show the action taken by the inhabitants of Allentown in this exigency. AYe copy it verbatim et literatim : — Northampton, the 10th of this instant, October, 1763 (P. A., v. iv. p. 124). To the Honourable James Hambletown, Esq., lientenant-governeur and commander- in-chief of the province of Pennsylvania, Newcassel Cent., and Sasox on Delawar, we send greeting: — As I, Joseph Roads, of Northampton Town, church minister, of this eighth instant October, as I was a-preaching, the people came in such numbers that I was oblidged to quit my sarman, and the same time Cornel James Bord was in the town, and I, the aforesaid minister, spoke with Cornel Bord, concerning this affarres of the Indians, and we found the Inhabitance that the had nithur Gons, Powder, nor Lead, to defend themselves, and tbat Cornel Bord had latly spoke with his honour. He had informed me that we would assist them with Gons and Ammunition, and he requested of me to write to your Honour, because he was just setting of for Lancester, and the the Inhabitance of the Town had not chose their officers at the time he set of. So we, the Inhabitance of the said Town hath unahimus chose George Wolf, the bearer hereof, to be the Captain, and Abraham Rinker to be the Lieutenant. We, whose names are under written promiss to obey to this mentioned Captin and Lietitennat, and so we hope will be so good and send us 50 Gons, 100 lb. Pow- der, and 400 lb. Lead, and 150 Stans for the Gons. These from your humble servant, remaining under the protection of our Lord Saviour Jesus Christ. JACOB ROTH, Minister. The names of the Gospel of this said Northampton Town — George Wolf Captin Jacob Wolf Martin Froelich Abraham Rinker Liet. Simon Lagundacker George Laur Phillip Koogler George Nicholas Daniel Nonnemacher Peter Miller David Deshler Peter Schab 1 There was at this period a great prejudice against the Catholics or Papists. Some persons making provision for certain yearly payments to their widows in their wills, made the proviso that in case the widow marry a Catholic, such yearly stipend cease. A certain John Fricker made application to the Court of Quarter Sessions in 1775 for a license, and was refused "because he is a Catholic." 270 ALLENTOWN". Frederick Schaechler John Martin Derr Abraham Savitz Leonhard Abel Peter Roth John Schreck Tobias Dittes Fraz Keffer George S. Schnepf Lorenz Hauk Jacob Mohr Michael Rothrock Simon Brenner The town had not increased much in buildings from 1765 to 1782; not more than about fifteen houses had been added in near twenty years. In 1763 great exertions were made to remove the seat of justice of Northampton County from Easton to this town, and we may suppose that James Allen used every exertion to effect it, and probably would have succeeded, but as the town of Easton was the private property of Penn's, that superior interest prevented it. There can be no question but that the best argument lay with the people of Northamptontown and vicinity. Historians say but very little of Allentown in the olden time. A German traveller, named Schaepff, passed through it towards Beading in 1784, yet does not even name it; thus also others. We must, therefore, conclude that its appearance did not possess sufficient interest to attract their attention. In the Bethlehem Souvenir we find an extract from a diary kept during the Eevolutionary "War; a letter from Edward Shippen, of 19th September, 1777, making distribution of sick and wounded soldiers, directs a part of them to be provided with quarters at Allentown, and we may infer that the new stone church, erected in 1772, was occupied for that pur- pose. Mr. Eupp, in his history of Lehigh County, quoting Mr. Wright, states that the bells of Christ's Church, of Philadelphia, were brought and concealed in the church when, in 1777, the British took possession of that city, and in the Bethlelmn Diary we find that the wagon conveying the bells broke down in the street of that place. In Bees's Encyclopedia of 1800, Allentown is said to contain about ninety houses. That improvements were making in and near the town is shown by the following petition for a bridge across the Jordan Creek; the petitioners apparently desired the bridge to be erected at Hamilton Street; this, in the following remonstrance, is strongly resisted ; the reasons given for this resistance, notwithstanding they were proper at that time, will, PETITION AGAINST ERECTING BRIDGE OVER JORDAN CREEK. 271 to the present generation, be very interesting, particularly that part stating that the inhabitants, by having the bridge erected, " would entail upon themselves a burden of expenses so enormous and intolerable that they are entirely incapable of undergoing it." The effect of the remonstrance was that the bridge was erected further down the stream: — Petition presented to March Sessions, 1788, of Northampton County Court, respect- ing a bridge over Jordan Creek, at the town of Allentown, in said County, &c. Your petitioners find themselves greatly aggrieved by a grant of a petition pre- ferred by sundry inhabitants of Salisbury Township aforesaid, for the laying out a road from the town of Northampton to the ferry over the Lehigh, and erecting a bridge over Jordan Creek, which petition was signed, and the prayer thereof granted, in so short a time that the subscribers could not possibly state their ob- jections against it. That your petitioners now beg leave to lay before your worships the reasons why they conceive that the said road and bridge, if laid out and erected on the place proposed, is a great grievance to the township of Salisbury, viz : — That the road to be laid out from the church to the place where the bridge is to be built will cost a great sum in making it passable, on account of the steepness of the hill ; that the annual repairs of the same will create great expense ; and that on account of the clay soil, it will be next to impossible to keep the said road passable for many seasons. That on account of the steepness of the bank of the Jordan on the town side, among other inconveniences, it will be impossible for any cattle to come to the water in any season of the year. That if the said bridge be erected at the place proposed of the length of eighty feet, according to contract, it will be necessary that a bridge dyke or dam be erected from the end of the said bridge to the rising ground twenty-five or thirty rods long, over so much low meadow ground, which will create an expense to the town- ship of many hundred pounds, besides the unavoidable annual costly repairs, and the costs of making and repairing a new road from thence to the ferry, the raising of which enormous sums, and the prospect of the unavoidable yearly repairs, would be an intolerable burthen for the township, without any the least benefit, especially in the present times, when the inhabitants, with their utmost endeav- ors, find it hardly possible to pay their regular taxes. Whereas, if the road would remain where it now is, and the intended bridge be built where the road now crosses the creek, all those enormous expenses in making the new road, and twenty-five or thirty rods bridge or dam, besides the certain annual expenses for repairs, would be prevented, and the new bridge, if erected in the old road, would cost fifty pounds less than it is possible on the place proposed. That further, if the bridge is to be built on the place proposed, and any repair is to be made thereon, or on the bridge over the low ground (which will most cer- tainly happen after every high water), the whole passage will be stopped entirely, as it will be impossible to ford the Jordan in that place even when the water is lowest, on account of the steepness of one of the banks. That the estate of Mrs. Elizabeth Alleu, through which this new road is to be 272 ALLENTOWN. laid out principally, will suffer greatly, and the value thereof be lessened by five hundred pounds, without any advantage to others. Your petitioners, therefore, humbly pray your -worships to take the above into your serious consideration, and alter the said grant for the said new road and bridge, that the same may not be laid out and erected on the place proposed, and to order the bridge to be built where the road at present crosses the Jordan, which will release the township of Salisbury from an enormous expense, a burden so intolerable that they are entirely incapable to undergo it. Your petitioners, &c. &c. DAVID DESHLER, ADAM DESHLER, GEORGE PLANK, JNO. KNAUP, and about fifty other signers. Allentown is situated upon high ground, commanding an exten- sive view of the surrounding country, the scenery of which is delightfully variegated, the soil fertile and highly cultivated, and studded with numerous fine buildings and other improvements. Notwithstanding that the town was laid out very nearly a century ago, it has the appearance of a modern place, having lost nearly every trace of antiquity; there being very few buildings that appear to date their erection previous to the commencement of the nineteenth century. The business part of the borough is in Ham- ilton Street, which exhibits a continuous street of stores of brick, three and four stories in height, of modern style of construction. The town has many attractions and advantages that will speed its onward course, and it may safely be predicted that in the course of a very few years it will eclipse most of the towns in the Lehigh valley in business, as it at present does in appearance. In connec- tion with this remark, we must mention that the inhabitants are, with a few solitary exceptions, of German extraction, and born in the county. This circumstance, in viewing the tastefully deco- rated buildings, seems not to be in accordance with the character- istic taste of Germans, as displayed in the erection of their habita- tions, inasmuch as the ornamental was, and in most instances is still, discarded or overlooked. The town for many years did not progress very rapidly, which may be attributed, in a great measure, to the influence of some of the neighboring towns, and the difficulty (from its elevation) of procuring the necessary supply of water for domestic purposes. .ES'Dwai^S'ouPM 1 Igk Valley Rail Roads Anbrctyoe of HP '.:■ 'AIL EM Ti-W M . if a. .Situated on the Lehigh. River at the junction of the East Pennsylvania and Lehigh Valley DISASTROUS FIRE OF 1848. 273 In 1828, the latter difficulty was overcome by the erection of a waterworks, from which time the town slowly but steadily pro- gressed until 1843, when the business of the place and surrounding country was considerably prostrated by the failure of the North- ampton Bank, which was established there in 1814, and in which the most implicit confidence was placed by the community. Scarcely had the town recovered from the effects of the misman- agement of this institution, ere it was visited by a most disastrous conflagration, which, in some respects, was another check to the prosperity of the place. The Allentown Democrat of June 10, 1848, thus describes it: — " We hasten to announce to our readers the painful intelligence of the most disastrous fire that has ever occurred in our borough. That beautiful square, commencing at the market-house, and extending up to Hagenbuch's tavern on Hamilton Street, taking in both sides of the street, and ranging far enough down to include all the back buildings on either side, which yesterday morning pre- sented so fine a business aspect, now lies in ruins, presenting to the eye an un- sightly mass of smouldering ashes and blackened walls. How the fire originated is yet a mystery. One story is that some boys were playing in a barn with matches ; another, that the fire is supposed to have been lighted by the hand of an incendiary ; the latter, however, is highly improbable, and scarcely entitled to any credence whatever. ******* The whole number of buildings destroyed is about eighty ; dwellings and stores, tbirty-five. The aggregate amount of loss has been very little, if any, less than $200,000, about $40,000 only of which is covered by insurance. Truly such a calamity has rarely befallen any commu- nity ; it has struck a blow at the prosperity and happiness of Allentown (and especially to the immediate sufferers), which calls loudly for the exercise of the spirit of benevolence on the part of other towns and cities, which alone can alle- viate distress, and wipe the trace of sorrow from tbe brow of the prostrate suf- ferers." Although the fire was the cause of considerable loss to indi- viduals, and a temporary derangement to business, yet from that time may be dated an increase of business in Allentown. Where before stood rows of frame dwellings, and low dingy stores, were erected splendid and substantial brick stores and private resi- dences ; so large a number of buildings erected at the same time gave steady employment to the mechanics and laborers of the town and neighborhood, and also attracted many from other places, who afterwards settled there permanently, thereby augmenting the number of inhabitants. The completion of the Lehigh "Valley and 19 274 ALLENTOWN. East Pennsylvania Eailroads also gave an impetus to building and manufactures. The population of Allentown in 1830 was 1,554; in 1840, 2,493 ; in 1850, 3,703 ; and 619 houses. By a census taken of the borough by the local authorities in 1854, it is shown to have contained in that year 5,250 inhabitants and 970 houses. The present popula- tion is estimated at 10,000. In 1850 the number of families was 716; in 1854, 1,042, which showed a very rapid increase for those few years. The increase of population for the ten years succeeding 1840 was but 1291, and for the last nine years nearly 6,000 — thus showing that the town has increased to near three times its size in 1850, and almost doubled its number of inhabitants during the last five years. The Allentown Democrat, speaking of the many improvements, says : — "There have been so many changes, physically and socially, in Allentown, as a town, within a few years past, that a former resi- dent, who returns to it after a short absence, can scarcely recognize the place or its people. Quite recently one of this class remarked to us : 'I came here to spend some time amid the scenery and acquaintances of former days, but I am hardly able to discover a vestige of that scenery, or to find an acquaintance once in an hour. Everything has changed.' And that man had been absent but about seven years. By the census of 1850, the population of Allentown was 3,780, showing an increase during the previous ten years of 1,291. Now our population is estimated at 10,000, and the original borough plat has increased in area east and west, at least a quarter of a mile. The face of the original borough plat has been improved too, so that our whilom resident might well say, ' everything has changed.' In building operations we have progressed remarkably — in 1855, 108 buildings were erected ; in 1856, 138 ; in 1857, 169 ; in 1858, 52, making a total of 467 build- ings in four years. Handsome three and four story brick and iron front edifices cover the site of many an old weather-board shell of his day ; stores of a hundred feet in depth have succeeded the pent- up dingy shops his eyes were accustomed to look upon ; and the EECENT IMPROVEMENTS. 275 din of busy life prevails everywhere in lieu of the sweet calm then so grateful to him in taking his after-dinner nap. If he should go to where he considered himself 'in the country,' planing-mills, grist-mills, saw-mills, machine shops, foundries and furnaces, depots, with long trains of cars stretching either way, and dwellings innu- merable would greet his eyes, and the noise of railway trains astir his ears. At the dawn of the year 1855, Allentown had no railroad outlet, now it has two — the Lehigh Valley Eailroad connecting us with the principal commercial emporiums of the Union, while the East Pennsylvania road links us with the far West and South by the shortest route in existence. Besides these, we have the Allen- town and Auburn road in process of construction. Stage-coaches are almost among the things past — a few months more will put them entirely so. Instead of consuming twelve and fifteen hours in travelling to Philadelphia, we now go there, spend about three hours, and return to our homes, all between the rising and setting of the sun. We might note many other changes physically, but space forbids. The changes socially during this time were none the less striking. But notwithstanding all the differences betwixt then and now, the work of change has only fairly commenced, it is progressing at present as fast as ever. In spite of the financial depression that raged over the country of late, between 75 and 100 buildings will be completed during the summer (1859), new resi- dents are added constantly to the population, new branches of trade are opening, and former ones enlarging." The town at the present time presents a beautiful and substan- tial appearance ; the streets are laid out at right angles, and in the centre of the town (at the intersection of Hamilton and Seventh Streets) is a fine large square, in which are located the bank, several hotels, and other public buildings. The town is well lighted with gas, and supplied with the coolest of spring water from a spring in the valley south of the hill on which the town stands. The streets are broad and clean, lined with rows of beautiful shade trees ; on the whole, the town presents an appear- ance of solid comfort and elegance rarely to be met with in a 276 ALLENTOWN. country town. There is hardly a plain or unsightly building in the place, it presents a freshness which but few of our old Penn- sylvania towns can boast of. One of the first things noticed by strangers passing through the town are the large and beautiful gardens which surround almost every house. Nearly all of these gardens are laid out with great taste, and in some instances great liberality is displayed in the culture of flowers, shrubbery, and fruit-trees. Within the last few years a large number of handsome private residences have been erected in the more retired parts of the town, and the liberality and good taste displayed in the ornamentation of the buildings and surrounding grounds would do credit to the more wealthy citizens of larger cities. The scenery and natural curiosities at and near Allentown are well worth seeing ; here the Lehigh Eiver assumes a most beautiful appearance; the banks on both sides are studded with stately trees, the foliage bending to the water's edge, while the stream, divided by an island of about seventy acres, is as smooth and clear as a sheet of glass. On the one side of the river we have the Mauch Chunk Company's canal, the canal boats with their faithful tug- ging horses, and sunburnt crews lazily moving along ; on the other, the Lehigh Yalley Eailroad, over which are seen passing almost endless processions of black coal trains. As they round the pro- jecting South Mountain and the intervening valley of the Little Lehigh Creek a great rumbling noise is heard amid the shrill whistles of the locomotive, while as far as the eye can reach up that creek, glorious nature spreads out in rich waving harvest fields and rolling elevations. Here and there we see a cluster of houses and barns nestled among the luxuriant scenes. Up the Lehigh Eiver we see the Allentown Lehigh bridge, and near it the dam across the river ; the basin formed by the dam encircled with numerous storehouses, and in the distance the Allentown Iron Company's furnaces belching forth fire and smoke. Numerous and interesting as the natural curiosities in this neighborhood are, there is none that so amply repays the visitor BEAUTIFUL SCENERY. 277 as the " Big, or Mammoth Eock," or, as sometimes called, " Bower's Eock," on the South Mountain. It is about three miles southeast from Allentown. " The Eock" is easily ascended, though elevated about 1200 feet above the surrounding country. The spectator, while standing on this eminence, has a commanding view of one of the most variegated scenes imaginable. As far as the eye can reach, except on the north, where the vision is bounded by the Blue Moutain, are spread before the eye well cultivated farms, dotted with buildings, while this part of the view is greatly en- livened by the Lehigh Eiver as it winds its way down the Kitta- tinny valley. The canal, with its waters burthened with number- less boats, the Lehigh Valley Eailroad, with the serpentine trains of coal cars and smoking locomotives, are plainly discernible, together with the various furnaces along the shores of the river. On the south, east, and west, lie before you as a lawn, " Saucon," with its rich limestone farms. Language fails to delineate the scenery with any degree of graphic accuracy. There are several beautiful springs near Allentown, which are justly admired by all who have seen them. The most interesting of these are Worman's, from which the town receives its supply of water, and Helfrich's springs and cave, about two miles north of the town. These springs are annually visited by strangers, espe- cially the latter, which is one of the most romantic spots in the county. The cave is supposed to be of great extent, although no person is known to have entered it further than a fewjiundred feet from its entrance. Cedar Creek, which empties into the Little Lehigh near Allen- town, is one of the loveliest streams in the State, clear as crystal, always full, never overflowing, it winds for two miles (turning in its course some four or five mills) through a meadow that is a per- fect picture. The Little Lehigh Creek, which is the southern bound- ary of the town, empties into the Lehigh Eiver. It is crossed at the town by two stone bridges ; a large number of mills are located upon it. The Jordan Creek passes through the meadows in the eastern part of the town, and is crossed by three stone arch 278 ALLENTOWN". bridges, one of them, we have already referred to, was built in 1787, and rebuilt in 1851. The largest of the three, situated at the foot of Hamilton Street, is the most extensive structure of its kind in Pennsylvania. It consists of nineteen stone arches, is about 1500 feet long, and 50 feet high, built entirely of stone, and was erected by the county, in 1837, at a cost of about $20,000. The Lehigh River is crossed at Allentown by two wooden bridges of three spans each. The one is situated near the Allentown Iron "Works, and was erected in 1858 by a company incorporated as the Hanover and South Whitehall Bridge Company ; the other is at the foot of Hamilton Street, and was erected in 1841, after the great freshet, by the Allentown Bridge Company. Soon after the laying out of the public road between Easton and Reading in 1754, a ferry was established at this place. Abraham Rinker, until 1776, was the first ferryman ; but, upon the breaking out of the Revolutionary War, he raised a company, and attached himself to Washington's army. Casper Weaver became his successor at the ferry, and until the taking possession of this post by John Kletor, about 1795, retained it. The latter remained until the building of the bridge in 1812. An effort had been made in 1797 to ereet a bridge, for which pur- pose an act of incorporation was passed on 31st March of that year ; but the enter- prise failed for want of funds ; and it is doubtful whether the bridge would have been erected in 1812 if it had not been through the exertions of James Jameson, an enterprising citizen of Allentown. The old charter having expired, a new one was granted on the 2d of March, 1812. A chain bridge was then erected at a cost of $15,000, which stood until April 13, 1828, when it was set on fire and burnt down. Another bridge which was subsequently erected was swept away by the high freshet of January 8, 1841. Allentown is well provided with schools, it having no less than two first class academies, and eighteen public or free schools. The Allentown Academy, which is the oldest, was originally incor- porated on the 18th of March, 1811, and a sum of money appro- priated by the State for the erection of suitable buildings, to be paid when the private subscriptions should amount to $1000. A lot was procured on the N. W. corner of Eighth and Walnut Streets, and a plain and substantial building erected thereon, which was occupied as a high school or academy, as originally constructed, until the selection of the present principal. The persons who from time to time presided over the Academy since its erection were S. H. Hickock, W. W. Wurtz, Chas. A. SEMINARIES. 281 Douglass, F. A. Mancourt, Rev. McClenachen, Rev. Huffert, Eobt. N. Chandler, and the present incumbent, I. 1ST. Gregory. Under his care, it has grown to be one of the best schools in the State. The buildings have been much enlarged, and are fitted up with most of the modern educational improvements. The institution is managed by a Board of Trustees, who are elected by the people of Lehigh County. It is now in a most prosperous condition, at- tended by about 150 scholars, who are taught, by seven teachers, in all the branches of a thorough English education, as well as the elements of mathematics, Latin, Greek, music, drawing, &c. &c. The Allentown Seminary, a boarding and day school, was erected a few years ago by Messrs. Pretz and Weinsheimer, two enterpris- ing merchants of Allentown. It occupies a commanding position on the east of the town, about an eighth of a mile above the con- fluence of the Jordan Creek and Little Lehigh. The grounds sur- rounding the building is the last remnant of the great manor of Justice Allen. " Trout Hall," the only remaining relic of the olden time, is still standing upon these grounds, and is used as a kitchen for the seminary. (See cut.) The school edifice stands in the midst of a space of some four acres, devoted to its exclusive use, but with the open country around it to the east and south. In front is a fine lawn, adorned with trees and shrubbery, and in the rear a large campus or play- ground, fitted up with a great variety of gymnastic fixtures, together with the gardens, etc., for the use of the establishment. The house has a front of about one hundred and thirty feet, with a depth of forty feet, the centre being four stories in front and five in the rear ; the wings three stories high. On the first floor, a large school-room occupies the centre of the building, with class-rooms and rooms for teachers conveniently arranged on both sides of it. The second floor is used for similar purposes, supplying also study -rooms for the pupils who board in the Institution. The third and fourth stories are used for chambers and dormitories, which are large and well ventilated apartments. The whole house is lighted with gas, 282 ALLENTOWN. well supplied with excellent water, and the school and study-rooms are warmed by the most improved furnaces. The school-rooms are furnished with fixtures, desks and maps of the most recent construction ; and a fine cabinet of minerals and a good school library (which now contains over two hundred volumes) are receiving constant additions. The course of study embraces all the branches of a thorough English education, the elements of mathematics and natural phi- losophy, Latin, Greek and modern languages, vocal and instru- mental music, and drawing. The present principal, Rev. William R. Hofford, is ably assisted by four male and three female teachers. The school is well patronized by the residents of the place and strangers. The number of scholars at present is one hundred and twenty-seven males and forty females. The public or free schools of Allentown are ably conducted under the supervision of the county superintendent ; the number of these schools at the present time is twenty-one, in which are taught some six hundred and forty-five male and six hundred and twenty-five female scholars, the number of teachers twenty-one. The accommodation for the schools consists of five large and sub- stantial brick buildings, which were erected at a cost of near $25,000. Two of the above buildings were erected some years ago, and intended for the Homoeopathic College. This institution never went into full operation as it was designed it should under several eminent professors residing in Philadelphia. Allentown at the present time contains nine churches, viz : — German Reformed, cor. Hamilton and Church Alley. Rev'ds J. S. Dubs, J. H. Derr, Pastors. St. Paul's Lutheran (German), Eighth between Hamilton and Walnut. Rev. J. Mennig, Pastor. St. John's Lutheran (English), Fifth below Hamilton. Rev. B. M. Schmucker, Pastor. Presbyterian, Fifth above Hamilton Street. Rev. B. Juakin, Jr., Pastor. Methodist Episcopal, Linden Street, between Fifth and Sixth. Rev. F. D. Egan, Pastor. German Methodist, Linden above Ninth. C. Meyer, Pastor. Baptist, Hamilton below Seventh. Rev. J. L. Sagebeer, Pastor. Episcopal, Fifth and Hamilton. Rev. A. Prior, Pastor. Catholic, Second Street. Rev. C. J. Schrader, Priest. FAIR GROUNDS. 283 The majority of these churches have been but recently built, and are handsome and costly structures. Most of the churches have burial grounds attached to them; of late, however, most of the in- terments are made in the "Allentown" and "Union Cemeteries," which are beautifully located near the town. The Lehigh County Agricultural Fair was the first of its kind established in the Lehigh Yalley; it was organized in 1852. The first fair was held in October of that year, and continued for two days; it was successful beyond the hopes of its warmest friends. The fair was held on the property of Messrs. Pretz & Co., in Alleu- town, where some three or four acres of ground were surrounded by canvas, purchased and presented to the society by the citizens of Allentown. The articles exhibited were so numerous, and the crowd of visitors so large, that the managers were induced to make the institution a permanent one. They accordingly purchased the ground now owned by the society on the western border of Allen- town, and commenced preparing for the second exhibition on the most liberal scale. The site is on the most elevated spot near Allentown, overlooking the whole town and the magnificent pano- rama of hills and vales which surround it. The space includes eleven full acres, perfectly even, with a light inclination towards the south, and is surrounded by a close fence eight feet high. The main entrance is on the southwest corner opposite the northern terminus of Sixth Street, at which point there is erected a beautiful Swiss cottage, occupied by the person who has charge of the grounds, and used during the fair as a ticket office. Passing through the spacious gateway the eye is at once arrested by the main exhibition hall, a stately building, the original size of which was one hundred feet long by fifty wide. During the present season two w T ings have been added to it, which has increased its width to one hundred feet; the building is two stories high, surmounted by a splendid gallery, or observatory. The appearance of this build- ing, covered as it is during the exhibition, with flags and streamers, and the observatory filled with spectators, is exceedingly beautiful. The trotting circle, occupying the northern half of the inciosure, is 284: ALLENTOWN. one thousand nine hundred feet in circumference and fifty feet wide, inclosed on both sides by a substantial fence. The poultry houses, horse stables, and cattle stalls, are quite extensive, and have been built with an eye to comfort. The grounds on the southern side of the inclosure and around the centre building have been laid out most beautifully in walks and circles, along which several hundred choice shade trees have been planted, which, when fully grown, will make this a delightful promenade. Directly in front of this building there is a space left for a fountain, which, in all probability, will be finished by the next exhibition. The buildings were erected in 1852, which, together with the land, cost about $15,000. The additions to the main building and other improvements have cost during the present year near $3,000. The society was incorporated in 1855. The present officers are George Beisel, President; Joshua Stabler, Secretary ; A. G. Eeninger, Treasurer. Allentown is supplied with some of the purest spring water in the State ; Worman's spring, where the waterworks are located, and from which the town derives its supply, is situated about one mile from Allentown, and is said to be inexhaustible. The water is as clear as crystal and delightfully cool throughout the summer. The works consist of two water-wheels and two pumps, propelled by the water issuing from the spring; it is forced to the height of one hundred and sixty feet into a reservoir in the highest part of the town, from which it is distributed by about five miles of main pipe through the different streets. The company was originally incorporated in 1816, as the North- ampton Water Company, but was not organized until 1827 — the property of the company in 1833 was valued at $18,000. The company at the present time own the "spring property," consisting of twenty-five acres of land, on which are located the waterworks and two flouring mills ; these, in connection with the other im- provements, are valued at $100,000. The company is now known as the Allentown "Water Company. Joseph Weaver, President; Jesse M. Line, Secretary; Ephraim Grim, Treasurer. GASWORKS, NEWSPAPERS, ETC. 285 Allentown is liberally supplied with an excellent quality of gas, by the Allen Gas Company. The works were originally a private enterprise, and were the first in the Lehigh Valley. In 1849, Dr. "W. F. Danowsky, an enterprising citizen of the town, erected suit- able buildings for the manufacture of gas, and supplied it to a large number of the stores and dwellings. In 1852 he made several additions to his works, which greatly increased the facili- ties for manufacturing, and enabled him to supply quite a number of dwellings in the neighboring towns, which he did by means of a huge India-rubber bag or tank, placed on a wagon, which was filled at the works and carted to the doors of his customers, where, by means of a hose, the smaller tanks in the cellars of the con- sumers were filled. In 1853 he obtained an act of incorporation, but did not work under the charter. Since 1858 the works have been owned by N. Loudenslager, Wm. H. Blumer, Jesse M. Line, and Wm. Kern, who are working under the charter, and are known as the Allen Gas Co. ; capital $40,000, with privilege of increasing to $60,000. The present extensive works were erected in 1853, and now supply upwards of 300 private consumers and 30 public lamps. There are at the present time six weekly and four semi-monthly papers published in Allentown, viz : — Friedens Bote (German), Blumer, Leisinring & Co., Editors. Allentown Democrat (English), C. F. Haines, Lehigh Register " Huber & Oliver, Unabhaengige Republikana ) Trexler, Harlacher & Weltbote (German), ) Weiser, Jugend Freund " "| Missions Blaeat " > R ev. S. K. Probst, Lutherische Zeitschrift " J Lecha Patriot, Keck, Guth & Helfrich, Allentonian, (New publication.) There is but one bank in Allentown, which is situated on the north side of the public square. The building is exceedingly neat and well arranged. This institution was chartered March 1, 1855, and commenced operations August 27th of the same year. Capital $200,000— of which $160,000 have been paid in. The Allentown 286 ALLENTOWN. Bank since its commencement has been faithfully conducted, and has always maintained a high degree of credit. The officers are Jacob Dillinger, President; C. W. Cooper, Cashier. Although the greater part of the time is devoted by the citizens of Allentown to their various business pursuits and callings, they still find time for recreation and amusement. The Allentown Band, of which Amos Ettinger is leader, is considered one of the best bands in the State, and is composed entirely of the business men of the place. The Jordan Band, a new organization under the leadership of E. H. Menninger, are making rapid progress, and promises to be no mean rival of the first named. Allentown has also several military companies, which will com- pare favorably with any in the State, viz : — Allen Rifles, T. H. Good, Captain. Jordan Artillerists, W. H. Gausler, Allen Infantrj, Thos. Yeager, " The fire department of the place consists of four companies, viz : — Columbia Engine Co. No. 1. Young America " No. 2. Good Will " No. 3. Allentown Hook and Ladder Co. No. 1. These companies are well disciplined, and have ever proved themselves ready and willing on all occasions when called upon, to give their efficient aid in saving property from the ravages of fire. The companies have each a meeting-room, handsomely furnished, provided with excellent libraries, and files of the New York and Philadelphia daily papers, besides a variety of weekly papers and periodicals, including the papers of the borough and surrounding towns. A large bell, for the purpose of giving the fire alarm, is placed in the fine cupola on the Town Hall. The business of a town depends greatly upon the enterprise of its citizens. Location and surroundings may, somewhat, shape the character of its trade, but an active population always beget sources of wealth. The citizens of Allentown appear to have acted upon these principles. Hence the manufacturing interest MANUFACTORIES. 287 within the last few years has been largely developed. The num- ber of manufactories at this time is 57, and are as follows: — Seven agricultural implement manufactories. Welcome B. Powell ; T. S. Sweitzer ; Brader & Young ; Jesse Bitting ; Newhard & Rhoads ; Jonas W. Koch ; M. H. Beitler. Two foundry and machine shops. Thayer, Eardman, Wilson & Co. ; Barber, Sherer & Co. One iron railing manufactory. Chas. Denhard. One planing-mill (steam). Pretz, Gausler & Co. One fire brick manufactory. Ritter & M'Hose. One paint manufactory. Breinig & Bro. Five carriage manufactories. T. Stattler ; P. H. Lehr ; R. D. Kramer ; Snyder & Hendricks ; R. Englenian. One railroad spike factory. Wilson & Co. One axle factory and forge. Shimer, Kessler & Co. One file factory. Stalter, Gruele & Co. One piano manufactory. S. Sweitzer. Two shoe manufactories. George Lucas & Son ; Young & Leh. One woollen manufactory. Gabriel & Weil. Three coverlid -manufactories. Chas. Weiand ; W. F. Christman ; Weiand & Brother. Two stocking manufactories. Enoch Newhard ; P. Stork. Two last manufactories ; F. S. Wilt ; P. Baum. One gun factory. J. & W. H. Moll. One steam saw-mill. Hoffman & Bro. One grist-mill. Robt. Dubs. Four merchant mills. Mickly, Weaver & Co. ; Pretz, Eckert & Co. ; Roth, Mickly & Co. ; Keck, Leager & Co. Two distilleries. Thomas Yeager ; Edmund Schreiber. Four breweries. Wm. Oberle ; Kern & Meyer ; Richard Deily ; Daniel Weiss. Four iron furnaces. Allentown Iron Co. Eight brick yards. Rolling mill. Haywood & Co. (Now constructing.) The works of the Allentown Iron Co., situated here, consist of four furnaces, the size of which, and the time of erection, are as follows : — Erected. High. Boshes. Tunnel head. No. 1. 1846. 40 ft. 12 ft. 5 ft. " 2. 1847. 40 " 12 " 5 " " 3. 1852. 45 " 16 " 5 " " 4. 1855. 50 « 16 " 5 " The first two furnaces were erected under the superintendence of Mr. Benj. Perry. These works produce some 20,000 tons of pig iron per annum. They are blown by steam power, and the ore used is the hematite mined in the neighborhood, with a portion 288 ALLENTOWN. of the magnetic of New Jersey. Mr. Samuel Lewis, the present manager, has made quite a number of improvements and additions which now make the furnaces among the most extensive and com- plete in the country. The furnaces are situated near the track of the Lehigh Yalley Railroad, from which a sidling is run upon tressling, erected for the purpose of running the cars close to the hoisting apparatus, and there unloading the iron ore, coal, &c. &c. The company have recently procured a locomotive for the purpose of conveying material from different parts of the grounds to the furnace. The residence of the superintendent is quite spacious, and its neat and cheerful aspect commands admiration. It is sur- rounded by trees of various species, and the grounds are laid out with a degree of taste quite commendable. Its lofty position affords a commanding view both up and down the river. Most of the manufacturing establishments in Allentown are quite extensive, and are doing a flourishing and remunerative business. It was our intention to have given a full description of each of these establishments ; but as there appeared to be an unwillingness, with one or two exceptions, of the proprietors to furnish us with particulars, we have been unable to do as we originally intended. Allentown has many advantages as a manu- facturing town, situated in the midst of a rich agricultural district, and surrounded by rich beds of irou ore, zinc, limestone, cement, &c. &c, it is destined at no distant day to become the centre of the manufacturing interests of the Lehigh Valley. On both sides of the Lehigh Valley Eailroad, along the whole borough front, the land is level, and well calculated for the erection of extensive manufactories. The railroads and canals diverging in every direc- tion afford facilities to the manufacturer to transport his wares to either of the large seaboard cities or the great west. Beside the Lehigh Valley Eailroad and Lehigh Canal, which pass by the place, Allentown is the eastern terminus of the East Pennsylvania Eailroad from Eeading ; this road was completed the early part of the present year, and is the last connecting link between New York and Harrisburg, Pa., where a connection will be made with the us/-~/Wsu*J ^J^Uct **&prtx/ Superintendent Allentown Iron Works. INTERESTING LETTER. 289 Pennsylvania Central Railroad, which will make the shortest and most expeditious route from New York to the Great West. The road is 36 miles long from Allentown to Reading, and passes through a beautiful and fertile valley, studded with substantial farm-houses, from which is spread out in all directions like a variegated carpet broad acres of well-cultivated land, whose only limit is the distant mountain ranges which encircle the landscape. Allentown will also be the terminus of the Allentown and Auburn Railroad, now being constructed between Allentown and Auburn, on the Dauphin and Susquehanna Railroad. Some $350,000 have already been expended on this road, but the many heavy cuts and a tunnel 2000 feet in length through the Blue Mountain will retard the operations of this line, and the probabilities are that several years will elapse before the Schuylkill and Lehigh Valleys will be united by this route. We will close our description of Allentown with the fol- lowing interesting letter : — "There are few to. ^e State that can vie with Allentown in beauty of situation and loveliness of surrounding scenery. In one of the most fertile regions of the State, it not only enjoys a landscape of rich and quiet beauty, but has a mountain and river scenery of the boldest and most picturesque kind. It is near the head of the great valley, tl very garden of the United States, east of the Alle- ghany Mountains, which stretches from the Delaware near Easton, down to the northern part of North Carolina, now called (in Pennsylvania) the Cumberland valley, and further south the Great Valley of Virginia ; but properly designated as the Kittatinny Valley. The western boundary of this magnificent valley is here called the Blue Mountain, which stretches in a waving chain of the purest azure from northeast to southwest, some twelve or fourteen miles from Allentown, which is almost encircled by what is here called the Lehigh Hills, but further south the South Mountain, and which form the eastern terminus of the valley. " Allentown occupies a sort of lofty promontory, running down to the Lehigh River and Jordan Creek on the east, and spreading out in the rear to the west into that magnificent landscape of alternating plains and rolling hills by which the great valley is characterized. In front is the Lehigh River, which, running from the northeast, is met about a half mile below the town by the Lehigh Hills, which cause it to turn abruptly to the east, where it breaks through the other line of hills, at whose base it had so long pursued its headlong course. " Nothing can be more picturesque than the scenes upon which the eye here reposes ; on one side mountain-like hills, cultivated to their very summits, waving with a sea of wheat, or green with pastures, and the still richer foliage of Indian corn ; in front, an island of some sixty acres, like an emerald, encircled by the shining waters of the Lehigh, which here receives the tribute of its younger sister, which has just been swelled by the darker waters of the Jordan, both streams spanned by beautiful bridges, beyond which they seem to melt away into a silvery 20 290 ALLENTOWN. lake ; and above all rise the green mountains, the Lehigh Hills, whose tops seem to be covered by their primeval forests, whilst here and there a farm straggles up their sides, and the white roof of a dwelling every now and then peeps out from the embowering foliage, which might otherwise seem an unbroken solitude. "Allentown was laid out by William Allen, chief justice of the province of Pennsylvania, some time before the Revolutionary War. He was a very intimate friend of the Penn family (Governor John Penn married one of his daughters), and here obtained large grants of land. On one of these he built a hunting lodge, which he called ' Trout Hall,' from the abundance of that favorite of all the dis- ciples of Izaak Walton ; one of the silver-like streams which here enter the Little Lehigh, being likewise called Trout Creek. This old hunting lodge is still stand- ing, being a massive stone cottage, which may stand for centuries. The chief- justice could not well have selected a lovelier spot for his summer retreat ; and here, during the stormy times of the Revolution, he was glad to hide himself, barely escaping the confiscation of his large estates, as he was strongly suspected of Tory principles, and warmer affection for the government of George III. than that of the new republic. Still his property passed quietly into the hands of his son James Allen, who built a very fine mansion just alongside of the old Trout Hall, or hunting lodge. In the general division of James Allen's estate, this fine mansion became the property of Mrs. Livingston, one of his daughters. " Like all the other vast landed estates of this country, this of Allen's being first divided among the children, soon dwindled away, until no more of it was found in the family. The last fragment of Chief-Justice Allen's great manor, eighteen acres, surrounding the Livingston house, as it was long called, was finally bought by Messrs. Pretz & Weinsheimer, two enterprising merchants of the town, who have erected thereon the magnificent Seminary Building. " Allentown presents many attractions besides the beautiful scenery which sur- rounds the place. It contains many splendid stores and public buildings as well as a large number of handsome private residences ; among the latter I may men- tion ' Clover Nook,' the beautiful country-seat of Robert E. Wright, Esq., one of the prominent lawyers and leading citizens of the place, and the handsome resi- dence of Hon. Henry King, a prominent citizen of the valley, through whose exertions the charter for the Lehigh Valley Railroad was obtained. The public buildings of the place, which are quite spacious and handsome structures, are the Odd Fellows' Hall, Temperance Hall, Town Hall, Court-House, and Jail. The population of Allentown must be between nine and ten thousand ; the German element is still in the ascendant in a numerical point of view, and one hears the German language at every step in the streets, where business is transacted as well as in the suburbs, and yet the English element has become very influential too by reason of its intelligence and enterprise. It was my intention to have given a fuller description of the general appearance of the town, but I have already taken up so much space that I am compelled to terminate this letter, by saying that Allentown contains many families of position and refinement, with some of which it has been my privilege to become acquainted, and whose agreeable and cordial hospitality I have enjoyed on several occasions. I shall ever remember the days I have passed here with sincerest pleasure." CATASATJQUA. Catasauqua is situated on the east bank of the river Lehigh, in Lehigh County, three miles above Allentown. The town takes its name from the creek which empties into the Lehigh River at that place. This stream is found on old maps by the name of " Mill Creek," which name was given it in consequence of the first mill in that part of the county being erected upon its head waters, in 1735, by Thomas Wilson. Allen Township also had the name of Mill Creek Township given to it by the Court at Newton, Bucks County, in 1748. The name Catasauqua is a compound Indian word, signifying "Dry Land." Catasauqua was incorporated as a borough in 1853 ; the town is regularly laid out, extending about a mile in length, fronting the Lehigh Canal and Lehigh Eiver, and extending eastward about a half mile to the Northampton County line. It has about 3000 inhabitants, 500 dwellings, 13 stores, 5 furnaces for making iron, 1 bank, 7 churches, 1 lumber yard, J foundry, 1 machine shop, 1 distillery, 1 flour-mill, 1 brick yard, 1 gasworks, 1 waterworks, 5 hotels, 10 public schools, 1 printing office, 1 band, 1 fire company, and 1 military company. The borough of Catasauqua is steadily enlarging, and filling up the vacant spots within its border limits. The splendid position which it occupies in the midst of a rich iron ore and limestone country, the facilities it possesses by railroad and canal for trans- porting its productions, and the constantly increasing trade which it commands, all tend to impress one with the belief that it is destined to become a place of great importance. Nature has been lavish, so to speak, in her endowment of this position, as the site for a vast manufacturing town. The railways and canals diverg- 292 CATASAUQUA. ing in every direction afford facilities in great abundance for transporting trie large amount of iron which is now being manu- factured, and will be hereafter in larger quantities. The growth of the town has been rapid, considering its age. The sagacity and foresight of the men who first selected the site for a town upon which Catasauqua now stands is apparent in almost every par- ticular. Beauty and economy, as well as health and convenience, are all promoted by the selection and the laying out of the town on a symmetrical and accurate plan. From the Lehigh, which flows along the entire front of the borough, it extends back on a gradual rise, affording an easy and gentle grade to the streets, carrying off all the accumulating filth, and keeping the town entirely free from even the semblance of a muddy pool. But few places can boast of so perfect a drainage, and when the necessary improvements in progress shall have been made the town will present an illustration of what foresight, industry, and art can do to produce a model town, combining the beautiful and substantial with that which promotes health and happiness. The town is well supplied with a good quality of gas by the Catasauqua Gas Company, which was incorporated in 1856, with a capital of $15,000. The works were erected the same year. The officers are Joshua Hunt, President ; John Williams, Secretary ; Solomon Beiry, Treasurer. The town is also well supplied with water from the waterworks erected by the Iron Company, for the benefit of the town, in 1845. During the present year these works have been considerably en- larged, and the pipes extended, so that Catasauqua can now boast of as good a supply of water as any place in the valley. Through the enterprise of Mr. James "W". Fuller, Catasauqua has now a beautiful cemetery, called "Fair View Cemetery;" it is beautifully located on an eminence on the western bank of the Lehigh opposite the borough. It commands a magnificent view of the town and surrounding country, and is in every respect suited to the purpose for which it has been designed. The churches are neat and substantial edifices, most of them having burial-grounds attached to them. They are as follows : — ANawsam. 1 S Dwal 8c Sons M PM t^2^Z -^ 4/ 67^V-~^?^? -v-^ CHUKCHES, PUBLIC SCHOOLS, ETC. 293 German Reformed and Lutheran, cor. of Bridge Street and Howertown Road. Revs. J. Rath and Cyrus J. Baker, Pastors. German Evangelical, cor. of Howertown Road and School Alley. Methodist Church, Front Street. Rev. F. D. Egan, Pastor. Old School Presbyterian, Bridge Street. Rev. Leslie Irwin, Pastor. First Presbyterian (New School), Second Street cor. of Walnut Street. Rev. C. Earle, Pastor. Irish Catholic, Second Street. Rev. L. V. Brennan, Priest. German Catholic, Second Street and Howertown Road. The public schools of the borough will compare favorably with any in the commonwealth. They comprise 4 primary, 3 secondary, 2 grammar, and 1 high school; the number of children attending school is about 400 ; the standard books are the most approved, and none but competent and experienced teachers are employed. The school buildings are of brick, neatly inclosed, with fine large yards, surrounded with shade-trees and shrubbery. The board of directors have just completed a new school edifice, 55 feet by 46 feet, three stories high, surmounted by a fine cupola. The building is a splendid specimen of architecture, and is a credit to the town. The following persons constitute the board of directors : — Joshua Hunt, President; Charles Gr. Schneller, Treasurer; Mel- chior H. Horn, Secretary ; John Mclntire, Frederick Eberhard, William Miller. Catasauqua has also a bank ; the building is located on the north side of Front Street between Union and Wood Streets ; the institution is known as the "Bank of Catasauqua," and was incor- porated May 5th, 1857, with a capital of $400,000. The bank was organized on the 17th of September, of the same year, with the following officers and directors: — DIRECTORS. Eli J. Seager, David A. Tombler, John L. Hoffman, Joshua Hunt, C. A. Luckenbach, William Miller, J. P. Schall, Jonas Beiry, David Thomas, James W. Fuller, Samuel Laubach, Robert Oberly, Jacob Fatzinger. Eli J. Seager, President. Melchior H. Horn, Cashier. John O. Lichtenwalner, Teller. James W. Mickley, Clerk. The bank commenced discounting September 22, 1857, and has 294 CATASAUQUA. discounted regularly ever since that time. The character of this institution has always been of the best, having ridden through the stormy panic of 1857 without beiDg obliged to suspend specie payments. The Lehigh Crane Iron Company's Works are located here, and consist of five furnaces. The size of each and time of erection is as follows : — Erected. Height. Boshes. No. 1 1840 47 feet 11 feet " 2 1841 47 " 13 " " 3 1846 47 " 16 " it 4 1850 55 " 18 " " 5 1850 55 " 18 " "With 6| pounds blast, the average yearly yield for the five fur- naces is about 40,000 tons of No. 1 foundry iron. The blast and machinery of the establishment are propelled by three steam- engines, one of them of 800 horse-power. The blowing cylinders for the furnaces are said to be the largest in the State. These works consume yearly some 90,000 tons of ore, 80,000 tons of coal, and 50,000 tons of limestone. The ore used is the hematite pro- cured from the Company's mines in the neighborhood, on the Catasauqua and Foglesville Eailroad; and the magnetic from Mor- ris County, New Jersey. The No. 1 furnace of this company was the first that used an- thracite coal successfully in making pig-iron in the Lehigh Valley. The works are perhaps the most complete and extensive in the United States. There are railroad tracks running through all parts of the grc 'ids, and to different parts of the furnace ; and, by means of the two locomotives owned by the Company, the ore is brought direct from the mines, the limestone from the quarries, and the coal either by canal, which passes directly through the Com- pany's grounds, or by the Lehigh Yalley Eailroad is switched on to the sideling belonging to the Iron Company. Everything in connection with the- furnace appears to have been arranged with a view to solidity, economy, and convenience. A foundry and machine-shop are also connected with the furnaces, in which most of the casting and repairing for the furnaces are done. 0= 1= ©>£ CO mi en i CO *i jj co) r H r-H IPs) " en (=1 t?% p.- CD %M y *> r-H C — 2 •-£=! ^ 296 CATASAUQUA. succeeded in securing the services of Mr. David Thomas, who was engaged there with George Crane, in the manufacture of anthracite iron. He arrived here in July, 1839, and immediately commenced operations, he himself being the first to break ground in the new village of Craneville, as it was then called. A large number of laborers' shanties were erected, a fine residence for Mr. Thomas commenced. In 1840, the first furnace was completed under the direction and superintendence of Messrs. Thomas & Mitchell ; the remaining four furnaces were erected at the times stated as above. The village has steadily progressed until it has risen to the dignity of a bo- rough. There is an apparent comfort in the place very unusual in an iron manufacturing town. The dwellings of the workmen em- ployed in the furnaces are not the low hovels usually found at such establishments, but, with a few exceptions, have an air of neatness and order which is pleasant to behold. There is also a large num- ber of very handsome cottages and private residences, on which are displayed considerable taste in architectural design. The grounds surrounding them are very prettily laid out, and planted with trees ,; A ; :^:::i'iillll« ■ j : g||: : |||f flip ',„.„. ■..■■I,- ,»■!.■ v^:"S% Eesidence of David Thomas, Esq., Catasauqua. and shrubbery. Buildings of this kind give an air of beauty and refinement to a town. There are perhaps few manufacturing towns where so much intelligence is displayed by the working classes. It BRIDGES, RAILROADS, ETC. 297 appears to have been one of the first efforts of Mr. Thomas to instil in the minds of his workmen the great necessity of sobriety and self-culture ; and the truths inculcated in the minds of these men at that time appear to have spread and grown up with the place. There are several debating-societies in the town, which are well attended, a temperance society, masonic lodge, and several literary and benevolent societies. A newspaper was established here in 1857 by Kelchner & Fry, and is still published ; the present editor is Mr. A. C. Lewis ; the paper is called The Catasauqua Herald. The Lehigh River is crossed at Catasauqua by two wooden bridges ; where the lower bridge now stands there was formerly a ferry known as Biery's Ferry. In 1824 a chain bridge was erected here, part of which was carried away by the freshet in 1841. It was repaired, and stood until 1853, when it was taken down, and the present structure, known as Biery's Bridge, erected in its place. In 1847 the Lehigh Crane Iron Company erected a bridge just above their works, which is also used as a railroad bridge. The Iron Company have also erected several bridges over the canal, one of them an iron bridge on an entirely new plan. On the Cata- sauqua Creek, not far from the town, stands the stone house where lived George Taylor, one of the signers of the Declaration of In- dependence. The house and part of the farm once belonging to Mr. Taylor is now owned and occupied by Jacob Deily. On the western bank of the river, near Biery's Bridge, is a small stone house which was used as a shelter and place of safety by the white inhabitants during the Indian wars. Tradition says this house was often attacked by the Indians, and were as often re- pulsed by its inmates. The Catasauqua and Foglesville Railroad connects at Catasauqua with the Lehigh Valley Railroad. This road was built in 1857 (a length of nine miles) at a cost of about $260,000, by the Lehigh Crane arid Thomas Iron Companies. During the present year the road has been extended 2J miles further, to a place called Trexler- town, where it will connect with the Allentown and Port Clinton Railroad, now in course of construction. The road was built for 298 CATASAUQUA. the purpose of reaching the great iron ore beds belonging to these companies. The ore is now brought direct from the mines in the cars, and deposited at the mouth of the furnaces without a second handling. Heretofore it was carted entirely by mule teams, which was both slow and extremely expensive. The road has now two splendid locomotives. There are regular daily passenger and freight trains now on the road, which connect with the L. Y. R. R. About 12,000 tons of ore are carried over the road every month. About five miles from Catasauqua this road crosses the Jordan Creek on a splendid iron bridge, said to be the largest iron bridge in America. The bridge is visited by thousands of persons from all parts of the country every year. The bridge is reputed to be the handsomest of the kind ever built, and what greatly adds to the attraction is the charming scenery by which it is surrounded. As far as the eye can reach is presented the grandest view that the most enthusiastic admirer of nature's beauties might long to gaze upon. The following description of the bridge, by Ell wood Morris, civil engineer, we extract from the Journal of the Franklin Institute: — " The railroad extending into the interior from the Crane Iron Works, at Cata- sauqna, for the conveyance of iron ore from various beds in Lehigh County, Penn- sylvania, crosses the Jordan Creek where the valley is nearly a quarter of a mile in width at grade, and about 1000 feet at the bottom. " The grade level at this crossing is nearly 90 feet high above low water in the Jordan, and its valley formed a very serious obstacle to encounter upon a merely local road. " Proposals for an iron ! ■'•idge were finally invited by the company, and the contract assigned to F. Q. - thorp, Esq., a civil engineer of great experience and skill. " The extreme length of the bridge is 1165 feet, and the iron superstructure con- sists of 11 spans, of 100 feet each. These spans are of a suspension truss, each truss being 16 feet high, and the two trusses necessary to carry a single track railroad, being spaced 10 feet clear apart. The trusses are supported upon a group of cast iron pillars, of cruciform section, connected and braced together in stages, and firmly stayed laterally by heavy wrought iron bracing rods bolted to the masonry. " These skeleton piers of cast and wrought iron stand upon low piers of solid masonry, raised above the line of flood, and pointed at both ends. The single track railway crosses upon the deck of the iron bridge in a straight continuous line. " Early in July, this bridge, which is believed to be the longest iron structure in the United States, was tested to the entire satisfaction of the company, with a loaded train, drawn by a locomotive — the whole train weighing upon each span of «' %- v v ""$? ft:; '<■', •'■ : « gjj . £ '>;;' > HI ^fml"? CD — /£l g? OCh Oo ° en ggj THE THOMAS IRON" WORKS. 299 100 feet, 113 tons, or more than one ton to the foot lineal, which was the test load con- tracted for. " The bridge is now in use, and attracts crowds of visitors. It presents a very light and graceful appearance. "The first stone was laid August 27th, 1856, and the first locomotive crossed July 14, 1857, the whole having been completed in less than a year. This is in every sense a remarkable work, and does the highest credit to the energy and ability of the engineer and contractor, F. C. Lowthrop, Esq. The small cost at which this wide and deep valley has been crossed will surprise many of our engi- neers as much as the very short time required for its construction. The entire cost has been less than $77 per foot run, or about $77,000 for the entire structure. This structure demonstrates conclusively the speed and economy with which iron bridges may be erected for railway purposes, and will do much to extend their use in this country." We present a view of this beautiful structure. The officers of the Catasauqua and Foglesville Eailroad are David Thomas, President ; John Thomas, Superintendent ; Joshua Hunt, Secretary ; John Williams, Treasurer. UoJeendauqaa is a pleasant village situated on the west bank of the river Lehigh, about a mile above Catasauqua. The land upon which the town is situated comprises about thirty-five acres, and was laid out by the Thomas Iron Company, in 1855, the building lots are laid out to be 100 feet deep by 50 feet wide, with streets varying from 90 to 60 feet in width. The village at present con- sists of about 50 houses, and has two iron furnaces, one hotel, two stores, and a school-house. The residents of the place are princi- pally employed in and about the furnaces. The buildings are mostly of brick and frame. The residence of Mr. Samuel Thomas, the superintendent of the iron works, is a neat and commodious mansion; it occupies an elevated position, and commands a fine and varied prospect. The farm which surrounds it is in a high state of cultivation. The Thomas Iron Works are located here, and consist of two furnaces, which are the highest and largest furnaces and have the most powerful blast machinery in the United States. The product of pig iron per furnace is greater than any other in this country, and perhaps in the world. These works are con- sidered as model furnaces, having all the valuable recent improve- ments added to them. The Company was named in honor of Mr, 300 CATASAUQUA. David Thomas, the manager of the Lehigh Crane Iron Works. The first, or No. 1 furnace, was put in blast for the first time on the first day of June, 1855. The second, or No. 2 furnace, October 23d, 1855. They are built precisely alike, are 60 feet high, 18 feet diameter at the boshes, and 8 feet tunnel head. They yield up- wards of 20,000 tons of iron per annum. The largest yield of the two furnaces for any one week was 605, 14, 1 tons, and for one furnace in one week 351, 10, tons, an amount unprecedented in the annals of iron making. The machinery of the establishment is propelled by two powerful steam engines. The company has also two locomotives, which are used for conveying ore from the mines to the furnaces, and shifting coal and iron cars to and from different parts of the establishment and adjoining grounds. The company contemplate erecting another furnace during the coming spring (1860). This establishment, like all others of a similar kind in the Lehigh Valley, has, under com- petent and faithful officers, been remarkably successful. The officers are C. A. Luchenbach, President ; John T. Knight, Secre- tary and Treasurer ; Samuel Thomas, Superintendent. Hokendauqua derives its name from a small creek which empties into the Lehigh on the eastern side, about a half mile above the village. It is an Indian word, "Hockin," in the Delaware Indian language signifying " Land," and " dochwe" — " searching for or seeking." The name, in fact, was not given to a stream of water, but was an exclamation used by the Indians at the time the first Irish settlers located there in 1730 ; it was probably made use of in speaking to the surveyors ; a large portion of the streams were named in this manner by the surveyors. Schreiber's, or Goplay* as it has recently been named, is about a half mile above Hokendauqua, on the same side of the river. Within the last few years some thirty or forty houses have been * Coplay is the name of a creek emptying into the Lehigh near Catasauqua. The proper and original name for this stream is " Copeechan," which is an Indian word signifying "that which runs evenly," or "a fine running stream." -=3 m CO ^y Pa ©c £ ^ a 2 H «?s? ty o N ©-; & 5o! ? ^ ■ ^§1 THE "INDIAN LAND." 301 erected near the railroad station ; there are several stores in the village, two limekilns, and the extensive distillery of Mr. Edward Schreiber, where are manufactured some 5000 barrels of whiskey per annum. The iron works of the Lehigh Valley Iron Co. are also located here ; they consist of one furnace 45 feet high, 14 feet boshes, and 5 feet tunnel head. The furnace was erected in 1854, is blown with steam power, and produces about 6000 tons of pig iron per annum. Benjamin S. Levan is the Superintendent. Laubachsville, another small village, is situated on the eastern bank of the river at the mouth of the Hokendauqua Creek, directly opposite Schreiber's; it contains a merchant and grist-mill, a saw- mill, post-office, and two stores ; a bridge was erected over the Lehigh (connecting the above places) in 1857, at a cost of $14,000. The railroad from Ironton, which is now being constructed, will connect with the Lehigh Valley Railroad at Schreiber's. The length of this road will be about six miles, and cost of construction about $70,000. The main object of this road is the transportation of iron ore and limestone to the large iron works in the vicinity. Ironton, the upper terminus, is the centre of the large iron mines in North Whitehall Township, which are among the oldest, largest, and most important in the county. The production of iron ore around Ironton has nearly trebled within the last five years, and should the discovery and production progress at half this rate for the next five years, there will be no less than 100,000 tons sent to market by this road. The purest blue limestone also exists in large quan- tities along this road. This important branch is expected to be completed by the spring of 1860. The President of the road is Eli J. Seager. There is in the neighborhood of the Hokendauqua Creek a tract of country called the "Indian Land ;" this was a tract of 6500 acres, laid off by order of the proprietaries in 1732, in order to make an experiment in civilizing the Indians, a number of whom were induced to settle on this land. The Moravians, who had commenced their Indian town Gnadenhutten, about fifteen miles further north, in 1746, co-operated with the proprietaries, and occasionally sent one of their Indian exhorters to preach and instruct them ; this man's Indian name was " Seim," and as some German as well as Irish families had located in the neighborhood of this 302 CATASAUQUA. reservation, it appears that this " Seim" was so highly esteemed by them, that in 1752, when they petitioned the court for the erection of a township which included this tract, they desired that it be named " Seimsy Township," in honor of this Indian preacher. The country had been thus called for some years previous, and no doubt from the time when Seim (whose Christian name was Isaac) visited them, which was in the year 1746. The court, however, named the township " Lehigh," which it yet retains. Seim died at Gnadenhutten in the fall of 1746, of the small- pox. This Indian reservation of 6500 acres was the only tract of land in the county that was not subject to the proprietary quitrent of one halfpenny per acre ; the titles were free from this incumbrance — the early assessment lists of 1762 show this. Whitehall, the next station we arrive at, is four miles from Cata- sauqua, and twenty-four miles from Easton ; the village consists of some twenty-five houses, and is important only as an outlet for business transacted by railroad with the surrounding neighbor- hood. On the eastern side of the river, directly opposite the village, are the extensive Hydraulic Cement Works of E. Eckert & Co. These works have been in successful operation for a number of years, and the cement (which is mined in the neighborhood) is said to be equal in every respect to the celebrated Kosendale cement. Previous to the completion of the Lehigh Valley Kail- road, the village (which then consisted of but three or four houses) and neighborhood were known as Siegfried's Bridge, and, before the erection of the bridge, as Siegfried's Ferry. Col. John Sieg- fried, who held several responsible positions in the army during the Eevolution, and to whom we have already referred, resided here. The name of Whitehall Township is derived from a house erected about the year 1740, near the Jordan and Cedar Creeks, by Lynford Lardner, Esq., of Philadelphia ; this gentleman was the owner of a large tract of land, upon which he erected this house. On a map of Pennsylvania by Edward Scull, in 1770, the house is laid down and named " Grouse Hall ;" the township was laid out and organized in 1753, and then named Whitehall. Mr. Lardner's house was painted white, from which the name originated. The property is now owned by the Wenner family. The gentlemen of Philadelphia came to "Whitehall," the country house of Mr. Lardner, in large parties, to shoot the grouse on these heaths, which was a favorite diversion at that period for city folks. These lands, from their elevated situ- ation and want of streams, were burnt over every year by the Indians during many centuries. There is nothing found of an Indian town in this neighborhood, and, indeed, they located only where the timber grew, and at or near streams ; there is, therefore, no Indian name found for the Jordan Creek. The early inhabitants gave INDIAN DEPREDATIONS IN 1763. 303 some significant names to several districts in this neighborhood, before the erec- tion of the townships ; such as " Alle-mangel," now forming Heidleburg, Wash- ington, and other townships below the Blue Mountain. The country on or near the Coplay Creek, being well wooded and watered, was called " Egypta," in allusion to a fruitful country. The Jordan received its name from a like figurative description, of its flowing through a country, the south side of which was like to the Desert of Petrea, and the north side the fruitful country of Palestine. In 1762, the township contained 116 taxable inhabitants ; of these the greater number resided in that part called Egypta, being the upper part. The following appear the the most prominent, viz : Lawrence Guth, Adam Deshler, Nicholas Troxel, Paul Balliet, Stephen Behr, Peter Bassler, Peter Borkholder, George Edel- man, Michael Hoffmann, Jacob Mickley, Peter Kohler, George Knaup, Jacob Kern, Nicholas Meyer, Frederick Neuhard, George Ruch, John Thowalter, Samuel Yagor, Andrew Ohlanwein, Ulrich Flickinger, Charles Homberger, George Knaup. These persons settled here about 1730 to 1735 in one neighborhood ; part may have come a few years earlier. There are several features concerning the settlements worthy of notice ; the first is, that there was no person living in the whole township ex- cepting Germans ; and another, that they all had paid for the lands tbey settled upon. Every one's land was " deeded." This proves that they were in good circum- stances ; and no squatters (as the greater part of the early emigrants had been). Several had large farms. Lawrence Guth had near 800 acres, of which 220 were cleared. The Troxels had near 1500 acres (five families), 500 to 600 cleared. George Knaup, 100 acres cleared, and one grist-mill. Peter Kohler, 120 acres cleared, and one grist-mill. Paul Balliet, Peter Kohler, Daniel Guth, were also inn-keepers. In the whole, it would appear that the name of Egypta was very properly applied to this part of Whitehall. Amidst all the honorable company of Whitehallers, there was one exception, a certain stealer of wolf-traps, who was convicted on this charge, and his back was made to smart from " nineteen lashes well laid on," at the whipping-post in Easton, in 1766. The Indians, in 1763, committed depredations in the township. On the 8th of October, a party of fifteen Indians appeared on a sudden, attacked the house of Nicholas Marks, whom they killed ; his wife and an apprentice boy made their escape, though twice fired upon by the Indians, and proceeded to the house of Adam Deshler,* where there were twenty men under arms. These immediately went in pursuit of the enemy. In their progress they visited the farms of Jacob Mickley, t where they found a boy and a girl lying dead, the girl scalped ; and of Hans Snyder, where they found him and his wife and three children dead in the field, and three girls, one dead, another wounded, and the third scalped. On their return to Deshler's, they found the wife of Jacob Allemang with a child, dead, in the road. The houses of Marks and Snyder were both burnt. * Adam Deshler's house was a large two story stone building, the walls of which were remarkably thick. During the Indian war it was a place of refuge for the whole neighborhood, and was called the fort. It was the head-quarters of the in- habitants, from whence proceeded such parties as described above. t Joseph J. Mickley, Esq., a grandson of this Jacob Mickley, is a resident of the city of Philadelphia. To this gentleman the writer is greatly indebted for much valuable information of this county, as likewise by the use of his valuable library, he has been the means of adding many items of an interesting character to the whole publication. 304 CATASAUQUA. The following letter from Eev. J. H. Dubes, of North. Whitehall, to the writer of these notes, concerning the early churches, &c, of that township, will be found exceedingly interesting. We have in our possession an old church record, which contains the baptisms in the Egypt Church since the year 1733. Whether the congregation existed at a period prior to that date is doubtful, but certainly not impossible. Public services were at first held in the houses of Messrs. George Jacob Kern and Peter Troxel, by the Rev. Henry Goetschi, of Zurich (Switzerland), who was one of the first German Reformed missionaries in America. The first entry into the church record was made on the 22d of March, 1733. At the top of the page is a sentence in Greek, which signifies, "Nothing succeeds without a trial;" and immediately afterwards, a sentence in Latin, which signifies, " All things to the glory of God and the sal- vation of our souls." The first child baptized was John, a son of Peter Troxel and his wife, Julianna Catherine. The sponsors were Nicolas Kern, John Egender, and Margaret Egender. Several children were baptized by Revs. Boehm and Torschius. In the year 1742, a German Reformed church was built, and Rev. John J. Wuert, a native of Switzerland, became the regular pastor. Wuert remained until the year 1744. During the next eight years, there is a hiatus in the MSS. ; but in the year 1752, J. J. Wissler Dillenberger, a native of the Grand Duchy of Nassau, became the Reformed pastor of the congregation ; but he remained only one year. The congregation now became missionary ground, and was supplied alternately by different ministers, until the year 1764, when John Dan'l Gross became the pastor of the Egypt, Jordan, Allentown, and Union congregations. In 1771, Rev. A. Blumer received a call to the charge, in which he labored faithfully till 1801, when he was succeeded by Rev. John Gobrecht. Mr. Gobrecht remained the pastor until 1831, when he was succeeded by my father (Rev. J. S. Dubes), who is still the Reformed pastor. The Egypt is a Union church (German Reformed and Lutheran), but at first it was entirely Reformed. By the foregoing, it appears that the German Reformed congregation was organized at least as early as 1733, but the Lutheran congrega- tion was not organized until fifteen years later, and it still continues the weaker in point of membership. I have mentioned only the Reformed pastors, because I have not the Lutheran records in my possession. The first church was built, as I have said, in 1742. It was a small log building, but the dimensions are no longer known. The seats are said to have been loose planks laid on blocks. The second church was built in the year 1785. It was of stone, 40 by 50 feet. The pulpit was of the old wineglass or tulip style. The seats were long narrow pews. In 1851, a new brick church was built, 50 by 65 feet, with a fine steeple and bell. The cost was about $11,000, but these debts were liquidated as soon as the church was completed. The new church was consecrated on the 11th and 12th of April, 1851. The origin of the names Allemiingel and Egypta, is said to be as follows : The first settlers in Lynn township, in Lehigh, and Albany, in Berks, were very poor. The soil was miserable, and they were literally in want of everything. They therefore called the country " Alle mangel," or "all wants." Our valley was, on the contrary, remarkably fertile, and because ancient Egypt had been the " granary of the world, they called it Egypta, on account of its fancied resemblance, in fer- tility, to the "glorious valley of old Father Nile." & - MB SLATIXGTOX. 305 I think it very doubtful whether Rev. H. Muhlenberg ever preached in the Egypt church. He certainly was never the regular pastor of the congregation. The frequent vacant spaces in the church record are probably owing to the fact that the entire congregation was frequently compelled to fiee from the incursions of the Indians. Laury's, the next station on the Lehigh Valley Eailroad, is two miles above Whitehall, and consists of a cluster of some ten or twelve dwellings, a merchant and grist-mill, a tavern, and a lumber and coal yard. Rockdale, three miles further up the river, consists of some ten dwellings and a tavern. The village is beautifully situated at the head of a pool of water, caused by the dam of the Lehigh Navi- gation Company erected across the river about a mile below the place. The buildings in the village are all entirely new, built in the cottage style ; which, together with the charming scenery sur- rounding it, gives the village an exceedingly romantic appearance. Large quantities of iron ore, mined in the neighborhood, are sent to the different furnaces from this point. SLATINGTON. Slatington, four miles above Rockdale, thirty-three miles above Easton, and two miles below the Lehigh Water Gap, is a beautiful village containing about 450 inhabitants, who are principally Welsh, and are employed in the slate quarries and manufactories of the Lehigh Slate Company. The village is situated on elevated ground on the west side of the river Lehigh, the principal part of it about one-fourth of a mile west of the railroad depot ; there is also a number of houses and a hotel near the depot, which are considered as part of the village. Slatington contains a large number of substantial brick and frame dwellings, two stores, three hotels, a saw-mill, the manu- 21 306 SLATINGTON. factories and quarries of the Slate Company, a school-house, and three churches of the following denominations : Old School Pres- byterian, erected 1851; Welsh Calvinistic Methodist, 1851; Welsh Congregationalists, 1859. The village is supplied with excellent water, which is conveyed to different parts of the place through pipes, from a spring on a neighboring mountain. From its ele- vated position and proximity to the far-famed Lehigh Water Gap, it commands a varied and extensive prospect; its beautiful and healthy location has attracted the attention of a number of strangers, who have located there, and erected several handsome residences. The beautiful mansion of Mr. E. McDowell, the superintendent of the Slate Works, is situated near the centre of the village, and the grounds which surround it are tastefully arranged and ornamented with arbors and parterres of choice flowers. A bridge was erected across the river at this place in 1853, at a cost of near $12,000, from which a splendid view of the " Gap" can be had. (See engraving.) Slatington was laid out by the Lehigh Slate Company in 1851. The storehouse, and a large proportion of the dwelling-houses, were erected by E. McDowell and D. D. Jones, previous to the incorporation of the company. The first* slate developed in the Lehigh valley, was quarried by a company of gentlemen from Baltimore, in 1828, near the slate dam. This place, as well as several others, had been subsequently abandoned ; the slate in quality not meeting the expectations of the owners. A permanent location of slate works was not made before the dis- covery in 1849, of the large bed of excellent slate, now called the Washington quarry, at this place. The various quarries here had been leased only; but in 1851, and succeeding years, considerable tracts of land were purchased, including the Washington quarry. * One of the first slate quarries opened in the State of Pennsylvania, was near the Delaware Water Gap, and was owned by the Pennsylvania Slate Company, which was incorporated in 1811. This company worked the quarries for some time, but for want of skill and knowledge of the business, were obliged to cease operations. Under the auspices of the Hon. James M. Porter, and a few others, the company was revived, and operations renewed, and the affairs of the company again became prosperous. SLATE QUARRIES. 307 The company organized in 1854, and in April of that year, was chartered by act of the Legislature of Pennsylvania, with a capital of $150,000 ; James Kennedy, Esq., was elected President, John Pollock, D. D. Jones, Thomas Craig and A. C. McLean, Directors, Robert McDowell, Esq., Treasurer and Superintendent. Since the period of their organization, in 1854, other or additional purchases of lands have been made ; whereupon beds of slate of an excellent quality are found. These quarries are, without doubt, the largest, and furnish the finest quality of slate in the United States. The company have been very prosperous, having added, since 1854, over a dozen of good and substantial dwelling houses, and at pre- sent own over thirty buildings ; embracing two factories, a large store, &c, also an excellent water-power on the Trout Creek, which empties into the Lehigh River, below the railroad station. The stockholders have for some years received a dividend of nine per cent. The company has just completed a large factory near the mouth of Trout Creek for the purpose of manufacturing enamelled slate mantles, table tops, &c, and for some time have furnished the slate to a large establishment at New York and Philadelphia, for these purposes. The annual product of these quarries is over 10,000 squares of roofing slate, and 2000 cases of school slates, of 10 dozen each case. The mantle business, although prosecuted to a limited extent, amounted to $16,000 the first year, and is constantly increasing. When proper machinery and facili- ties for extending this branch are perfected, the amount must in- crease to an unlimited extent ; for it no doubt is only in its infancy, and we think that the Lehigh Slate Company, with its many facili- ties and excellent quality of slate, has a very bright prospect for the future. The total sales of slate, &c, by this company during one year, amounted to $109,800, and from other sources, the total product of slate in the valley is enhanced to $200,000 annually. D. D. Jones, of Philadelphia, is the President of the Lehigh Slate Company, and Robert McDowell, Superintendent and Treasurer. Both these gentlemen are largely interested, and are indefatigably engaged in attending to the best interests of the Company. 308 SLATINGTON. The early history of the township and neighborhood where Slatington is situated has considerable interest. The township of Heidelberg was first settled about 1730 and was organized in 1752, at the first court held at Easton, on 16th June. One of the first settlers was William Kern, who erected a grist-mill and saw-mill on the Trout Creek, at or near the present village of Slatington ; in 1762, the saw-mill was owned by one of his sons. From the draft of a road laid out in 1761, it is evident that there was a fording place of the Lehigh River; and the great Indian path, called the warrior's path to Wyoming, crossed at this place, as it is so named the "Indian crossing place." In a map of 1755 by Evans, and on another by E. Scull in 1770, the mill of Kern is laid down as "Trucker's mill ;" and Benjamin Franklin, in his reports to Governor Morris, in January, 1756, states that he procured boards for the building of Fort Allen at "Trucker's saw-mill;" and in the Colonial History and Pennsyl- vania Archives, various officers who had been stationed at this place, having under their command a company of troops for the protection of the neighborhood from the aggressions of the Indians, from 1756 to 1764, sometimes date their despatches from " Kern's," and occasionally, also, from "Trucker's." This latter name is nowhere to be found in the assessments of that period. The writer was considerably perplexed to find any explanation of the seeming contradictions. Mr. D. D. Jones, the President of the Lehigh Slate Company, took an interest in endeavoring to solve the question. He has ascertained from several very aged per- sons, descendants of William or John Kern, that the name of "Trucker" was a name given to him in order to distinguish him from others of the same name in the neighborhood. The word " Trockener," in German, signifying, in this appli- cation, a "dry person," "a joker, wit, &c." — being a characteristic of the man — this explanation is no doubt entitled to full credit. Lehigh Water Gap, the next station we arrive at, is two miles north of Slatington, and eleven miles below Mauch Chunk. At the railroad station, there are several dwellings, and a hotel. A chain bridge crosses the Lehigh directly opposite the station, which is located on the southern side of the " Gap Mountain." Here the attention of the traveller, for the first time since leav- ing Easton, is drawn to mountain scenery in all its grandeur. The mountains we have already noticed in passing through the valley, may be considered as only hills in comparison to the Blue Eidge. As we approach the Gap, the view becomes exceedingly grand ; and, as we enter it, it presents, on either hand, a promon- tory of rocks and forest rising very abruptly, apparently to the height of a thousand feet. The Lehigh Water Gap is so named from the river Lehigh, which steals its way through the Kittatinny or Blue Mountains, which is the dividing line between Carbon County and that of Northampton and Lehigh Counties. The LEHIGH WATER GAP. 309 mountain range extends for many miles, both to the right and left, and presents a regular barrier to the broad and extensive Kitta- tinny valley, with its highly cultivated fields and sloping wood- lands. The Gap, prominently walled on both sides, forms a sublime object of admiration, and presents to the observant spec- tator one of the most picturesque prospects in Pennsylvania. At almost every season of the year, the diversified defile is exceed- ingly attractive, and is visited by hundreds of travellers in search of the sublime and beautiful. In ascending the western bank some hundred feet, the scene heightens in grandeur, and the stream — the beautiful, yet curling, rippled waters of the Lehigh Eiver — adds much to make it impressive beyond oblivion. The eastern side is bordered for the distance of a half mile by craggy cliffs, towering to an amazing height, and of forms the most bizarre. Ascending this height, the traveller is amply rewarded for the exertion of climbing from rock to rock, in scaling the pine- covered side of the mountain, by the rich and extensive prospect which the eye then commands. At his feet roll the waters of the majestic Lehigh, the Lehigh Valley Eailroad, " O'er which the trains come thundering, Like an avalanche o'er the quaking earth," and the Lehigh Canal, on which the merry boatman's horn is heard echoing down the valleys and over the hills. On the oppo- site side is a towering ridge, near the summit of which appears, emerging from the surrounding woods, a lonely pile of rocks, whim- sically called "The Devil's Pulpit," which indignantly suffers but a few blasted pines to shade its sullen brow. At a distance, an extensive country, variegated with woods and farms, watered by the meandering Lehigh and its tributaries, and ridge retiring behind ridge till lost in the faint tints of the horizon, all burst upon the sight, and fill the mind with sublime ideas of the great- ness of the Creator. The shattered rocks thrown together in wild confusion, and the strata of rounded stones which are to be met with in passing through the Gap, have given rise to the supposi- tion that the Lehigh, being obstructed by the Blue Mountain, was- 310 SLATINGTON. formerly dammed up into a lake, which, at length bursting its barrier, formed the chasm now called the Lehigh Gap. Professor Silliman thus describes the Lehigh Gap: — " Many mountain scenes engaged our attention, particularly as we approached the gap in the Blue Ridge through which the Lehigh passes. This mountain range stretches for many miles in a straight line to the right and left, presenting a regular barrier, fringed with forest trees and wooded on the entire slope, which was as steep as it could be and sustain the wood upon its sides. The passes of rivers through mountains are almost invariably picturesque, and it is always interesting to observe how faithfully the rivers explore the clefts in mountain barriers, and, impelled by the power of gravity, wind their way through rocky denies, and pursue their untiring course to the ocean. It is common to speak of such passes as being formed by the rivers, which are often supposed to have burst their barriers, and thus to have shaped their own channel. This may have hap- pened in some peculiar cases, and there are doubtless many instances of the lakes — of which many must have been left at the retiring both of the primeval and of the diluvial oceans — having worn or burst away their barriers, especially when com- posed, as they must often have been, of loose material. But with respect to most rocky passes of rivers through mountains, there appears to be no reason whatever to believe that the waters have torn asunder the solid strata ; a more resistless energy must have been requisite for such an effect ; and we must, therefore, con- clude that the rivers have, in most instances, merely flowed on the lowest and least obstructed passages ; their channels they have doubtless deepened and modified, often to an astonishing degree, but they have rarely formed them through solid rocks." A traveller coming into the valley through the Lehigh (rap, thus very correctly describes both its physical and moral aspects. We extract from Day's Historical Collections : — " In passing through the Gap, the broad expansive valley of highly-cultivated fields and sloping woodlands, below the mountains, opens a new world, in striking contrast to the mountainous region above. The beauty and richness of the country, however, is still more increased towards Easton. From Cherryville to that place, it is an elevated plain, with here and there a gentle depression for the small streams that make their way to the Lehigh and Delaware Rivers. As far as the eye can reach, may be seen rich farms, neat stone dwellings, commodious and well-filled barns, and beautiful orchards richly laden with fruit, affording a speci- men of the independence characteristic of the German farmers of Pennsylvania. Indeed, the general appearance of prosperity indicates that the inhabitants are — what they are generally acknowledged to be — as honest, industrious, and frugal a set of people as are to be found in any part of the Union. The German language is very generally spoken among them, though we are informed that English schools are becoming more frequently established and generally patronized, for the educa- tion of the young in the prevailing language of our country. Many of the farmers send their daughters to the Moravian Seminary at Bethlehem, which is so justly celebrated for the acquirement of a good English education." PETITION FOR PROTECTION AGAINST THE INDIANS. 311 The following petition from the inhabitants of Lehigh Town- ship, one hundred years ago — which shows their condition at that time — presents a striking contrast with the above glowing descrip- tion of the same section of country : — Oct. 5, 1757. The petition of the back inhabitants — viz., of the township of Lehi, situate between Allentownship and the Blue Mountains, most humbly sheweth : That the said township, for a few years past, has been, to your knowledge, ruined and destroyed by the murdering Indians. That since the late peace, the said inhabitants returned to their several and respective places of abode, and some of them have rebuilt their houses and out- houses which were burnt. That since the new murders were committed, some of the said inhabitants de- serted their plantations, and fled into the more improved parts of this province, where they remain. That unless your petitioners get assistance from you, your petitioners will be reduced to poverty. That the district in which your petitioners dwell, contains twenty miles in length and eight in breadth, which is too extensive for your petitioners to defend, without you assist with some forces. That your petitioners apprehend it to be necessary for their defence, that a road be cut along the Blue Mountains, through the township aforesaid, and that several guard-houses be built along this said road. That there are many inhabitants in the said township who have neither arms nor ammunition, and who are too poor to provide themselves therewith. That several Indians keep lurking about the Blue Mountains, &c. &c. Craig's, generally called the Lehigh Gap, is a small village, con- sisting of some thirty dwellings, a store, hotel, and boat-yard. The place is situated at the northern base of the Blue Mountain, at the entrance to the Gap. The Aquanshicola Creek empties into the Lehigh at this place. Craig's tavern was celebrated for many years as the dining place for hungry travellers by the stage route from Easton to Mauch Chunk and Berwick. Allentownship was originally settled by immigrants from the North of Ireland, between the years 1728 and 1733. It appears that William Craig and Thomas Craig were the principal settlers, and always took an active part in the welfare of their adopted country. General Thomas Craig — who died in 1832, at the ad- vanced age of 92 years — an active soldier in the revolutionary war, was a son of Thomas Craig. The following tribute to his memory, we copy from the Lehigh Herald:— 312 SLATINGTON. "Viewing Mm as a revolutionary officer who early fought and bled in the de- fence of his country, who was the first officer to protect the Continental Congress in its then important deliberations, who was the first to march to Canada, who was in the battles of Grermantown, Monmouth, Quebec, Brandywine, and many others in North and South Carolina, and considering that we are now reaping the fruits of his services, could not but excite in all the liveliest interest, and wrest from them the mingled tears of gratitude and sorrow. The merits of Gen. Craig early secured to him the office of colonel in the revolutionary army, the duties of which he discharged with fidelity and zeal. Subsequent to the termination of the conflict between England and the American Colonies, he was elected Major-General of the 7th Division P. M., which station he held for several years. In his cha- racter were combined the qualities of a soldier and a gentleman. He was strict in the soldier's discipline, yet courteous and affable in his manners, and easy of approach when the time and occasion approved it. In the hour of danger, he was brave, quick to conceive, and prompt to execute. He possessed an active and in- telligent mind, which faithfully served him to the last. He delighted to speak of his military career, and the triumph of his country's arms, at the time when his country was his idol, and its enemies his bitterest foes. But he speaks no more ! His curtain of life has dropped, and he sleeps in death!" Parryville, the nest place in our route, is five miles above the Gap, and two miles below Weissport. The village is situated on the eastern bank of the Lehigh River, near its junction with the Poco Poco, or Big Creek. The village consists of about thirty dwellings, one tavern, one store, one school-house and church, one grist-mill, one saw-mill, and one anthracite furnace. The furnace was erected in 1855, by Messrs. Bowman, Brothers & Co., and was known as the Poco Poco Iron Works. At the time of its erection, it was 40 feet high, 42 feet square at its base, and 13 feet boshes, and was driven by water power. In 1858, the company was incorporated under the name and style of the Carbon Iron Company, with a capital of $100,000. During the present year, the works have been considerably enlarged and improved, and steam power substituted for water. The furnace has hereto- fore produced upwards of 5000 tons of pig iron per annum, which quantity, in future, is expected to be considerably increased, in consideration of the recent improvements. The hematite ore used by this furnace is mostly mined in the vicinity, from one and a half to six miles distant, along a range called Stony Ridge, north of the Blue Mountain. The business of the place is now, and has heretofore been, done entirely by means of the canal. The com- MURDER OF THE INDIAN ZACHARY. 313 pany have now in contemplation the erection of a railroad and wagon bridge across the Lehigh to connect with the Lehigh Valley Kailroad. This furnace, since its erection, has been remarkably successful under the management of Mr. J. Bowman. The present superintendent is Mr. William Thomas. About a mile below the village is the dam of the Lehigh Navigation Company, and just below this a wire bridge spans the Lehigh, for the convenience of foot passengers ; about two miles west of the bridge is the char- coal iron furnace of Balliet & Bros., which has been doing an extensive business ever since its erection. Between Parryville and the Gap are the extensive paint mines of Breinig & Bros., who manufacture all colors at their extensive establishment in Allentown. At these mines it is said are pro- duced some eleven different colors, from a light ochre to a dark Spanish brown. The colors, for durability and beauty of shade, are pronounced equal to the imported. In our passage from the Gap to Parryville we cross the Lizard creek where it empties into the Lehigh. It is a very rapid creek, and has several mills on it. The creek gives name to a cultivated valley through which it flows. The Indian missionary village Wecliquetank (from a map in Loskiel) is supposed to have been on this creek. When the Pon- tiac's war broke upon the frontier, in 1763, there was much reason for the Brethren at this place to fear a repetition of the dreadful scenes of 1755. In addition to this source of alarm, all of the Moravian villages were objects of antipathy to the Scotch-Irish settlers along the valley, who considered them as convenient lurk- ing places for parties of hostile Indians. Loskiel thus describes the state of feeling at that time in this region : — The whites had killed an Indian, Zachary, and his wife and child, of the Wechquetank settlement, who were found sleeping in a bam away from home. After this event the soldiers became still more suspicious of the Indians at Wech- quetank, naturally supposing that Zachary's four brothers living there would endeavor to avenge his death, and that all the inhabitants would take their part. They therefore prohibited the Indians to hunt, threatening to kill the first they should meet in the forest ; however, Capt. Wetherhold was at last persuaded to desist from this measure by Brother Grabe, the missionary. The most difficult 22 314 LEHIGHTON AND WEISSPORT. task lie had was to pacify a party of Irish freebooters, who in great rage declared that no Indian should dare to show themselves in the woods, or they would be shot dead immediately ; and that if only one white man more should be murdered in this neighborhood, the whole Irish settlement would rise in arms, and kill all the inhabitants of Wechquetank, without waiting for an order from government, or for a warrant from the justice of the peace. The same threatening message was sent to Nain (a missionary village near Bethlehem). The congregation was finally obliged to leave Wechquetank and flee to Nazareth, and soon after to Philadelphia. Wechquetank was afterwards burned by the whites, about the month of November, 1763. LEHIGHTON AND WEISSPORT. The next places we arrive at are Lehighton and Weissport, situated on opposite sides of the river, two miles above Parryville and four miles below Mauch Chunk. Lehighton was laid out some fifty years ago by Col. Jacob "Weiss and William Henry. The groundplot of the town is laid out on the western side of the river, upon an elevated piece of land ; the lots are large, affording an extensive yard and garden to each dwelling. Within a short distance of the village there is a mineral spring, the waters of which have proved beneficial in several cases of disease and debility ; the spring was discovered over a century ago (we shall have occasion to refer to it on a subsequent page). The village at present contains about 400 inhabitants, three hotels, a school-house, three stores, one merchant and grist-mill, and two extensive tanneries. The grounds of the Carbon County Agricul- tural Society are located here; the first fair was held in the fall of 1858 ; the society own some ten acres of ground, which is beauti- fully located. During the past year the necessary exhibition halls and cattle stalls were erected, and a splendid trotting circle one- third of a mile in extent, graded ; the whole is inclosed by a high fence. The officers are John Lentz, President; and W. Kemerer, Secretary. The Mahoning Creek empties into the Lehigh just below the village. THE OLD MORAVIAN GRAVEYARD. 315 The old Moravian graveyard, near the village, is an interesting spot ; from its elevated position an extended view of the beautiful Mahoning valley can be had ; at the foot of the hill upon which the graveyard is located, is the site of old "Gnaden Huetten" and the old Mahoning Church, which, on the evening of the 24th of November, 1755, was attacked by the Indians and burnt, and eleven of the inhabitants murdered (full particulars of which and of the early settlement of Lehighton and "Weissport will be given in the following pages). After the enemy had retired, the remains of those killed at Mahoning were collected from the ashes and ruins, and interred. A marble slab in the old graveyard marks the place. The graveyard, although not kept in very good order, is inclosed with a neat paling fence. Over the entrance is an arch on which is inscribed — Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, from, henceforth. Commenced Aug. 7th, 1748. Renewed Aug. 7th, 1848. The slab which covers the remains of the Moravians has the following inscription : — TO THE MEMORY OF GOTTLIEB AND SUSANNA ANDREAS WITH THEIR CHILD JOHANNA; MARTIN AND SUSANNA NITSHMANN ; LEONHARD GATTERMEYER ; CHRISTIAN FABRICIUS ; CLERK ; GEORGE SCHWEIGERT ; JOHN FREDRICK LESLEY; AND MARTIN PRESSER WHO LIVED AT GNADENHUTTEN UNTO THE LORD AND LOST THEIR LIVES IN A SURPRISE FROM INDIAN WARRIORS NOVEMBER 24TH 1755 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Psalm cxvi. 15. (A. Bovjer, Philadelphia 1788.) 316 LEHIGHTON AND WEISSPORT. A small white marble monument was erected here a few years ago by a private citizen of Bethlehem, upon which is inscribed — TO HONOR AND PERPETUATE THE REMEMBRANCE OF THE MORAVIAN MARTYRS WHOSE ASHES ARE GATHERED AT ITS BASE, THIS MONUMENT IS ERECTED. A branch of the Lehigh Valley Eailroad is proposed to be run from Lehighton through the Mahoning Valley (a distance of fifteen miles) to Tamaqua. When this road is completed it will afford to the citizens of the Schuylkill region another outlet for their coal and manufactures, and a short and direct route through the Lehigh Valley to New York and intermediate places. Weissport is situated on the left or eastern bank of the Lehigh, directly opposite Lehighton; it occupies a broad flat of land, once the site of Fort Allen and New Gnadenhuetten ; it was laid out by Col. Jacob Weiss in 1817. The proprietor, Col. Weiss, was a native of Philadelphia, and during the whole Revolution was in the service of his country. Shortly after the war, he purchased seven hundred acres of land from the Moravians, and in 1785 removed his family to this place. Col. Weiss was an active and enterprising citizen ; his name is intimately associated with all the early efforts to improve this region of country; he died in 1839, and his remains rest in the graveyard near the village. Weissport has about 500 inhabitants, three churches (German Reformed and Lutheran, German Methodist, and English Methodist), a boarding- school, one public school, two stores, two hotels, one carriage fac- tory, one saw-mill, an extensive rolling-mill, two boat-yards, and several limekilns. The village is regularly laid out, and contains a large number of handsome and substantial brick buildings. The Fort Allen Hotel occupies the spot upon which the fort was built by Benjamin Franklin. The well which was constructed by Franklin is still in a good state of preservation. Weissport has been several times inundated; once in 1786, by what was known as "Tippey's Flood," when the family of Mr. EARLY HISTORY. 317 Weiss and several others barely made their escape, so sudden was the rising of the water ; and again in 1841, when the bridge over the Lehigh was partly swept away. The early history of this village and Lehighton we give below: — The first settlement in Carbon County was made by the Mora- vian missionaries, on the Mahoning Creek, near Lehighton, in 1746. The Mohegan Indians, having been driven out of Shekomeko, in the State of Connecticut, and from Patchgatgoch, in New York, near the borders of the latter State, found an asylum for a short time at Friedenshutten, near Bethlehem. Deeming it inconvenient to maintain a large Indian congregation so near Bethlehem, the missionaries purchased two hundred acres on the north side of Mahoning Creek, about half a mile above its junction with the Lehigh. Each Indian family possessed its own lot of ground, and began its separate housekeeping. Grna- denhutten became a very regular and pleasant town. The church stood in the valley, on one side the Indian houses, forming a cre- scent, upon a rising ground. The road to "Wyoming and other Indian towns lay through the settlement." This was the famous path over Nescopeck Mountain, still known as the warrior's path. The missionaries tilled their own grounds, and every Indian family their plantation; and on the 18th of August, 1746, they had the satisfaction to partake of the first fruits of the land at a love feast. Christian Eauch and Martin Mack were the first missionaries who resided here. They were succeeded by other missionaries, who were occasionally removed, the Brethren being of opinion that fre- quent changes of the ministers of the congregation might be useful in preventing too strong an attachment to, and dependence upon men, and fixing the hope of the Indian more upon God alone. Several parts of Scripture had been translated into the Mohegan language. The congregation used morning and evening to sing and pray, and sometimes to hear a discourse upon the text of Scripture appointed for the day. The holy communion was administered to the communicants every month. The Indians called the communion day the " great day" and such indeed it was, for the missionaries could never find 318 LEHIGHTON AND WEISSPORT. words to extol the power and grace of God, revealed on these occasions. In September, 1749, Bishop Johannes von "Watteville went to Gnadenhutten and laid the foundation of a new church, that built in 1746 being too small, and the missionaries being obliged to preach out of doors. The Indian congregation alone consisted of five hundred persons. About this time Eev. David Brainerd, with several of his Indian converts, visited Gnadenhut- ten. The congregation continued in this pleasing and regular state until the year 1754. When the Delawares and Shawanees on the Susquehanna began to waver in their allegiance to the English, and were preparing to take up the hatchet on the side of the French, it became an object of some importance to them to withdraw their Indian brethren in the missionary settlements beyond the reach of the whites, that the hostile savages might more freely descend upon the white settle- ments. The Christian Indians for some time resolutely refused to move to Wyoming. At length, however, a part were seduced by the influence of Teedyuscung (his baptismal name was Gidean). The Mohegans who remained were joined by the Christian Dela- wares, from Menialagemeka. The land on the Mahoning being impoverished, and other cir- cumstances requiring a change, the inhabitants of Gnadenhutten removed to the north side of the Lehigh. The dwellings were removed, and a new chapel was built in 1754. The place was called New Gnadenhutten (it stood where Weissport now is). The dwellings were so placed that the Mohegans lived on one, and the Delawares on the other side of the street. The Brethren at Bethle- hem took the culture of the old land on the Mahoning upon them- selves, made a plantation of it for the use of the Indian congregation, and converted the old chapel into a dwelling, both for the use of those brethren and sisters who had the care of the plantations, and for missionaries passing on their visits to the heathen. The Indians in the French interest were much incensed that any of the Moravian Indians chose to remain at Gnadenhutten, and determined to cut off the settlement. After Braddock's defeat, in INDIAN MASSACRE AT GNADENHUTTEN. 319 1755, the whole frontier was open to the inroads of the savage foe. Every day disclosed new scenes of barbarity committed by the Indians. The whole country was in terror ; the neighbors of the Brethren at Gnadenhutten forsook their dwellings and fled ; but the Brethren made a covenant together to remain undaunted in the place allotted to them by Providence. However, no caution was omitted, and because the white people considered every Indian as an enemy, the Indian Brethren were advised as much as possible to keep out of their way, to buy no powder nor shot, but to strive to maintain themselves without hunting, which they willingly com- plied with. But God had otherwise ordained! On a sudden the mission house at Mahoning was, late in the evening of the 24th of November, attacked by the French Indians, burnt, and eleven of the inhabitants murdered. The following letter, from Timothy Horsefield, Esq., of Bethle- hem, to Governor Morris, describes this murder at Gnadenhutten, near Lehighton: — Bethlehem, November 26, 1755. * * * On Monday, the 24th, I dispatched a messenger to Gnadenhutten with an answer to Martin Mack, that we would prepare a convoy for the Indians, accord- ing to their request. About 8 o'clock, Col. Anderson and his company marched out of Bethlehem for Gnadenhutten, and a number of people from other parts of the country followed them the same day, many of whom we supplied with powder and ball. The 25th, in the morning, about 3 o'clock, I was called up, the mes- senger being returned from Gnadenhutten, with the news Mr. Parsons has informed you of as above. Upon which I sent letters out to alarm the country, and people came from all quarters, in forwarding whom I did all that lay in my power. To- wards night, eight of the white people, and between thirty and forty of the Indians, men, women, and children, who had made their escape in the night (from New Gnadenhutten), arrived here, but could not give us any just account of what had happened, the murders being committed on the other side of the river, near a mile distant. The 26th, Captain Wilson, of Bucks County, with his company of sixty to seventy persons, who quartered here over night, set out this morning towards the mountains, as did several other parties from morning till night. In the eve- ning came Joseph Sturges, George Partch and his wife, the persons who had escaped out of the flames from the fury of the Indians, from whom I received the following account of that most inhuman and shocking affair, viz : " That Monday, the 24th inst., an hour before sunset, George Custard, with two others of the neighbors, came to Mahony (the place the murder was committed at), and informed them that in the evening they might expect a number of armed men to be with them all night. That about 6 o'clock, while they were setting at supper (fourteen in number), they heard the dogs bark very much, and concluding it was the people Custard had informed them of, Joseph Sturges and three more got up to receive 320 LEHIGHTON AND WEISSPORT. them, but on opening the door four guns were immediately discharged in upon them, which killed one of them immediately, and one of the balls grazed on Sturges' chin and set his hair on fire, then four or five more fired, and so a third time, when the Indians immediately rushed in upon them, and killed some of them on the spot ; the rest run into an adjoining room, from whence George Partch escaped through a window, and meeting Senseman, who was coming down to see what was the matter, took him along with him ; but Sturges, with three men, and three women and a child, got up stairs, at the head of which was a trap-door, which they shut down and secured in the best manner they could ; the Indians, after attempting to force it open, and finding they could not, fired in upon them through the ceiling and roof of the house, but without effect, upon which they set fire to the house. Sturges watched his opportunity (as he thought while they were scalping those below), jumped out at the gable-end window, and Partch's wife following him, they both made their escape. Worbas being sick in another house, and seeing all this with an Indian posted as a guard at his door, also made his escape through a window, at the time the Indian went to the rest of his company, who he believes did not exceed twelve. He and Sturges both believed they were Delawares, and that one of them had a French match coat on. Partch's wife being newly come to the place, and not knowing the woods, crept at a small distance and hid herself behind a stump, and saw Fabricius, who jumped out of the window after her, shot and scalped, and otherwise inhumanly abused ; the rest perished in the flames. She saw them likewise set fire to the barns and stables, with forty head of cattle, besides five horses and three colts, and also the rest of the houses (one of which was very large), and after they had taken what they pleased and burned the rest, she saw them go to the spring-house and feast, which was about 12 o'clock at night, and when they had done, they set the spring-house on fire and went their way. The next day Partch and Sturges returned with some armed people, and found Partch's wife, and also found a blanket and a hat, with a knife stuck through them, upon the stump of a tree, which I bave heard is a signal among the Indians, " Thus much we have done, and are able to do more." The number of them that are killed are seven men, three women, and a child. This melancholy event proved the deliverer of the Indian congre- gation at New Gnadenhutten (Weissport), for upon hearing the report of the guns, seeing the flames, and soon learning the dreadful cause from those who had escaped, the Indian Brethren went immediately to the missionary, and offered to attack the enemy without delay. But being advised to the contrary, they all fled into the woods, and New Gnadenhutten was cleared in a few moments, some who were already in bed having scarce time to dress themselves. Brother Zeisberger, who had just arrived in Gnadenhutten from Bethlehem, hastened back to give notice of this event to a body of militia (Hayes' company), who had marched within five miles of the spot; but they did not venture to pursue the enemy in the dark. These troops were stationed at the forsaken village, and INDIAN" DEPREDATIONS. 821 erected a temporary stockade, and were to protect the scattered settlers, and guard the Brethren's mills, which were filled with grain, and the property of the Indians, from being destroyed. The troops, however, unacquainted with Indian manoeuvres, had the misfortune to lose the greater part of their men before they had been long stationed there, for on the new year's day following, the savages had recourse to stratagem, in which they so well suc- ceeded, that a large number of the men were cut off from the pro- tection of the fort and murdered. These soldiers had been amusing themselves with skating on the ice, the river being frozen over ; when at some distance higher up, where the river made a bend, they espied two Indians, apparently amusing themselves in the same manner. Believing these already in their power, they pursued them, when, on a sudden, a party that lay in ambush, ready to fall upon them, rushed forth from their hiding place and put them to death; the few who remained thought they were unable to defend themselves in the fort and took flight, whereupon the savages, after seizing upon as much property as they could carry off, set fire to the fort, to the houses of the In- dians, and to the Brethren's mills, which was a great loss to the Brethren as well as the Christian Indians. The Governor, in the beginning of January, 1756, deputed Ben- jamin Franklin to superintend the erection of forts, one of which was erected where Weissport now is. The following letter from him will give a full description of his proceedings : — While the several companies in the city and country were forming and learning their exercise, the Governor prevailed with me to take charge of our northwestern frontier, which was infested by the enemy, and provide for the defence of the inhabitants by raising troops and building a line of forts. I undertook this mili- tary business, though I did not conceive myself well qualified for it. He gave me a commission with full powers, and a parcel of blank commissions for officers, to be given to whom I thought fit. I had but little difficulty in raising men, having soon five hundred and sixty under my command. My son, who had in the preceding war been an officer in the army against Canada, was my aid-de- camp, and of great use to me. The Indians had burnt Gmadenhutten, a village settled by the Moravians, and massacred the inhabitants ; but the place was thought a good situation for one of the forts. In order to march thither, I assem- bled the companies at Bethlehem, the chief establishment of those people. I was 322 LEHIGHTON AND WEISSPORT. surprised to find it in so good a posture of defence ; the destruction of Gnadenhut- ten had made them apprehend danger. The principal buildings were defended by a stockade ; they had purchased a quantity of arms and ammunition from New York, and had even placed a quantity of small paving-stone between the windows of their high stone-houses, for their women to throw them down upon the heads of any Indians that should attempt to force into them ; the armed Brethren too kept watch, and relieved each other on guard as methodically as in any garrison town. In conversation with the Bishop, Spangenberg, I mentioned my surprise ; for knowing they had obtained an act of Parliament, exempting them from mili- tary duties in the Colonies, I supposed they were conscientiously scrupulous of bearing arms. He answered me, " That it was not one of their established prin- ciples, but at the time of their obtaining that act, it was thought to be a principle with many of their people. On this occasion, however, they, to their surprise, found it adopted by but few." It seems they were either deceived in themselves, or deceived the Parliament ; but common sense, aided by present danger, will sometimes be too strong for whimsical opinions. It was the beginning of January, 1756, when we set out on this business of building forts. I sent one detachment towards the Minisink, with instructions to erect one for the security of the upper part of the county ; and another to the lower part with similar instructions, and I concluded to go myself with the rest of my force to Gnadenhutten, where a fort was thought more immediately necessary. The Moravians procured us five wagons for our tools, stores, baggage, &c. &c. Just before we left Bethlehem, eleven farmers, who had been driven from their planta- tions by the Indians, came to me requesting a supply of firearms, that they might go back and bring off their cattle. I gave them each a gun, with suitable ammu- nition. We had not gone many miles before it began to rain, and it continued raining all the day. There were no habitations on the road to shelter us, till we arrived near night at the house of a German, where, and in his barn, we were all huddled together as wet as water could make us. It was well we were not attacked in our march, for our arms were of the most ordinary sort, and our men could -not keep the locks of their guns dry. The Indians are dextrous in contrivances for that purpose, which we had not. They met that day the eleven poor farmers above mentioned, and killed ten of them ; the one that escaped informed us that his and his companions' guns would not go off, the priming being wet with the rain. The next day being fair we continued our march, and arrived at the deso- late Gnadenhutten ; there was a mill near, around which were left several pine boards, with which we soon hutted ourselves ; an operation the more necessary at that inclement season, as we had no tents. Our first work was to bury more effectually the dead we found there, who had been half interred by the country people. The next morning our fort was planned and marked out, the circumference measuring four hundred and fifty feet, which would require as many palisades to be made, one with another, of a foot diameter each. Each pine made three palisades of eighteen feet long, pointed at one end. When they were up our carpenters built a platform of boards all around within, for the men to stand on when to fire through the loop-holes. We had one swivel- gun which we mounted on one of the angles, and fired it as soon as fixed, to let the Indians know, if any were within hearing, that we had such pieces ; and thus our fort (if such a name can be given to so miserable a stockade) was finished in a week, though it rained so hard every other day that the men could not well work. CAPTIVITY OF THE GILBERT FAMILY. 323 This kind of fort, however contemptible, is a sufficient defence against Indians who had no cannon. Finding ourselves now posted securely, and having a place to retreat to on occasion, we ventured out in parties to scour the adjacent country. We met with no Indians, but we found the places on the neighboring hills where they had lain to watch our proceedings. There was an art in the contrivance of those places, that seems worth mentioning. It being winter, a fire was necessary for them ; but a common fire on the sur- face of the ground would, by its light, have discovered their position at a distance. They had, therefore, dug holes in the ground, about three feet in diameter, and somewhat deeper ; we found where they had with their hatchets cut off the char- coal from the sides of burnt logs lying in the woods ; with these coals they had made small fires in the bottoms of the holes, and we observed among the weeds and grass the prints of their bodies, made by their laying all round, with their legs hanging down in the holes to keep their feet warm, which, with them, is an essen- tial point. This kind of fire, so managed, could not discover them, either by its light, flame, sparks, or even smoke. It appeared that the number was not great, and it seems they saw we were too many to be attacked by them with prospect of advantage. We had for our chaplain a zealous Presbyterian minister, Mr. Beatty, who com- plained to me that the men did not generally attend his prayers and exhortations. When they enlisted, they were promised, besides their pay and provisions, a gill of rum a day, which was punctually served out to them, half in the morning and half in the evening ; and I observed they were punctual in attending to receive it, upon which I said to Mr. Beatty, "It is, perhaps, below the dignity of your pro- fession to act as steward of the rum ; but if you were to distribute only just after prayers, you would have them all about you." He liked the thought, undertook the task with the help of a few hands to deal out the liquor, executed it to satis- faction, and never were prayers more generally and punctually attended. So I think this method preferable to the punishment inflicted by some military laws for non- attendance on divine service. The following narrative of the captivity of the Gilbert family, who resided near Lehighton, is abridged from a communication in Atkinson's Casket for 1835. • (From Day's Historical Collections.) Benjamin Gilbert, a Quaker, from Byberry, near Philadelphia, in 1775, removed with his family to a farm on Mahoning Creek, about five miles from Weissport (then called Fort Allen). His second wife was a widow Peart. He was soon com- fortably situated, with a good log dwelling-house, barn, saw and grist-mill. For five years this peaceable family went on industriously and prosperously ; but on the 25th of April, 1780, the very year after Sullivan's expedition, they were sur- prised about sunrise by a party of eleven Indians, who took them all prisoners. At the Gilbert farm they made captives of Benjamin Gilbert, Sr., aged sixty-nine years ; his son, forty-one years ; Jesse Gilbert, another son, nineteen ; Sarah Gil- bert, wife to Jesse, nineteen ; Rebecca Gilbert, a daughter, sixteen ; Abner Gilbert, a son, fourteen ; Elizabeth Gilbert, a daughter, twelve ; Thomas Peart, son to Ben- jamin Gilbert's wife, twenty-three ; Benjamin Gilbert, a son of John Gilbert, of Philadelphia, eleven years. Andrew Herriger, of German descent, a hireling of Benjamin Gilbert's, and Abigail Dodson, sixteen years, a daughter of Samuel Dod- 324 LEHIGHTON AND WEISSPORT. son, who lived on a farm about half a mile from Gilbert's mill, and to which she had come in the morning to make inquiry about some flour. The Indians then proceeded about half a mile to Benjamin Peart's dwelling, and there captured himself, aged twenty-seven; Elizabeth, his wife, twenty; and their child, nine months old. The whole number of captives were fifteen. The last look the poor captives had of their once comfortable home, was to see the flames and falling in of the roofs, from Summer Hill. The Indians led their captives on a toilsome road over Mauch Chunk and Broad Mountains, along the Warrior's Path, across Quakake Creek and Moravian Pine Swamp (by the present Lowrytown), where they lodged the first night. On the way they had prepared moccasins for some of the children. Indians generally secure their prisoners by cutting down a sapling as large as a man's thigh, and therein cut notches in which they fix their legs, and over this they place a pole, crossing it with stakes drove in the ground, and on the crotches of the stakes they place other poles or riders, effectually confining the prisoners on their backs, and besides this they put a strap round their necks, which they fasten to a tree. In this manner the night passed with the Gilbert family. Their beds were hemlock branches strewed on the ground, and blankets for a covering. Andreo Montour (an Indian) was the leader of the party. The Montour family had always been firm adherents to the British, and were employed by the Governors of Pennsylvania already in 1742 as interpreters at the treaty at Philadelphia, and frequently car- ried messages to the Indians from the Governors. In 1742, the Moravian, Count Zinzendorf, of Ostenwacken (near Williamsport, on the west branch of Susque- hanna), met with Mrs. Montour, who, he says, was a French woman that had married an Indian chief. The forlorn band was dragged on over the wild and rugged region between the Lehigh and the Chemung branch of the Susquehanna. They were often ready to faint by the way ; but the cruel threat of immediate death urged them again to the march. The old man, Benjamin Gilbert, indeed, had begun to fail, and had been painted black — a fatal omen among the Indians ; but when his cruel captors had put a rope around his neck, and appeared about to kill him, the intercessions of his wife softened their hearts, and he was saved. Subsequently, in Canada, the old man, conversing with the chief, observed that he might say what none of the other Indians could, " That he had brought in the oldest man, and the youngest child." The chief's reply was impressive : " It was not I, but the great God, who brought you through, for we were determined to kill you, but were prevented." " On the 54th day of their captivity, the Gilbert family had to encounter the fearful ordeal of the gauntlet. The prisoners," says the author of the narrative, " were released from the heavy loads they had heretofore been compelled to carry, and were it not for the treatment they expected on their approaching the Indian towns, and the hardship of separation, their situation would have been tolerable ; but the horror of their minds, arising from the dreadful yells of the Indians as they approached the hamlets, is easier conceived than described — for they were no strangers to the cruelty exercised upon the captives on entering their towns. The Indians — men, women, and children — collect together, bringing clubs and stones in order to beat them, which they usually do with great severity, by way of revenge for their relations, who have been slain. This is performed immediately upon their entering their village where the warriors reside, and cannot be avoided ; the blows, however cruel, must be borne without complaint. The prisoners are sorely beaten until their enemies are weary with the cruel sport. Their sufferings CAPTIVITY OF THE GILBERT FAMILY. 825 were in this case very great ; they received several wounds, and two of the women, who were on horseback, were much bruised by falling from their horses, which were frightened by the Indians. Elizabeth, the mother, took shelter by the side of one of them (a warrior) ; but upon his observing that she met with some favor upon his account, he sent her away ; she then received several violent blows, so that she was almost disabled. The blood trickled from their heads in a stream, their hair being cropt close, and the clothes they had on in rags, made their situation truly piteous. Whilst the Indians were inflicting this revenge upon the captives, the chief came and put a stop to any further cruelty by telling them ' It was sufficient,' which they immediately attended to." Soon after this a severer trial awaited them. They were separated from each other. Some were given over to Indians to be adopted, others were hired out by their Indian owners to service in white families, and others were sent down the lake to Montreal. Among the latter was the old patriarch, Benjamin Gilbert. But the old man, accustomed to the comforts of civilized life, broken in body and mind from such unexpected calamities, sunk under the complication of woe and hard- ship. His remains repose at the foot of an oak, near the old fort of Cceur du Lac, on the St. Lawrence, below Ogdensburg. Some of the family met with kind treat- ment from the hands of British officers, at Montreal, who were interested in their story, and exerted themselves to release them from captivity. Sarah Gil- bert, the wife of Jesse, becoming a mother, Elizabeth left the service she was engaged in — Jesse having taken a house, that she might give her daughter every necessary attendance. In order to make their situation as comfortable as possible, they took a child to nurse, which added a little to their income. After this, Elizabeth Gilbert hired herself to iron a day for Adam Scott. While she was at her work, a little girl belonging to the house acquainted her that there were some who wanted to see her, and upon entering the room she found six of her children. The joy and surprise she felt on this occasion, were beyond what we shall attempt to describe. A messenger was sent to inform Jesse and his wife, that Joseph Gil- bert, Benjamin Peart and his wife and their young child, and Abner and Elizabeth Gilbert the younger, were with their mother. Among the customs, or indeed common laws of the Indian tribes, one of the most remarkable and interesting was adoption of prisoners. This right belonged more particularly to the females than to the warriors, and well was it for the prisoners that the election depended rather upon the voice of the mother than on that of the father, as innumerable lives were thus spared whom the warriors would have immolated. When once adopted, if the captives assumed a cheerful aspect, entered into their modes of life, learned their language, and, in brief, acted as if they actually felt themselves adopted, all hardship was removed, not incident to Indian modes of life. But, if this change of relation operated as amelioration of condition in the life of the prisoner, it rendered ransom extremely difficult in all cases, and in some instances precluded it altogother. These difficulties were ex- emplified in a striking manner in the person of Elizabeth Gilbert, the younger. This girl, only twelve years of age when captured, was adopted by an Indian family; but afterwards permitted to reside in a white family, of the name of Secord, by whom she was treated as a child indeed, and to whom she became so much attached as to call Mrs. Secord by the endearing title of mamma. Her resi- dence, however, in a white family was a favor granted to the Secords by the Indian parents of Elizabeth, who regarded and claimed her as their child. Mr. Secord, having business at Niagara, took Betsy, as she was called, with him ; and there, after long separation, she had the happiness to meet with six of her relations, most 326 LEHIGHTON AND WEISSPORT. of whom had been already released and were preparing to set out for Montreal, lingering and yearning for those they seemed destined to leave behind, perhaps forever. The sight of their beloved little sister roused every energy to effect her release, which desire was generously seconded by John Secord and Col. Butler, who, soon after her visit to Niagara, sent for the Indian who claimed Elizabeth, and made overtures for her ransom. At first he declared, " He would not sell his own flesh and blood;" but attacked through his interest, or, in other words, his necessities, the negotiation succeeded ; and, as we have already seen, her youngest child was among the treasures first restored to the mother at Montreal. Eventu- ally they were all redeemed, and collected at Montreal on the 22d August, 1782 ; when they took leave of their kind friends there, and returned to Byberry, near Philadelphia, after a captivity of two years and five months. The premises where stood the dwelling and improvements of the Gilbert family, were in 1833 occupied by Septimus Hough, but now (1859) are owned and occupied by Michael Garber, and there is now there erected a valuable grist and saw-mill, and brick dwellings, and is one of the most valuable properties in Mahony valley, in Carbon County. There is mention made of the capture, but not the release of Abigail Dodson, in the above narrative. Judge Isaac T. Dodson, of Mauch Chunk, relates of his aunt Abigail, that she did not return home before the expiration of five years. Without any notice being given to the parents, she one day appeared in her father's house, dressed in scarlet cloth, like an Indian of high rank, and, intending to await her mother's recognition, she was silent for some time ; and upon her mother's asking what her desire was, the word mother ! uttered by her with a heart full of love, disclosed all, and they rushed towards each other with feelings not to be described, and were locked in an embrace ardent and long. Joy unspeakable was in that family — the lost was found. She related that she had received from the Indian family, where she had been, every possible kindness ; the dress she appeared in was of costly texture, and was given to her by the chief when she left his family, as a distinctive mark of affection. Miss Dodson, was a young lady of intelligence, and previous to her captivity, had for some years been a pupil at Bethlehem school. *The settlements made in Mahony valley before the Revolutionary War were ex- clusively English, or of English descent. The Custards, Dodsons, Pearts, Johns, Thomas's, Gilberts, and other early settlers there are found in history. One of the neighbors of the Moravians, named Custard, came to Gnadenhutten on the evening of the murders committed on 25th November, 1755, and not more than two hours before the murder took place, to inform the missionaries of their danger, and also that succor was near at hand. It is doubtful whether any English families lived in Towamensing, other than those in this valley, before the Revolution. After the war nearly all of these English people removed to the Susquehanna, where it was said the soil was more productive, and where they found more congeniality in habits existing in the neighborhood, as well as more intelligence. It is well known that the Indians never forgive an injury done to them ; revenge, if it be possible, will be sure to be taken although it be ten, yea, twenty and more years subsequent to the act, therefore, we can readily account for the abduction of the Gilbert family. The Montours (Indians) had been (both father and son) Government officials, who being aware that the Quakers had always been opposers to the Penn family, by whose bounty they, the Montours, for so many years had been upheld in the hon- orable relation as ambassadors, interpreters at treaties, &c.,the Revolution occurring, diminishing their distinctions, of course, led them to commit this act. More of CARBON COUNTY. 327 the Indian murders can be traced to revenge for private wrong done to them as individuals, than to public injuries. The next place we arrive at, after leaving Lehighton and Weiss- port, is Mauch Chunk, the seat of justice for Carbon County. Before describing this place we will give a slight sketch of the county. CARBON COUNTY. Carbon County was taken from Northampton and Monroe, by the act of 1843. All of the townships forming the county were taken from Northampton, with the exception of Penn Forest, which was taken from Monroe. The length of the county is twenty miles, breadth nineteen miles — area three hundred and ninety square miles. The county comprises the very mountainous region on the Lehigh Eiver, above the Kittatinny or Blue Moun- tains, a region rugged and wild in appearance, and poorly adapted to agricultural purposes ; but abounding iu mineral wealth, in ex- tensive forests of pine lumber, and water power. The Lehigh Eiver divides the county into two nearly equal parts. Above the Blue Mountain, and running nearly parallel with it in a southwestern and northeastern direction, are Mahoning Mountain, Pokono, Pohokopo, Mauch Chunk, Broad, Spring, and Sharp Mountains, Bald Bidge and Pine Hill. Several of these mountains rise from eight hundred to twelve hundred feet above the Lehigh Eiver. Anthracite coal is found in great abundance in most of the above elevations. At the time of the erection of Northampton County (1752), this part of it was known as Towamensing, which is an Indian word, meaning "wilderness." Col. Burd, who crossed the Blue Mountain in 1758, on his way to Fort Allen says: "When I arrived on the top of the mountain, I could see a great distance on both sides of it ; the northern part of the country is an entire barren wilderness, not capable of improvement." 328 CARBON COUNTY. The first settlement in Carbon County was by the Moravian Missionaries, in the year 1746, at Gnadenhutten, the details of which have been given in a preceding page. "We find in the as&es- ment lists of 1762, the names of but thirty-three persons in the whole of this township. In 1782, the number had increased to forty-five taxables, most of whom were farmers, others having saw- mills. The valuation of all the property, real and personal, in Towamensing in 1762, was £187, near $500. The amount of taxes collected fluctuated very much in consequence of the Indian wars. In 1754 the amount was £8 9s lOd; in 1761, £4 3s; and in 1764 only seventeen shillings and nine pence. It is stated that the collector, Gottfried Greenzweig, received an order on the county treasurer for his fees of two pence. We find in the commissioners' books of 1779, dated July 11th, "seven townships, all lying north of the Blue Mountain, are ordered not to pay any taxes, by reason of the calamity and grievances of the enemy." The inhabitants of this wilderness were, from the commencement of the Indian wars in 1755 to the close of the Eevolution, in a very unsettled state. The Indians hovered around these borderers until 1782, frequently committing outrages upon the whites of the most horrible description. The massacre at Gnadenhutten, the narrative of the Gilbert family's captivity, &c. &c, we have already giveD. The first public road made in Carbon County was most probably the one asked for in the following petition from the Moravians in 1748, two years after the commencement of Gnadenhutten. " To the Honorable the Justices of Bucks County at Newton — Showeth : That your petitioners, and many of their friends and acquaintances, living in these parts, and many of the inhabitants of this and the neighboring Province, have frequent occasion of going beyond the Blue Mountains to Mahoning Creek, and to the heal- ing waters lying not far from them, on which account a good wagon road, from the King's road near Bethlehem, to the said creek, and to those waters, will be abso- lutely necessary, as many people have received much benefit by the said waters, and there is, and will be, a frequent intercourse between these settlements and those upon and about the Mahoning Creek. " Therefore, your petitioners humbly desire this Honorable Court will order that a road may be laid out accordingly, and that persons may be appointed for that purpose, and your petitioners will thankfully acknowledge the same." The healing waters mentioned in the above petition, was a min- PAST AND PRESENT APPEARANCES CONTRASTED. 329 eral spring at the Mahoning Hill, about one mile south of Lehigh- ton, and to which we have already alluded. Previous to the opening of the coal mines, and the commence- ment of the improvements by the Lehigh Navigation Company, the county made but slow progress in manufactures and agricul- ture. But since then — how great the change ! At that time a con- tinuous forest overspread nearly the whole landscape, adorning moun- tains with its verdure, darkening valleys with its deep shadows, and bending solemnly over the margins of the creeks and the noble Lehigh ; the forests were then filled with a variety of wild animals r some of them beasts of prey, others suitable for food, and others valuable for their furs. Bat a few years earlier the entire county was in possession of a few barbarous tribes of a race, which is steadily fading from existence, their language totally unlike any European tongue, their government rude, their religion, a singular system of Paganism without idolatry, their character ferocious, yet not undistinguished by virtues, and their mode of life precarious-' and unsettled, dependent almost wholly upon fishing and the chase. Now, in place of these, we have beautiful towns and villages spring- ing up in every part of the county and peopled by an enterprising and intelligent community. The tracks of wild beasts could then be found where now extend the solid pavements, trodden by thou- sands of human feet; the shrill screams of the wild-cat and panther were then heard where now resound the busy hum of machinery and the sweet melody of sacred music. Then the solitary foot path, winding through the forest, along which the wild beast and the wild man alike travelled in single file, answered every purpose; a little later, and a single wagon- road is petitioned for; now, the railway and canal are extended to all parts of the county, new treasures are daily opened to the astonishment of the world, and millions of tons of the products of this county are carried to all parts of the Union, to enliven and to make both rich and poor comfortable and happy. Land then worth but a few cents per acre cannot now be bought for thousands. And to whom or what can these great changes be 23 330 CARBON COUNTY. attributed? The answer is, the discovery of coal, and the indomi- table perseverance of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, who through the most trying circumstances and difficulties con- structed their canal to give an outlet not only to the riches of the coal mines, but also to the excellent timber with which Carbon and Luzerne Counties abounded. Since that time the number of farms has also greatly increased. We append the following statis- tics, taken from the census of 1850 ; since then, however, the number of farms and their products have greatly increased, as well as the number of inhabitants, churches, schools, &c. &c. &c. : — Cash value of farms $488,200 Bushels of oats $20,952 Improved land 14,439 a " wheat 7,325 Unimproved land . 23,578 u " buckwheat 10,511 Bushels of rye 23,568 a " potatoes 20,768 " " corn 21,852 The population of the county in 1850 was 15,656, number of families 2,650, with twenty churches and fifty-three schools, which were attended by 2,200 pupils. The above figures, at the present time, may be nearly doubled. The lower end of the tract of land, formerly called by the suffer- ing fugitives from Wyoming, "The Great Swamp," or "Shades of Death," is in this county. It is a vast body of rather wet land, formerly covered with a dense forest of pine, on both sides of the Biver Lehigh, extending from its source downwards some twenty miles. The lumber on this tract has furnished a vast amount of freight for the Lehigh Navigation Company's canal. The sturdy Dutch settlers that vegetated on the borders of this lonely region were not gifted with the curiosity of New Englanders ; the Shades of Death had rarely echoed the sound of an axe or the voices of the cheerful laborer. The sole disturber of its recesses, with, per- haps, a single exception, was an occasional traveller who ventured to pass through them in quest of a more hospitable country. The exception we have mentioned was a recluse who had selected this place as a residence, and who was generally known as the " Hermit of the Shades of Death," and sometimes called "The Blue Moun- THE BLUE MOUNTAIN HERMIT. 331 tain Hermit." Mrs. Ellet, the distinguished authoress, has made the hermit the hero of one of her charming stories * It will, perhaps, not be uninteresting to the reader to give a slight sketch of the hermit, and the causes which induced him to seek "a lodge in some vast wilderness;" we will do so in the words of the traveller, who visited that region many years ago: — I left Chambersburg many years ago, on an excursion througb the wilds of Pennsylvania, on horseback. I arrived at the Shades of Death. I was ever a lover of nature in her wildest moods. It was with no slight feeling of enjoyment that I treaded these dreary woods, struggling along over many obstacles. The day had been beautiful ; but as night drew on, a dreadful tempest broke over me. The violent rain soon swelled the choked stream, and every step I sank midway in the mire. The hour was late. I toiled on, and as near as I could tell was at least twelve miles from any dwelling. I toiled on with my faithful horse for another hour, when I was about to despair of ever getting out of the mire ; when, to my utter surprise, I caught the sound of a human voice : " This way, stranger ; this way." I saw a faint gleam of light ; it seemed miles distant ; but ere many seconds had elapsed, a pine-knot blazed out close at hand. " This way," the voice repeated ; " follow me ; you had better lead your horse." The light flared on the tall figure of the man who carried it ; but I could not see the habitation to which he was leading me. At last he stopped before a lodge, or rather an artificial cave constructed in the side of the hill. The roof was supported by stakes, and clum- sily covered with earth. The interior, however, which I had leisure to survey, while the stranger took my horse, had more of comfort than I expected. A bright fire of pine fagots threw light upon the narrow walls. One side was furnished with shelves, on which books were piled with much disorder. The oaken table was covered with books and papers, and a small lamp was burning upon it. A chest, a few wooden chairs, and a bench, completed the list of furniture. It looked strangely to see such a collection of books in the midst of such solitude. To my surprise, upon examination, I found them to be a large collection of the classics, and of the older British poets and prose authors. I had scarcely finished my survey when the stranger entered, and promised if I would stay for the rest of the night to direct me on my way as early as I might wish on the morrow. I need not say how willingly I accepted his proffered hospitality. He forthwith set about preparations for our evening meal. The dingy cupboard was resorted to, and yielded from its recesses better cheer than I expected. A loaf of bread, and the remains of a saddle of venison, flanked by a bottle of prime brandy and an earthen jug of water. My host was extremely prepossessing in appearance, though he looked like one in ill-health. He conversed freely, but responded not in the jovial tone I assumed. Any attempt to draw from him the cause of his seclusion was answered by a brief negative, and the cloud that came over his face, warned me that my curiosity was displeasing, and not likely to be gratified. I had a good night's rest upon the couch of straw and skins, and awoke in the morning much refreshed. I was prepared to accept an invitation to share his solitude a few days longer, but as such an invitation was not extended, I had nothing better to do * The story was published in "The Gift for 1841." 332 CARBON COUNTY. than to take my leave, having previously arranged to take my breakfast at a village some miles distant. So, after thanking him for his kindness, and receiving his instructions as to my road, I parted from him. On my road I noticed a short distance from his a cave a small clearing, in the midst of which stood a rude and evidently deserted hut ; which increased my curiosity still more. After a brisk ride of three hours I arrived at a settlement and alighted at the door of a tavern. While discussing a hot breakfast of venison steaks and coffee, I could not refrain from relating my adventure of the night, and asking if atight was known of the solitary stranger. "Oh, my dear young sir!" cried the landlady, "have yon never heard of our Blue Mountain Hermit ?" and quietly refilling my cup of coffee, she commenced a story, which, omitting her somewhat tedious recapitulations, I will repeat as briefly as possible. The hut I had observed not far from the cave, was once inhabited by an old man and his daughter; it was generally understood that he had been a soldier of no mean repute in the war of the American Revolution, and the Indian war that followed. Rewarded by his country like too many others, with poverty and neglect, he had withdrawn from the world to this lonely spot. His leisure hours were devoted to the instruction of his daughter, who grew up most lovely in person, and in mind all that a fond parent could wish. It chanced that an officer of Macpherson's troop of Jersey Blues, who were dispatched to attack the rioters at the time of the western or whisky insurrection in this State, fell from his horse while passing this place and was severely injured. He swooned from the loss of blood. On his recovery he found himself on a bed in the cottage. He could scarcely credit his senses, when he saw a beautiful face, animated by an expres- sion of pity and sympathy, bending over him. An old man came in from the spring with water, and dressed the sufferer's wounds with much skill ; the young girl prepared and administered a composing draught. The stranger owed his life to the care of the father and daughter. He slowly recovered ; and it was with a perpetual astonishment that he discovered every day some new charm in his youthful nurse. A girl of superior education in the heart of such a forest ! Was it surprising that he became deeply enamored of her? It would have been strange if she had not returned his passion, for he was in the prime of life, handsome, pleasing in address, and a soldier. Weeks passed, and the stranger could no longer even feign illness as an excuse for lingering. He said not a word of his intended departure, but it was a matter of course. He and his kind entertainer had a long conversation the evening before his departure ; but it concerned the state of the country, in which the old man felt a deep interest. Alice — that was the maiden's name, joined not in their discourse, and it was only by chance, while busied about her work, that the officer discovered she was weeping bitterly. He arose betimes and went forth next morning. On the brow of the hill above the cottage was a rock covered with thick green moss, and shaded by tall pines. The officer saw Alice go up to this rock ; he followed her. He was startled to see how pale and sad she looked ; but he endeavored to speak cheerfully of his de- parture, and asked what he should send her from the city. " Nothing can please me when you are gone," sobbed the poor girl, and with a passionate burst of tears she threw herself upon the ground and buried her face in her hands. The stranger felt as if his heart was torn in twain. He had won the love of a fair young creature, whom he could never make happy, for he was already mar- ried. What return for the kind hospitality of his kind host ! He dashed his hand THE BLUE MOUNTAIN HERMIT. 333 against his forehead in self-reproach. The truth must be told to the beautiful girl before him. He knelt at her feet and told in wild and broken words of his deep love — of his despair ; then, starting up, rushed away without daring to look upon her again. " You would have wept," said the landlady, wiping her eyes with a corner of her apron, " to see the poor young creature deserted, and fading like a blighted flower." She was always delicate as a fairy, with bright blue eyes, and cheeks as fair as the white rose. She soon ceased to interest herself in the affairs of the house, but would sit for hours listless at tbe door, or wander away through the woods by herself. Poor Alice was drowned in the stream one night, that she had gone out without her father's knowledge. The old man kept his wo to himself, and refused to accept the bounty of his neighbors. His chief pleasure was to visit her grave, which they dug, at his request, at the top of the hill. It was but a few months after her death that a stranger passed through the valley on horseback. He was earnest in his inquiries after the old man and his daughter. It was the Philadelphia officer whose life they had saved ; he was dressed in deep mourning, and had widower's weeds on his hat. Who can de- scribe his emotions when he found, instead of the lovely young bride he came to seek, her freshly sodded grave ? Her father — grief had reduced him to a state of idiocy. He was no longer able to provide himself with daily bread. The stranger built himself a rude cell and dwelt there alone, providing secretly for the wants of the bereaved father, who, in his mental imbecility, never thought of asking whence came the plentiful provisions ; or who hired the servant that waited on him. "It is two years," continued the old lady, "since the old man died." A large number of country people attended his funeral. A stranger dressed in black of fashionable appearance mingled among them ; few recognized in this well-dressed stranger the recluse who lived so long in the forest. Such was the landlady's story. A love-tale so romantic might have suited the ruins of some feudal castle under Italian skies. Its tragedy has been enacted in the depth of an American forest ! Surely the passion is well named universal ! " Some years after, in passing through the valley, I felt curious to learn what had become of the recluse of the Shades of Death. None could give me informa- tion. He had left the scene of his sorrows and his repentance. A neat church has been erected by the honest and thriving settlers, upon the very spot where the hermitage stood. I learned that it was a favorite custom with the country maidens to go and strew with flowers the grave of the unfortunate Alice." MAUCH CHUNK. 1 Mauch Chunk, the seat of justice of Carbon County, was incor- porated as a borough in 1850. The town is situated on the right bank of the river Lehigh, four miles above Lehighton. It is forty- six miles by railroad, and forty-six by canal from Easton, one hundred and twenty-one miles by railroad, and one hundred and fifty-two by canal from New York, and eighty-nine miles by rail- road and one hundred and twenty-seven by canal from Philadelphia. The town occupies a small area at the confluence of the Mauch Chunk Creek and the Lehigh, and is nearly encircled by a chain of mountains, some of which attain an elevation of over a thousand feet. The face of these mountains, although covered with frag- ments of rocks, and displaying in many places huge precipices of great extent, is scattered over with trees and shrubs, which, in the summer season, spread their green canopy before the eye, obscur- ing the rough surface of the mountain, and forming a pleasing contrast with the white cluster of buildings which lie buried be- neath its shade. Previous to the year 1818 the spot where the town now stands was a perfect wilderness, covered with forest 1 It is worthy of remark that the name of this place is very frequently spoken incorrectly by those who are not familiarly acquainted with its true pronunciation. Indeed, there is a very great variety in the manner of pronouncing it, especially by those living at a distance from the place ; and some who have only seen it written or printed, are even at a loss how to pronounce it at all. Among the amusing variety of ways in which it is spoken by persons at a distance, may be noticed the following: Maush Chunk, Mawtch Chunk, Mutch Chunk, and sometimes Mush Chunk, Mut Chunk, Mo Chunk, Mug Chunk, and Mud Chunk, and not unfre- quently Mud Junk. In various parts of the adjacent country, it is not uncommon to hear people when talking of going to the place, for the sake of brevity speak of going to Chunk, or down to the Chunk. For the information of those of our distant readers who do not know the correct pronunciation, we will state that it originated from the Indian word " Machk-tschunk," which signifies Bear's Mountain, and seems to be settled by established usage that it should be pronounced Mauk Chunk. COAL BEDS. 335 trees and underbrush, affording a secure retreat and covert for the wild animals common to this mountainous region. It had been known for many years previous to this date that the Mauch Chunk Mountain contained anthracite coal, but up to this time every attempt which had been made to work the mines and convey coal to market had proved abortive, excepting that of Messrs. Miner, Cist & Robinson, who in 1813 had a lease on the mines, and sent the first coal to market. 1 In the winter of 1817, Josiah White and Erskine Hazard, having satisfied themselves of the advantages of anthracite coal as a fuel, by a series of experiments which they had made with it in the manufacture of iron wire, at the Falls of the Schuylkill, determined that Josiah "White should visit this region with a view to ascertain the extent of the coal beds and the facilities which the river Lehigh presented for a slackwater navi- gation. In this visit he was joined by George F. A. Hauto. The exploration was completed in a few weeks, and notwithstanding numerous obstacles presented themselves to the accomplishment of the enterprise which they had in view, such as the elevation of the coal beds, their distance from the Lehigh, the rapidity and turbu- lence of that stream, foaming and dashing over a confined and rocky bed for many miles, and varying its course to nearly every point of the compass, the general sterility of the country and the want of a convenient market, they determined on making a trial, and accordingly in 1818 Messrs. White, Hauto, and Hazard, com- menced operations in the immediate vicinity of Mauch Chunk. A glance at the country surrounding Mauch Chunk, even now would lead one to imagine the appearance of it when Messrs. White and Hauto made their first explorations forty-one years ago. It may not be uninteresting to state the situation of the country along the Lehigh, as they found it at that period. From Stoddartsville to Lausanne, a distance of thirty-five miles, there was no sign of a human habitation ; everything was in a state of nature. The ice had not yet left the shores of the river, which runs for almost the 1 See interesting letter from Chas. Miner, in the history of the canal company, in this work. 336 MAUCH CHUNK. whole of this distance, in a deep ravine between hills from four hundred to one thousand feet high, and so abrupt that but few places occur where a man on horseback can ascend them. Above the gap in the Blue Mountain, there were but thirteen houses, in- cluding the towns of Lehighton and Lausanne (a small village one mile above Mauch Chunk) within sight from the river. The arrival at the site of Mauch Chunk was attended with great difficulty, and sometimes danger ; the road that passed through the " Narrows' below Mauch Chunk was so narrow as to admit of the passage of but one vehicle at a time, and for many years the precaution was taken to send word ahead to a place where such as came from the opposite direction could make halt and wait until passed. A gen- tleman who passed through here at that time for the purpose of examining into the practicability of the reported improvements, says, in his report : " The making of a good road is utterly im- possible, and to give you an idea of the country over which the road is to pass, I need only tell you that I considered it quite an easement when the wheel of my carriage struck a stump instead of a stone !" Such was the condition of the country when these enterprising and energetic men commenced their operations. They had to erect buildings for themselves and their hands, then make a road from the mines to the Lehigh, and then to aid the navigation of the Lehigh, by the erection of dams and bear-trap locks, so as to make a descending navigation. During the construction of the dams, the managers took up their quarters in a boat, which moved down- wards as the construction of the dams progressed. The hands employed had similar accommodations. The buildings erected that time consisted of a few small log and frame shanties for the laborers, and one, of somewhat larger dimensions, which was used as an office, store, and boarding-house. This building was occu- pied by Nicholas Brink, the steward, whose duty it was to traverse the neighborhood in quest of provisions. Then the tavern at Lehighton, and that at " The Landing," at the mouth of the Nis- quehoning Creek, were the nearest habitations ; the nearest post LEHIGH COAL AND NAVIGATION COMPANY. 337 office was eight miles distant, through a perfect wilderness. We may imagine what difficulties the steward encountered in procuring the necessary provisions for the large number of men employed. The workmen, when taken into the company's employ, were each provided with a blanket, which, together with a board or plank, constituted their bed and bedstead. The son of Nicholas Brink, the steward, was the first child born in Mauch Chunk (1820), and was named Josiah White Erskine Hazard George F. A. Hauto Brink. The inhabitants considered the event worthy of public demonstration. "The forest was illumi- nated with pine torches, plenty of good, old, and pure whiskey was drank, and the noise and dancing were so great that it seemed as if the very tops of the pines had caught the infection, and kept time with it by waving to and fro." Mr. Brink still resides in Mauch Chunk. Through the kindness of Edwin Walter, Esq., of Philadelphia, the Secretary and Treasurer of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, we were allowed the privilege of examining the first account book kept by the company. It is in the handwriting of Geo. F. A. Hauto, and is dated August 19th, 1818, the day on which the work was commenced. The book consists of about a hundred pages, and contrasts strangely with the large and ponder- ous books which the extensive and increasing business of the com- pany compels them to use at the present time. Besides containing the accounts of the company, it appears also to have been a regu- lar memorandum book, in which was kept a complete account of every transaction worthy of note. Among the very many interesting things it contains, we find the following (in the handwriting of Mr. Hauto), which is certainly a sign of the march of civilization: — Monday, Aug. 31st, 1818. Launched the "capstan scow." Twelve hands at work at dam No. 3, near Mauch Chunk Island, where we tried the first log dam. Mr. Thomas Ridgway's first expedition ended yesterday — the second begins to- morrow. The first rattlesnake was seen and killed by Mr. White, yesterday. AVe perhaps could not give a better description of the appear- 338 MAUCH CHUNK. ance of the place in 1818 than will be found in the following com- munication from a visitor, to the Maucli Chunk Courier, of an early date. The writer appears to have been an intimate friend of the projectors of the enterprise. " And where is this Vale of Tempe, this terrestrial Paradise, which your descrip- tion and my imagination have pictured ?" said I to a dear friend of mine, as the Carriage entered a narrow defile among the mountains of the Lehigh. It was the fall of 1819, our road lay along the margin of the river ; it was broken and rough beyond any I had ever travelled ; the mountains appeared to have been cloven asunder, the impetuous Lehigh pitching in a torrent along their base ; huge frag- ments of the broken mountain overhung our path, and seemed to threaten our destruction ; here silence reigned even at noonday, interrupted only by the sullen roar of the waters, or the note of some lone and wandering songster. There was a solemn grandeur in the scene, but nought beside which could interest. Not a single comfort did it appear to afford the weary traveller. So narrow and rocky was the way that in several instances my companion had to leave the carriage to assure himself that no unfortunate wight had entered the defile in an opposite direction, as, in that case, we should have great difficulty in passing. " And is it possible," said I, "that you, who have lived in the abodes of civilized man, could ever have thought seriously of taking up your residence among these wild mountain passes. They appear to me to be better suited to the habits of a clan of Scottish Highlanders, or a band of lawless bandits, than to those of civilized life." " Yet the sublimity of the scene !" " True, I acknowledge I admire it — but can man live on the sublime — can the wild grandeur of these highlands support a population equal to your sanguine anticipations ? Were I ever to become a resi- dent here (which may Heaven avert), notwithstanding my fondness for the sub- lime, I would gladly exchange all romance of my situation for cultivated fields, a good road, an easy access to a market town, and an intelligent society." " Suppose all these advantages could be enjoyed here," said my opposer. " It can never be, never can these wilds support a civilized population, never can the rapid current of the Lehigh be made subservient to the purposes of commerce, never can this mountain pass be travelled with ease and safety ; such expectations are visionary, and those who embark their fortunes in such a project will, I am confident, end in disappointment and ruin." "Suspend your judgment a few years — you know not the hidden treasures of this region ; here is Mauch Chunk. This place," he con- tinued prophetically, " so unpromising in your estimation, contains even now the germs of future greatness, and will, at a period not far distant, be known beyond the Atlantic. Industry, Enterprise, Wealth, and Taste will unite their efforts, and the wild hills will not only be the abode of civilized but enlightened men. Two miles above this is Lausanne, a spot well remembered by the pioneers of the coal trade. There they located themselves ; at that place they embarked their little fortunes, and lost all in the attempt to convey the treasure of the country (anthracite coal) to a moneyed market. It was a noble project, but it was prema- ture. The sterling value of.this article was not known at that time to our citizens ; the mode of using it was novel, and nearly all abandoned it after the first trial ; purchasers were timid, and the little portion of the coal which escaped the rocks and rapids of the Lehigh, lay long at its destined mart waiting a sale. The expense of getting coal to market was found to be such as to raise its price above what APPEARANCE IN 1818. 339 foreign coal could be purchased for, and their funds would not permit them to improve the navigation of the river, the frequent freshets were destructive to their embankments and wharves — their arks were frequently driven from their fasten- ings and stove to atoms. Disheartened, and poor in purse, they were forced to abandon the enterprise. But, I repeat, it was a noble project, and the operations of their more wealthy successors proves the assertion. The present company cannot fail of complete success." I listened in silence, but was still incredulous. I could see nothing in the present appearance of Mauch Chunk which promised future greatness ; on the river I beheld a few men, wet and weary, striving to repair a dam which the late freshet had demolished ; here and there was seen a miserable shanty for their accommodation ; beyond, a saw-mill almost buried in huge piles of logs ; now and then a group of savage-looking laborers, working at the road, who rested on their shovels and gazed upon us as we passed, as if a 1 car- riage was a rare sight in this neighborhood, and still further on, an inferior-framed building, which served for numerous purposes, viz : a dwelling for the gentlemen of the company, a capitol, exchange, market-house, and store. As we approached this building, a stranger emerged from its entrance and cordially greeted my com- panion ; he was a tall, long figure, with broad shoulders and slight stoop, lmbited in a leathern doublet — an enormous pair of jack boots and a fur cap — a leathern girdle encircled his waist, from which hung suspended several articles used by woodsmen; his features were sunburnt, and, as I fancied, ferocious. This surely, said I mentally, is the captain of the bandits. On an introduction, however, I found the manners of this personage were those of a gentleman, and in admiring his politeness, I almost forgot his ugliness. " You are a prisoner for the remainder of the day," said the stranger, " but be not alarmed at your forcible detention ; we have a custom here of obliging travellers to stop, as a remuneration to us, for the wholesome exercise they have had on the road ; but few of our friends pass this way, and we must make the most of those who fall in our power." There was no alternative ; we were ushered into the drawing-room, as he called it, and in a few minutes a variety of refreshments prepared. "And now," said he, " you must see some of the wonders of Mauch Chunk." " We have already beheld one of its most original and curious specimens," thought I. We wandered about the deep and romantic glen for several hours, very agree- ably entertained with projected improvements, roads, bridges, coal carriages, slackwater navigation, steamboats, etc. " But our plans are all in their infancy yet," said he ; and I verily believed they would remain so. "What is your opinion of Mauch Chunk now ?" said my companion, as we left the vale the next morning. "Unchanged." "And Mr. ?" "He is either influenced by an insatiable desire for wealth or fame, or if he really believes all these improvements practicable, he is a visionary theorist. The idea of making a town here is absurd; parties of pleasure on the Lehigh is an idea too ridiculous for comment." "But you have not seen the managers of this novel establishment," said my friend ; " they are very different men ; can discourse pleasantly of plans, establish new theories, and speculate on results, but none are ever permanently adopted, until tried by the standard of practical utility, and found to stand the test. They are men who reason with mathematical exactness, and never dismiss a subject under consideration until it is well understood, and every consequence emanating from it foreseen and provided for. To a common observer, the exten- sive project they have in contemplation may appear impracticable and visionary, but they have resources for every emergency ; intellect, wealth, and indefatigable 340 MAUCH CHUNK. industry are united to aid theni forward, and I have no doubt but tbeir views and expectations will, ere long, be fully realized." "Assertion is not argument," said I. " I know that intellect, industry, and wealth can accomplish all that human agency can effect, but it will take a supernatural power to smooth the natural ruggedness of Mauch Chunk." " You are incorrigible," said my companion, "but time must decide upon our argument ; time must bring the proof." In 1827, after a lapse of eight years, we find our incorrigible friend again in Mauch Chunk, to use his own language : — The same grand mountain scenery appeared, but where was the rugged road, the fearful torrent, the silent glen ? all, all was changed, it seemed as if super- natural agency had indeed been busy. We rolled along our former way at the rate of six miles an hour with the utmost speed and safety. A fine smooth sheet of water met our view as we entered the town, across which was thrown a slight, picturesque bridge, and instead of solitude and silence, our ears were greeted with the busy hum of voices, intermingled with the various sounds of mechanical engines in successful operation. The town appeared to be an enchanted city. I almost feared to advance, lest the spell should be broken and the vision disappear. Here, a fine hotel affording accommodation to numerous visitants, there, a beauti- ful mansion house met my admiring gaze. A spacious stone building was pointed out to me as the office and store. As we proceeded on our promenade, a fine street opened upon us ; uniform rows of stuccoed buildings inclosed it ; on either side, neat sidewalks ; everything, in short, bespoke neatness and comfort. " Do you remember your walk with to the Bear Trap ?" said my companion. "Yes, indeed, for it cost me a pair of shoes." " This is the spot, and the site of that beautiful street is the deep morass which lay on our left." "And what is that noise ?" said I, alarmed ; " is the Lehigh bursting its artificial barriers, or is it the rush of a mighty whirlwind on the mountain ?" " Neither," said my companion ; " look, quick, above you ! behold the coal cars on the railroad, loaded with the inexhaustible wealth of Mauch Chunk ! see the ease, the rapidity with which this is conveyed from its subterranean storehouse among the everlasting hills, deposited in boats exactly suited to the navigation of the river, and this by the power of machinery only. Observe, the coal is not handled from the time it leaves the mine until it arrives in Philadelphia. We will now ascend the hill ; you see that fine, smooth watercourse in the distance ; this is the commencement of a canal, destined in a few years to waft back the boats with return cargoes, which will furnish Mauch Chunk and the adjacent country at a cheap rate with all the elegancies of the city. These are not the speculations of a visionary theorist ; they are palpable facts — sober realities. Now, let us anticipate a little, let us imagine another link in the grand chain of improvements finished, viz., a canal which shall connect the waters of the Susquehanna with those of the Lehigh, and then tell what you think of the greatness of Mauch Chunk." " Say no more, I am convinced, your predictions have been more than realized, intelligence has conquered preju- dice ; the pigmy has grown into a giant, whose power will be felt beyond these hills. Your Mauch Chunk is certainly the wonder of the age."* The improvement of the town had thus far been marked only by the progress and limited by the extent of the trade which first * We would refer the reader to the history of the canal company for much in- teresting matter in regard to the early history of Mauch Chunk. IMPROVEMENTS. 841 brought it into existence, and few investments had been made in the erection of houses and business establishments, in anticipation of the future. The houses and shops had all been constructed to accommodate the circumstances of the laboring community, and with less regard to taste and elegance, than convenience and economy. With the exception of the company's offices, store, and hotel, which were plain but spacious stone buildings, they were generally small, having two rooms on a floor, and two stories high, some of them plastered or stuccoed on the outside, which gave them a very uniform and neat appearance. The town, in 1832, contained about one hundred and fifty dwellings and shops of every description, and supplied a resident population of about one thousand inhabit- ants. It had one church, four schools, one printing office, two stores, one hotel, one iron foundry, and car manufactory, and a cast steel axe manufactory. The dependencies of the Coal and Navigation Company at that time, at and near Mauch. Chunk, gave employment to about four hundred men, principally miners, who, together with their families, constituted an aggregate population of about two thousand souls for Mauch Chunk and its branches. The company at length, by a steady perseverance in their hazardous enterprise for more than fourteen years, and at an expenditure of two and a half millions of dollars, brought to a conclusion their magnificent scheme of improvement, and were prepared to meet, with a supply of coal, the increasing demand of the market. With their accustomed liberality they threw open to public enterprise so much of their property as the public were likely to feel inte- rested in, and effected sales to individuals of a large proportion of the town plot of Mauch Chunk, improvements upon which, at pri- vate cost, and for private purposes, had been commenced, and were prosecuted with great spirit and activity. From that time to the present the town has continued to in- crease, until it has justly acquired the celebrity of an active busi- ness place, as well as become a fashionable and favorite summer resort of the wealth and fashion of the Union. The population of Mauch Chunk, in 1830, was 700; in 1840, 342 MAUCH CHUNK. 1200; 1850, 2557; and at the present time, nearly 6000, showing an immense increase for the last ten years ; the number of hand- some private residences, stores, and public buildings, have increased in proportion ; the general appearance of the town has also greatly improved. There is, at this time, five churches in the place, most of which are neat and elegant structures. They are as follows: — Presbyterian, Rev. J. A. Hodge, Pastor. Methodist, " Wm. Major, " German Reformed, " E. A. Bower, " Episcopal, " H. Baldy, Rector. Roman Catholic, " J. O'Shannesy, Priest. The cause of education has also kept pace with the increase of inhabitants. The number of public schools at this time is eight, which are attended by 295 male, and 276 female scholars; the ex- tensive edifice in which the schools are held, was erected in 1839 ; it is a plain and substantial brick building, and well adapted for the purpose. The Park Seminary — a private day-school for girls — is also well attended. The public schools, under the direction of T. L. Foster, the county superintendent, have been ably and faith- fully conducted. Mauch Chunk Bank, the only institution of its kind in the place, was incorporated on the 30th of March, 1855, and commenced business Oct. 1st of the same year; capital $200,000, paid in $100,000. This institution is considered one of the sound- est in the State; from its commencement to the first day of Octo- ber, 1859, it has earned 41 per cent., and paid to its stockholders dividends amounting to 33 per cent. The officers are Hiram "Wolf, President, A. "W. Leisenring, Cashier. Mauch Chunk also pos- sesses an excellent set of gas-works, the buildings of which are located on the western bank of the Lehigh, below the town. The Company was incorporated in 1854, with a capital of $25,000. The manufacture of gas was commenced in 1856; since then, most of the private dwellings, stores, and public buildings, as well as the streets, have been lighted with it. The President is Jacob H. Sal- keld; Secretary and Treasurer, David Treharn. There are perhaps few places that enjoy so great and constant a supply of pure spring water as Mauch Chunk. The Mauch Chunk Water Company was FIRE AND MILITARY COMPANIES. 343 incorporated in 1849, with a capital of $15,000; they are at pre- sent declaring a semi-annual dividend of 5 per cent. The reservoir of the Company is situated at the extreme western end of the town, at an elevation of near two hundred feet above the level of the streets, and is supplied by a large spring of pure, cold water, which flows into it without the aid of any machinery, or pumping appa- ratus; this spring gives an abundant supply for domestic use, but the reservoir is so arranged, that in case a larger supply should be needed for the extinguishment of fire, &c, the Mauch Chunk Creek, which runs close by, can be turned into it, and thus furnish an abundance of water. The officers are E. A. Douglass, President; Asa Packer, Treasurer; Samuel C. Williams, Secretary. Mauch Chunk also has an excellent fire department, consisting of three hose companies, viz., Anthracite, No. 1; Diligent, No. 2; Marion, No. 3. Owing to the elevated position of the reservoir, the water issues from the fire plugs with an immense force, and throws a pow- erful stream of water through fire hose and pipe, over the highest buildings in the place, consequently fire engines, for the purpose of forcing water, are entirely dispensed with. " There is still a relic of former times, in the shape of a fire engine, to be seen in Upper Mauch Chunk ; this engine was used and did good service at the great conflagration which occurred at Mauch Chunk on the 15th of July, 1849. The fire broke out about nine o'clock on the morning of that day, and raged violently for several hours, and in consequence of a high wind, which was blowing at the time, and the wan1> of a sufficient supply of water (the waterworks were not yet completed) it extended to both sides of the street, and in its devouring course destroyed the court-house, jail, and county offices, Conner's Hotel, the printing offices of the Carbon Democrat and Carbon County Gazette, besides some twenty- five stores, shops, and private residences, and a large quantity of merchandise. The whole loss was estimated at about $150,000." The military spirit of Mauch Chunk is perhaps unsurpassed by any other place of its size, in the State ; there are at this time four volunteer companies, viz: — Cleaver Artillerists, , Captain. Cleaver Independent Rifles, Eli Connor, " Irish Infantry, Patrick Sharkey, " German Jaegers, I. Glosser, " The companies are well disciplined, and are commanded by com- 344 MAUCH CHUNK. petent and faithful officers; should their services ever be needed for the defence of their country, we doubt not they would acquit them- selves with the same honor as did their illustrious predecessors, the Stockton Artillerists, in the Mexican war. It perhaps will not be out of place (we are certain it will not prove uninteresting to our readers in this neighborhood), to give a short sketch of this com- pany from their organization to the time of their return from Mexico. " The Stockton Artillerists were an organized corps several years previous to the Mexican war. Their first captain was John Leisenring, next Jos. H. Siewers, and last James Miller. At the breaking out of the Mexican war, the company offered their services and were accepted by Gov. Shunk. Considerable excitement pre- vailed several days previous to their departure ; friends of the company in the county collected the sum of $1,500, while the ladies of Mauch Chunk made and presented to the company over three hundred flannel and check shirts inside of three days. " On the 24th of December, 1846, the company, by conveyances furnished by the citizens, and accompanied by a large committee, proceeded on their route for Pittsburg (the place of rendezvous previous to being mustered into the service). On their arrival at Tamaqua they were met by the Deputy Secretary of the Com- monwealth, countermanding the order of acceptance, the reason assigned was that the Second Regiment was full. A meeting was at once held by the company, and it was unanimously resolved that the company proceed to Philadelphia, and offer their services to the President (taking Pottsville on their route, where they met kind treatment). After remaining in Philadelphia several days, they were ac- cepted. Accompanied by the Hon. Asa Packer and William H. Butler, they con- tinued their route to Pittsburg, via Baltimore and Cumberland, paying over nine hundred dollars fare, besides other expenses amounting to several hundred dollars, which the general government never refunded. Arriving at Pittsburg January 1st, 1847, they were then mustered into service by the late Lieut. H. B. Field. They were the last company accepted, and the first on the ground to be mustered into service of the Second Pennsylvania Regiment, number eighty-four all told. The officers were — Captain, James Miller; 1st Lieut., Hiram Wolf; 2d Lieut., Robert Klotz ; Second 2d, James McKeen, Jr.; 1st Sergeant, Thomas R. Crellin. After being mustered, they were shipped to New Orleans, and encamped some seven miles below the city, on Jackson's famous battle ground, arriving there on Monday, January 18th, 1847 ; they pitched their tents, and everything passed pleasantly for several days, when it commenced raining, and by Saturday, the 23d, one o'clock at night, there were fifteen inches of water all over the camp ground. The troops were obliged to seek shelter where best they could. No house within a mile of the camp ground except a French planter's, who had given his for a hos- pital. The companies dispersed, some to the city, others to the nearest houses and huts they could find. After considerable suffering from the wet and cold, they were in most instances refused admission, and altogether treated rather badly. This state of things did not last long ; they were soon ordered on board the transport ship ' Ocean,' Willard, Master, and sailed for Lobos Island, encoun- £NG? BY JOHN SARTAJN;—PHIL ~- ILMA P4 G K I I at PUBLIC BUILDINGS, NEWSPAPERS, ETC. 345 tering heavy gales, and also had considerable suffering ; landed on Lobos Island, on Saturday, February 13th, remained there nearly two weeks ; from there ordered to Vera Cruz, and landed under General Patterson, on the 9th day of March, 1847, on the shores of Mexico. Next day, thermometer 109 degrees, they were initiated into active service, by skirmishes, &c, among the sand hills. The company par- ticipated in all the active engagements, commencing at Vera Cruz and ending in the City of Mexico. Their conduct and services, during all the engagements, is part of our country's history, and needs no recapitulation at our hands. At the close of the war, after having had nineteen months' active service, the remnant of the company returned to Pittsburg, where they were all honorably discharged. The fate of war reduced the ranks, by killed, wounded, and disease, less than one- half the original numbers. They arrived in their native town in due course of time, having been greeted and feasted in every town and hamlet through which they passed, by none more so than by the citizens of Mauch Chunk and vicinity, who were the last to leave them on the borders of the State, and the first to greet them on their return. After having partaken of the hospitalities extended to them by the citizens of Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton, they returned to Mauch Chunk and disbanded. Some went to one place and some to another. Twenty- three of the original number found a soldier's grave in Mexico ; and of those dis- charged in consequence of wounds and disease contracted in the country, sixteen died in the States. There are nine remaining in the county ; four in California ; two in New Mexico ; one in Chili ; one in Honolulu ; a few in Philadelphia ; three in Wyoming Valley; one in New York; one in Milton; the remainder scattered." Mauch Chunk has several very fine public buildings, such as the Gourt-House, Odd Fellows' Hall, Mechanics' Hall, and the Town Hall, which are used for lectures, concerts, and meeting-rooms for the different societies ; among the societies may be mentioned the Masons, Odd Fellows, Druids, American Mechanics, several bene- volent societies, Christian associations, and missionary societies. There are three newspapers published in Mauch Chunk, viz : Carbon County Gazette, Higgins& Eauch, Editors; Carbon Democrat, W. P. Struthers, Editor ; Carbon Adler (German), E. A. Eauch, Editor. The Carbon County Gazette was originally called the Le- high Pioneer and Mauch Chunk Courier. It was commenced in 1829 by Amos Sisty, and was the first paper published in Mauch Chunk. We are indebted to it for much of our information concerning the early history of the place. The Carbon Democrat was commenced in 1846 by Enos Tolen, and was published regularly by him until within the last two years, when the establishment was purchased by the present enterprising editor and publisher. The number of manufacturing establishments has increased but little during the 24 346 MAUCH CHUNK. last twenty years; at this time, the following are the principal ones. One foundry, machine shop, and car manufactory. J. H. Salkheld & Co. One foundry and machine shop. Allb right & Co. Two iron forges. Jacob Gilger; Gr. W. Smith. One screen and wire factory. Gr. W. Smith. One wire rope manufactory. Fisher, Hazard & Co. One steam flour mill. A. Robison. Three boat yards. Josiah Enbody ; C. Kocher ; E. Bower. Two shoe manufactories. F. C. Kline ; W. H. Stroh. Besides the above establishments — the most of which are very extensive — the machine and repair shops of the Lehigh Canal and Navigation Company, and the car repair shops of the Lehigh Val- ley Eailroad Company are located here, which, together with the others, give employment to a large number of mechanics. In 1825, Messrs. "White and Hazard erected a blast furnace in Mauch Chunk; it was small in size, and the fuel used was charcoal. A series of experiments were instituted by Mr. White, for the purpose of smelting iron from the ore, by the use of anthracite coal. As early as 1826 he conceived the idea of using a heated blast for that purpose ; to accomplish this, he passed the blast through a close room heated with stoves ; by this arrangement he succeeded in making the blast warm, but not sufficiently hot to accomplish what he desired ; this furnace was finally abandoned and another of larger dimensions erected near the site of the old one. As charcoal was used in this furnace, we may infer that the experiments tried by Mr. White to substitute anthracite were not successful. This furnace, since its erection, has repeatedly passed into different hands, and after the discovery of the hot blast (in 1837), was altered to an anthracite furnace. It is now used as a foundry. In 1838, an anthracite furnace was erected just below Mauch Chunk, on the strip of land running between the canal and river, by Messrs. Boughman, Guiteau & Lowthrop ; the first iron was made by this furnace in October of that year ; it afterwards changed hands, and was finally abandoned. The works are still standing, and remind one of a dilapidated castle. The principal business of Mauch Chunk is that connected with the coal landing, and the mining operations in the vicinity. It would require a small volume to describe all the curious and inte- resting objects to be seen here. The coal mines, the inclined planes, and all the machinery and appliances necessary for mining, transporting, and shipping coal, may be seen on a large and im- proved scale; while the pure mountain air, gushing fountains of the coldest and purest water, with beautiful views of wild and sub- lime mountain scenery, give additional charms to the place. The HOTELS, CANAL BOATS, ETC. 347 hotels, of which there are five, are large and well arranged, and have ample and comfortable accommodation for travellers and tour- ists in search of the picturesque, or of relaxation amid the pure air of the mountains. The American and Broadway Hotels are situ- ated on the principal street. The Mansion House stands just on the river's edge, the street alone intervening, while close at its back Bear Mountain towers up, covered with a dense forest growth, through which, however, a path has been cut, leading to the top of the mountain, whence a magnificent prospect may be had down the valley of the Lehigh. The roar of the river, as it rushes over the dam just above the hotel, and goes foaming along over the rocks, and under the bridge, has a delightfully lulling effect. The boats constantly passing upon the Lehigh canal, which winds along, fol- lowing the course of the river, in front of the house upon the oppo- site bank ; and the long trains of coal cars ever rolling past, laden with their black and shining freight, or returning empty for new loads, add life and interest to the scene. The principal street runs back at right angles to the river, in the valley between Mount Pis- gah on the north, and Bear Mountain on the south, and the latter shuts out the view from the hotel; but Bast Mauch Chunk, upon the opposite side of the Lehigh, above the dam, is plainly in view. An object of some interest to strangers is the weigh-lock on the canal, about half a mile below the hotel, where the loaded boats are weighed as they pass down on their way to a market. A re- gister of the names and numbers of all the boats used on this canal is kept at the weigh-lock. More than two thousand boats are entered upon this register, and it is curious to see the great variety of names given to the boats by their owners, and how frequently some names are repeated. The Marys — simply " Mary," and then " Mary Jane," and "Mary Elizabeth," and " Mary Ann" — are great favorites. " Anna," too, is a frequently recurring name ; while the military heroes come in for almost as great a share of popularity among the boatmen. The walk along the tow-path of the canal, and the wagon road through the " narrows," is delightful in the evening, when the rays of the sun, shut off from the nearer land- 348 MAUCH CHUNK. scape by Bear Mountain, strike the tops of the more distant hills down the valley, and light their summits with a golden blaze, while all beneath is dark with the shades of approaching night. Mauch Chunk in itself has many attractions ; the streets are broad and clean, the pavements wide and kept in good order, and, what is a great acquisition to any place, is its system of sewerage ; the Mauch Chunk creek, which runs parallel with the principal street, and which is arched over the greater part of the distance, prevents the accumulation of any matter deleterious to health ; add to this an abundant supply of the purest spring water, which is intro- duced throughout most of the dwellings ; the streets, stores, hotels, and private houses lighted with gas; the beautiful walks, the plea- sant drives, the excellent carriage roads, the gravity railroads, and above all the good fellowship, the genial hospitality, the quick intellect, the rapid appreciation, and the racy humor of its citi- zens — all tend to lead one to the opinion as expressed by a cele- brated man, who annually visits the place, "That Mauch Chunk has no duplicate upon earth, so decided are its peculiarities; it lies in what has happily been called 'The Switzerland of Pennsyl- vania.' It is a place which everybody has visited, will visit, or ought to visit. You may have fleeted your hour at Saratoga, stood wonder stricken over Niagara Falls, sailed over all the lakes and what not in the country ; you may have made a tour to Europe, circumnavigated the globe, but after all, if you have not passed through the Lehigh Gap, tarried at Mauch Chunk, and been whirled down the mountain and up the planes to the summit, you have not seen everything by a great sight. In short, you must either go to Mauch Chunk, or forego all claim to the cha- racter of a finished tourist." The first place naturally visited by strangers, is the far-famed Mount Pisgah, which rises like a monarch of the hills, and is ascended by a very steep, and apparently perilous " inclined rail- road plane," in cars drawn up by a stationary steam-engine. For the convenience and edification of the tourist, we will ac- company him on a tour from Mauch Chunk over the planes and . .::.<: \ ^ GRAVITY AND SWITCH-BACK RAILROADS. 34£ the gravity railroad to Summit Hill, thence around the celebrated " switch-back railroad," through Panther Creek Valley to the coal mines, and return ; draw his attention to the numerous objects of interest, explain — as far as our humble abilities will allow — the various mechanical contrivances, and, in fact, give a general de- scription and history of the route ; we shall call it A TRIP OVER THE GRAVITY AND SWITCH-BACK RAILROADS. There are several regular passenger trains run over the road every day, for the accommodation of the travelling public, but as we shall require more time in our trip than is generally allowed in those trains, we will engage a private car, and do our own running. We will ascend the hill on foot, as it will afford us a better opportunity of noticing the many mechanical contrivances for the loading of boats, &c. &c. ; before starting, we would state that Maueh Chunk is 520 feet above tide-water at Philadelphia. After leaving the hotel, we pass the court-house, jail, and county offices, situated at the foot of the hill, which we are about to ascend by the wagon road which leads to an elevated plateau, at the foot of the great plane ; in our course we pass the beautiful mansion (with its serpentine walks, and sparkling fountains), of the superintendent of the Lehigh Canal, and further up the hill the schutes, by which the coal is conveyed from the top to the foot of the hill, where it is deposited into boats ; we will pass by them, and ascend still higher, to the top of the plateau, where are located the station-houses, from where the cars are started. Here we find an extensive tract of flat land, upon which is built quite a village — it is called Upper Mauch Chunk ; we are now 215 feet above the river; the extensive repair shops of the Canal Company are located here. The beautiful cemetery, belonging to the different congregations of the borough, is also situated here. If we remain here a short time, we will find train after train of coal arriv- ing from the mines (in Panther Creek Valley), over the gravity road from Summit Hill ; every train is composed of ten cars, each car containing from three to five tons, the whole under the control of a single man, or " runner," as they are here called, who regulates their movements by a very simple contrivance. A perpen- dicular lever causes a piece of wood to press against the circumference of each wheel, on the same side of the car, acting both ways from the central point between them, so that by increasing the pressure the friction retards or stops the motion, and as all the levers are connected by a wire rope they are made to act in concert by the runner, who is seated on the hindmost car, with a windlass on which the rope is wound. The road they have just come over was originally a turnpike, over which the coal was brought to Mauch Chunk in wagons, holding about four tons each, and drawn by two horses. The amount of coal sent to market increased very rapidly, when this mode of conveyance was found slow and expensive, as well as inade- quate to fill the increasing orders ; it was also difficult to keep the road in order, without coating it with stone ; it was thought that the best economy would be to convert it into a railroad, which was commenced in January, 1827, and completely in operation in May of the same year. This railroad was the second of any extent ever constructed in the United States, and for many years attracted the attention of travellers on this account. In 1827, there were 32,074 tons of coal carried over this road; during the present year (1859), there have been 450,000 tons carried 350 MAUCH CHUNK. over it — quite an increase you will admit. In 1827, and up to 1845, the trains consisted of fourteen cars, each containing about two tons, and guided by a single man, the same as at present. The empty cars or wagons were then drawn back to the mines on the same track, by mules, eight to a train of fourteen coal wagons. Twenty-eight mules drew up forty-two coal, and seven mule wagons ; the arrange- ment was so made that the ascending parties should arrive in due season, at the proper places for turning out. The mules rode down the railway, and were fur- nished with provender, placed in proper mangers, four of them being inclosed in one pen, mounted on wheels. The mules readily performed their duty of drawing up the empty cars, but having experienced the comfort of riding down, they seemed to regard it as a right, and very reluctantly descended any other way. Frequently seven of these mule cars were connected into one group, so that twenty- eight mules constituted the party, which with their heads directed down the moun- tain, and apparently surveying the fine landscapes, moved rapidly along the in- clined plane with a ludicrous gravity, which, when seen for the first time, would prove too much for the severest muscles. Circumstances like this gave zest and piquancy to the inspection of the works, the relish of which was enhanced by the beauty and sublimity of the surrounding scenery. No wonder, then, that visitors were attracted to this place, and still less wonder is it f that the number of visitors has increased, in as great a proportion as the attractions have multiplied. But to return ; when the cars arrive here, they are separated, and run into the station-house, separately, on to a turn-table at the head of the inclined planes ; these planes or schutes commence at the river, and ascend at the rate of one foot in three and a half of the slant ; the whole ascent to the plateau is 215 feet, and the slant 700 feet \ there are four of these planes running to the river, besides a sliding schute down which a smaller kind of coal is run at once to the depots from the entire height. These loaded cars descend the inclined planes ; the machinery by which their descent is governed is in the station-houses ; the most important part is a large cylinder, revolving horizontally, and serving to wind the rope at- tached to the cars. The rapidity of their progress is in a measure checked by the weight of an ascending empty car, attached to the other end of the rope, and moving on a parallel railway on the same plane. But this partial counterpoise is insufficient to moderate properly the speed of the descending car. This object is effectually gained by an iron band which clasps the drum, and which, compressed by a lever, controls its motion. When the car arrives at the foot of the plane, the lower end of the car is unbolted, and the coal is shot with great velocity into a hopper ; this conveys it directly into a screen which has three large chambers, through which coal of as many different sizes is riddled out, and shot by scuppers into as many different boats, waiting for different descriptions of the article. When the empty cars are drawn up from the screens to the top of the schutes, they run by gravity around the brow of the hill, to the foot of Mount Pisgah Plane, where we will now proceed ; by way of entertainment, as we wend our way along, we will relate to you an amusing circumstance which is said to have occurred at the schutes we have just passed. A few years ago, a Yankee, of the genuine breed, quite inquisitive, but more verdant than a Yankee should be, gained the station- house, and gazed with wonder at the contrivances. He peculiarly admired the swiftness with which the loaded car descended and emptied its load, and the velo- city with which it returned to give place to another. Shortly his attention was attracted by seeing a laborer mount one of the full cars, about to make a descent. a Yankee's ride. 351 " Going to slide ?" inquired he. " Yes, going to chute," replied the laborer ; " won't you go ?" " Wall, I guess I'll stop a bit, and see you do it." The car swiftly descended, and ere it reached the hopper, the laborer jumped off safely. " Do you do that often ?" inquired he of one of the laborers in the station-house. " yes, continually," was the waggish answer. " You know most of the boat- men are single men, and as they often have orders for family coal, we always send down a married man with every car of that kind, to let 'em know." " Wall, now, du tell ?" uttered the eastern man. The more the Yankee looked at the apparatus, the more did he become convinced that it would be a great thing to go down the steep in that way — something he could tell " to hum." Plucking up courage, he approached the superintendent. " That beats sledding down hill, don't it ?" " I suppose it does." " You couldn't let a feller go clown, could you ?" " Why, do you think you can jump off in time ?" " yes, I'm reckoned considerable of a jumper ; jumpin' does me good. I once jumped off a haymow thirty feet high, and it made me so supple, that I'm give in to be the best dancer in the whole township." " Well, get on, and take care of yourself." Suddenly the car moved off, and our friend found the speed so fearful, and the declivity so great, that he was forced to stoop down and grasp the sides of his ve- hicle for support. The place where the laborer had leaped off was reached, but the Yankee was not in a position to jump ; he had to hold on, and running down a descent, three times as steep as that which he had come, a sudden click shot the bolt, and, with a violent force, out went the contents, Yankee included, into the hopper. " Murder ! get me oiit ! stop the consarn !" shouted our hero, as he felt himself sliding down the hopper to the cylinder. " Murder ! stop the consarn ! I'll be killed !" But the motive power of the "consarn" was water, which had no sym- pathy with those who pursue knowledge under difficulties, and those who saw were too distant, and too much convulsed with laughter, to yield assistance. Into the screen he slid, landing on the top, and as he felt himself revolving with the coal, he grasped the wires in desperation, to prevent himself from being rolled to the bottom ; around the wheel he went, and our friend's sensibilities were touched up by a plentiful shower of coal dust, riddled through from all the chambers. He managed to get one eye open, and saw with delight that the cylinder was only about fifteen feet in length, and he forced his way forward to the opening with desperation, but it was not altogether successful. Another revolution of the wheel had yet to be borne, and the next time he reached the bottom, he was shot out of the scupper into the boat beneath. To the screams of laughter with which his adventure was hailed, our hero said not a word, but drawing out an old handkerchief, rubbed the dust out of his eyes, and surveyed his torn apparel, and bruised, battered, and scratched limbs, " he raised his vein," to know as to what quality of anthracite he had been delivered ; when, smashing his remnant of a hat over his eyes, he stamped off, muttering — " Broken and screened, by thunder !" We have now arrived at the great plane ; you appear to be amazed at its im- mense height. Allow us to give you a slight history of it, and explain its design and modus operandi. 352 MAUCH CHUNK. Some years since, Mr. Josiali White, we think, first conceived the idea of a return track, so constructed, that the cars, after being raised to an elevation sufficient to overcome the descent from the mines to the river, should return by their own gra- vity to the summit. The height of the mountain north of Mauch Chunk, and along which the old track was laid, was at that time ascertained to be nearly suf- ficient for this purpose, could the cars be raised to its highest point, and be placed upon a return track there. After these examinations and surveys, the project was for a time abandoned. In the spring of 1844, the great demand for coal rendered it necessary that the business of the Company should be extended beyond the capacity of the single track. Surveys were made, and the present back-track railroad was commenced, and completed ready for use in the fall of 1845. The design of this road is, as was mentioned above, to take empty cars back to the summit, which is about 1000 feet above the river at Mauch Chunk. The object is attained by raising the cars to the top of " Mount Pisgah," by means of a stationary engine, placed at the head of an inclined plane. This plane is 2,322 feetlong, overcoming a perpendicular height of 664 feet. This, we are informed, is the greatest elevation overcome by any single plane in the world. Upon this plane are laid two tracks, and upon each track runs a " safety car," attached to a double iron band, each band four inches wide, and one-eighth of an inch in thickness. The safety cars are so arranged, that upon reaching the foot of the plane, they con- tract and run into a pit between the rails of the main track, so as to allow a train of coal cars to pass over them, upon the road descending towards the foot of the plane. The bands upon each track are attached to, and wind upon, iron drums at the head of the plane, 27 feet in diameter ; which drums are geared by segments extending around their peripheries to two 120 horse-power engines. They are also so arranged that either may be run alone, or both together. When both are in motion, the band attached to one winds up, while that attached to the other un- winds, thus drawing the safety car and train up on one track, while the safety car is let down upon the other track. To explain more clearly, suppose one safety car in the pit, at the foot of the plane, while the other is at the top of the plane, ready to descend. A train of cars having been passed over the safety car at the foot, and the signal given, the engine is set in motion, the safety car rises from its pit, is drawn up behind the train, and the whole move off toward the top of the plane, upon which they are landed in from six to eight minutes. In the mean time the safety car upon the other track has descended, and is ready to have another train passed over it, which in its turn it conveys to the top of the plane, while its comrade returns for a third train. We will remain here a few moments until the coal train which is coming from the schutes ascends the plain, as it will give us an opportunity of examining the machinery. You will notice the cars have run over the pit ; the watchman gives the signal to the engineer at the head of the plane by pulling the wire, at the upper end of which is attached a bell. We know he has received the signal by the pulling and jerking of the bands ; the safety car rises from the pit, and as it is drawn up behind the train, all of the cars begin to ascend, the watchman throws down a latch from the safety car, which fits into corresponding teeth on a safety rail between the two tracks. The teeth on this rail are so shaped that the latch on the car is allowed to pass freely over them in the ascent, but should either of I « \\ a L . CTepon del . Awl. of HTOsbornBeAleW "P. S Duval &r Son's IrtH 7>}>il . T IS P AH FLAII AT 5^AU(0HI €MU Len^li 2322 feet. Elevation. 662 feet. GRAVITY AND SWITCH-BACK RAILROADS. 353 the straps break, the car will remain stationary, as the least backward movement will cause the latch to fasten itself into the teeth ; you will see, therefore, that there is no possibility of an accident. As the train has already reached the top (it requires but eight minutes to ascend the plane), we will run our car over the pit and make the ascent. We are hitched on, the signal is given, the engines above move their ponderous propulsion, and we start, and in the words of a dis- tinguished tourist, "Up, up we go, until the mountain tops, which just now tow- ered above us, sink into the valleys and become pigmy hills, and the whole face of the surrounding country, in an immense circuit, opens under us like one vast flower bed, enriched with all the glowing garb of autumn, and glittering with a sunlight which intensifies every beauty and color. Novel emotions crowd upon the mind as the enchanting and exciting scene unfolds itself with new and almost appalling grandeur, as the summit is approached, and the soul is transported with awe as the great works of the Creator stand out in their imposing contrast to our littleness as we hang suspended, as it were, in mid-air." We have now reached the summit of Mt. Pisgah, and attained an elevation of 1370 feet above tide water. And now what a glorious, what a sublime, what a varied landscape, bursts upon the enraptured vision ! The Blue Mountains, the Lehigh Water Gap, through which may be seen far distant hills, including, on a clear day, Schooley's Moun- tains, in New Jersey ; in all other directions, mountains in long range, piled on other mountains ; beneath, the river, the towns, which look like a group of toy houses, but from which, and the river, ascend the busy sounds of industry, the voices of men, the whistling of steam-engines, the merry boatman's horn, the rat- tling of coal as it goes down the schutes into the boats, while, as a bass accompa- niment to this industrial music, there is a continuous rumbling of cars up and down the planes, and along the level railroads. While we are standing here, we would draw your attention to the great peculiarity of Mauch Chunkfwhich is, that there is scarcely any room for it to grow in ; the principal street, you will notice, extends for nearly a mile in the valley between Bear Mountain and the one we are now on. Mauch Chunk proper, for the want of room, has been augmented by two other Mauch Chunks— Upper Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk; Upper Mauch Chunk we passed through on our route to the plane. East Mauch Chunk, or the "Kettle," as it is usually called here, you will notice, is situated on the opposite side of the river, on an elevated plateau. It was incorporated into a borough in 1853, and contains at this time between five and six hundred inhabi- tants, a hotel, and several very excellent schools. A large number of handsome residences have been erected there, and it promises, at no very distant day, to rival the " Chunk" on this side of the river. But we must not linger, a vigorous push to our car, and away we go down the gravity road. We are now descending the hill on a grade of fifty feet to the mile. We will have time as we pass only to glance at the Old Tunnel mines, which are about two miles from Mauch Chunk. They are leased by Messrs. Michler, Coyningham & Co., of Easton, and are worked by Messrs. Cortright & Klotz, the latter of whom is entitled to write " late of Mexico " (and, "later still from Kansas") after his name in any deed or document. These mines raise and sell about 60,000 tons of coal annually. There is quite a village here, with a mining population of its own, chiefly Welsh, we believe. We pass nothing else worthy of particular notice until we arrive at the foot of Mt. Jefferson. We have now come the distance of a little over six miles, and have descended in that distance 302 feet. We must now ascend the plane on Mt. Jefferson, which is 2070 feet long, overcoming a height of 354 MAUCH CHUNK. 462 feet. The general arrangement of the plane is similar to that on Mt. Pisgah. The signal is given, and we reach the summit, from where we again descend for the distance of a mile, and arrive at Summit Hill, a town of several thousand inhabitants. There are several excellent hotels here for the accommodation of visitors. The celebrated Sioitch-Back Railroad commences here, and runs through Pan- ther Creek Valley to the different mines. We will make this trip, and on our return examine the curiosities of the town. We will now take our seats in an open car, from which we can better enjoy the view. Another push, and away we go down the first section of the switch-back, descending at the rate of 221 feet to the mile. But we now have a novel variation in the descent, instead of running in one direction down the side of the mountain to the bottom of the valley, the car zigzags back and forth, now we are riding with one end of the car in front, and then, as we change to another track, the other end of the car is in front. The change from one track to the other is made by a curious and ingenious self- acting arrangement, from which the entire road on this descent, from the summit to Panther Creek, takes its name of the Switch-Back Railroad. At every point where a turn or change in the direction is made, the two tracks (that is, the one descending in one direction, and the other continuing the descent at an angle with the first) come together like the angle at the top of a Y, and unite in one track, running out like the foot of the same letter. This one track, or the foot of the Y, however, has an ascending grade, up which the car is carried by the force of the momentum it has acquired in its downward course. As soon as this momentum is exhausted, of course the car begins to run down the ascent, but instead of run- ning back a little distance up the same road it has just before descended, the switch at the fork of the Y is arranged with a spring which adjusts the switch to the track which descends at an angle with the first, so that the car upon its descent from the single track continues on its way down the mountain. And so we go at a most rapid rate, now this way, now that way ; the breeze caused by the rapid motion renders it necessary for us to keep hold of our hats, bonnets, and all other matters liable to be carried away, now dashing round a curve at what seems a frightful speed, and now resting a moment as the switch-back changes our course, and again away with speed of the wind, we reach the bottom of the valley. Here we have leisure to rest ourselves and examine the coal-breakers before commencing our ascent. The grade of the track through this valley is 60 feet to the mile ; we pass by a number of coal-breakers, tunnels, and mining villages. You will notice here the rubbish has been deposited by successive loads, until nearly a hundred artificial hills have been made, radiating in all directions from the mines. These hills overtop the highest trees ; one of them, you will notice, has a reddish hue ; it has been on fire over twenty years, and has every prospect of burning until the end of time. Visitors are permitted to enter the mines, and are accommodated with a guide, but as our time is limited, we will be unable to satisfy our curiosity. Again starting our car, we arrive at the foot of what is called Panther Creek Plane, No. 2, the length of which is 2030 feet, elevation 250 feet. We are drawn up this plane, and again travel by force of gravity for several miles past artificial hills and mining villages, until we arrive at Panther Creek Plane, No. 1, the length of which is 2436 feet, and elevation 375 feet. We ascend this plane, and arrive again at our starting-point, Summit Hill. We have thus made a circuit of eight miles. The town of Summit Hill is situated 1485 feet above tide water, and contains (together with the small mining villages near it) about 5000 inhabitants, several ORIGINAL DISCOVERY OF STONECOAL. 355 public schools, three churches (Presbyterian, Episcopal and Roman Catholic), two hotels, several stores, the extensive foundry and machine shop of Abbot & Sons, one military company, one brass band, and several secret and benevolent societies. There is also a large number of handsome private residences, and several fine public buildings. With the fine scenery, the many objects of interest in the neighbor- hood, the healthy and agreeable location, and the intelligence and hospitality of its inhabitants, the town has attracted many visitors. Perhaps one of the greatest curiosities in the neighborhood, and one which should be visited by every tourist, is the old mine or " quarry," the first which was worked by the Lehigh Company, it being the identical vein or deposit originally discovered by Ginther. The cir- cumstances connected with its discovery are these : — "In the year 1791, there lived on the eastern slope of the mountain a hunter named Philip Ginther. The country, for many miles around, abounded in game, and was clothed in dense primitive forest. On the occasion to which we are now referring, Ginther had spent the whole day in the woods without meeting the least success. He had left with anxious solicitude in the morning the cabin which sheltered his wife and children, for the scanty breakfast had impressed him with the necessity of replenishing the culinary department. As the shades of evening gathered around, he found himself on the summit of Sharp Mountain, several miles distant from his home. A storm of rain was advancing, and had already spent a few drops, when he began to quicken his pace. Running along at a brisk gait through the woods, he stumbled over the roots of a tree which had recently fallen, and threw before him a large black stone, to recognize which, and the black aspect of the spot around the roots, there was yet remaining sufficient light. He had heard persons speak of stonecoal as existing in these mountains, and concluded that this must be a specimen. He therefore took it with him, and a few days after gave it to Colonel Jacob Weiss, then living near the present site of Mauch Chunk. Unable to determine its real character, the specimen was forwarded to Philadelphia, where, after undergoing the scrutiny of sundry mineralogists and learned savans, it finally came into the hands of Mr. Charles Cist, a printer, who pronounced it stonecoal, and authorized the Colonel to satisfy Ginther for his dis- covery upon his pointing out the precise spot where he found the coal."* The Lehigh Company, until 1847, procured all the coal which they sent to mar- ket from this mine. The mine, for many years, constituted a great curiosity, and has attracted thousands of visitors. The vein of coal, including the accompanying seams of slate, was at one spot nearly seventy feet in thickness, though the ave- rage did not probably exceed fifty feet. The excavated portion embraces an area of about 20 acres, and extends to the depth of nearly 100 feet. From this source there were mined and sent away over 800,000 tons of coal. Here the coal veins are exposed to the light of day, and the various avenues are strewn with immense heaps and masses of it. To the visitor who gazes upon all that is left of the planes which once penetrated every part of the excavation, the deserted engine-houses, which are fast falling into decay, the immense heaps of rubbish, which are grad- ually increasing, and the huge breasts at which miners were employed, towering from fifty to eighty feet in the air, entirely separated and isolated from the adja- cent strata, with their tops still covered with forest foliage, and the trunk of an old * See History of Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company (in this work) for further particulars. 356 MAUCH CHUNK. tree occasionally left standing as a kind of monumental relic of the past, there are awakened sensations at once peculiar, novel, and interesting. Prof. Silliman, who visited these mines in 1830, says : " The coal is fairly laid open to view, and lies in stupendous masses, which are worked under open air, exactly as in a stone quarry. The excavation being in an angular area, and entered at different points by roads cut through the coal, in some places quite down to the lowest level, it has much the appearance of a vast fort, of which the central area is the parade ground, and the upper escarpment is the platform for the cannon." As the mine is easy of access, it is visited by many persons for the purpose of procuring specimens of fossil impressions, which are found here in abundance in the shales or slates accompanying the coal. Fern leaves and branches in innu- merable variety and quantity are found so perfectly impressed upon the soft mud in which they were buried, that the faintest lines of their delicate structure can be traced.* We will now return to the depot and commence our descent to Mauch Chunk, but instead of returning to Mt. Pisgah and being let down that plane, we dash along and down another gravity road on the side of the mountain (the history of which we have already given), acquiring a descending impulse by our own weight, and soon accomplishing the whole distance (eight and a half miles) to the town, having made a circuit in all of nearly 25 miles. For the convenience of our readers we append a table of distances, etc., which we have obtained from the engineer of the Company, Mr. D. Bertsch : — Length. Elevation. 700 feet. 215 feet. 2322 " 664 " 2070 " 462 " 2436 " 375 " 2030 " 250 " Three shutes at Mauch Chunk, one sliding, Mt. Pisgah Plane, Mt. Jefferson Plane, Panther Creek Plane, No. 1, " No. 2, Mauch Chunk, above tide water, Mt. Pisgah, above Mauch Chunk, Mt. Pisgah, above tide water, Mt. Jefferson, " Summit Hill, " . Distance from Mt. Pisgah to Summit Hill, Distance around Switch- Back Railroad, &c, Distance from Summit Hill to Mauch Chunk, Average grade of road from Mt. Pisgah, Average grade of Switch-Back Railroad, Average grade of road through Panther Creek Valley Average grade of road from Summit Hill to Mauch Chunk, Whole descent from Mt. Pisgah to foot of Mt. Jefferson, 520 feet. 850 " 1370 " 1530 " 1485 " 8^ miles. 8 " 8§ " 50 feet to the mile. 221 " 60 " 96 " 302 " Hundreds of interesting letters have been written from Mauch Chunk by tourists describing the scenery and other attractions of the place and neighborhood ; we have selected the following, which will, no doubt, prove interesting and entertain- ing to the reader. The first was written nearly thirty years ago, when Mauch * Visitors are provided with guides by applying to the conductors. r\"~j~ • ~ ~ ~ -? 3 ^„- SCENERY in 1830. 357 Chunk was but little known to the travelling community, and before the celebrated planes were built or even thought of : — Match Chunk, August 10th, 1830. ******** Y7e arrived at the starting-place on top of the hill just in time to witness the descent of two trains of wagons loaded with coal, fol- lowed by a train of cars conveying fourteen mules destined to haul back the wag- ons when discharged of their contents. I can hardly describe the sensations produced upon my feelings at the instant this novel spectacle burst upon my sight. I had taken a position upon the side of the road, and for several minutes had been listening to the distant thunder of the cars, gradually loudening upon the ear as they neared the place where I stood ; the earth trembled beneath my feet, and seemed to portend some dreadful convulsion of nature, when, in the twinkling of an eye, a hideous monster rushed from beneath the thick foliage of the trees that overshadowed the road, and dashed furiously past me, as if intent upon the destruction of whatever might appear to oppose its progress, or eager to escape the pursuit of another equally dreadful monster of its own species, that fol- lowed in quick succession. Soon after a train of cars hove in sight, having on board fourteen mules, but with less velocity than the former. The mules were arranged in stalls of three abreast ; however well pleased they might have been with their novel mode of travelling, and the wild scenery of the country around them, they seemed more intent upon their feed, which was placed before them, than anything else ; they, however, turned their heads and cocked their long ears as they came opposite, and gave us a passing look, as much as to say, Ladies and gentlemen, we have as good a right to ride in the carriages as you. The horses were now geared to the pleasure carriages, we took our seats, and were soon under way. There was nothing in the scenery along the road, save its wildness, particularly to interest one. No stately houses, cultivated fields, or rural cottages, met the eye ; a few dilapidated buildings were scattered here and there, but most of them were tenantless, and those which appeared to be inhabited presented little or no evidences of industry. There was much to admire in the smooth and gently ascending track before us, winding its course in many a curve, and the rich foliage that covered the mountain side spreading a green canopy over our heads as we moved along. We had been a little more than an hour on the road, when we were informed that we had arrived at the summit of the mountain. Our driver now became our guide, and showed us the openings in the mountain, &c. &c. To give a description of this vast repository of mineral wealth, the man- ner of quarrying or breaking down the coal, the various mechanical contrivances, and the general life and activity which everywhere presented itself, would require more time and ingenuity than I am master of, We had spent nearly an hour at the mines in examinations, and had obtained several beautiful specimens of vari- ous qualities of coal, when notice was given that the carriages were about to return. I was told that we were over a thousand feet above the level of the Lehigh, and about ten miles from Mauch Chunk, that our translation to the latter place would occupy about thirty minutes, though if you have special business to attend to, and wish to gain a little time, said our guide, it can be effected much sooner. " The deuce it can," said I ; "hold on, a little, if you please, I 've nothing more urgent to attend to than the eating a warm dinner at Kimball's, and I am sure I would rather dine on cold snacks for a week than to be hurried down that mountain in quite such a hurry." No, no, I was never made for flying, thought I, otherwise I should have been provided with a pair of wings ; but in this I soon found myself mis- 358 MAUCH CHUNK. taken ; the bugle sounded for our departure, and without the aid of wings, horses, steam, water, or any visible power, we soon discovered that we were flying down the mountain at the rate of twenty miles an hour ; at times our velocity considera- bly exceeded a mile in three minutes. In a short time we landed safe at the place of our morning's departure, highly gratified with the novelty of our excursion. As for myself, I was never better pleased, though a mile in two minutes is "not slow," as the Mauch Chunkers say, and that before I was fairly initiated into the art of flying I had some doubts as to the dependence to be placed upon my magic- moving wings, but this gradually wore off, and by the time we reached the first five miles, I was fully satisfied of their powers of speed, as well as perfect safety of conveyance, as their movement was under perfect control. Mauch Chunk, Sept. 9th, 1858. Having travelled thus far on a few days' holiday, I feel very much like a school- boy when he is let out of school for a vacation. That is — I am prepared to be pleased with everything I meet in the way. Well! — this sentiment is truly delightful, albeit I am now rapidly approaching the decadence of senility. The country here is curious, unique, grand, broken, strange, wild, and glorious, abound- ing in the picturesque and majestic beauties of nature, and interesting by the wonders of art. The results of human skill on a large scale were never seen in greater perfection than between Mauch Chunk and the coal hills, and at the Sum- mit and other mines and works, connected as they are with railroads, and with the marvellous canal, and its long and lofty lockage above the Delaware. All rambling Philadelphians should visit these regions, and examine the superb land- scapes, and explore the subterranean treasures of their own State. But they will not, for as of old — " While abroad to see beauties the traveller goes, He neglects the fine things that lie under his nose." Approaching Mauch Chunk from Wilkesbarre by Whitehaven, Wetherly, and the Beaver Meadow Railroad, we cross railroads from several coal fields from Hazle- ton, receive the Room Run coal, together with black diamonds from I know not how many other sources, and we pass along the Lehigh River, which has forced its way for miles through perpendicular cliffs, sometimes a thousand feet high, in a nook of which, where three of these tremendous ravines converge, lies the neat and improving town of Mauch Chunk, which, like Pottsville, is a " coal metropo- lis." It has its many wharves, too, for export and import, per the slackwater navigation of the river. But the town is odd — bizarre — the valleys are so narrow, so completely walled in by lofty mountains, that there is not room for more than a single street per valley. This morning, after breakfast, quite a party of us took the omnibus and rode up Mount Pisgah to the foot of the inclined plane. And here we were to commence a ride, of the novelty and pleasure and excitement of which it is hardly possible to give an idea by any written description. At the foot of the plane we took our seats in a very comfortable covered car, about a third of the length of one of the ordinary eight-wheeled passenger cars. The safety car, which is fastened to the steel bands and wire rope by which we were to be drawn up the plane, was attached to the rear end of the passenger car, the engineer at the top of the plane was signalled, and away we started up the ascent. The plane is over two thou- sand feet long, and rises over six hundred feet ; we were eight minutes in making the ascent. The view, as we ascended, and after we reached the top of the plane, SCENERY IN 1858. 359 was beautiful in the extreme. Below us, almost at our feet, as it seemed, lay trie town, with the river winding along its front, gleaming in the bright sunlight ; the boats in the canal, the cars upon the railroad, and the men and mules engaged about the coal wharves and landings, all reduced to Lilliputian size. The eye could follow and take in at a glance the valley of the Lehigh, stretching far away southward beyond the Gap, till the blue hills near Allentown, vanishing into the horizon, bounded the view. But we must not linger. A vigorous push, to give the cars a start, and away we go upon a descending grade for nine miles, with the aid of no motive power but the force of gravity. The feeling, at first, to one who has never travelled in this way, is one'of strangeness, not unaccompanied with a little suspicion of insecurity. The break alone is the controlling power, to regulate the speed or stop the car in case of necessity ; but in a little while one gets accustomed to the novelty of the whole thing, and enjoys it highly. Away we go around the mountain, rapidly whizzing past the tree-tops, which rise up the mountain side upon the left, and now and then catching a glimpse through the thick foliage down into the valley beneath. In about twenty minutes we reach the foot of a second inclined plane. Here the aid of a stationary engine at the top is called in play, and we are drawn up to the Summit, the highest point on Mount Pisgah, nine miles from Mauch Chunk. To the northward, upon the opposite side from the Mauch Chunk Valley, the mountain slopes down into the valley of Panther Creek, scattered all through which are extensive collieries. At the Summit we change cars, and take our seats in a car open at the top and on all sides, from which we can better enjoy the view. Again the cars were started with a push, and again we are off, moved alone by the force of gravity. But now we have a novel variation in the descent. The road, instead of running in one direction along the mountain side to the bottom of the valley, zigzags back and forth ; now we are riding^with one end of the car in front, and then, as we change to another track, the other end of the car is the front. And so we went at a most rapid rate, now this way, now that way, the breeze caused by the rapid motion rendering it necessary for us to keep hold of our hats and bonnets — now dashing round a curve at what seemed a frightful speed, and now resting a moment as the switch-back changed our course, and again away with the speed of the wind, till we reached the bottom of the valley. Here we had leisure to examine a coal-breaker, and rest ourselves before commencing the ascent. This is effected by means of two inclined planes, up which we were drawn by station- ary engines, and found ourselves once more on the summit. Resuming our seats in the cars in which we started at first, we again are whirled along by the simple force of gravity nine miles to the foot of the inclined plane from which we had first set out on our ride. A short walk down the hill brought us to our hotel, our appetites greatly sharpened for dinner by the pure, clear, bracing mountain air, of which we had drank our full supply. A TRAVELLER. Mauch Chunk, Sept. 20, 1859. Our plans were made for an excursion the next morning over the famous gravi- tation road, which, of itself, is a great curiosity, and a gi*eat conception, as well as a great consummation. There are some twenty-two miles of road connected with the coal mines and works which are travelled entirely by gravitation, with the exception of four inclined planes, where immense stationary engines are used to overcome the great eminences, and to draw up water from the valley below. A brilliant and bracing morning welcomed us at the start, lighting up the landscape 360 MAUCH CHUNK. with, a freshness of coloring that was perfectly enchanting. Our party had heen provided with a special car, entirely open, so that no part of the view was inter- rupted. In a few minutes after entering, we run over to the base of Mount Pisgah, where the great inclined plane is encountered. The up-look from the little car at the base to the summit where the stationary engine-house stands perched, its proportions dwarfed by the distance, is stirring, and some little resolution is required to take the seemingly perilous ascent, which is 600 feet in the air, on a plane of 2200 in length. Behind, and attached to the passenger cars, is a safety car, which tends as protection against possible accidents, none of which, however, have occur- red under the system and machinery now and long in use. We are hitched on, the signal is given, the engine above moves its ponderous propulsion, and we start on the plane. Up, up, we go, until the mountain tops, which just now towered above us, sink into the valleys and become pigmy hills, and the whole face of the surrounding country, in an immense circuit, opens under us like one vast flower bed, enriched with all the glowing garb of autumn, and glittering with a sunlight which intensifies every beauty and color. Novel emotions crowd upon the mind as the exciting and enchanting scene unfolds itself with new and almost appalling grandeur as the summit is approached, and the soul is transported with awe as the great works of the Creator stand out in their imposing contrast to our little- ness, as we hang suspended, as it were, in mid-air. After attaining the eminence, and inspecting the works, the excursion is renewed, this time by gravitation only. At the start, the grade is sharp, being ninety feet to the mile for six miles, and we rush along the edge of the precipices at a furious speed, until the foot of Mount Jefferson is reached, where another plane, only a little less formidable, is met, and the ascent to the clouds is repeated. This pro- cess, by the way, is the nearest approach to ballooning in our experience, and is said by those who have tried both to be more exciting and inspiring in its effects. After looking down from the dizzy height in our miniature car, we are quite satis- fied to leave the ballooning to those who aim at a new sensation. From the sum- mit we take the famous switch-back, and whirling along at a rapid pace for miles, we bring up at the coal stations, where the black diamonds are distributed accord- ing to their size, and prepared for transportation. Three delightful hours are passed in this way, when we return to the summit and shoot down the precipitous declivity to Mauch Chunk. In all this ride, parts of which appear so perilous, the presence of danger is not felt, from the confidence of the conductor, who always accompanies the car, and the knowledge that the road has been travelled for many years without a single serious accident to a passenger. In fact, the whole scene is so full of stirring and novel interest, that there is no time for the reflections which naturally enough suggest themselves afterwards. Mauch Chunk is destined to become a celebrated resort when this and other attractions near it shall be fully known, as they must be in time ; and the day is not distant when the travel there will require a spacious house of entertainment on the summit, where the switch- back road begins. Postponing our purpose to return to the city, after this excursion, until the next day, the opportunity was thus afforded of a run over the Beaver Meadow road to Janesville, which follows the Lehigh, and presents some of the finest points of scenery we encountered on the whole route, from the sudden curves of the river, and the majestic surroundings which rise up, like Titanic walls, on either side. Taking the Lehigh Valley road to Bethlehem, on the sixth morning, and the North Pennsylvania from there down, we returned here about noon, deeply impressed E'.d.Ya] 0. Currier's Li th.. 33 Spruce SfNX NESQUEHONING. 361 with the extraordinary beauties and objects which were constantly revealed, and with the conviction that, if they could be known generally, our people would soon come to understand their own comforts and interests by spending their summers at home, where greater facilities and inducements are offered, and by extending that sort of information abroad, by which the interior of Pennsylvania would become the great centre of attraction for the whole country. We have mountains, scenery, and a climate here, which, combined, are infinitely superior to those of New England, and they are far more accessible to the traveller who seeks recrea- tion or pleasure. Nesquehoning is a small village, situated at the foot of Nesque- honing Mountain, upon the Nesquehoning Creek, five miles above Mauch Chunk. The village was laid out in 1831, by the Lehigh Navigation Company ; it contains a population of about six hun- dred, one church (Catholic), two schools, three hotels, and one store. The inhabitants are principally miners, who work at the Eoom Eun Mines, about half a mile from the village; at the pre- sent time there is but one mine worked, although there are two openings. They belong to the Lehigh Navigation Company, and are leased by E. A. Packer & Co. The coal is sent to Mauch Chunk by railroad, where it is loaded in boats and sent to market through the Lehigh Canal. The original intention of the publishers of this work (as will be seen by referring to the prospectus) was to give a history only of the towns, villages, and improvements in that part of the Lehigh Valley through which the Lehigh Valley railroad passes — from Easton to Mauch Chunk. But the country bordering on the Lehigh upwards from Mauch Chunk has attained within a few years so great a notoriety from the many improvements made, that we feel we would be doing injustice to the Lehigh Valley did we not add a brief sketch of the many thriving towns, villages, and improvements in that region. On ascending the Lehigh you at once enter upon a scene both sublime and beautiful. In every portion of the distance, from Mauch Chunk to White Haven, nature appears to have diffused 25 SketcWfrom N° 5. Coal-Breaker. ; .Ciiri-iersl.itk 33 Si 362 MAUCH CHUNK TO WHITE HAVEN. her beauties of grandeur and magnificence on every band, but so diversified that not a single monotonous view occurs. Besides the grandeur of its mountains, its waterfalls, its wooded and barren mountain sides, its mountain walls, and frightful pre- cipices — the navigation is not unworthy reflection. Passing the pools and the locks in which are dropped down boats from twelve to thirty-two feet at a lift — then the tremendous dams from seven- teen to fifty feet high, forming the pools — and the immense guard banks — all lead one to reflect on the magnitude of its design and the skill, energy, and perseverance of its projectors. This part of the country has, within the few past years, been visited by thou- sands, a large proportion of whom have come solely with the view of obtaining recreation, and a change from the old round of tours, which, from frequent repetition, no longer yield the same freshness of attraction as in former times. They have been gratified — indeed, we may safely say delighted — with the beauty of the scenery, novelty of the objects, and ex- hilarating salubrity of the mountain atmosphere, and many have returned from time to time, always finding something new upon which they could dwell with pleasure. Men of science have be- held with astonishment the vast accumulation of mineral wealth that has for ages been imbedded quietly in the bosom of the hills, and which now promises to yield, for a long period to come, an immense supply of fuel. The forests, which but a few short years past were the resort only of beasts, have been filled with an active population, and the sound of the axe has driven the bears and wolves in search of less frequented quarters. Although the mountainous nature of this region presented formidable obstacles in the way of improvement, yet they were entirely overcome by the energy and perseverance of man. The building of the canal, the Beaver Meadow and Hazleton railroads, and their numerous branches, caused a complete revolution through the country which they pass, and have caused a constant stream of wealth to flow into the adjoining counties amounting to millions of dollars, and which PENN HAVEN" — WEATHERLY. 368 will never be checked as long as the great Middle coal basin con- tinues to contain coal. We will take the Beaver Meadow Eailroad cars at Mauch Chunk and visit the villages along the route. Perm Haven is the first village we arrive at; it is eight miles above Mauch Chunk, situated at the junction of the Quakake Creek with the river Lehigh. The Hazleton Eailroad commences here, and runs for the distance of fourteen miles to the borouarh of o Hazleton. The Hazleton Coal Company, to whom the property belongs, have used it as their shipping point since their commence- ment (1838) to the present time, with an interruption of one and a half years, which was caused by the great freshet of 1841. From 1838 to 1852, the Hazleton Company used the Beaver Meadow Eailroad from what is called Hazle Creek Bridge to Penn Haven (six miles); after the freshet of 1850, they located and built the present road from Hazle Creek Bridge to the top of the mountain at Penn Haven; here, by means of inclined planes, which are four hundred and thirty feet high and twelve hundred feet long, the coal cars are made to descend the mountain to the pockets from which the boats are loaded. The planes are self-acting ; the loaded cars descending, draw up the empty ones, on the same plan as those at the schutes at Mauch Chunk. During the present year (1859), the Company have erected another plane, by means of which the coal cars are let down on a level with the Beaver Mea- dow Eailroad, over which they are conveyed to the Lehigh Valley Eoad, and thence to market. The scenery from the head of the planes is magnificent, and said to be the most beautiful above Mauch Chunk. The village contains about three hundred inhabit- ants, one hotel, one school, and one store. Weatherly, the next village in our route, is fourteen miles from Mauch Chunk, on the Beaver Meadow Eailroad. The village con- tains about six hundred inhabitants, one church (Methodist), two schools, two hotels, post-office, three stores, and the machine and 364 BEAVER MEADOW. car repair shops of the Beaver Meadow Eailroad Company. The great freshet of 1849 and 1850, destroyed the shops at this place, and swept away nearly one half of the superstructure, and a large portion of the permanent way of the road between Weatherly and Penn Haven. One mile and a quarter below Weatherly, the Quakake Railroad — thirteen miles in length — connects the Beaver Meadow with the Catawissa, Williamsport, and Erie Eailroad. One and a half miles above Weatherly, the Beaver Meadow and Hazleton railroads meet. Beaver Meadow. — This beautiful and enterprising village is situ- ated on the Beaver Meadow Eailroad, about nineteen miles above Mauch Chunk; the place was commenced about 1833. The town derives its name from Beaver Creek, which runs close by. A dam is said to have existed on the Beaver Creek, until within a few years, which was built by the beavers, many years before the town was commenced. The business of the place is principally that connected with the mining of coal ; the mines of the Beaver Mea- dow Company, and those of Eatcliffe and Johnson, are situated near the village. The first mine was opened in 1831. The ma- chine and car repair shops of the Eailroad Company were for- merly located here, but in 1839, for reasons deemed of sufficient importance, they were removed to Weatherly. The population at the present time is about six hundred, for the village alone ; but to this should be added the inhabitants of the several small mining hamlets near the place, which would probably increase the number to twelve hundred. The town is pleasantly situated on elevated ground (sixteen hundred feet above tidewater by actual measure- ment), and contains one church (Presbyterian), two public schools, one machine 'shop, three hotels, three stores, and one military com- pany. Jeansville is a mining village, situated on a branch of the Beaver Meadow Eailroad, about four miles above Beaver Meadow, and two miles from Hazleton ; the place is named after Mr. Joseph Jeans, HAZLETON. 365 of Philadelphia, one of the original proprietors of the mines in the vicinity. The village contains a population of about sixteen hun- dred (principally miners), one church (Methodist), erected by and belonging to Mr. W. Milnes, three public schools, one night school for boys, one store, and one hotel. The celebrated Spring Moun- tain coal mines are situated here, and are worked by Chas. Hamp- shire for account of Randolph and Hampshire, lessees; at this time they are working three openings, from which are mined and sent to market some 150,000 tons of coal per year. In the immediate neighborhood of Jeansville are several small mining villages, viz., Frenchtown, Yorktown, Audenried, and Tresckow, in each of which there are several coal mines. The product of all these mines is carried to market over the Beaver Meadow Railroad, and are situated in what is called the Beaver Meadow coal basin. Hazleton, Luzerne County, one of the handsomest and most en^ lerprisiug towns in the coal region, is situated on the Hazleton Railroad, twenty-three miles from Mauch Chunk, on what is known as the dividing ridge of the Lehigh and Susquehanna Rivers, the waters in the western part of the town running into Susquehanna River, while those in the eastern part flow into the Lehigh ; the town is situated seventeen hundred feet above tidewater. Hazle Creek, from which the town derives its name, flows near by. The Hazleton Railroad, of which this place is the terminus, was com- menced in 1836, and completed to Weatherly in 1838, where it connected with the Beaver Meadow Railroad; in 1851, the road was continued from a point two miles above Weatherly, to Penn Haven, making the whole length of the road fourteen miles. Within two miles of the borough there are eleven openings, or coal mines, which are worked by different companies, Messrs. A. Pardee and Co. being the lessees of no less than six of them, which produce about 250,000 tons of coal per annum ; the product of these mines is carried over the Hazleton Railroad to Penn Haven, where it is shipped by canal, or transferred to the Beaver Meadow Railroad, and from that to the Lehigh Valley Railroad. The town 366 STOCKTON. of Hazleton has grown up in connection with the Hazleton Co.'s mines, which were opened in 1837 ; the town was incorporated as a borough in 1857, and contains at the present time about fifteen hundred inhabitants, three churches (Presbyterian, Lutheran, Ger- man Eeformed, and Catholic), five schools, four hotels, six stores, one brewery, one grist-mill, and the machine and car shops of the Hazleton Eailroad and Coal Company, three military companies, and one brass band. " Hazleton is one of the most beautiful villages in the Lehigh valley coal region. The town consists of several streets running at right angles ; the principal one Is very wide and nearly half a mile in length, lined on both sides with good and substantial buildings. The town is well supplied with pure cold spring water from a neighboring hill, which is conveyed to the town through pipes. The num- ber of inhabitants is said to be about 1500, but in addition to this should be added the population of the little hamlets near the mines surrounding the borough, which would probably increase the number to near 3000. The schools of the borough are perhaps equal to any in the State, as great care has been exercised in the selection of teachers and the management of the schools ; they are graded, from «the primary to the high school, which arrangement has proved very beneficial. One of the institutions of the place is the locomotive and car works of Messrs. A. Pardee & Co. : after having travelled through mountains of rocks and dense forests of pine we are not prepared to find so extensive and complete an establishment. Here are built and repaired all of the locomotives and cars of the Hazleton Coal and Railroad Company, as well as all the machinery needed in mining operations. This establishment, under the able management of the master machinist, Mr. David Clark, has become celebrated for the character of its work throughout the coal region. Hazleton is beautifully located and is becoming quite a place of sum- mer resort ; the inhabitants are sociable and intelligent, and the hotels excellent. Mr. A. Pardee, one of the leading men and most enterprising coal operators in this region, resides here. The town and neighborhood is exceedingly healthy, situated as it is, 1700 feet above tidewater; the summers are delightfully cool. Did our space permit we would give a full description of the many objects of interest in the neighborhood, but with a few words more we must close. Hazleton is easy of access, it being only twenty -three miles from Mauch Chunk by the Beaver Meadow and Hazleton Railroads, through a country abounding with scenery both wild and picturesque in the extreme ; and, what adds much to the pleasure of the ride is the sociable and agreeable manners of Messrs. Nichols and Glover, the conductors, who are ever ready to answer the hundreds of questions put to them by the delighted tourists ; and by way of conclusion we would say to all who ever visit Mauch Chunk — don't fail to come to Hazleton." Stockton, Luzerne Co., is a small mining village, situated on the Hazleton Eailroad, two miles from Hazleton ; it was named in honor of Commodore Stockton, of New Jersey, whose liberality has done much for the benefit of the Lehigh Valley. The celebrated STOCKTON — ECKLEY. 367 East Sugar-loaf Coal Mines are situated here; they were opened in 1850 by Messrs. Packer, Carter, & Co., the first coal being sent to market by them on the 8th of June, 1852. They are owned at the present time by Messrs. E. A. Packer & Co., are worked by three slopes, and are capable of producing fifty thousand tons per slope per year. The coal from these mines has justly earned a great reputation through the country, and is acknowledged by all to have no superior. The village of Stockton compares favorably with any mining town in the State, and in connection with the extensive improve- ments in the vicinity, is an evidence of the heavy outlay of capital required for the development of coal in this region, as well as the energy, character, and enterprise required of those who enter into so great an undertaking. Stockton has about one thousand inha- bitants, one church, one hotel, one store, one saw-mill, a post-office, and two public schools. (We present a view of the No. 1 colliery, together with a small portion of the village.) The visitor to Stockton cannot but be impressed with admiration of the permanency and adaptability of all the machinery and fix- tures to the purposes for which they are intended, exhibiting as they do, in every part, that they have been erected under the direc- tion of men who were masters in their several departments. Ecldey, Foster Township, Luzerne Co., one of the most beautiful mining villages in the State, is situated on a branch of the Hazleton Eailroad (called the Lehigh and Luzerne road), about twenty miles above Mauch Chunk. The place was formerly called Fillmore, but changed to the present name since the establishment of a post- office. The site of the village in 1854 was a perfect wilderness. At that time Messrs. Sharpe, Leisenring, & Co. commenced explo- rations on the tract, to ascertain the thickness and extent of the coal veins. As soon as they were satisfied that the coal was suffi- ciently abundant to warrant the erection of dwellings for miners, and other buildings necessary for mining purposes, they built a saw-mill, considering it the first requisite for turning the pines and 368 ECKLEV. hemlocks of the forest into dwellings. Since that time they have erected over one hundred and fifty tenements, and five neat cot- tages for the accommodation of the resident partners. They have also erected in that time three commodious school-houses, two churches (Episcopal and Presbyterian), a store, and a fine hotel. The general arrangement of the place is perhaps the most complete of any mining town in the State. The location of the houses is divided into four sections or divisions, each section occupied accord- ing to grade, viz., the cottages of the proprietors in one section, the boss laborers and contractors in another, the miners in a third, and second class miners and slate pickers in another. As the dwellings are all owned by the lessees, the cost of each has been according to its location. Considerable attention has been given to make them convenient within, and with their projecting eaves and gables and uniform appearance, present a very neat and pic- turesque appearance without. The tenements are in blocks of two houses each, on lots of fifty feet front by two hundred feet deep, and gives to each tenant a fine garden, which many have orna- mented with considerable taste. The collieries of Messrs. Sharpe, Leisenring, & Co., which are located here, are known by the name of Council Eidge. The tract of land on which the mines are located has been ascertained by geological developments, principally under the direction of Mr. A. L. Foster, to contain the Buck Mountain and other veins, long favorably known in the market as producing a superior quality of coal. In locating the two openings from which the coal is at present raised, the lessees selected a point on the anticlinal axis of the two basins, from which a slope is driven north and south into each basin, the coal from both slopes passing through the same breaker. The two openings are capable of pro- ducing about 120,000 tons of coal per year. About a mile out of town they have erected a water- works, to supply the town with water, as well as feed the boilers for all their steam works. We would like to give a detailed description of this beautiful little village, but our space forbids. To a person acquainted with the location as it appeared five years ago, the first emotions on ap- EOCKPORT. 369 proaching the place are those of surprise that where was then a dense forest, unreclaimed by the hand of man, and echoing to no sound of civilization, save occasionally the report of the hunter's rifle, so large a town has sprung up as if by magic, and the solitude of the forest has been superseded by the busy hum of machinery, the puffing of engines, and the busy stir of a population of seven hundred souls. Succeeding the emotions of surprise and pleasure at this great change, are those of admiration of the energy and perseverance of the men under whose management, direction, and capital so much has been done in so short a time. The Lehigh and Luzerne Eailroad, of which Eckley is the ter- minus, passes through a tunnel ten hundred and seventeen feet long, through the Council Eidge Mountain ; the tunnel was com- pleted, and first locomotive run through Aug. 29, 1859. It was on this mountain, and near the site of this town, that the Indian coun- cil of war was held, on the night previous to the massacre of Wyoming ; hence the name given to the mountain. Rockport is a neat and pleasant little village, situated on the Lehigh River, thirteen miles above Mauch Chunk. It contains about two hundred and fifty inhabitants, one church, one school- house, one hotel, one store. The place has grown up with the mining operations of the Buck Mountain Coal Company. The place was started soon after the discovery of coal in that region by Mr. A. L. Foster, in 1836 and 1837. The mines of the Com- pany are situated about four miles from the village (it being merely the shipping-point), at a place called Clifton, which has a popula- tion of about eight hundred. The Company's works consist of three openings, from which are mined about 100,000 tons of coal per annum. The coal is conveyed from the mines by railroad to Rockport, where it is emptied into boats, and sent to market via Lehigh Canal. The village of Rockport is a small but very beau- tiful village, situated in a delightfully picturesque valley ; it con- sists of but one street, in which are several very handsome private residences, occupied by persons engaged in the coal trade. The 370 WHITE HAVEN. hotel of the place is well kept, the knowledge of which, together with the hospitality of the citizens, the cool bracing mountain air, and the delightful walks and drives through the adjacent country, has made it quite a place of summer resort. White Haven, Luzerne County, is situated on the Lehigh Eiver, at the head of the slack-water navigation, twenty-five miles above Mauch Chunk. The town was commenced in 1835, and named after Josiah White. It was incorporated as a borough in 1842, and has at this time about fifteen hundred inhabitants, three churches, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Episcopal, two school-houses, three schools, five hotels, four stores, ten saw-mills, two planing mills, one foundry and machine shop, and two military companies. The principal business of the place is that connected with the sawing of lumber. White Haven is also the terminus of the Lehigh and Susquehanna Eailroad, running between White Haven and Wilkesbarre, a distance of twenty miles. This road was originally intended for the conveyance of boats from the Susquehanna navi- gation to that of the Lehigh ; but the project was abandoned, and the road is now used for the transportation of passengers and freight only. A railroad is now being built from this place to Penn Haven, by the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, which, when completed, will form a continuous and direct line from Wilkesbarre to New York and Philadelphia. At this time pas- sengers are required to take the stage from White Haven to Eck- ley, a distance of seven miles, and thence via Lehigh and Luzerne, Hazleton and Beaver Meadow Railroads, to Mauch Chunk. The navigation of the Lehigh is continued thirteen miles above White Haven to Stoddartsville, by what is called a descending navigation, which is caused by artificial freshets, and the old bear-trap locks invented by Josiah White are still used, a full description of which will be found in the history of the Canal Company. About one mile below White Haven is the extensive tannery of Messrs. Smull and Sons, which is said to be the largest in the United States ; the main WHITE HAVEN. 371 building is six hundred and eighty feet in length, and the number of sides tanned per year is 80,000. Soon after the completion of the canal, a packet-boat was run from White Haven to Mauch Chunk, and another from the latter place to Easton, for the conveyance of passengers. The packet- boat Swan, Capt. W. E. Wells, was the first boat, and commenced regular trips in July, 1829, from Easton to Mauch Chunk ; another boat was run to White Haven by Capt. Hillman, called the Wash- ington ; this mode of travelling continued for several years. We append a letter written by a traveller over this route : — DESCENT OF THE LEHIGH. "White Haven is situated at the head of the Lehigh Navigation, and some eight or ten miles above the commencement of the coal formation. Its trade is there- fore confined to the running of lumber; and this, judging from the number of saw-mills in the place, and its vicinity, and the immense number of board piles that for several miles above it, literally line the banks of the river, must be ex- tensive. We here took passage in a packet for Mauch Chunk. You will excuse a some- what detailed account of my passage down this fair stream. The descent of the Lehigh is interesting, both on account of the almost gigantic construction of the canal, and the magnificent wildness of the natural scenery. The fall in the river, between White Haven and Mauch Chunk, a distance of but twenty-five miles, is six hundred and forty-two feet, and is overcome by twenty-nine locks, varying from fifteen to upwards of thirty feet in depth. These locks, even before the de- structive freshet of 1841, were substantially constructed, but those that were then destroyed, have been since rebuilt on a larger and still more massive scale. They have been widened so as to admit two boats at once, and from the inspection of an unpractised eye, I judged their walls to be five feet in thickness, and their abutments of solid mason work to their wickers, are filled and emptied as expe- ditiously as the eight feet locks on our State canals. Between White Haven and Mauch Chunk, the navigation is almost entirely by slack-water. The scenery, immediately upon leaving White Haven, is striking, but improves gradually, as you descend the Lehigh, iintil, some miles above Mauch Chunk, it becomes wild and picturesque in the highest degree. The dark waters of the river, dyed almost to a black, by the sap of the hemlock soaking in it, everywhere inclosed by mountains of from three hundred to seven hundred feet in height, and confined to a channel scarcely three hundred feet wide, trace a circuitous course through, perhaps, the wildest and most rugged mountain region of the State. De- termined to enjoy it to the utmost, I furnished myself with a prime principe, and taking my seat upon the deck, fairly drank in the varied magnificence of the ever- changing scene. Beneath me, the Lehigh either reposed in a black, glittering sheet, or bounded over its rocky channel in wreaths of snow-white foam ; about me, on every side, for hundreds of feet, rose the pine-capped mountains, here dark, jag- ged, and precipitous, interspersed only with occasional forest trees, growing in the ravines, or amongst the clefts and crevices of the rocks ; now covered with rolling 372 ANTHRACITE COAL FIELDS. stones nearly to their summits, bald and desolate ; and again, sloping to the river's bank, evenly clad with bright green foliage, and affording the eye a grateful relief from the almost painful grandeur of the ruder scenes ; above me, was the deep blue sky of a summer's eve, enhancing the effect of every view, by the contrast of its serene expanse, with the wild confusion of the mountain scenery around. Everywhere the mountain sides were spotted with tall, gaunt, leafless trunks of withered pines, blasted by lightning, or scorched by the hand of man, and requir- ing but slight aid from the excited imagination, to seem the gigantic guards of these Satanic fortresses. Along the course of the river, not a single rod of arable land is to be perceived ; the mountains sink sheer to the water's edge. In wild magnificence of scenery, I have seen nothing on the Hudson, the Susquehanna, or the Juniata, to compare with the banks of the Lehigh. A slight description of the coal fields and coal operations, in the region we have just passed through, will no doubt be of interest to the reader. Our space, and the character of the work, will not allow a full description of each mine, &c. The anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania are divided into three parts, viz., Northern, Middle, and Southern. The Southern and Middle divisions are at this time tributary to the Lehigh Canal and Lehigh Valley Eailroad, and after the completion of the last connecting link of railroad between the Lehigh and Susquehanna, the coal fields of the northern division will also seek a market through the Lehigh Yalley. The mines of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company are located mostly in the southern division, which has been the longest opened. As the Middle division inte- rests the people of the Lehigh Yalley more particularly, in con- sideration of its being a newly opened field, we give a brief de- scription of its extent, &c, together with the number of openings now worked. "We extract in part from Eogers' Geology of Penn- sylvania, Vol. II. General Structure and Topography. — The Eastern Middle Anthracite Coal Field of Pennsylvania is bounded on the south by the Red-shale Valleys of the Quakake and the Upper Catawissa, on the north by that of the Nescopeck, on the east by that of the Lehigh, and on the west by the branches of the valley of the Catawissa. It comprises a high rolling table-land of a maximum elevation above the level of the sea of a little less than 2000 feet. It is penetrated from the east and west by two sets of main anticlinal undulations, some of the longer of which pass each other in the more central portions of the plateau, while others almost unite to form continuous anticlinals through it. By a law of structure prevalent in many districts of the Appalachian chain, where the upper rocks left by denuda- tion are firm and resisting ones, and the strata beneath them readily eroded, GENERAL STRUCTURE AND TOPOGRAPHY. 873 these anticlinals invariably enter the coal field by deeply denuded valleys or covers, the mountain spurs inclosed between them being habitually of synclinal structure. Viewed in another aspect, the main basins of the district, traced east and west, throwing off the form of valleys, run out into high insulated synclinal mountain spurs ; while the anticlinal ridges leave the table-land under opposite features, passing from the configuration of long narrow ridges, separating the basin into hollows or covers which, in both directions, make down into the red-shale valleys of the exterior country. Viewing the flexures of this complicated coal field in a large way, the whole district naturally divides itself into six leading synclinal belts, separated by five general anticlinal ranges, both the synclinal and the anticlinal tracts consisting rather of chains of basins and saddles, than of simple continuous flexures. Be- fore proceeding to a detailed description of the individual lesser saddles, and the basins of coal embraced between them, it will be expedient to indicate these larger features, and to classify the great anticlinal belts, and the general coal basins which they separate. ********** Coal Basin No. 1, or that of Beaver Meadow. — Between Spring Mountain as a southern boundary and the above mentioned anticlinal Pismire Ridge as a northern, basin No. 1 of the district, or that of the Beaver Meadows, occurs. As a detailed analysis of the structure and contents of this interesting coal field will be introduced after this preliminary sketch, it will suffice to mention in this place that this basin is forked east and west by the intrusion of subordinate anticlinal axes penetrating it from both quarters, very much as the larger anticlinals enter and traverse the general table-land. ********** Mines in this field — Spring Mountain Coal Company three openings, Hampshire & Randolph ; product 150,000 tons per year. South Spring Mountain Coal Company, one opening. New York and Lehigh Coal Company, two openings, Taggart and Co. ; product 80,000 tons per year. North Spring Mountain Coal Company, two openings, J. B. McCreary & Co. ; pro- duct 125,000 tons per year. German Pennsylvania Coal Company, two openings, German Coal Company ; pro- duct 60,000 tons per year. Beaver Meadow Coal Company, one opening, Ratcliffe & Johnson ; product 20,000 tons per year. Colerain Coal Company, two openings, Ratcliffe & Johnson ; product 80,000 tons per year. Coal Basin No. 2, or that of Dreck Creek. — This is the narrow and straight trough of lower coal measures confined to the valley of Dreck Creek, and to the same de- pression prolonged across the Tamaqua road, towards the west. It terminates towards Cross Run of Catawissa Creek, but a thin covering of coal measures ex- tends northwest, forking off, as it were, from this basin, to lap across the eastern subsided end of the anticlinal of the Catawissa ridge, westward of the Dreck Creek axis ; thus uniting the Dreck Creek basin proper, with a long narrow syn- clinal belt of coal measures of the Big Tomhicken stream, north of the Catawissa ridge. It is this oblique passage of a strip of coal measures from the Dreck Creek basin into that of Big Tomhicken, which has led to the prevalent error of these being one and the same basin extended. * * * * 374 ANTHRACITE COAL FIELDS. Mines in this field are not yet worked. Coal Basin No. 3, or that of Hazleton. — This, apparently the most capacious of the coal basins of the district inclosed between the anticlinal ranges Nos. 2 and 3, extends as a continuous but somewhat complicated belt of coal strata, from a little east of the board-yard in the valley of Hazle Creek westward, even to the junction of the Little and Big Tomhicken. It seems to terminate east in two blunt prongs, divided by a broad low anticlinal of the conglomerate, and subsides a few hundred yards to the northeast of the board-yard. Westward, it forks in a much more conspicuous manner, being separated by an anticlinal ridge of conglomerate at Cranberry, into two long branch basins, the more southern one ascending Eagle or Cranberry Creek, and prolonging itself through the valley of Big Tomhicken, while the more northern, ranging west and north of Long Run, terminates in the Powell lands north of the Horseshoe Swamp, in the watershed which feeds the Sandy Run of Black Creek, and the Little or North Tomhicken. Connected with this third synclinal belt of the coal measures, are the two southern small basins of the Buck Mountain Company, on East Pismire Hill. * * * Mines in this field — Crystal Ridge, A. S. & E. Roberts ; Cranberry, A. S. & E. Roberts ; Diamond, A. Pardee ; Laurel Hill, Hazleton Coal Co. ; Old Hazleton, Hazleton Coal Co. ; No. 3 Hazleton, Hazleton Coal Co. ; A. Pardee & Co. ; product 250,000. Mount Pleasant, one opening, Silliman & McKee ; product 30,000. East Sugar Loaf, three openings, E. A. Packer & Co. ; product 150,000. Buck Mountain Coal Company, two openings, Buck Mountain Company ; product 65,000. Coal Basin No. 4, or that of Big Black Creek.— This division of the coal field lying between the anticlinal range of the Council Ridge on its south, and that of Black Creek Ridge and East Buck Mountain on its north, consists of two synclinal patches of the coal measures, the east, and by far the longest and most important, extending from near the Owl Hole westward, down the valley of Big Black Creek, to the in- tersection of this with Little Black Creek ; the western consisting of an unimport- ant narrow and shallow trough, west of Cranberry Creek, and heading near the sources of Barn's Run. From Jeddo westward to the mouth of Little Black Creek, the basin is of simple structure ; but eastward it forks into at least three divisions, the most prolonged and widest of which is that of the Fillmore and Buck Moun- tain Northern Basin. ******* Buck Mountain Mines, one opening, Buck Mountain Coal Company; product 35,000. Council Ridge, two openings, Sharpe, Leisinring & Co. ; product 120,000. Union Improvement Company, one opening, J. B. Markle & Co. (new), capable of 50,000. Big Black Creek, one opening, Silliman & McKee. Coal Basin No. 5, or that of the Little Black Creek and Main Black Creek. — The next basin encountered in our progress northward, is a long and narrow synclinal belt of coal measures, extending from East Buck Mountain, east of Buck Mountain Creek to West Buck Mountain, west of the deep defile by which Black Creek passes northward out from the table-land. The eastern half of this trough lies chiefly in the valley of Little Black Creek, and is sometimes called Little Black Creek basin. The western half, from the entrance of Cranberry into Black Creek, occu- pies the valley of this latter stream the whole way to West Buck Mountain, head- ing westward, near the source of Robert's Creek. It is doubtful whether the east % 1 0*' #? X ^tU^i^y £j :■■ x ^ % ^ ,«■*" /isy/zzs^cJLs ffi/3^Z*>6y^ LEHIGH COAL AND NAVIGATION COMPANY. 375 and west basins of this belt are actually united, though, they strictly belong to one synclinal wave. It would seem rather, in the present imperfectly developed state of the district, that the coal measures have all been denuded from out of the trough or basin above the junction of Big Black Creek and Cranberry. Next its east end the Little Black Creek basin subdivides, an anticlinal upthrow of the conglomerate breaking it into two branches ; one running towards the main southern spur of East Buck Mountain, the other keeping a more northern course towards the north synclinal spur of the same range. No openings have yet been made in this basin. . Coal Basin No. 6, or that of East Green Mountain. — Between the anticlinal last mentioned, or that of the Conyngham Valley, and another axis situated in the valley of the Nescopec and Oley Creeks, occurs the almost detached coal field of the East Green Mountain. This embraces two distinct coal basins, separated by a local anticlinal, which lifts the upper strata of the red shale formation to the summit of the mountain. The larger of these basins occupies the west half of the Green Mountain, while the smaller, lying about one miie north of the east point of this main one, is seated just at the north edge of the table-land, where it over- looks the valley of Oley Creek. No openings in this basin. Coal Basin No. 7, or that of McAuley's Mountain. — In apparently the same gene- ral range or belt with the Western Green Mountain Basin, lies the remote, insu- lated, flat-topped mountain basin of McAuley's Mountain. Whether this is situated between the same anticlinals which inclose the coal basins of the East Green Moun- tain, I am not prepared to say, and therefore deem it wisest, for the sake of avoid- ing errors of classification, to rank it separately. HISTORY OF THE LEHIGH COAL AND NAVIGATION COMPANY.* There are probably but few persons in this land of "the free" who have not, at some time or other, enjoyed the novelty and the genial warmth of an anthracite fire ; many a pleasant story has been related, many tender vows been made and sealed before the flaming minister upon the hearth. But it is on a cold winter's night, when we hear the snow and sleet all " pitiless pour," and the wind howl and fret around us, that we realize in a more grateful sense the glowing qualities of our friend. It is then, wrapt in silent contemplation, that we trace its useful presence throughout the whole range of both social and industrious life, and find it often associated with our national strength and glory, never to be diminished or obscured. When we view the almost numberless boats passing on our canals, hear the shrill whistle of the locomotive conveying the long train of cars, all of which are laden with this valuable mineral, to the two great commercial cities of the Union, New York and Philadelphia, and from thence distributed as the food of the vast manufacturing industry of the United States, and thus supplying fuel for furnaces, rolling mills, forges, smitheries, as also the fires of thousands of steam- engines, which spin, weave, grind, hammer, blow, pump, lift, travel the railroads, * We are indebted for much of the following history, to a history published in 1841 by the Canal Company, and a communication to the Pennsylvania Historical Society by Dr. Thos. C. James. 376 LEHIGH COAL AND NAVIGATION COMPANY. and navigate rivers and seas ; and how greatly the productive industry, by the discovery of this staple production, has added to the wealth, power, and prosperity of this great nation. Then it is that we, as Pennsylvanians, can exult that our Commonwealth hath been chosen by Providence as a depository for this her most valuable gift to man, in the presence of which the gold of California must retire into insignificance. Although coal is usually plain and unpretending in its physical aspect, it can, nevertheless, claim relation to the diamond, whose beauty cannot easily be exag- gerated, but, unlike coal, it contributes only to the vanity of man, and not to our comfort and actual necessity. Both are members of the carboniferous family, and almost identical in composition, they are yet wholly dissimilar in appearance, in geographical distribution, and in the characters which they have to play in the domestic economy of man. As between the two, we venture to say that coal com- mends itself more warmly to our favor, and having impressed its stamp very con- spicuously upon the age in which we figure, it must be invested with many points of interest beyond the mere statistics of commercial value ; its origin, its history, and the circumstances of its benevolent mission, deserve to be examined and known. Confining ourselves mainly to the anthracite region of Carbon County, we will take a retrospective view of circumstances connected with the first devel- opments, the glorious results of which we are in the enjoyment of. The Lenni Lenape (Indian men) were aware that the Shawenacs (white people) were very avaricious, and would deprive them of their lands whenever opportuni- ties offered, and notwithstanding laws were enacted over and again, protecting them in their possessions, yet constantly their lands were entered upon, even by private persons; all the penalties of the laws did not restrain them from such encroachments. This led the Indians to be mute as to giving information of localities even of the appearance of mineral substances. They knew that reveal- ing such would, in a manner, be as an invitation to have their property trespassed upon. They also used the precaution to place guards where ores or minerals were sup- posed to be deposited. Twelve miles above the Indian town of Wyoming (on the Susquehanna, where Wilkesbarre is situated) was a silver mine (as they said). This they complained to Government, as late as 1766, of being trespassed upon. " A trench dug 45 feet long, and six feet deep, from which three boat loads of silver ore was taken away." (See Pennsylvania Archives.') The Indians were taught the value of silver, copper, or iron, by the white people ; as to coal, the probability is that neither the one nor the other knew its value or use at that period of time, and consequently it was not noticed in history, yet that they knew of the existence of such black stones is apparent. The Moravians, who settled at Gnadenhutten (Tents of Grace), about three miles southwardly from Mauch Chunk, said that the Indians make their pipe-heads of a soft black stone. (Loskiel's History of Indian Missions.) The names of streams in the neighborhood also imply such knowledge : Nesquehoning means Black Lick, Nescopeck, black- ish deep water. The Dutch and Swedes paid but little attention to mines, yet we find that the former had, as early as 1659, discovered copper ores on the north side of the Blue Mountain, near the Delaware Water Gap. It is said, in Vol. III. Doc- umentary History of New York, that "Claes de Ruyter produced, in 1659, speci- mens of the copper ore mines at the Minisinks to the Directors of the West India Company at Amsterdam, in Holland." Mineral coal is not mentioned by the his- torians of the Dutch or Swedish occupants of New York or Pennsylvania. LEHIGH COAL AND NAVIGATION" COMPANY. 877 The traders, in passing through the Indian territory, occasionally became acquainted with the locations of minerals ; of their knowledge of the existence of coal in this region, history is silent, and, even if known, was not considered of any value, as they would not have believed that black stoues would burn ; then, also, it was considered that there was sufficient timber for fuel for many centuries to come. The Indian wars of 1755 to 1764, introduced scientific men into the Indian coun- try. Such observant gentlemen as Benjamin Franklin and others were deputed to superintend the erection of forts on the frontiers, and thus probably became ac- quainted with the locations of coal, &c. On a map, published by William Scull in 1770, dedicated to the Honorable Thomas and Richard Penn, the proprietaries of Pennsylvania, we find the word " coal " laid down at a place in the neighbor- hood of Pottsville, or near Minersville, and at another spot about eight or ten miles more northward, on the Mahoney Creek. But we owe our knowledge of this most valuable of minerals, which now diffuses so much of wealth and comfort to a great portion of Pennsylvania, to sheer acci- dent. A hunter, by the name of Philip Ginther, who had built himself a rough cabin in the forest, on the Mauch Chunk mountain, being out one day in quest of food for his family, whom he had left at home without any supply, meeting with but poor success, bent his course homeward as night was approaching, considering himself one of the most forsaken of human beings. As he trod slowly over the ground, his foot stumbled against something, which, by the stroke, was driven before him ; observing it to be black, to distinguish which there was just enough light remaining, he took it up, and as he had often listened to the traditions of the country of the existence of coal in the vicinity, it occurred to him that this might be a portion of that " stonecoal " of which he had heard. He accordingly carefully took it with him to his cabin, and the next day carried it to Col. Jacob Weiss, residing at what was then known as Fort Allen, now Weissport. The Colonel, who was alive to the subject, took the specimen to Philadelphia, and sub- mitted it to the inspection of John Nicholson and Michael Hillegas, Esqs., and of Charles Cist, an intelligent printer, who ascertained its nature and qualities, and authorized the Colonel to satisfy Ginther for his discovery upon his pointing out the precise spot where he found the coal. This was done by acceding to Ginther's proposal of getting through the forms of the Patent Office the title of a small tract of land, which he supposed had never been taken up, but which he afterwards was unhappily deprived of by the claim of a prior survey. Hillegas, Cist, Weiss, Henry, and others, immediately after (about the beginning of the year 1792) formed the "Lehigh Coal Mine Company" but without a charter of incorporation. They purchased from Jacob Weiss the tract of land on which the large opening at Summit Hill is made, and afterwards "took up," under war- rants from the Commonwealth, about ten thousand acres of land, embracing about five-sixths of the coal lands now owned by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Com- pany. The Coal Mine Company proceeded to open the mines, where they found coal in unmistakable quantity, and the only thing that now remained to secure the most triumphant success was a market. Standing upon their seam of coal on the summit of the mountain, fifteen hundred feet above tide water, the " Lehigh Coal Mine Company " looked wistfully over the great expanse of mountain, valley, and plain, and up to the arching firmament, for a market. Nothing of the kind could be seen, not the slightest glimmer of encouragement was visible ; the sur- rounding country was everywhere covered with timber, and what, with the abund- 26 378 LEHIGH COAL AND NAVIGATION COMrANY. ance and low price of wood, and the want of navigable streams, there was no demand for stonecoal near or remote. The Company made a small appropriation to construct a road from the mines to the landings (nine miles). After many fruitless attempts to get coal to market over this nominal road, and by the Lehigh River, which, in seasons of low water, in its unimproved state, defied the floating of a canoe over its rocky bed, and after calling for contributions of money from the stockholders until calling was useless, the Lehigh Coal Mine Company became tired of the experiment, and suffered their property to lie idle for some years. But Col. Weiss, notwithstanding the inaus- picious circumstances which involved the Company, determined that the coal should, at least, be introduced to the acquaintance of the public. He filled his saddlebags from time to time, and rode around among the blacksmiths of the lower country, earnestly soliciting them to try it. A few accepted the proffered supplies, and used it with partial success. Mr. Michael Seip (yet living at Easton) informs us that the only manner in which he could succeed in making it burn was by pounding it fine and sprinkling it over his charcoal fire.* In the year 1806, William Turnbull, Esq., caused an ark to be constructed at Lausanne, which took to the city of Philadelphia two or three hundred bushels. A portion was sold to the managers of the waterworks, in Centre Square, for the use of the steam-engine. Upon trial there it was deemed rather an extinguisher than an aliment of fire, was rejected as worthless, and was broken up and spread on the walks of the surrounding garden in place of gravel. The legislature, early aware of the importance of the navigation of the Lehigh, passed an act for its improvement in 1771, and others in 1791, 1794, 1798, 1810, 1814, and 1816. Under the one of 1798, a company associated, and after expend- ing more than $20,000 in clearing out channels, relinquished their design of per- fecting the navigation of the river. * In the books of William Henry an entry is made in 1798, having received from Frederick Sheckler 114 bushels of " stonecoal," for which Mr. Sheckler was paid five shillings per bushel (66§ cents), delivered at Nazareth (this would be about $18 to $20 per ton). Mr. Henry was then engaged in manufacturing two thousand muskets, contracted with Governor Mifflin, of Pennsylvania. In the course of that business, he had employed an excellent blacksmith, residing in Nazareth, named Christian Mickseh ; this man was prevailed upon to try to make use of this coal, but after three or four days' trial, altering his fire-place frequently, placing the too-iron higher or lower, and otherwise using every possible means to make it burn, but all to no purpose, became impatient, and in a passion threw all the coal he had in his shop into the street, and in an angry mood came running to Mr. Henry's house (where the writer then was standing at the front door, a boy of about nine years of age), he asked, "Is your father at home ?" I said, "Yes, sir." Perceiving that something was going wrong, I entered the house to hear his errand ; when he saw my father, he thus addressed him : " I can do nothing with your ' black stones,' and therefore threw them out of my shop into the street ; I can't make them burn ; if you want any work done with them you may do it yourself ; everybody laughs at me for being such a fool as to try to make stones burn, and they say that you must be a fool for bringing them to Nazareth." In 1808, there appears a charge in W. Henry's books for 37 bushels of stonecoal sent to Oliver Evans, of Mars Iron Works, in Philadelphia, from Nazareth, but as there is no subsequent entry, we must suppose that that large quantity served Mr. Evans a long time. LEHIGH COAL AND NAVIGATION COMPANY. 879 In the meanwhile, the Coal Mine Company, desirous to render their property available, granted leases to several individuals successively, one of them, in 1807 (upon one of the coal veins), to Rowland and Butland, for twenty-one years, with the privilege of digging iron ore and coal gratis, for the manufacture of iron. This business was abandoned, together with the lease, as, from some cause, they did not succeed in their work. In December, 1813, the Company made a lease for ten years of their lands to Messrs. Miner, Cist, and Robinson, with the right of cutting lumber on the lands for building boats ; the whole consideration for this lease was to be the annual introduction into market of ten thousand bushels of coal for the benefit of the les- sees. Five ark loads of coal were despatched by these gentlemen from the landing at Mauch Chunk, two of which reached Philadelphia, the others having been wrecked on their passage. Four dollars per ton were paid to a contractor for the hauling of this coal from the mines to the landing over the road above referred to, and the contractor lost money. The principal part of the coal which arrived at Philadelphia was purchased, at twenty one dollars per ton, by White and Hazard, who were then manufacturing wire at the Falls of Schuylkill. But even this price did not remunerate the owners for their losses and expenses in getting the coal to market, and they were consequently compelled to abandon the prosecution of the business, and, of course, did not comply with the terms of the lease. The following interesting letter from Mr. Charles Miner to the Chairman of the Committee appointed by the Senate of Pennsylvania to report on the coal trade of the State, gives a graphic account of the difficulties, losses, &c, of himself and associates : — Wilkesbarre, November 17, 1833. Samuel J. Packer, Esq. Dear Sir : Your favor of the 7th instant was duly received. I avail myself of the first moment of leisure to give you " some account of the discovery of the Mauch Chunk coal, and the measures devised, at an early day, to bring it to mar- ket.'*" A hunter first discovered the black earth that covers the coal at the old mine at Mauch Chunk, and reported the extraordinary appearance to Jacob Weiss, Esq., an intelligent gentleman, who resided at Lehighton, within ten or twelve miles of the spot. An examination was immediately made, and anthracite coal found within ten feet of the surface. The land being extremely rough and barren, had not been appropriated, but was forthwith taken out of the Land Office by Mr. Weiss, and a company formed, principally of public spirited citizens of Philadel- phia ; the mine was partially opened, and some small parcels taken to the city. The difficulty of kindling the coal, and the facility of obtaining that from Liver- pool and Virginia, prevented its introduction into use, and this, with a hundred other projects of the day, slept, was forgotten by the public, and scarcely remem- bered by the owners of the stock. After twenty years' repose, the subject was awakened by the late war. Jesse Fell, Associate Judge of Luzerne County, one of the most public spirited and esti- mable citizens of Wyoming, after various experiments, had shown the practica- bility of burning anthracite coal in grates, and the article had been extensively used in Wilkesbarre and the neighboring towns for several years previous to the commencement of hostilities, and the value of it here was known and properly appreciated. Commerce being suspended with England, and the coasting trade interrupted by British cruisers, so that neither foreign nor Virginia coal could be procured, fuel of all sorts, and especially coal for manufacturing purposes, rose in 880 LEHIGH COAL AND NAVIGATION COMPANY. Philadelphia to very high prices. Jacob Cist, of Wilkesbarre, my intimate and much lamented friend, had derived from his father a few shares of the Lehigh Coal Company's stock. Sitting by a glowing anthracite fire one evening in his parlor, conversation turned to the Lehigh coal, and we resolved to make an exam- ination of the mines at Mauch Chunk, and the Lehigh River, to satisfy ourselves whether it would be practicable to convey coal from thence by the stream to Phil- adelphia. Mr. Robinson, a mutual friend, active as a man of business, united with us in the enterprise. Towards the close of 1813, we visited Mauch Chunk ? examined the mines, made all the inquiries suggested by prudence respecting the navigation of the Lehigh, and made up our minds to hazard the experiment if a sufficiently liberal arrangement could be made with the Company. Our proposi- tions were met with the utmost promptitude and liberality by Godfrey Haga, the President, Mr. Wampole, Secretary, and the members. A lease was obtained, giving us liberty, for ten years, to take what coal we pleased, and to use what lumber we could find and might need, on their tract of ten thousand acres of land, the only consideration exacted being that we should work the mines, and every year take to the city a small quantity of coal, the coal to remain our own. The extremely favorable terms of the lease to us, will show how low the property was then estimated, how difficult a matter it was then deemed to bring the coal to market, and how great were the obstacles to bringing it into common use. During the winter of 1813-14, Mr. Robinson commenced operations by opening the mines both at Room Run and on the mountain ; but other more inviting objects presenting, he disposed of his part in the concern to William Hillhouse, of New Haven, Connecticut. Mr. Cist then managed his own part of the business. June 2d, 1814, Mr. Hillhouse and myself entered into partnership, the manage- ment being left principally with me. The situation of Mauch Chunk, in the midst of barren mountains, and a sparse population, rendered it necessary to obtain provisions, teams, miners, ark builders, and other workmen from a distance. I made immediate arrangements to enter in business, and on the 8th June arrived at Lausanne (fifty miles from Wilkesbarre by the then travelled road) with my hands, and took up my very comfortable quarters with Mr. Klotz. On Tuesday the 9th of August, I being absent, and there being a fresh in the river, Mr. Cist started off my first ark, 65 feet long, 14 feet wide, with 24 tons of coal ; John Rhoads, pilot ; Abiel Abbott [see note 1 ], Daniel Blair, Johnathan Mott, Joseph Thomas, and John Thomas, on board as assistants. The stream wild — full of rocks, and the imperfect channel crooked, in less than eighty rods from the place of starting, the ark struck on a ledge, and broke a hole in her bow. The lads stripped themselves nearly naked, to stop the rush of water with their clothes. At dusk they were at Easton, fifty miles. On Wednesday morning they sailed from Easton, Peter Hawk, pilot ; Daniel Blair and Joseph Thomas, assistants, Rhoads and the other hands returning ; and at night the ark arrived at Black's Eddy. Thursday, 11th, went six miles below Trenton. Here James Gedders, a new pilot, took her in charge, Hawk returning. Friday, 12th, arrived at Burling- ton; 13th, to Ten Mile point; Sunday, 14th, arrived at the city at 8 A. M. ; Mon- day, unloaded and delivered the coal to Messrs. Steelwaggon & Knight, selected by Mr. Cist as our agents. LEHIGH COAL AND NAVIGATION COMPANY. 381 Expenses of the passage and hands down and returning . . . $28 27 Wages, including three pilots 47 50 $ 75 77 Ark (cost high from inconvenience of building) ..... 130 00 24 tons coal, raising from mine ........ 24 00 Hauling !■) miles to landing, at $4 a ton [see note 2] . . . . 96 00 Loading into ark 5 00 $330 77 So that, in the first experiment, the coal cost us about fourteen dollars a ton in the city. I have been somewhat minute in giving you these details, because this ark was the pioneer, and led off the coal trade by the Lehigh to Philadelphia, now so ex- tensive and important. This effort of ours might be regarded as the acorn, from which has sprung the mighty oak of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. But while we pushed forward our labors at the mine — hauling coal, building arks, &c. — we had the greater difficulty to overcome of inducing the public to use our coal when brought to their doors, much as it was needed. We published handbills in English and German, stating the mode of burning the coal, either in grates, smiths' fires, or in stoves. Numerous certificates were obtained and printed from blacksmiths and others, who had successfully used the anthracite. Mr. Cist formed a model of a coal stove, and got a number cast. Together we went to several houses in the city, and prevailed on the masters to allow us to kindle fires of anthracite in their grates, erected to burn Liverpool coal. We attended at blacksmiths' shops, and persuaded some to alter the too-iron, so that they might burn the Lehigh coal; and we were sometimes obliged to bribe the journeymen to try the experiment fairly, so averse were they to learning the use of a new sort of fuel, so different from what they had been accustomed to. Great as were our united exertions (and Mr. Cist, if they were meritorious, deserves the chief com- mendation), necessity accomplished more for us than our own labors. Charcoal advanced in price, and was difficult to be got. Manufacturers were forced to try the experiment of using the anthracite ; and every day's experience convinced them, and those who witnessed the fires, of the great value of this coal. Josiah White, then engaged in some manufacture of iron, with characteristic enterprise and spirit, brought the article into successful use in his works, and learned, as we have understood, from purchases made of our agent, its incomparable value. We sent down a considerable number of arks, three out of four of which stove and sunk by the way. Heavy, however, as was the loss, it was lessened by the sale, at moderate prices, of the cargoes, as they lay along the shores, or in the bed of the Lehigh, to the smiths of Allentown, Bethlehem, and the country around, who drew them away when the water became low. We were just learning that our arks were far too large, and the loads too heavy for the stream, and were making preparations to build coal boats to carry eight or ten tons each, that would be connected together when they arrived at Easton. Much had been taught us by experience, but at a heavy cost, by the operations of 1814-15. Peace came, and found us in the midst of our enterprise. Philadelphia was now opened to foreign commerce, and the coasting trade resumed.- Liverpool and Richmond coal came in abundantly, and the hard-kindling anthracite fell to a price far below the cost of shipment. I need hardly add, the business was abandoned, leaving several hundred tons of coal at the pit's mouth, and the most costly part of the work done 382 LEHIGH COAL AND NAVIGATION COMPANY. to take out some thousands of tons more. Our disappointment and losses were met with the spirit of youth and enterprise. We turned our attention to other branches of industry, but on looking back on the ruins of our (not unworthy) exer- tions, I have not ceased to hope and believe that the Lehigh Navigation and Coal Company, when prosperity begins to reward them for their most valuable labors, would tender to us a fair compensation at least for the work done, and expenditures made, which contributed directly to their advantage. I mentioned that Josiah White had used coal sent down by us. Sagacious, ardent, and of expanded views, no mind in the city was more capable of seeing at a glance to what account the vast deposits of coal might be turned. Perfecting an artificial navigation along a rapid river, was to him a familiar enterprise. With his partners, Messrs. Hauto and Hazard, he took measures to obtain possession of, those mines, and a charter for the Lehigh Navigation and Coal Company. The rest is matter of public history. As one of the pioneers in the great work of introducing the use of anthracite coal into our cities, and upon the sea-board, I cannot but look back with pride and pleasure upon the success which has followed and grown upon our humble exer- tions, a success infinitely beyond the utmost stretch of our imaginations. Judg- ing from what has been accomplished within the last ten years on the Lehigh, on the Schuylkill, and by the Hudson and Delaware Coal Company, I do not question that, in less than ten years more, anthracite coal from the Wyoming and Lacka- wanna Valleys will be in extensive use throughout the Genesee country, on the lakes, at Detroit, Kingston, York, Montreal, and Quebec. Note 1. — My friend, Mr. Abiel Abbott, who kindly volunteered his services, to see the ark through the rough water, and to whose spirit we were mainly indebted for saving her from sinking when she stove on the rocks, is now justly raised by merit to the highly responsible station of superintendent of the Lehigh Navigation and Coal Company's extensive business at Mauch Chunk. Note 2. — The fact may not be uninteresting, that we were obliged to pay four dollars, and for much of the coal hauled, four dollars and fifty cents a ton, over an exceedingly rough road of nine miles, where now, by railway, it is transported for twenty -five cents a ton. Such are the triumphs of human industry and art ! Such is the difference between the first experimental steps in a great undertaking, and the work perfected by capital and skill. All which is respectfully submitted, by Dear sir, your friend and servant, CHARLES MINER. As we have before remarked, during the war Virginia coal became very scarce, and Messrs. White & Hazard, then engaged in the manufacture of iron wire at the . Falls of the Schuylkill, having learned that Mr. J. Malin had succeeded in the use of Lehigh coal at his rolling-mill, procured a cart-load of it, which cost them a dollar per bushel. This quantity was entirely wasted, without getting up the requisite heat. Another cart-load, however, was obtained, and a whole night was spent in endeavoring to make a fire in the furnace, when the hands shut the furnace-door, and departed from the mill in despair. Fortunately, one of them, who had left his jacket in the mill, returning for it in about half an hour, observed the door of the furnace to be red-hot, and, upon opening it, was surprised to find the interior at glowing white heat. The other hands were summoned, and four separate par- LEHIGH COAL AND NAVIGATION COMPANY. 383 eels of iron were heated by tlie same fire, and rolled, before renewal. The furnace was then replenished, and as letting the fire alone had succeeded so well, that method was tried again, with a like result. Thenceforth Messrs. W. & H. con- tinued the use of anthracite coal, which they procured from Schuylkill County in wagons, and occasionally in flats by freshets, and also from the Lehigh in one of Messrs. Miner & Co.'s arks. Thus instructed in the invaluable properties of anthracite, and finding in 1817 they could not obtain it as cheaply from the Schuylkill region as they were led to believe it could be procured from the Lehigh, they determined that Josiah White should visit the Lehigh mines and river, and obtain the necessary information on the subject. In this visit he was joined by George F. A. Hauto. Upon their return, and making a favorable report, it was ascertained that the lease on the mining property was forfeited by non user, and that the law — the last of six which had been passed for the improvement of the navigation of the river — had just expired by its own limitation. Under these circumstances the Lehigh Coal Mine Company became completely dispirited, and executed a lease to Messrs. White, Hauto, and Hazard, for twenty years, of their whole property, on the conditions that, after a given time for preparation, they should deliver for their own benefit at least forty thousand bushels of coal annually in Philadelphia and the districts, and should pay, upon demand, one ear of corn as an annual rent for the property. Having obtained the lease, these gentlemen applied to the legislature for an act to authorize them to improve the navigation of the Lehigh, stating in their peti- tion their obj ect of getting coal to market, and that they had a plan for the cheap improvement of river navigation, which they hoped would serve as a model for the improvement of many other streams in the State. Their project was considered chimerical, the improvement of the Lehigh particularly being deemed impracti- cable, from the failure of the various companies who had undertaken it under previous laws, one of which had the privilege of raising money by lottery. The act of 20th of March, 1818, however, gave these gentlemen the opportunity of " ruining themselves," as many members of the legislature predicted would be the result of their undertaking. The various powers applied for, and which were granted in the act, embraced the whole scope of tried and untried methods of effecting the object of getting "a navigation downward once in three days for boats loaded with one hundred barrels, or ten tons," with the reservation on the part of the legislature of the right to compel the adoption of a complete slack- water navigation from Easton to Stoddartsville, should they not deem the mode of navigation adopted by the undertakers sufficient for the wants of the country. Messrs. White and Hazard, having levelled the river from Stoddartsville to Easton, in the month of April, 1818, with instruments borrowed of the Delaware and Schuylkill Canal Company (the only instruments at that time to be met with in Philadelphia), and having also taken the levels from the river to the coal-mines, to ascertain that a road could be constructed altogether on a descending grade from the coal to the navigation, and having ascertained, from the concurrent testi- mony of persons residing in the neighborhood, that the water in the river never fell, in the driest seasons, below a certain mark in a rock at the Lausanne land- ing, were satisfied that there would always be a sufficiency of water in-the river to give the depth and width of water required by the law, if the water were confined by wing dams and channel walls in its passage over the "riffles" from pool to pool. This plan was therefore decided upon for the improvement of the navigation, as well as the use of flat-bottomed boats, to be constructed for each voyage from the 384: LEHIGH COAL AND NAVIGATION- COMPANY. timber lands which were purchased for this purpose on the upper section of the Lehigh. It may not be uninteresting to state the situation of the country along the Le- high, as they found it at this period. From Stoddartsville to Lausanne, a distance of thirty-five miles, there was no sign of a human habitation ; everything was in the state of nature. The ice had not yet left the shores of the river, which runs for almost the whole of this distance in a deep ravine between hills from four hundred to one thousand feet high, and so abrupt that but few places occur where a man on horseback can ascend them. The adjacent country, though in many parts well covered with timber, had only a nominal value, as all hope of getting it to market was extinguished by the repeated failures of all attempts to improve the navigation, which was now considered impossible. The fall in this part of the river was ascertained to be, from Stoddartsville to Mauch Chunk, nine hundred and ten feet, or, on the average, about twenty-five feet to the mile. Above the gap in the Blue Mountain there were but thirteen houses, including the towns of Lausanne and Lehighton, within sight from the river. Below the gap the country was improved. Rafts were sent, during freshets, from Lausanne downward, but no raft had ever come from above that point. From Mauch Chunk to Easton the fall was three hundred and sixty-four feet, making the whole fall from Stoddarts- ville to Easton twelve hundred and seventy-four feet. The great first and second anthracite coal regions were then entirely unknown as such. Coal had been found on the summit hill, and also at the Beaver Mea- dows ; but there was then no knowledge that there were in each location continu- ous strata of coal for many miles in extent, in each direction from these two points. Indeed, the old Coal Mine Company for some years offered a bonus of two hundred dollars to any one who should discover coal on their lands, nearer to the Lehigh than the- Summit mines, but without its being claimed. The use of the coal from these locations was confined to the forge fires of the neighboring blacksmiths and the bar-room stoves of the taverns along the road. Wood was almost the only fuel used in Philadelphia, and that and bituminous coal supplied the fire-places of New York and eastern cities. The only canal in Pennsylvania, at that time in navigable order, was one of about two miles in length, at York Haven, on the Susquehanna, and one made by Josiah White at the Falls of Schuylkill, with two locks, and a canal three or four hundred yards long. It was under these circumstances that the legislature of 1818 granted the privi- leges of the "act to improve the navigation of the river Lehigh," to Josiah White, George F. A. Hauto, and Erskine Hazard, which are now considered of such im- mense magnitude that they ought never to have been granted, and that those gentlemen were at that time pointed at as extremely visionary, and even crazy, for accepting them. Having obtained the law, the lease on the coal-mines, and the necessary in- formation respecting them, and decided upon the plan of making the improve- ments, the next step of the pioneers was to raise the necessary capital for carrying on the work. Preliminary to this they published, in pamphlet form, a description of the property, and the privileges annexed to it, and proposed to create a company to improve the navigation and work the coal-mines. The stock of this company was subscribed for on the condition that a committee should proceed to the Lehigh and satisfy themselves that the actual state of affairs corresponded with the representation of them. The Committee consisted of two of our most respectable citizens, both men of much mechanical experience and so*" /^^-—i^^t^f &^h& Supt. 8cEn§. Lehigh Canal LEHIGH COAL AND NAVIGATION COMPANY. 385 ingenuity. They repaired to Maucli Chunk, visited the coal-mines, and then built a bateau at Lausanne, in which they descended the Lehigh and made their ob- servations. They both came to the conclusion, and so reported, that the improve- ment of the navigation was perfectly practicable, and that it would not exceed the cost of fifty thousand dollars, as estimated, but that the making of a good road to the mines was utterly impossible; "for," added one of them, "to give you an idea of the country over which the road is to pass, I need only tell you that I considered it quite an easement when the wheel of my carriage struck a stump instead of a stone !" This report, of course, voided the subscription to the joint stock. It very soon appeared that there was great diversity of opinion relative to the value of the two objects. Some were willing to join in the improvement of the navigation, but had no faith in the value of the coal, or that a market could ever be found for it among a population accustomed wholly to the use of wood. On the other hand, some were of the opinion that the navigation would never pay the interest of its cost, while the coal business would prove profitable. This gave rise to the separation of the two interests ; and proposals were issued for raising a capital of fifty thousand dollars, on the terms that those who furnished the money should have all the profits accruing from the navigation up to twenty-five per cent., all profits beyond that to go to White, Hauto, and Hazard, who also retained the exclusive management of the concern. The amount was subscribed, and the company formed, under the title of the "Lehigh Navigation Company,'''' on the 10th of August, 1818. The work was immediately commenced, the managers taking up their quarters in a boat upon the Lehigh, which moved downwards as the work of constructing the wing-dams progressed. The hands employed had similar accom- modations. On the 21st of October of the same year "The Lehigh Coal Oonrpany" was formed, for the purpose of making a road from the river to the mines, and of bring- ing coal to market by the new navigation. The capital subscribed to this com- pany was fifty-five thousand dollars, and was taken on the same plan, with that of the Navigation Company ; but the managers were to be entitled to all the profits above twenty per cent., they conveying the lease of the coal mine company's land, and also several other tracts of land which they had purchased, to trustees, for the benefit of the association. The road which now, for seven miles, constitutes the grading of the railroad to the Summit mines, was laid out in the fall of 1818, and finished in 1819. This is believed to have been the first road ever laid out by an instrument, on the principle of dividing the whole descent into the whole distance, as regularly as the ground would admit of, and to have no undulation. It was intended for a railroad, as soon as the business would warrant the exx^ense of placing rails upon it. A pair of horses would bring down from four to six tons upon it, in two wagons. Everything was thus making satisfactory advances towards the accomplishment of the object, when, late in the season of 1818, the water in the river fell, by an unparalleled drought, as was believed, fully twelve inches below the mark which has been mentioned as shown by the inhabitants to be the lowest point to which the river ever sunk. Here was a difficulty totally unanticipated, and one which required a very essential alteration in the plan. Nature did not furnish enough water, by the regular flow of the river, to keep the channels at the proper depth, owing to the very great fall in the river, and the consequent rapidity of its motion. It became necessary to accumulate water by artificial means, and let it off at stated periods, and let the boats pass down with the long wave thus formed, which filled up the channels. 386 LEHIGH COAL AND NAVIGATION COMPANY. This was effected by constructing clams in the neighborhood of Mauch Chunk, in which were placed sluice-gates of a peculiar construction, invented for the purpose by Josiah White (one of the managers), by means of which the water could be retained in the pool above, until required for use. When the dam became full, and the water had run over it long enough for the river below the dam to acquire the depth of the ordinary flow of the river, the sluice-gates were let down, and the boats, which were lying in the pools above, passed down with the artificial flood. About twelve of these dams and sluices were made in 1819, and, with what work had been done in making wing-dams, absorbed the capital of the company (which, on the first plan of improvement, would have been adequate), before the whole of the dams were completely protected from ice freshets. They were, how- ever, so far completed as to prove, in the fall of that year, that they were capable of producing the required depth of water from Mauch Chunk to Easton. The following letter from Geo. F. A. Hauto, to a member of the legislature, re- lative to the impi'ovements, will be found interesting. Mauch Chunk:, Northampton County, Pa., December 19, 1819. " You know, I believe, the ground between this and our principal coal mine, and that it would hardly be possible to find a more unfavorable one for the construc- tion of a good road — so much so, that when we determined on making it, many of our friends doubted our being compos mentis. The perpendicular elevation from the river (at this place, where it ends) to this mine, is 1000 feet — the distance from it to the river is upwards of eight miles. Down it, and following the windings of the mountain, which runs nearly at right angles to the river, we constructed, in about three months, and most part of it in the winter season, a road having a regu- lar declination of two and a half feet in every hundred feet, and which is acknow- ledged by those who have seen it, not to have (for its distance) its equal in the confederacy. On it, one horse can draw four tons with ease. " This mine, at our arrival, had quite an inconsiderable opening, like a moderate sized stone quarry ; since which we have uncovered about two acres of coal land, removing all the earth, dirt, slate, &c. (about twelve feet deep), so as to leave a surface for the whole of that area, of nothing but the purest coal, containing mil- lions of bushels. We cut a passage through the rocks, so that now the teams drive right into the mine to load. The mine being situated near the summit of the mountain, we are not troubled with water, and the coal quarries very easy. We have worked the stratum about thirty feet deep ; how much deeper it is, we do not know ; probably Captain Symmes will find the end of it worked by our bre- thren within, when he gets under Mauch Chunk. At any rate, ocular demonstra- tion proves it to be sufficient for the utmost consumption of centuries to come. The effect of our road has already been, that it enables us to sell the coal at the landing here, where we have a large quantity, cheaper than the price our predeces- sor (Mr. Cist) had to pay for the hauling only. On this road we have now a suffi- cient number of teams to haul several thousand bushels of coal per day. We employ at present mostly oxen and large carts, except a few horse wagons, each of which loads nine tons. We are constructing a steam wagon, contrived by Mr. Hazard, which will be ready in a week (as a substitute for cattle), to draw our coal. Should we succeed in this experiment, the second one, on a larger scale, will be immediately put on the stocks, and followed by others, so as to have a sufficient number for our spring operations. All the works for the steam-engine, except some rough castings, were made and finished on a spot which was, twelve months ago, LEHIGH COAL AND NAVIGATION COMPANY. 387 a wilderness, and where, within the period of a generation, the Lenape filled the air with their war-whoops. " We have erected about forty buildings for different purposes, amongst which is a saw-mill driven by the river, for the purpose of sawing stuff for the use of the navigation. It has a gang to which twenty-four saws belong, cutting about 20,000 feet per day, on one side, and a circular saw on the other. One other saw-mill, driven by the Mauch Chunk ; a grist-mill, a mill for saving labor in the construc- tion of wagons, &c, also driven by the creek — smitheries, with eight fires — work- shops, dwellings, shipyards, wharves, &c. &c. We have cut about 15,000 saw-logs, and cleared four hundred acres of land. " On the river, notwithstanding the extreme low water, which prevented our floating the timber used in the construction of our dams, to the spots wanted , we have constructed fifty dams (measuring 38,500 feet, or about seven and a half miles), and thirteen locks. The locks are the invention of Mr. White, and will be found, in every respect, superior to those now in use. Should it be desired, I will send you a description of them. Our brave boys worked in the river till the ice drove them out last week. " Just before the winter set in, we had the satisfaction to ascertain, by taking a couple of our coal boats down loaded as far as our improvements extended (the water being ten inches under the common low water mark), that the plan of creat- ing artificial freshets in time of extreme low water, which formed the basis of our plan of improvement, is correct, and answers fully our expectations, and would have enabled us, had the river kept open a few days longer, to take all our arks down to the city. To complete the improvement of the lower part of the river, will take us, should the season be any way favorable, till some time in June next, when we shall apply for inspection, and commence the upper section of the river. " As everything that relates to internal improvement is viewed with great inte- rest by \is, we beg that you will take the trouble to communicate to us, at an early hour, anything in that line which may come before the legislature. And as the Delaware — being part of our turnpike to an ultimate market — interests us more particularly, we would thank you for the earliest information respecting any offer for its improvement." In the spring of 1820 the ice severely injured several of the unprotected dams, and carried away some of the sluice-gates. This situation of things, of course, gave rise to many difficulties. It was necessary that more money should be raised, or the work must be abandoned. A difficulty also arose among the man- agers themselves, which resulted in White and Hazard making an arrangement with Hauto for his interest in the concern, on the 7th of March, 1S20. On the 21st of April following, the Lehigh Coal Company and the Lehigh Navigation Company agreed to amalgamate their interests, and to unite themselves into one company, under the title of the " Lehigh Navigation and Coed Company" provided the additional sum of twenty thousand dollars was subscribed to the stock by a given date. Of this sum nearly three-fifths were subscribed by White and Hazard. With this aid the navigation was repaired, and three hundred and sixty-Jive tons of coal were sent to Philadelphia, as the first fruits of the concern! This quantity of coal com- pletely stocked the market, and was with difficulty disposed of in the year 1820. It will be recollected that no anthracite coal came to market from any other source than the Lehigh before the year 1825, as a regular business. The money capital of the concern was soon found to require an increase. The work was done, with the exception of one place at the " slates," where the channel 388 LEHIGH COAL AND NAVIGATION COMPANY. and wing walls were made over the smooth surface of slate ledges, which projected alternately from one side of the river nearly to the other, and rose to within four inches of the surface of the water for a considerable distance along the river. From the nature of the ground, it was impossible to make the wing walls remain tight enough to keep the water at the required height, and it was evident that a solid dam must be resorted to, to bury the slates permanently to a sufficient depth below the surface. This, it was estimated, could not be erected at a less cost than twenty thousand dollars. To raise this sum, in the circumstances of the Company, was a difficult task. The small quantity of coal which had been brought down having so completely filled the market, and the inexperience in the use of that species of fuel having excited so many prejudices against it, that many of the stockholders doubted whether it would be possible to introduce the coal into general use, even if the navigation were made perfect. While this difficulty was in the process of arrangement, the work was kept alive by the advances of one of the managers. At length, on the 1st of May, 1821, a new arrangement of the whole concern took place, by which all the interests became more closely amal- gamated. The title of the Company was changed to — " The Lehigh Coal and Navi- gation Company." It was agreed that the capital stock should be increased by new subscriptions, and that in consideration thereof, and of certain shares of the stock to be given to them, J. White and E. Hazard would release to the Company all their reserved exclusive rights and privileges, and residuary profits, and con- vey to trustees, for the use of the Company, all their right to the water power of the river Lehigh, and come in as simple stockholders ; the Company, at the same time, assuming the settlement of Hauto's claim upon White and Hazard. It was, however, agreed that the subscribers to the new stock should have the benefit of all the profits up to three per cent, semi-annually ; then the original stockholders became entitled to the profits until they derived semi-annual dividends of three per cent. ; and, finally, any excess of profit beyond these was to go to the stock allotted to J. White and E. Hazard, until the profit in any six months should be sufficient to produce a three per cent, dividend on all the stock. From that time all discrimination in the stock was to cease, and all the owners to come in for an equal share of the profits in the proportion of shares of stock held by them. The business of the Company was to be carried on by five managers, two of whom were to reside at Mauch Chunk, under the title of acting managers, and superintend the navigation and coal department, while the others took care of the finances. After this agreement was made, a number of the stockholders and their friends visited the works and property of the Company, and although they expressed themselves agreeably disappointed in the appearance of things, yet the doubt of the possibility of getting a market for the coal induced a timidity in subscribing to fifty thousand dollars of new stock, which was only overcome by J. White and E. Hazard transferring, as a bonus to those who would subscribe, an amount of the stock held by them equal to twenty per cent, on the amount of the new subscrip- tion. In this way the whole fifty thousand dollars was subscribed. The dam and lock at the slates were erected, and one thousand and seventy -three tons of coal were sent to Philadelphia in 1821. The unincorporated situation of the Company, now that its operations were becoming more extensive, caused uneasiness among the stockholders with regard to their personal liabilities, and necessarily operated as a check to the prosperous extension of the business. In addition to which, the whole property and interests LEHIGH COAL AND NAVIGATION COMPANY. 389 of the concern were virtually mortgaged to the holders of the fifty thousand dollars of new stock, which would render any extension of the capital excessively difficult. To remedy these difficulties, application was made to the legislature, who, on the 13th of February, 1822, granted the act of incorporation under which the Company are now operating. In this year the capital stock of the company was increased by new subscriptions amounting to $83,950, and two thousand two hundred and forty tons of coal were sent to market. The boats used on this descending navigation consisted of square boxes, or arks, from sixteen to eighteen feet wide, and twenty to twenty-five feet long. At first, two of these were joined together by hinges, to allow them to bend up and down in passing the dams and sluices, and as the men became accustomed to the work, and the channels were straightened and improved as experience dictated, the number of sections in each boat was increased, till at last their whole length reached one hundred and eighty feet. They were steered with long oars, like a raft. Machinery was devised for jointing and putting together the planks of which these boats were made, and the hands became so expert that five men would put one of the sections together and launch it in forty-five minutes. Boats of this description were used on the Lehigh till the end of the year 1831, when the Dela- ware division of the Pennsylvania Canal was partially finished. In the last year forty thousand nine hundred and sixty-six tons were sent down, which required so many boats to be built, that, if they had all been joined in one length, they would have extended more than thirteen miles. These boats made but one trip, and were then broken up in the city, and the planks sold for lumber, the spikes, hinges, and other iron work, being returned to Mauch Chunk by land, a distance of eighty miles. The hands employed in running these boats walked back for two or three years, when rough wagons were placed upon the road by some of the tavern keepers, to carry them at reduced fares. During the low water upon the Delaware, it was found necessary to improve several of the channels of that river, and in this way about five thousand dollars were expended by the Lehigh Company, under the authority of the commissioners appointed by the State, for the improvement of the Delaware channels, whose funds were exhausted. The descending navigation by artificial freshets on the Lehigh is the first on record which was used as a permanent thing ; though it is stated that in the ex- pedition in 1779, under General Sullivan, General James Clinton successfully made use of the expedient to extricate his division of the army from some difficulty on the east branch of the Susquehanna, by erecting a temporary dam across the outlet of Otsego Lake, which accumulated water enough to float them, when let off, and carry them down the river. The descending navigation of the Lehigh was inspected, and the Governor's license to take toll upon it obtained on the 17th of January, 1823, it having been in use for two years previous to the inspection. No toll was charged upon it till 1827. The great consumption of lumber for the boats very soon made it evident that the coal business could not be carried on, even on a small scale, without a com- munication by water with the pine forests, about sixteen miles above Mauch Chunk, on the upper section of the Lehigh. To obtain this was very difficult. The river, in that distance, had a fall of about three hundred feet, over a very rough, rocky bed, with shores so forbidding that in only two places above Lausanne had horses been got down to the river. To improve the navigation it became necessary to 890 LEHIGH COAL AND NAVIGATION COMPANY. commence operations at the upper end, and to cart all the tools and provisions hy a circuitous and rough road through the wilderness, and then to build a boat for each load to be sent down to the place where the hands were at work by the chan- nels which they had previously prepared. Before these channels were effected, an attempt was made to send down planks, singly, from the pine swamp, but they became bruised and broken by the rocks before they reached Mauch Chunk. Single saw-logs were then tried, and men sent down to clear them from the rocks as they became fast. But it frequently happened that, when they got near Mauch Chunk, a sudden rise of the water would sweep them off, and they were lost. These difficulties were overcome by the completion of these channels in 1823, which gave rise to an increase of the capital stock, at the same time, of ninety-six thou- sand and fifty dollars, making the whole amount subscribed five hundred thousand dollars. In this year, also, five thousand eight hundred and twenty-three tons of coal were sent to market, of which about one thousand tons remained unsold in the following spring, there being still a great prej udice against the domestic use of coal. This prejudice was, however, on the wane, and very soon after this time became nearly extinct. In 1825 the demand for coal increased so much that twenty-eight thousand three hundred and ninety-three tons were sent down the Lehigh, and the coal trade on the Schuylkill now commenced by their sending down by that navigation seven thousand one hundred and forty-three tons. It became evident that the business on the Lehigh could not be extended as fast as the demand for coal increased, while it was necessary to build a new boat for each load of coal ; besides, the forests were now beginning to feel the waste of timber (more than four hundred acres a year being cut off), and showed plainly enough that they would soon disappear, in consequence of the increased demand upou them ; while, at the same time, the Schuylkill coal region had an uninter- rupted slackwater navigation, which would accommodate boats in their passage up as well as down, and, of course, admitted any extension of the coal trade that might be deemed advisable. It should also be mentioned that almost the whole of the shares of the stock of the old "Coal Mine Company" had been jyurchased, so that the mines had become nearly the sole property of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. These shares represented fiftieth parts of the whole pro- perty, and the purchase of them commenced at one hundred and fifty dollars per share ; the last was purchased for two thousand dollars, after the slackwater navigation had been made. Under all these circumstances, it was concluded that the time had arrived for changing the navigation of the Lehigh into a slackwater navigation. The acting managers, who resided at Mauch Chunk, formed a plan for a steamboat navigation, with locks one hundred and thirty feet long, and thirty feet wide, which would accommodate a steamboat carrying one hundred and fifty tons of coal. These locks were of a peculiar construction, adapted to river navi- gation. The gates operated upon the same principle with the sluice-gates in the dams for making artificial freshets, and were raised or let down by the application or removal of a hydrostatic pressure below them. The first mile below Mauch Chunk was arranged for this kind of navigation. The locks proved to be perfectly effective, and could be filled or emptied, notwithstanding their magnitude, in three minutes, or about half the time of the ordinary lock. Application was then made to the legislature for an act for the improvement of the river Delaware upon this plan, but the commonwealth decided upon the construction of a canal along that river, provided the estimate of the expense of its construction should not exceed LEHIGH COAL AND NAVIGATION COMPANY. 391 a limited amount per mile. This, of course, put an end to all thoughts of con- tinuing the steamboat plan upon the Lehigh. Had this plan been adopted, there can be no doubt the transportation of coal upon it could have been effected at an expense not exceeding four mills per ton per mile, and the same steamboat could proceed (when the Delaware and Raritan Canals were done) to New York, Albany, Providence, &c. &c, without transshipment. The large quantity of coal which had been brought to market and sold in the previous year produced a profit which brought the semi-annual dividend fully up to three per cent, on the 1st of January, 1S26, and placed all the stock of the com- pany upon an equality from that time forward. In the previous years the dividend account stood as follows : January 1, 1822, the first dividend made, was confined to the preferred subscribers, who then received three per cent, on their subscrip- tion of fifty thousand dollars, and the same dividend regularly afterward. July, 1822, gave the original subscribers one per cent., and from that time they regu- larly received three per cent., except in July, 1824, when the dividend to them was omitted. On the stock allotted to J. White and E. Hazard a dividend of one per cent, was made January, 1824, and two and a half per cent. January, 1825. These were the only dividends in which they participated, previous to the one which equalized the stock. In 1826 there were thirty-one thousand two hundred and eighty tons of coal sent down the Lehigh. The business was now becoming so large that it was difficult to keep the turnpike to the mines in good working order without coating it with stone, and it was determined that the best economy would be to convert it into a railroad. The only railroad then in the United States was the Quincy Railroad, about three miles in length, made in the fall of 1826. There had previously been a short wooden railroad, not plated with iron, at Leiper's stone-quarry, of about three-quarters of a mile in length, but this was worn out, and not in use. The railroad from Mauch Chunk to the Summit mines was commenced in January, and completely in operation in May, 1827. It is nine miles in length, and has a descent all the way from the Summit mines to the river. The road is continued beyond the summit about three-fourths of a mile, and descends into the mines west of the summit about sixty feet. With this exception, the whole transportation of the coal upon it is done by gravity, the empty wagons being returned to the mines by mules, which ride down with the coal. This, also, was an arrangement made at the suggestion of Josiah White, entirely novel in its character ; and enabled the mules to make two and a half trips to the summit and back, thus travelling about forty miles each day. Numerous branch railroads are now constructed into the different parts of the mines. In February, 1827, the balance of the stock, amounting to five hundred thousand dollars, was subscribed for ; and, it having been decided that the Delaware divi- sion of the Pennsylvania Canal would be made, it was determined to go on with a canal and slackwater navigation upon the Lehigh, from Mauch Chunk to Easton. Mr. Canvass White, whose character as a canal engineer stood as high as any in the country, was invited to take charge of the work. He recommended a canal to be constructed of the then ordinary size, to accommodate boats of twenty-five tons. But the acting managers argued that the same hands could manage a much larger boat, and the only additional expense for a boat of one hundred to one hundred and fifty tons whould be for a larger boat, and for an additional horse or two to tow it. The whole lading being coal, which could always be furnished in any quantity, there need be no detention for a cargo for the larger boat, and the expense 392 LEHIGH COAL AND NAVIGATION COMPANY. per ton would be very much, lessened. It was at last concluded that the engineer should make two estimates, the one for the canal to be forty feet wide, and the other for a canal of sixty feet wide, each with corresponding locks. The difference in the estimates for the two canals in that location was so small (about 30,000) that the largest size was unanimously adopted. The wisdom of this decision has been most clearly demonstrated, and other canal companies in the United States have since followed the example. The dimensions of the navigation were fixed at sixty feet wide on the surface, and Jive feet deep ; and the locks one hundred feet long, and tiventy -two feet tuide, adapted to boats of one hundred and twenty tons. The work was at once laid out and let to contractors, who commenced their operations about midsummer. The canal commissioners met soon after at Bristol, for the purpose of deciding upon letting the Delaware division of the Pennsylvania Canal. They were applied to to construct it so as to correspond with the work going on upon the Lehigh ; it was, however, insisted that the experience of Europe had proved that a twenty- five ton boat was the size most cheaply managed ; and that even upon the New York Canal, which would admit of boats of forty tons, it rarely happened that the packets carried more than twenty-five tons. The commissioners at length con- cluded to make the locks of half the width and of the same length as those on the Lehigh, so that two of the Delaware boats could pass at once through the Lehigh locks, and thus save half the time in lockage. Had not the " experience of Europe" thus thwarted a noble work, sloops and schooners would, perhaps, at this day, have taken in their cargoes at White Haven, seventy-one miles up the Lehigh, and have delivered them, without transshipment, at any of our Atlantic ports. The Lehigh slackwater navigation, from Mauch Chunk to Easton, was opened for use at the close of June, 1829, while the Delaware division was not regularly navi- gable until nearly three years afterwards, although it was commenced but about four months after the Lehigh. The contractors upon the Delaware division were suffered to use improper materials, and, when finished by them, the canal would not hold water. It was at length left to the care of Mr. Josiah White to make it a good and permanently useful navigation. The want of the Delaware division, after the Lehigh was completed, caused the failure of eight dividends to the Lehigh Company, as they were obliged to continue the use of the temporary boats, which were very expensively moved on the Lehigh navigation, but were the only kind that could be used upon the channels of the Delaware River, which were still necessarily used to get to market. This not only prevented the increase of the Company's coal business on the Lehigh, but also turned the attention of persons desirous of entering into the coal business to the Schuylkill coal region, which caused Pottsville to spring up with great rapidity, and furnish numerous dealers to spread the Schuylkill coal through the market, while the Company was the only dealer in Lehigh coal. In this manner the Schuylkill coal trade got in advance of that of the Lehigh. The capital of the Company being limited by the act of incorporation to one million of dollars, which amount had been expended in the operations of the Com- pany prior to the completion of the slackwater navigation, it became necessary, in 1828, to consider the means to raise the necessary funds to carry on the work. By this time a total change had taken place in the views of the community respecting the undertaking of the Lehigh Company. The improvement of the Lehigh had been demonstrated to be perfectly practicable, and the extensive coal field owned by them was no longer considered to be of problematical value. The legislature LEHIGH COAL AND NAVIGATION" COMPANY. 393 of 1818 was now censured for having granted such valuable privileges, and all the " craziness" of the original enterprise was lost sight of. Hence applications to the legislature for a change in their charter were thwarted by the influence of adverse interests. With such opposition, it was in vain to apply to the legislature for an increase of capital, as it was evident that such a change could not be effected with- out a sacrifice of some of the valuable privileges secured by the charter of the Company. Resort was therefore necessarily had to loans, to enable the Company to complete the work required of them by law, and these were readily procured, in consequence of the good faith always evinced in the business of the Company, and their evidently prosperous circumstances. The first loan was taken in 182S. The claim upon the Company arising from their assumption of the agreement of J. White and E. Hazard with G. F. A . Hauto for the purchase of his interest, before mentioned, was finally settled in 1830, by the purchase by the Company of the remaining shares of the stock into which Hauto had converted his claim. Upon the completion of the Delaware division of the Pennsylvania Canal, the operations of the coal business were very much simplified by the change from temporary to permanent boats, and the consequent discharge of the host of hands required in chopping, hauling, sawing, rafting, piling, and otherwise preparing the large amount of lumber necessary for building, on the average of some years, eleven to thirteen miles in length of boats sixteen to eighteen feet wide. In 1831 the Company constructed a railroad, about five miles long, from the landing to the mines which had been opened along Room Run, which, like the one from the Summit mines, operates by gravity, but has a more gradual descent towards the river. As the time at which the original act granted to White, Hauto, and Hazard required the navigation to be completed to Stoddartsville was now approaching, and the attention of the public was awakened to the second, or Beaver Meadow coal region, it became necessary to look to the commencement of that part of the Company's work. It was evident that the descending navigation by artificial freshets would not be satisfactory to the legislature, who had reserved the right of compelling the construction of a complete slackwater navigation. The extra- ordinary fall in the upper section of the Lehigh rendered its improvement by locks of the ordinary lift impracticable, as the locks would have been so close together, and would have caused so much detention in their use, as to render the navigation too expensive to be available to the public. The plan of high lifts was proposed by the managers as one that would overcome this difficulty, and, in 1835, Edwin A. Douglas, Esq., was appointed as engineer to carry it into execution. The work, as high as the mouth of the Quakake, was put under contract in June, 1835, and from thence to White Haven in October of the same year. The descending navi- gation above Wright's Creek was also put under contract in the same year. On the 13th of March, 1837, the legislature passed an act authorizing the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company to construct a railroad to connect the North Branch division of the Pennsylvania Canal with the slackwater navigation of the Lehigh, and increasing their capital stock to one million six hundred thousand dollars ; at the same time repealing so much of the former act as required or provided for the completion of a slackwater navigation between Wright's Creek (near White Haven) and Stoddartsville. This act was accepted by the stockholders of the Company on the 10th of May, 1837. The whole work of the navigation required by the acts of the legislature was 27 394 LEHIGH COAL AND NAVIGATION COMPANY. completed, and the Governor's commission given to the inspectors to examine the last of it, on the 19th of March, 1838. A history of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, from its earliest infancy down to the completion of the canal and slackwater navigation, has thus been furnished. To give a description in detail of all the improvements since that period would require a large volume. We have heard this company, not inaptly, termed the East India Company of the United States. It owns, beyond doubt, a very valuable property, and owes much of its credit and good condition to the economical and skilful conduct of its managers. To examine its present condition, and see its immense property in coal and other lands, its navigation and railroads penetrating the vast regions of timber, and coal, and iron ore, and limestone, with abundant power for manufacturing them, there can be no doubt of such an insti- tution affording perfect security for the regular payment of all the loanholders, and amply reimbursing the stockholders for their investments. As investment securities for the support of families, trust funds, etc., the loans of this company are equal, if not superior, to any other in the market, as much from the fact of the confidence of the public in the discretion and integrity of the President, officers, and managers, as the fact that the interest periods on them are quarterly — both important considerations. The officers of the Company are : — President .... Acting Manager Secretary and Treasurer Superintendent and Engineer Assistant Engineer James Cox. James S. Cox. Edwin Walter. E. A. Douglass. Daniel Bertsch, Jr. The following table will show the quantity of coal sent to market over the Lehigh Canal since the commencement of the coal trade in 1820 : — 1820 365 tons. 1821 1,073 a 1822 2,240 a 1823 5,823 a 1824 9,541 a 1825 28,393 it 1826 31,280 u 1827 32,074 a 1828 30,232 a 1829 25,110 u 1830 41,750 a 1831 40,960 a 1832 70,000 a 1833 123,000 a 1834 106,244 it 1835 131,250 a 1836 148,211 (i 1837 ' 223,902 a 1838 213,615 a 1839 221,025 it 1840 1841 1842 1843 1844 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849 1850 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859 225,318 tons. 143,037 " 272,546 " 267,793 " 377,002 " 429,453 " 517,116 « 633,507 " 670,321 " 781,656 « 690,456 " 964,224 " 1,072,136 " 1,054,309 " 1,207,186 " 1,275,050 " 1,186,230 « 900,314 « 908,800 " 1,050,659 " °%i tf-U^*£ Sup!;. & Eng. Lehigh Valley Rail Road -^ ^ ¥> .$> #■ LEHIGH VALLEY RAILROAD. 395 LEHIGH VALLEY RAILROAD. This great and important railroad was originally incorporated under the name of the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad Company, by the act of Assembly passed 21st April, 1846. The bill was got up at the suggestion of Edward R. Biddle, Esq., principally through the agency of Hon. Henry King, Christian Pretz, Esq., and other enterprising citizens of Lehigh County, and by James M. Porter, Peter S. Michler, Abraham Miller, and a few other citizens of Northampton County. The bill was carried through the legislature by the inde- fatigable exertions of Dr. Jesse Samuel, who then represented Lehigh County in the House of Representatives, and against a very strong opposition. It was, how- ever, one thing to pass a bill, and another to get the stock subscribed to an amount sufficient to obtain the charter. The commissioners named in the act of incorporation advertised for subscriptions of stock on the 2d of June, 1846, and adjourned the opening of the books from day to day and from time to time for at least twenty times, and it was not until the 2d of August, 1847, that a sufficient amount of stock could be secured. On that day they had 5002 shares of stock subscribed, and $5 on each share of stock, amounting to $25,010 paid in. The names of the original subscribers of stock were : Solomon Fogel, James M. Porter, Edward R. Biddle, John A. Willink, John N. Hutchinson, Horace Gray, Dudley S. Gregory, Archibald Robertson, Daniel Mclntyre, John P. Jackson, John S. Darcey, Robert L. Schuyler, John Acken, Wm. Samuel Johnston, Asa White- head, William Wright, and Elisha Townsend. On the 2d of August, 1847, the following named commissioners, named in the act, signed the necessary certificate to the Governor for the purpose of obtaining the charter of incorporation : — William Edelman, Casper Kleckner, George Probst, Stephen Balliet, John D. Bauman, Thos. Craig, James M. Porter, Peter S. Michler, Abraham Miller, Henry King, Benjamin Ludwig, Christian Pretz, and Peter Huber. Some difficulty occurred with the Governor and Secretary of State in procuring the charter, after all this was done. The $100 tax for the act of incorporation had not been paid until after the advertisements for the subscription of stock had issued. However, after some trouble, on the 20th day of September, 1847, the letters patent were issued by the Governor, and after due notice an election for officers by the stockholders was held, at the office of J. M. Porter at Easton, on the 21st day of October, 1847, when the following officers were elected : President, James M. Porter ; Managers, Dudley S. Gregory, John S. Dorsey, John P. Jackson, Daniel Mclntyre, Edward R. Biddle, and John N. Hutchinson ; Secretary, John N. Hutchinson. These officers continued in office for the years 1847, 1848, 1849, and 1850. In the months of October, November, and December, 1850, the first survey of the road was made from the mouth of the Mahoning Creek to Easton by Roswell B. Mason, Esq., civil engineer. On the 3d of March, 1851, the canal commissioners appointed Jacob Dillinger and Jesse Samuel, Esqrs., engineers, to examine, under the eleventh section of the act of incorporation, whether a railroad constructed upon the route, would or would not injure the canal of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, or the works necessarily appertaining thereto, or obstruct the works of that company. 396 LEHIGH VALLEY EAILROAD. Those gentlemen performed that duty, and on the 10th day of March, 1851, reported that it would not.* On the same day the Board of Managers authorized Mr. Hut- chinson, who in the meantime had become treasurer as well as secretary of the Company, to commence the construction of the railroad by grading on the six- teenth mile from the river Delaware at Easton, which is a short distance below Allentown, Mr. Dillinger being appointed the superintendent, and Dr. Samuel the engineer. The work was commenced and continued during that spring and sum- mer until about a mile was graded. The following landholders on that part of the route released all claim for damages for a nominal consideration. Their re- lease is dated March 1st, 1851, and is signed by the following persons : Henry King, Stephen Rhoads, Peter Newhard, Adam Hecker, John Yost, John Moore, Abraham Newhard, and George R. Boyd. This release was procured by Jno. N. Hutchinson, Esq., mainly through the instrumentality of the Hon. Henry King. A meeting of the stockholders was held on the 4th of April, 1851, when the fore- going proceedings were reported to and approved of by them. On the same day an election for officers was held, when James M. Porter was elected president ; John N. Hutchinson, secretary and treasurer ; and Christian Pretz, Asa Packer, Dudley S. Gregory, Benjamin Williamson, John N. Hutchinson, and Edward R. Biddle, managers. On the 7th of October, 1851, the President reported that the expenditures in constructing the railroad up to the 7th, of July last, when he received the last return in detail from Judge Dillinger, the superintendent, amounted to $444 j^, and that the work was still in progress, the expenditures on which now amount to $750. Mr. Hutchinson having made two payments of $500 each on account of his subscription to stock from which the disbursements had been made. On the 31st of October, 1851, Asa Packer became the purchaser of a large amount of the stock which had been subscribed, and commenced efforts to get additional stock subscribed, and the road constructed. On the 13th of September, 1852, Robert H. Sayre was appointed chief engineer for the construction of the road, and on the 27th of November, 1852, Judge Packer submitted a proposition for con- structing the railroad from opposite Mauch Chunk, where it would intersect the Beaver Meadow Railroad, to the river Delaware at Easton, where it would intersect the New Jersey Central Railroad, and the Belvidere Delaware Railroad for a consideration, to be paid in the stock and bonds of the Company, which was accepted by the stockholders, at a meeting in which all the stockholders, repre- senting 5150 shares of stock were present. On the 7th of January, 1853, the name of the Company was changed by act of Assembly to that of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, and on the 10th of that month James M. Porter was re-elected president, John N. Hutchinson, secretary and treasurer, and John N. Hutchinson, William Hackett, William H. Gatzmer, Henry King, John T. Johnston, and John O. Sterns, managers. Although the formal contract with Judge Packer for the construction of the road was not signed until the 12th of February, 1853, yet he began the work imme- diately after the acceptance of this offer, on the 27th of November, 1852, by com- mencing the deep rock cut at Easton. The work was prosecuted with vigor by * This was done that the work upon the railroad might be commenced before the 21st day of April, 1851, when the time limited by the charter for the com- mencement of the road would have expired. LEHIGH VALLEY RAILROAD. 897 Judge Packer himself, at some of the hardest cuts, and by sub-contractors at other places, until its completion. The gentlemen concerned in the New Jersey Central Railroad, who were represented by its president, John T. Johnston, Esq., and the gentlemen in the Belvidere Delaware Railroad, who were represented by Mr. Gatzmer, cashed a considerable portion of the bonds and stock for the enterprising contractor, Judge Packer, but in the fall of 1854 the sale of the stock and bonds had become so dull and the money market so tight, and the price of provision and labor became so enhanced, that the work must have come to a stand-still, but for the noble conduct of Commodore Stockton in coming to its rescue, and advancing sufficient money to enable the contractor to get through. The work then progressed, and on the 24th of September, 1855, the contractor, Judge Packer, delivered the road to the Company, and it was accepted. Judge Packer, in the construction of the road, encountered great difficulties and embar- rassments, from the rise in the price of provisions and necessaries for the hands — the sickliness of some of the seasons, the failures of sub-contractors, and the neces- sary reletting the work at advanced prices, and the difficulty in raising money upon, and disposing of the bonds of the Company, from the stringency of the money market ; but, with an energy and perseverance seldom met with, he worked through it all. In the beginning of the year 1856, the persons representing the largest amount of the stock came to the determination that it was necessary to remove the office of the Company to Philadelphia. Judge Porter, the President, declined a re-elec- tion, as his business would not permit his removal to that city, and on the 5th day of February, 1856, William M. Longstreth was elected President. William H. Gatzmer, AsaPacker, John T. Johnston, Elisha A. Packer, J. Gillingham Fell, and David Bennet, Managers, and John N. Hutchinson, Secretary and Treasurer. On the same day the stockholders passed the following resolutions : — Resolved, That the stockholders of this Company, on accepting the declination of the Hon. James M. Porter, President of the Company, to be a candidate for re-elec- tion, we cannot withhold this testimony of their estimation of his worth as a man, and as an officer of this Company, and the care and attention he has uniformly bestowed upon its business and affairs, during its whole existence as a corpo- ration. Resolved, That having full confidence in his integrity and ability, and his high legal attainments, we recommend to the President and Managers to be elected this day to secure his services, if possible, as the legal adviser of the Company. The office was then removed to Philadelphia, where its business has since been transacted. Mr. Longstreth did not continue long in the Presidency ; he resigned on the 13th of May, 1856, and J. Gillingham Fell was elected in his place, and has continued to fill the office until this time, with great credit to himself, and benefit to the Company. Commodore Stockton was elected to fill his place in the Board of Managers. The road has become an avenue of great importance to the public, connecting as it does the coal region of the Lehigh with Philadelphia, by the North Pennsylva- nia Railroad, and the Belvidere Delaware Railroad, and with New York, by the New Jersey Central Railroad, and the Williamsport and Elniira Railroad with the same railroads by the branch of the Catawissa road, extending up Quakake Creek ; thus opening a communication to the great West. Although the road carries a great many passengers, the stockholders depend mainly upon the transportation of coal as the source of a profitable remuneration of their investment. Tons. Cwt. 5,857 00 168,349 00 418,235 03 471,029 10 577,651 10 1,641,122 03 398 LEHIGH VALLEY RAILROAD. In the year 1858, the second year after its construction, there were transported over it upwards of 460,000 tons of coal, and it is now paying the stockholders six per cent, on the capital stock, besides paying the interest upon its bonds, and pru- dently reserving a surplus for contingencies, and keeping up the road in stock. No railroad company gives fairer promise of being remunerative, and it has fully justified the expectations of its early friends. To Judge Porter, Judge Packer, and Robert H. Sayre, Esq., its engineer, who is now also the superintendent of the road, the stockholders and public are indebted for their perseverance and personal atten- tion given to the road throughout its progress. To John N. Hutchinson, Esq., as Secretary and Treasurer, for his attention to the books and finances of the Com- pany, they are equally indebted. Every transaction is fairly recorded, and the accounts of the Company are a pattern for all others. The following is the account of the coal transported upon this road, since its completion, in 1855. Oct. and Nov. 1855 .... Dec. 1st, 1855, to Dec. 1st, 1856 " 1856 " " 1857 " 1857 " " 1858 " 1858 " " 1859 .Tons The annexed letter, from a correspondent of the New York Tribune, shows the many advantages possessed by the road. " The maiwel of the day, in this region, is the Lehigh Valley Railroad. Unlike most enterprises of the kind, which generally look for support from traffic to be created by the construction of the road, the projectors of this seized upon a route where an overwhelming trade had existed for years, and which only waited for the new channel to be constructed, that it might pour down upon it an inexhaustible supply of products from the field, the forge, the furnace, and the mine. Tbis road begins at Easton, the outlet of the river Lehigh. When the line of road com- menced on the Delaware, all access to the latter was shut out by an enormous limestone bluff, which rose something like a hundred feet above the water line. Through this huge obstruction, the roadway was blasted some hundred feet, at a great expense. The great blocks of stone thrown out in the excavation, were used in building the massive piers and abutments of the noble bridge across the Dela- ware, on which two tracks are laid, one above the other, connecting the Valley Road with the New Jersey Central and the Belvidere Delaware Roads. The tracks are thus built one above the other, because the grade of one road is some fifteen feet higher than the other. It is probably the only similar bridge in America, and its colossal proportions strike with astonishment the mind of every traveller who views it, in passing either up or down on the Belvidere Road. It is the outlet over which the products of the Lehigh region find their way to New York, and other Eastern markets, by two great thoroughfares, and twenty years hence must pass an almost fabulous amount of coal. " After leaving this rocky ohasm, at South Easton, it follows the valley of the Lehigh, forty-six miles, to Mauch Chunk. The whole route abounds in wild and striking scenery, not so terrific as that on the Erie Road, but equally picturesque and captivating. The mountains have been blasted away in many places where they touched the river, to make room for the track. At various points, as you LEHIGH VALLEY RAILROAD. 899 travel upward, you notice other roads connecting with this, all running up into the coal mines, and some of them interlocking with other roads still further in the interior. At its northwestern terminus, it connects with the Beaver Meadow Road, some twenty-five miles long to Jeansville, and about midway with Quakake Road, a branch thirteen miles long, which unites with the Catawissa Road, above Tamaqua. Some fifteen miles above Mauch Chunk, the Beaver Meadow counects with the Hazleton Road, which extends to Cranberry Colliery, twelve miles above Hazleton. About seven miles north of this junction, the Lehigh and Luzerne Road unites with the Hazleton, having come down eight miles from the Big Black Creek coal basin. Other ramifications of the network of railroads now established in the coal region, might be mentioned, all of which are tributary to the Lehigh Valley Road. These pour an immense tonnage over the latter, all which formerly passed down the Le- high Canal. These feeders are increasing in number annually. The Valley Road has not been three years in operation, yet in 1858 it brought over its beautifully descending grade nearly half a million of tons of coal, beside a vast amount of iron and other heavy freight peculiar to that region. It had no struggle to create the business it is now doing, all of it being ready made, and clamoring to be accom- modated. Its profits have enabled it to make a first dividend a few weeks since. " At the village of Catasauqua, twenty-six miles below Mauch Chunk, another road ten miles long comes in from Fogelsville, and furnishes a large tonnage of iron from numerous furnaces all now in blast in Lehigh County. Just below Allen- town, two other connections with the Valley Road will soon be made. One of these will connect Allentown with the Dauphin and Susquehanna Road at Auburn, on the Reading Road, and the other the East Pennsylvania, from Allentown to Reading. These will be new and bountiful feeders to the Lehigh Valley. They traverse a country which contains untold amounts of iron ore, of which great amounts will be carried to the blast furnaces on the line of the Valley Road. When these roads are completed, the valleys of the Schuylkill and Lehigh will be con- nected together. But to do this, the Blue Mountain must be pierced by a tunnel 2,000 feet in length, a slow and expensive undertaking. One of these routes, the East Pennsylvania, opens a direct communication between New York and the West, without going through Philadelphia. By this route, from New York to Harrisburg is only 175 miles, or twenty-one miles nearer than by Philadelphia, 424 to Pitts- burg, and 895 to Chicago. "At the old Moravian town of Bethlehem, the Lehigh Valley Road connects with the North Pennsylvania, and at Easton with the Belvidere, the New Jersey Cen- tral, the Delaware and Lackawanna Roads, and with the Morris Canal and the Delaware Division Canal. It would be difficult to name another railroad so abun- dantly supplied with important feeders and outlets as this. What these feeders and outlets do for it, is shown in the following table of its tonnage during the two years it has been in operation. 1S57. 1S58. North Pennsylvania Railroad .... 43,239 66,000 New Jersey Central Railroad Belvidere Delaware Railroad On line Lehigh Valley Railroad . Total tonnage 82,102 126,000 121,648 100,000 171,246 179,000 418,235 471,000 " Here is an increase of nearly 15 per cent, in the face of a reduction on many old-established thoroughfares. Its traffic the present year will probably reach 400 BEAVER MEADOW RAILROAD AND COAL COMPANY. 600,000 tons. It lias never yet had sufficient rolling stock, though running six hundred coal cars and nineteen engines. Long trains of cars, containing ten tons each, pass directly from the mines over a descending grade to Trenton, where they ascend a long and elevated trestle-work, and discharge their contents into schoon- ers carrying two hundred and fifty tons, moored in the Delaware and Raritan Canal. Such a vessel receives her cargo in an hour, and saves many days of demurrage by this admirable arrangement. The road is said to have carried more freight per mile during the past year than any other in this country, or in the world." BEAVER MEADOW RAILROAD AND COAL COMPANY. The Beaver Meadow Railroad and Coal Company was incorporated April 7th, 1830. At this time the Hon. S. D. Ingham was President, and John Ecky Secre- tary. With the early history of this enterprise the writer of this was but little acquainted, but has been informed that Canvass White, father of C. S. White, was first employed as chief engineer of the road, under whom A. Pardee, Esq., the pre- sent large coal landholder and operator, was engaged as an assistant. Mr. White's connection with the Company was of short duration, and he was succeeded by a Mr. Hopkins, who remained with the Company in the capacity of chief engineer for about one year, when he gave way to Mr. Pardee, who had previously been engaged in making surveys and locating the road, and under whom it was finally located, graded, and completed. The writer has been told that at one time, while the road was being graded, a difficulty grew up between this Company and the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, about the location of the road, and that Mr. Ingham, the President of the Beaver Meadow Company, and Mr. Josiah White, the President of the Lehigh Company, went so far as to arm their men with muskets, and that at one time it was feared that they would have a regular battle. The matter was, however, peaceably arranged. The location and grade of the road changed at a cost, to the Beaver Meadow Company, of many thousand dollars. The road was finally opened for the transportation of coal in the autumn of 1836, when two locomotives, the " S. D. Ingham" and " Elias Ely," were put on the road, which at that time extended from the mines of the Beaver Meadow Railroad and Coal Company to Parryville, a distance of twenty-five miles. In April 1837, an- other locomotive engine was added, namely, the " Quakake," and in August of the same year an additional one called the " Beaver." The shops of the Company for repairing locomotives, cars, mine machinery, &c. &c, were originally located at Beaver Meadow (a very handsomely located town along the Lehigh and Susquehanna Turnpike, about one mile and a half from the Beaver Meadow mines, and four miles from the present town of Hazleton. The elevation of this town, Beaver Meadow, above tide-water is sixteen hundred feet, as ascertained by actual measurement), but, owing to reasons which were deemed of sufficient importance to justify their removal, they were, some time in the sum- mer of 1839, removed to Weatherly, a distance of some five miles down the road, where they have since continued. The disastrous flood of January, 1841, carried away all the bridges on this road from Weatherly to Parryville, when it was decided by the Company to temporarily abandon that part of their road from Mauch Chunk to Parryville, and to erect suit- able facilities at Mauch Chunk for the shipment of coal. It may be added, that what was then considered suitable facilities for the shipping of coal in good order, BEAVER MEADOW RAILROAD AND COAL COMPANY. 401 would not now be considered good enough to clean coal for the use of a locomotive, or a blacksmith shop fire ; all the bridges on the Quakake Creek, five or six in number, had to be rebuilt, and a very important one across the Lehigh River, at the Turnhole, together with a quantity of trestling at Mauch Chunk (or rather at Lousy Bay, on the opposite side of the Lehigh from Mauch Chunk, as it was then called), for the shipping accommodations. Mr. A. H. Nancleave, who was then Superintendent for the Company, with an energy which will ever be remembered by those who witnessed it, proceeded to rebuild what the flood had destroyed. Giving his attention particularly to the rebuilding of the Turnhole bridge. This bridge was designed by F. C. Louthorp, and was a single span of 200 feet, arch and truss. The abutment on the north side of this bridge is unexampled as a piece of substantial masonry anywhere in this region, and the superstructure, after a trial of 18 years, yet stands to attest its superior workmanship and material of which it was constructed. Some time in the month of August, 1841, the shipment of coal was resumed over this road. About this time, or before, Mr. Ingham was succeeded in the Pre- sidency by a Mr. Budd ; Mr. Pearsoll followed Mr. Budd, and in turn was followed by Mr. Dulless, and he by Mr. Rowland, and finally, in 1849, W. W. Lorjgstreth, Esq., the present efficient presiding officer was instituted ; upon his accession to the Presidency, it was directly determined to relay the road (which had previously been a light wooden rail with flat bar iron), with heavy T iron. This wise deter- mination was promptly carried out during the winter of 1849 and spring of 1850, and completed in May or June of that year. In September of this year occurred another remarkable flood, carrying away all the bridges on the Black Creek and Quakake, destroying the car shops, &c. &c, at Weatherly, and sweeping away nearly one-half of the superstructure, and a large portion of the permanent way of the road between Weatherly and Penn Haven, which was at that time a double track, one wood and one iron. The repairs consequent upon this disastrous freshet were not completed in time to resume shipments by canal in 1850, but the road was ready to commence with the opening of the navigation in the spring of 1851. The great loss sustained by the Company by the freshet spoken of in the carrying away of so many bridges, and so much of the road bed, together with the loss of almost the entire shipping season, was like a wet blanket thrown around the stock- holders of the Company, and, but for the confidence reposed in their first officer, it is doubtful whether the stockholders could again have been induced to furnish the necessary amount to repair the very heavy damages thus sustained. From this time until the present day, no serious interruption to the trade has occurred. In 1854, it was decided to avoid the two inclined planes with which the road had formerly been worked. Accordingly, a piece of road, extending from Weatherly in the direction of Hazleton, one mile and three-quarters in length, was purchased of the Hazleton Coal Company, and the continuation of this piece of road to its point of junction with the Beaver Meadow road, was graded in 1854 and 1855, the track was laid early in the latter year, and on the 14th of August the planes were finally abandoned. The grade above Weatherly is 145 feet per mile for a distance of one mile and three-quarters, and 135 feet per mile for a distance of some 4000 feet further. In the meantime, the road along the Lehigh, from Mauch Chunk to Penn Haven, a second track had been graded and laid at a very heavy cost to the Company, and some time in the month of July or August, 1857, the old Turnhole bridge, before spoken of, was abandoned, to avoid two very heavy curves (the hardest ones on the road), and a new iron double-track bridge, with a 402 BEAVER MEADOW RAILROAD AND COAL COMPANY. very heavy rock cut, at the north end of the bridge, was completed. This large iron structure, on the Whipple plan, has two spans of 140 feet each, and was erected by John W. Murphy, Esq., of Philadelphia. The business of the road has been gradually increasing year after year, so that from being the means of getting a small quantity of coal to market for the Beaver Meadow Company in 1837, it has become the outlet for numerous operations, amounting in the aggregate to not less than 700,000 tons of coal in 1859. How the stock of this company is appreciated any one can see by referring to a Philadelphia price current, when it will be found to stand higher than any other security of a like kind in the State of Pennsylvania. In connection with the statement that " S. D. Ingham was President, and John Ecky Secretary," it should have been added that Capt. George Jenkins was Super- intendent of Transportation, and Col. William Lilly Shipping Clerk ; Morris Hall, Treasurer; James D. Gallop (well known on the upper Lehigh), Road Master. Hopkin Thomas, now boss machinist at Catasauqua, was master mechanic. It is the impression of the writer that the locomotive "Beaver" was one of the first four-wheeled connected engines built in the State. In the years 1838 and 1839, Hopkin Thomas built, at the shops of the Company at Beaver Meadows, a six- wheeled connected engine, the first of the kind constructed in the country. This locomotive, the "Nonpareil," was supposed at the time to be what her name implied, and those now living along the line of this road, who can look back at her as she appeared twenty years ago, and then at some of the locomotives now in use, can well note the contrast. Following the notice of Mr. W. W. Longstreth's connection with the Beaver Meadow Company, as President, we should have mentioned that A. G. Brodhead, Jr., was soon after appointed Superintendent, the duties of which position he has continued to discharge for nearly ten years, with credit to himself and entire satisfaction to the Company. On the 25th of August, 1858, the Quakake Railroad, connecting the Beaver Meadow with the Catawissa, Williamsport, and Erie Railroad, was completed. This road is thirteen miles in length, passing through a very beautiful valley, and is stocked and run by the Catawissa, Williamsport, and Erie Railroad Company. The business of this road has been gradually increasing, and when the coal basin near the western terminus, called the Taumau End, shall be opened, it will largely increase the business of this road, and be a very considerable auxiliary to the Beaver Meadow and Lehigh Valley roads. This road connects with the Beaver Meadow one mile and a quarter below the town of Weatherly, and with the Cata- wissa three miles south of the Summit Station on that road. At the point where this road connects with the Catawissa a road has been located, and considerable work done on it, leading into the great Mahanoy coal- field, which coal can be reached by four or five miles of road, not very expensive to make, which, if pushed forward and completed, would open up this va^t coal- field several years sooner than it can be by a projected road from Tamaqua to this basin. The work on the road leading from the junction of the Quakake with the Cata- wissa into the Mahanoy has been abandoned for the present, but it is believed it will be resumed in the spring of 1860, and pushed forward to completion. This would throw a large trade over the Beaver Meadow, Lehigh Valley, the New Jersey Central, North Pennsylvania, and Belvidere Delaware railroads, and bring this coal into the New York market at lower rates than coal from many points in the Schuylkill region can be furnished. BEAVER MEADOW RAILROAD AND COAL COMPANY. 403 The following table will show the amount of ooal carried over the road since its completion : — 1837 33,617 tons. 1849 324,048 tons 1838 54,647 ' ' 1850 (flood) . 355,403 " 1839 79,971 ' < 1851 383,748 " 1840 123,325 ' < 1852 243,112 " 1841 (flood) 64,641 ' ' 1853 278,939 " 1842 108,171 ' < 1854 367,093 " 1843 125,456 ' < 1855 438,092 " 1844 143,363 ' ' 1856 552,111 " 1845 149,000 ' 1857 618,793 " 1846 194,3S0 ' ' 1858 628,227 " 1847 247,500 ' 1859 7^6,313 " 1848 266,188 ' APPENDIX. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES* HON. SAMUEL SITGREAYES. Samuel Sitgreaves, a lawyer and statesman of fine talents and education, was born in the city of Philadelphia, March 16, 1764. His father was a merchant of wealth and standing, and gave his son an excellent classical education. After going through his collegiate studies, he spent some time in his father's counting- house, where he became perfectly familiar with book-keeping and accounts, to which may, no doubt, in part, be attributed the great accuracy and system which he ever afterwards preserved in the transaction of business. He studied law in Philadelphia, with the Hon. James Wilson, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, in company with James Ross, of Pittsburg, and James A. Bayard, of Delaware, and was admitted to the bar in Philadelphia, Sept. 3, 1783, with high reputation for talents. Some time after his admission, in the year 1786, he re- moved to Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, where he soon succeeded to a large practice at the bar, at the head of which, in that region, he continued until stricken down by sickness, about a year before his decease, which took place April 4th, 1827, at Easton. In 1790, he was elected a member of the Convention to form a Constitution for Pennsylvania, having then resided in Northampton County but about four years. In that body, he took a leading and active part, and introduced or advocated every leading republican feature in that instrument. In this, he and James Ross acted in concert ; yet in eight years afterwards those two gentlemen were the leading men in the Federal party, while many of those who opposed their views in the Convention of 1790, were found leading men in the Democratic party. Mr. Sitgreaves was elected to the House of Representatives of the United States in October, 1794, and served as a member, having been re-elected until the year 1798. He was one of the ablest of the able men who composed the House of Rep- resentatives during that period. In 1797, he was the leading manager to conduct the impeachment of Willie Blount, a senator from Tennessee, and discharged his duties with great power, talents, and fidelity. The Senate decided, however, that they could not take jurisdiction of the case, as a senator was not liable to trial by impeachment. He was subsequently appointed a commissioner to settle claims * We had hoped to give to our readers a brief sketch of all the leading men in the Lehigh Valley ; but, after repeated petitions for the necessary information, we have been unable to obtain them in time, and therefore are compelled (after some delay in our work), to omit them. 408 APPENDIX. under Jay's treaty, and went to England for the purpose, where he discharged the duties of that appointment with great fidelity. In 1799, he was retained by government to assist in the trial, before the U. S. Circuit Court, of John Fries, for high treason, and made certainly the ablest speech of all the celebrated counsel engaged in that cause. At the end of the administration of the elder Adams, he retired from politics, disgusted, as he said, with the conduct of the Federalists in supporting Aaron Burr for President, and having few affiliations with the opposite party. He then resumed the practice of his profession, attending the courts of some of the adjoining coun- ties, and led the bar wherever he practised, until the year 1826, when he was taken sick, and gradually sunk until his death, as before stated, being then in the sixty-fourth year of his age. He was a man of fine and noble appearance, and of dignified manners — some- what aristocratic in his bearing — a good specimen of the gentleman of the old school ; not only of fine talents, but of the most untiring and systematic industry, and of commanding eloquence. He always made laborious preparation for his causes, and put his whole case, facts, as well as law, upon his brief, so that he was always ready, and rarely went into the trial of a cause unless he had time for pre- paration. His briefs were perfect models, both as to matter and manner, and left him but little labor to perform, in the mere trial of his causes. He was one of the most forcible speakers in the Commonwealth — generally grave and imposing in his manner, but occasionally pouring forth floods of wit and ridicule, when neces- sary to overwhelm his opponent. He was intimately connected with the history of Easton, and of its progress, from his first coming there until the time of his being stricken down with disease, about a year before his death. He participated largely in its improvements, among which may be mentioned the erection of the Easton Delaware bridge, Trinity Church, and the construction of the principal roads leading to and from the place. From 1815 to the time of his decease, he was President of the Easton Bank, and his ability, care, and prudence, did much to establish its character, and give it that public confidence which it has never ceased to retain. As a specimen of his powers of wit and ridicule, we insert the following award of arbitrators written by him in the case of a quarrel, resulting in an assault and battery by Judge Mulholland, an impulsive Irish Democrat, then Prothonotary of the Common Pleas of Lehigh County, and F. J. Haller, a hot-headed Federal law- yer, who had quarrelled about politics, and who had been persuaded to leave the case to the members of the bar, as arbitrators, for settlement. "We, the arbitrators, mutually appointed to settle and adjust the controversy between Frederick John Haller, Esq., prosecutor, and John Mulholland, Esq., pro- secuted, having called to our assistance, conformably to the agreement of the said parties, Henry Wilson, Esq., by reason of previous diversity of opinion amongst us. And we, the said arbitrators, together with the said Henry Wilson, Esq., hav- ing attentively heard the said parties and their witnesses, and deliberately con- sidered the allegations and the evidence, do, with unanimous consent, make this our award upon the whole matter. We are of opinion that Mr. Haller, duriter verba exposuit, and that Mr. Mulhol- land molliter manus imposuit ; that Mr. Haller has offended in verbise, and Mr. Mul- holland in verberibus, or, rather, that he is guilty de pulsatione, but not de verbera- tione; we think that Mr. Mulholland has sinned a little against the law, and Mr. Haller much against good manners, and that both the said parties have more zeal r Arbitrators APPENDIX. 409 than discretion ; that one of them has more courage than patience, and the other more forbearance than courage. We think that about the subject matter on which they disputed, Mr. Haller manifested himself to be a tough Federalist, and Mr. Mulholland proved himself to be an unyielding Democrat ; that both of them were right, and both of them wrong ; that each of them told as much as suited his argument, and suppressed what was unfavorable to it ; and that both of them were incorrect, as well in argument as in conduct. We think that each owes an atonement to the other, but that the debt will be soonest paid by exacting nothing on either side. We award, therefore, that the expenses of the arbitration be paid equally between them ; and we recommend to them to avoid the discussion of politics hereafter, or to discuss them with better temper ; and always to remember that neither hard ivords nor hard blows are the best possible expedients for the conver- sion of adversaries. Done after supper, under our hands, this 2d day of May, 1814. S. SITGREAVES,-) JOHN ROSS, C. EVANS, FREDK. SMITH, GEO. WOLF, JOHN EWING. J H. WILSON, Umpire. HON. GEORGE WOLF. George Wolf was born the 12th of August, 177- in Allen (now East Allen) Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, in what was then known as the Irish (or Craig's) settlement, one of the most fertile and desirable agricultural regions in America. His father, George Wolf, was a native of Germany, a man of plain manners and habits, but very upright and respectable. The Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, by whom the neighborhood was settled, having, as was their wont, established a classical school in the vicinity of their church, young Wolf had an opportunity of obtaining a classical education without removing from his parental roof; and, having gone through about the usual routine of classical studies that would have fitted him for college, he was employed as clerk in the office of the Prothonotary, &c, of Northampton County, and while there commenced and com- pleted the study of the law, under the Hon. John Ross, of Easton, subsequently one of the Judges of the Supreme Court. He was admitted to the bar in 1798, supported the election of Thomas M'Keen as Governor in 1799, and Thomas Jefferson as President in 1800. He was ap- pointed Post-Master at Easton in 1801, and subsequently, in 1804, Clerk of the Orphans' Court of Northampton County, which he held until 1809. During this time he had quite a respectable practice at the bar, which greatly increased in after years, from his correct habits of business, and his familiarity with the Ger- man language. From 1817 to 1825 he brought and appeared to more suits than any member of the bar in the county. In 1814 he was elected a member of the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania, but declined being a candidate for re- election. In 1824 he was nominated and elected to Congress, the nomination being made without any effort on his part. He was re-elected in 1826 and .1828., 28 410 APPENDIX. On the 4th of March, 1829, he was nominated by the Democratic party as their candidate for Governor, without himself knowing that he was a candidate, and was elected in October of that year without any serious opposition. He was re- elected in 1832, and was defeated in 1835 by the Muhlenberg split. He was then appointed, by Mr. Van Buren, First Comptroller of the Treasury ; and, subsequently, Collector of the Port of Philadelphia, which latter situation he held at the time of his decease, which occurred very suddenly, from disease of the heart, on the 11th of March, 1840. At the bar Mr. Wolf was very careful and correct in the preparation of all his papers and pleadings. As a speaker, he was plain and argumentative, using good language, and conveying his ideas with precision. He never aimed at any flight of fancy in his public speaking. He had a large fund of that admirable talent, "common sense." In Congress he was distinguished for his habitual industry and attention to business, and as a chairman of an important committee made numerous reports, evincing those powers of investigation and discrimination for which it is conceded by all he was remarkable. As Governor, he was a Pennsyl- vanian out and out, firm, sustaining the credit of the State, the friend of prose- cuting the works of internal improvement begun under his predecessor ; and, what is his crowning glory, the friend of education and the author of the common school system, which he pressed upon the legislature, until, in conformity with his wishes, they established it. His successors followed his example, and the system has now become permanent. As a citizen, Mr. Wolf was a kind neighbor and a mild and honorable gentle- man. As a public ofiicer, he was gentle and courteous, but withal firm as a rock. As a man, he was upright and honest, and discharged all his duties so ably and correctly, as to leave a good memory behind him. He had a strong feeling towards his old friends, as evidence of which, he appointed, when Governor, his old pre- ceptor, Mr. Andrews, Clerk of the Orphans' Court in Philadelphia; and his old legal preceptor, Mr. Ross, Judge of the Supreme Court. The School Board of the Borough of Easton intend erecting a monument, on the High School grounds, in memory of Gov. George Wolf, the advocate and founder of the system of Common School Education in Pennsylvania. HON. WASHINGTON McCARTNEY. Hon. Washington McCartney, LL. D., was born in the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, on the 24th day of August, A. D. 1812 ; and died July 15th, A. D. 1856. At the time of his death he was President Judge of the Third Judicial District of Pennsylvania, composed of the Counties of Northampton and Lehigh, and also Principal of the Union Law School, founded by him, and located at Easton, Pa., the place of his residence for most of the last twenty years of his life. Judge McCartney graduated, with high honors, at Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Pa., in 1834, and was appointed Professor of Mathematics in Lafayette College, at Easton, Pa., September 24th, 1835. In 1836, he was appointed Professor of Mathe- matics and Modern Languages at Jefferson College, his alma mater, and fulfilled the duties of that professorship for about one year, when he again returned to Easton, resuming his Professorship in Lafayette College, August 15th, 1S37. He APPENDIX. 411 resigned September 20th, 1843. Was again appointed to the same Professorship September 18th, 1844, and resigned in 1846 * and was appointed Professor of Men- tal and Moral Philosopby, March 13th, 1S49, which post he held for several years. He was admitted to the Bar of Northampton County, Pa., January 18th, 1838. Was appointed Deputy Attorney-General of that county in 1846, 1S47, and 1848 ; and was elected President Judge of the Third Judicial District, as above stated, at the first general election held for judges, under the amended Constitution, in the fall of 1851. He commenced his Law School in 1846, and in 1854 it was incorpo- rated by the legislature, under the name of " The Union Law School." It was in successful operation at the time of his death. The honorary degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him, by Marshall College, in 1852. He was married at Easton, Pa., April 18th, 1839, to Mary E. Maxwell, daughter of the late William Maxwell, Esq., of New Jersey, who, with three children, survives him. His death spread gloom over the whole community. A general sorrow pervaded it, expressive of a great public loss. Perhaps no man in it ever had a closer rela- tion to all its vital interests. Every good work found in him a patron. Without aspiring to leadership in anything, he was ever designing schemes to benefit his fellow men. There was scarcely a moral or benevolent enterprise connected with the history of the region where he resided for the twenty years previous to his death, with which he had not been identified. In the lecture-room and Bible class — in the college and school-room — at the forum and on the bench — his influ- ence for good was felt and acknowledged. With wonderful breadth of attainment, he combined a minuteness of knowledge that constituted him a prodigy among the students of every special department of literature. He published, in 1844, his celebrated work upon " Differential Calculus," which became at once the text-book in many of our best colleges and academies, and drew forth the praises of our finest mathematical scholars. His " History of the Origin and Progress of the United States," published in 1847, has been pronounced the best work on that subject issued by the American press. While not so graphic in description as Ban- croft's, or so elaborate as to the mere detail of events, yet it has been thought far more philosophic in its structure, and more satisfactory to the student. He deli- vered a very able and instructive course of lectures on Europe and the United States, both in Easton and before the young ladies of Mrs. Willard's Seminary, at Troy, N. Y. One of his lectures, styled " How to Read a Book," is a perfect gem, containing a mine of information and sound advice. His oration, delivered before the Literary Societies of Marshall College, in 1852, called forth deserved encomium arid applause. He left behind him a large number of manuscripts upon mathe- matics, logic, rhetoric, optics, and other interesting subjects, replete with learning and scientific knowledge, illustrated by the original suggestions of his vigorous mind. He was an erudite lawyer, familiar with all the lore of his profession. He made a masterly annotation of Coke's Institutes, and was preparing for publica- tion, at the time of his death, an excellent work upon Evidence. He held the office of President Judge from 1851 until the time of his death, adorning it by cul- ture, integrity, and marked excellence of character. To give greater scope to his love of legal science, he established his Law School, where he shaped the minds of many pupils, some now ornaments in their profession, who love to hallow his memory. Through many years of toil, without remuneration, he endeavored to develop to its fullest capacity the common school system, as applied to the borough of his residence, and in this he was eminently successful, for at the time of his death few towns in the country could boast of better common schools, or buildings more commodious and properly adapted to the comfort and health of the scholars. 412 APPENDIX. As a citizen, lie was affable and guileless. His great characteristic in his social relations was tenderness as to the feelings of others, ever respectful to all, and careful to injure none. In this respect he was a model man. Wrath never escaped his lips, and malice never nestled in his heart. He was the type of a symmetrical Christian gentleman. While he made no parade of his religion, he was sincere in all his exercises and truthful in all his expressions. He was religiously intelli- gent. With lingual knowledge surpassed by few, and diligence untiring, he had explored the wide field of theological literature. He was remarkable in facility' for acquiring languages. Not only was he an accurate and finished German, French, Hebrew, Latin, Greek, and Oriental scholar, but within the last year of his life, with all his arduous duties on the Bench, in his Law School, as a member of the School Board, a Manager of the Easton Gas Company, and connected with various useful projects, he had commenced and partially mastered the acquisition of the Russian language. Yet with all this fund of knowledge, legal, philosophical, and theological, he was proverbially humble. Arrogance had no place in his constitution. Of vain boasting he was never guilty. An attached husband and devoted father, it was in the exercise of his domestic relations that his strong emotive nature had its fullest and most delicate play. His remains were interred in the Easton Cemetery, attended at his funeral by the judges of the court, the members of the bar of his district, members of council, of the school board, teachers and scholars of the High School, the professors and students of Lafayette College, students of his Law School, members of the Beneficial Society, and an immense concourse of citizens, assembled from the whole surrounding region, whose sorrow for his loss was manifested in a marked degree. Since his decease, a marble tablet, inscribed to his memory, has been placed in the wall of the main room of the High School building, by order of the School Directors. JOSIAH WHITE. Josiah White, who was first among the founders of the Lehigh Coal and Navi- gation Company, was a man of strongly marked character and great usefulness, and worthy of a more extended biographical notice than the following brief memoir. He was emphatically "a self-made man," and an engineer of the school of which James Brindley, the father of the canal system of England, was such a distinguished example. He was born at Mount Holly, New Jersey, in March, 1781. His father had a small fulling-mill at that place, by which the attention of the boy was probably early turned to mechanical pursuits. His father died when he was young, and the boy was brought to Philadelphia by his mother, who sought employment for him, and placed him in a hardware store. He went to work with a will, and soon mastered the details of the business and won the entire confidence of his employer, whom he succeeded in the trade as soon as he was old enough to set up for himself. Like Benjamin Franklin, he took pleasure, in after life, in telling how he used to wheel his own wheelbarrow, and distribute goods himself to his customers, working late and early, and living very economically. Having been born and brought up in the religious Society of Friends, to which he adhered throughout his life, he had their well-known good habits. APPENDIX. 418 He rapidly acquired property, and soon accumulated a sufficiency for his mode- fate wants. When a young man he married a lady named Catharine Ridgway, who died not long after, leaving no children. Having retired from the hardware business, he bought a country place, with an unimproved water-power, about five miles from Philadelphia, at the Falls of Schuylkill. Here he began his engineering operations with an effort to improve that water-power. At first he intended to do but little, as he was mainly seeking occupation for his active and ardent temperament ; but he was gradually drawn on from little to more, as is often the case. In 1810 he married a second time, Elizabeth, the eldest of the two daughters of Solomon White, a merchant of Philadelphia ; the grounds of whose country resi- dence, "Rural Hall," extended from Callowhill Street, above Eleventh, through to the Ridge Road, in what is now a solidly built part of the city. His wife, though now deceased, survived him, and their union was for a long series of years a source of great happiness to them both. The writer of this brief notice takes a painful pleasure in expressing his high sense of her truly Christian character. Josiah White built a dam in the river Schuylkill, and a large lock, of cut stone, for passing river boats. This was the first lock built on the river, and it was not until after a very severe and expensive struggle with the water that the founda- tion was laid. He built a mill for the manufacture of wire, which was soon burned down, with a heavy loss, but immediately rebuilt. A wire suspension foot-bridge, of about 400 feet span, was erected across the river, from the mill to the opposite bank. A boat built of sheet-iron was also used for ferrying. For a time the wire business prospered, but the embargo and the war with Great Britain having passed away, British wire was imported so cheaply in 1815, that the business of making wire in the United States was ruined for the want of adequate protection. Joseph Gillingham and Erskine Hazard were partners with Josiah White in his operations at the Falls of Schuylkill. At that time the city of Philadelphia was supplied with water pumped by ex- pensive steam machinery, using wood for fuel. Josiah White proposed to contract to supply the city at a greatly reduced rate, by the substitution of water-power for steam. A long negotiation ensued, which finally resulted in the undertaking of the work by the city corporation, which bought the water-power of White and Gillingham for $150,000, and constructed the Fairmount Water- Works, so long the pride of Philadelphia. Experiments with anthracite coal had been made in the wire-mill at the Falls, and when the Schuylkill Navigation Company was chartered, in 1815, Josiah White took a lively interest in the enterprise ; but not being able to agree in opinion with the gentlemen who had the control of the company, he told them that he would have no more to do with it, and would go and set up a rival improvement upon the Lehigh. They ridiculed the idea, and thought that he was much more likely to ruin himself than to build up a rival to them. Very liberal legislation was obtained, giving the control of the Lehigh River to Josiah White, Erskine Hazard, and G. F. A. Hauto, with the powers of an internal improvement company. The first and second of the partners had long been asso- ciates and intimate friends ; and they were induced to associate the third with them, by the belief that he would be able to bring a large amount of capital to aid the undertaking. His representations were deceptive, and they were at last obliged to buy him off, to get rid of him. A large body of wild lands, containing an immense amount of anthracite coal, 414 APPENDIX. having been purchased in the neighborhood of Manch Chunk, operations were commenced in 1818 to improve the river and to start the Lehigh coal trade. It was found to be a much more serious and expensive undertaking than had been anticipated. The Lehigh is a large stream, having a great deal of fall, and a very rocky bottom. The channels were crooked and intricate, and the fall was so great that when the river was low there was no navigation whatever. Messrs. White and Hazard were their own engineers. They waded in the stream ; they sounded the channels ; they took the levels of the rapids ; they directed the blasting of the rocks, the building of the wing dams, and the removal of the bars. But something more was needed to make a good descending navigation, and this was effected by means of a system of flushing, called "artificial freshets." These artificial freshets were produced at stated intervals, and generally daily during the season of navigation, by storing up water in the pools of dams built across the river, of log crib-work filled in with stone. Wide sluices, for passing rafts and coal arks, were made in these dams, and they were readily opened and shut by one man, by means of hydrostatic pressure, acting in a contrivance of Josiah White, known by the name of the "bear-trap lock." The arrangement was very simple and ingenious, and fully answered the intended purpose. The coal was then brought down the rivers Lehigh and Delaware to Philadelphia, in arks roughly built of white pine plank and boards, which lumber was sold after the coal was unloaded. These arks were nearly square, and several of them were fastened together in a line by means of iron hinges, so as to make a long flexible boat, which would float safely in rough water, and was steered by a long oar at each end. By means of this descending navigation the Lehigh coal trade was started in 1820, two years in advance of that on the Schuylkill navigation ; and the coal continued to be carried in arks until after the Lehigh Canal was constructed and ready for use. The practical limit of the capacity of the descending naviga- tion was found to be about 30,000 tons per annum, which was then considered to be a large trade. The consumption of lumber in building coal arks was very large, and numerous saw-mills were built to furnish it. The coal was hauled in wagons from the Summit Mines, then worked as an open quarry, to Mauch Chunk, nearly nine miles, on a turnpike road, built with a descending grade. The anthracite coal trade of Pennsylvania, thus started by Josiah White and his partner, Erskine Hazard, in 1820, when 365 tons were sent to market, has grown to the immense aggregate of 7,700,000 tons in 1859, and it has conferred incalculable benefits upon the commonwealth. As a large capital was required for extended operations, a charter was obtained in 1822 for the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, and the rights of Messrs. White and Hazard were transferred by them to the new corporation for a large amount of its stock, they continuing to be its acting managers and engineers. In the spring of 1827 they laid a railroad, nine miles long, from the mines to Mauch Chunk, mostly on the bed of the old turnpike ; which was the first railroad in Pennsylvania, and the first in the United States, except a much shorter road from a granite quarry in Massachusetts. On the Mauch Chunk Railroad the loaded coal cars ran down to the river by gravity, and were hauled back when empty by mules. This pioneer railroad was considered to be a great curiosity, and attracted crowds of visitors to see it. In 1827, after the railroad was made, the construction of the Lehigh Canal and ascending navigation was vigorously undertaken, under the supervision of Car.- APPENDIX. 415 vass White, who was a scientific civil engineer, and had been in charge of the construction of the eastern division of the Erie Canal of New York. Josiah White had much to do with the planning of the new works ; and he especially insisted on the locks being large, the canals wide and deep, and the bed of the river being used in many places for the boat channel. Thus the Lehigh Company was saved the enormous cost of a general enlargement of its works, which has had to be en- countered by so many other companies to meet the competition of rival lines. The Canal from Mauch Chunk to Easton, 46 miles, was opened in 1829. In 1835, Edwin A. Douglass became the Engineer of the Lehigh Company, and the ascending navigation was extended up the river from Mauch Cbunkto White- haven, by means of high dams and locks of great lift, the lift of one of them being thirty feet. A railroad was also constructed through a very difficult country from Whitehaven to Wilkesbarre. For some years the Lehigh Company prospered, its credit was excellent, and its stock much above par. Josiah White had returned to Philadelphia to reside with his family, had retired from active business, and was in possession of an ample fortune, a large part of which was in the stock of the Lehigh Company. His three sons had all died young, and with his wife and two daughters he devoted himself much to benevolent enterprises. In January, 1841, when he was about sixty years of age, occurred the memor- able flood in the Lehigh, when in a few hours a vast amount of devastation was done, and, in the language of the newspapers, "the beautiful navigation was swept away, and the river was a clear stream from mountain to mountain." Josiah White's wonderful pluck, courage, power of endurance, indomitable per- severance, and elasticity of hope, were signally displayed on this trying occasion. His strength rose with the burden, and he never faltered. His own pecuniary loss was greater than that of any other individual, and his efforts until the damage was repaired were in proportion great. He saw the canal repaired, and lived to see its tonnage increase to more than 700,000 tons per annum. At an early age his attention had been strongly turned to the fact, that cheap coal and cheap iron are the main pillars of modern physical civilization. Next to cheap coal he was anxious to produce cheap iron, and he was firm in the faith that before many years, the iron ores of Eastern Pennsylvania would be princi- pally smelted with anthracite coal. As the forests were cleared and charcoal became dearer, the cost of making iron in small charcoal furnaces was constantly increasing and the production was necessarily limited in amount. He knew that in England iron was made on a great scale by the use of bituminous coal and coke ; and he believed that anthracite would soon be made to serve the same purpose. His first experiments with that end in view did not however result in practical success. In the spring of 1837, George Crane, an iron master at Yniscedwin, near Swansea, in South Wales, after many unsuccessful efforts, succeeded practically on a large scale in making good iron with anthracite coal, by means of a continuous and powerful hot blast. His furnace did not chill up, and he continued to make good iron in large quantities and at a fair profit ; competing advantageously with the coke made iron of the neighboring iron masters, who had sneered at his efforts and predicted his failure. At that time one of the nephews of Josiah White, Solomon W. Roberts, was sojourning in Wales, where he passed some months, superintending the making of railroad iron for some of the railroads near Philadelphia, and studying the sub- ject of making cheap iron on a large scale. Having visited the Yniscedwin iron 416 APPENDIX. works, he became well acquainted with George Crane, and studied his processes and results. These he communicated to his uncle, Josiah White, who took up the subject at once, and originated the arrangements which resulted in the formation of the Lehigh Crane Iron Company, whose extensive works under the able man- agement of David Thomas, who was formerly with George Crane, have added so much to the population and wealth of the Lehigh Valley. The five furnaces belonging to the Crane Iron Company made more than 41,000 tons of pig iron in 1859. The great and growing importance of the anthracite iron trade of Pennsyl- vania, has already vindicated the foresight of Josiah White in this particular. One of the marked traits of his character was his power of attaching other men to him. He took a lively personal interest in those whom he employed, and in the prosperity of their families. Many men remained with him during a long series of years, and were promoted from time to time as the business increased, and opportunity permitted. He required of them industry, temperance, and faith- fulness ; and his brotherly kindness to all who were working under his direction, in any capacity, however humble, was very remarkable. He never looked upon a man as a machine made merely to labor, but as a living, intelligent, responsible, feeling, and immortal being, and to be trained and treated as such. The result was that he acquired the enduring attachment of those whom he employed ; they sympathized with his losses, and they rejoiced in his prosperity ; and in his his- tory has been verified the declaration that "the memory of the just is blessed." He was a man of great mechanical ingenuity, and of unusual energy and self- reliance ; and, never having had the benefit of scientific training, he relied more upon his own experiments than upon the recorded experience of others. He was, however, very quick at taking hints, and industrious in recording the results of his - own observations. In the latter part of his career he was brought into intimate association with many gentlemen of high culture, capital, and influence ; and he never failed to secure their respect by his candor, sound common sense, and straightforward inte- grity of purpose. He was a positive man, and generally ready to give positive opinions on all subjects that interested his mind; but he had no desire either to give or to take offence ; and, as he grew older, he became more and more consi- derate of the feelings and prejudices of those that differed from him. His charity became of a more comprehensive character, and his beneficence was great. He was an active member of the Orthodox Society of Friends, and he devoted much time to the careful study of the Bible. He founded and endowed two manual labor schools in the States of Iowa and Indiana, for the support and education of poor children of the most needy and suffering classes of the community. The illness which resulted in his death originated in a cold contracted on his return from a western tour, undertaken for benevolent purposes. In order to expedite the completion of the Delaware Division of the Pennsylvania Canal, he accepted for a short time the office of Canal Commissioner. His figure was of the middle height, and somewhat stout, his complexion fair, and his usual manner animated and cheerful. He died in peace, on the 14th of November. 1850, in the seventieth year of age, at his own house in Philadelphia. His closing years were blessed with " honor, love, obedience, troops of friends, and all that should accompany old age." APPENDIX. 417 HON. JAMES MADISON PORTER. James Madison Porter was born at his father's residence, " Selma," one mile north of Norristown, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, on the 6th of January, 1793. His father was General Andrew Porter, a meritorious officer of the Revolution, who served throughout the whole war, and at its close was Colonel of the Fourth or Pennsylvania Regiment of Artillery. Beside his military services, he held a high rank in the scientific world as a mathematician and astronomer. Subsequent to the Revolutionary War, he was engaged for some years in the scientific commis- sions for running the lines between New York and Pennsylvania, and New York and Virginia, by astronomical observations ; in which latter service he became intimate with Bishop Madison, of Virginia, who was a Commissioner from that State, and after whom he named his youngest son. The mother of the subject of this notice was Mrs. Elizabeth Porter, whose maiden name was Parker. She became the second wife of General Porter. She, too, was a woman of strong intellect, and of very extensive attainments, although almost entirely self-educated, but she was well educated, and of extensive reading. She was one of the women of the Revo- lution, and passed through a number of trying scenes in that eventful period. James was the youngest of their children, and received the rudiments of his edu- cation at home, under the immediate eye of his father and mother. At nine years of age, he commenced the study of the dead languages, in company with his brothers, David R. Porter and George B. Porter, under a private tutor, at his father's residence. In about a year after, the three boys became students of the Norristown Academy, then just established under charge of the Rev. John Jones, a Presby- terian Clergyman, where they pursued their studies for about two years. By this time they were all three qualified to enter the junior class at college. But a rebellion occurred at Princeton College, during which the building was burned down, and the project of sending them to any other college was discussed by their parents, and ultimately abandoned. Their father resided upon his farm, and was possessed of an excellent library of choice books. The boys were retained at home, doing the work on the farm, and pursuing their studies at the family mansion until the year 1809, when General Porter was appointed Surveyor-General of Pennsyl- vania. In August of that year, there was a great press of business in the land office, in consequence of the approaching expiration of the time limited by law for patenting lands. His father sent for his son James to come up and assist as a clerk in his office, as there was no appropriation for extra clerks. He came up for about four months, wrote diligently in that office ; the only compensation which he received therefor being the knowledge he acquired of the practice of the land office, which he turned to good account when he came to the bar. During the Christmas holidays in December, 1809, he entered the office of John Passmore, Esq., then Prothonotary and Clerk of the Courts of Lancaster County, where, in the course of two years, by unlimited diligence, he became familiar with the prac- tice of the law in all the inferior courts as well as in the Supreme Court, of which Mr. Passmore was also Prothonotary. He left this situation in January, 1812, much to the regret of Mr. Passmore, and, after visiting Washington City, pro- ceeded to Reading, Pennsylvania, to continue the study of the law, without inter- ruption, with his eldest brother, the Honorable Robert Porter, then President Judge 418 APPENDIX. of the Third Judicial District, and carried out that intention until the. month of August of that yeai-, when, at the request of the Prothonotary of the District Court of the City and County of Philadelphia, he proceeded to that city to fill, tempora- rily, the place of Court Clerk in that office. This was intended to be but a tem- porary arrangement, but it turned out that Mr. Porter remained in this situation, reading law in the meantime under the direction of William Delany, Esq., until the 23d of April, 1813, when he was admitted to the bar of the District Court of the City and County of Philadelphia, after an examination, as appears by the record, by Charles Chauncey, Samson Levy, and William Milnor, Jr., Esquires. In the March preceding, there was a rumor that British men-of-war were lying off the Capes of the Delaware, with the intent, as soon as the ice had left that river, to send barges with congreve rockets, &c, to burn the city of Philadelphia; the only fortification in defence of which was fort Mifflin, some seven miles below the city. This fort was without troops, except some few invalids which had been left there the fall before by Colonel (afterwards General) Scott, when they removed the troops from Philadelphia to Greenbush. Mr. Porter, being in a coffee-house at Philadelphia, heard some of the high-toned federal merchants of that day abusing Mr. Madison, the President, very violently, for leaving the city so defenceless, and observed to them that it would be better to put their own shoulders to the wheel and defend the city themselves, than to be calling upon Hercules to assist them. Some sharp language ensued, and he went up to the office of the Democratic Press, then published by Col. John Binns, and, as it was twelve o'clock, got the editor to stop the press, until he wrote a call for a meeting of the association of Democratic young men, of which he was one of the Secretaries. The call was published, and the meeting hsld at Stratton's tavern, Chestnut near Sixth Street, the same even- ing, at which meeting a volunteer company of upwards of seventy men was formed to man the fort. The members resolved to parade next morning in uniform, and did so — their uniforms being blue roundabouts and pantaloons, blacks stocks, and citizens' hats. They raked the slop-shops of the city, got the uniforms, and formed under their officers, Capt., Jacob H. Fisler, 1st Lieut., William Rodderfield, 2d Lieut., James M. Porter, marched up to the State Arsenal, where Major Sharp, the Brigade Inspector, furnished them with muskets. They then proceeded to the quarters of General Broomfield, the Commandant of the military district, and ten- dered their services to him. The old gentleman accepted them, and gave the necessary orders for the company, with that of Captain Mitchell, to proceed to Fort Mifflin, which they did two days afterwards, and remained there until the begin- ning of April, when, their places being supplied by United States troops, they were discharged by a general order, dated April 7th, 1813, in which General Bloomfield complimented them for their promptness and alacrity in tendering their services to garrison Fort Mifflin, on the first intimation of the emergency, and their zeal, activity, and patience at the fort in the discharge of their duties as citizen sol- diers. Upon his admission to the bar, Mr. Porter, who had originally thought of settling in Lancaster, opened his office in the city of Philadelphia, where he soon succeeded to a very good practice, and extended his practice to the counties of Chester and Montgomery regularly, and to Delaware and Bucks occasionally. He remained in Philadelphia until the year 1818, during which time he was successfully elected major, lieutenant-colonel and colonel of the 72d regiment Pennsylvania militia, having succeeded to the last of those before he was twenty-three years of age. He also, during this time, acted as judge advocate of the courts martial for trying APPENDIX. 419 delinquents and deserters, ordered into service during the war of 1812, from Phila- delphia and Chester Counties. He also, for a young man, took a prominent part in politics, and was a candidate of his party one year for common council of the city, but, with the rest of the ticket, was defeated by their political opponents. In 1818, Amos Ellmaker, Esq., then attorney-general of the State, offered him the appointment of deputy attorney-general of Northampton County, which, after consulting his friends, he accepted, inasmuch as Judge Ross had left the bar for the bench, and Mr. Sitgreaves, the leading practitioner, was advancing in years. He accordingly removed to Easton in April, 1818, which place has been his resi- dence ever since. In ten years' time, by the decease of Mr. Sitgreaves, and the election of George Wolf as governor, he found himself, in age, the head of the bar, as he was also in talents and learning, although still comparatively a young man. He pursued his profession with great assiduity and success, and has probably tried, in the course of his life, as many causes as any other practitioner in the State. Before he had been seven years at the bar, it is said he had defended, with success, at least ten persons charged with homicide ; and has tried both in the inferior courts and in error a very large amount of heavy civil business. His name will be found in the Supreme Court reports from 5th Sergeant and B.awle through some seventy or eighty volumes, to the last book of reports. He earned through the Common Pleas and Supreme Court the assize of nuisance, in Ihrie vs. Barnet, which was contested inch by inch by Mr. Sitgreaves, Mr. Joel Jones, and Mr. Binney. Afterwards, in conjunction with Mr. Hale Jones, he contested the bequests and devises in Peter Miller's will, in opposition to Mr. A. E. Brown and Mr. John Sergeant, in both which cases he displayed an amount of acquaintance with the black letter lore of the law, which few of the present day possess. He possessed a most retentive memory, and it is related of him that, being in Lan- caster about the year 1821 or 1822, when in the court, trying a cause, it became desirable to have the record of an actjon which had been tried some years before, and as the prothonotary's clerk was going out to search for it, Mr. Porter told him to get the appearance docket of a certain term Which he named, and he would find the suit No. 1 of that term. The clerk went to the office and found it was so, very much to the astonishment of the court and the bar, for he had not seen the docket or any of the proceedings for a dozen of years. His entire familiarity with the form of proceedings gave him great advantages in the practice of his profession. He wrote an exceedingly rapid hand, was very industrious, and made full briefs in all his cases ; the advantages of doing which, he reaped in his after practice, having fully prepared briefs in almost all questions that could arise. By a peculiar system of mnemonics, early adopted by him, he always asso- ciated the names of the parties with points decided in the case when he read the reports ; from this simple fact, it has been truly said of him by judges before whom he practised, that he could gather more law in a short time than almost any lawyer they ever knew. He has tried causes in almost all, if not quite all the counties east of the Susquehanna, and he has also tried some in counties west of that river. He is very prompt and energetic at all times, but especially so where a new point is attempted to be sprung upon him during the trial of a cause. He has improved his mind and style very much by attention to belles-lettres and mis- cellaneous reading. In speaking, he has a fine command of language, and may be called eloquent to a high degree. No man can better play on the passions and feelings of a jury, and few if any public speakers are more powerful and demonstra- tive in argument. He seems to have been formed and educated for a lawyer. 420 APPENDIX. He slimes, too, in deliberative bodies, both as a speaker and a parliamentary- tactician, having made himself perfectly master of parliamentary rules while a member and spectator of legislative proceedings, and also while a member, and for a portion of the time presiding officer of the convention of Pennsylvania in 1837 and 1838. In his speaking, he has more of the fortiter in re than of the suaviter in modo, preferring to deal in solid argument and biting sarcasm to dallying with soft words and pretty speeches. He abounds in keen wit, and is ready at repartee. His rule has always been, never to commence a personal attack upon his opponent, and never sparing an opponent who commences a personal attack upon him. He adopts the Scotch maxim — nemo me impune lacessit. In all his professional affairs, he has been one of the most successful practitioners, as he is acknowledged to be one of the best read and ablest lawyers in the State. He was elected in 1838 a member of the reform convention of Pennsylvania, and on the assembling of that body in May, 1837, was the Democratic candidate for its presiding officer. The Whigs and Anti-masons had a majority of one, and they elected the Honorable John Sergeant by that majority over him ; but Mr. Sergeant and Mr. Porter being personal friends, Mr. Porter was appointed chairman of the committee on the bill of rights, and, subsequently, when Mr. Sergeant was absent, attending to his congressional duties, he appointed Mr. Porter president pro tern, in pursuance of a resolution of the convention, so that he presided over that body during about one-third of the time it sat, with great ability and energy. He spoke frequently and with great force and effect during the deliberations of that body. His speeches are replete with that strong common sense which charac- terizes his efforts. He sustained his character for conservative Democracy, and opposed all rash and radical experiments in government — showing that he was as much at home in constitutional as he was in common law. The amendments having been carried further than he thought was expedient, he opposed their adoption by the people, and his constituents in Northampton County, one of the most Democratic counties in the State, gave nearly two thousand majority against the amendments. In June, 1839, on the resignation of the Hon. Calvin Blythe, he was appointed President Judge of the 12th Judicial District of Pennsylvania, composed of the counties of Dauphin, Schuylkill, and Lebanon, in vacation, and was nominated and confirmed by the Senate at the next session. Between his first appointment and his nomination to the Senate, the criminal proceedings instituted by Governor Fdtner and his administration against the Democrats, who were at Harrisburg during what was called the Buckshot War, came before Judge Porter in the Quarter Sessions and Oyer and Terminer of Dauphin County. There was a great deal of political excitement about this matter, but he met it fearlessly, and after quashing arraigns and attaching the county commissioners for disobedience and contempt, in not pursuing the directions of law, in selecting and drawing jurors and quashing indictments and presentments by grand jurors thus drawn, and the prosecution neglecting to send proper bills against the parties accused, he discharged the de- fendants by proclamation, and thus ended the celebrated Buckshot War; very much, it is supposed, to the satisfaction of those who commenced it. His political opponents, however, endeavored to make all the capital they could out of it, and opposed his confirmation by the Senate, and lavished upon him no small share of abuse. But several of the courts of the commonwealth and the Court of Nisi Prius made similar decisions in relation to the selection and drawing of jurors, and the Supreme Court confirmed his attachment for contempt against the county com- missioners, and satisfied the bar, as well as the people, that his decisions were APPENDIX. 421 right. When the final question upon his confirmation came up, and a vote had to be taken, his political opponents left the Senate, to prevent, if possible, a quorum from voting ; but in this they failed, and he was triumphantly confirmed. He re- mained upon the bench of that district until the latter part of July, 1840, when he resigned and returned to the practice of the law at Easton. His clearness of ap- prehension, his sound law knowledge, his promptness and decision of character, and his stern integrity and independence, fitted him peculiarly for the bench. His resignation was therefore a matter of great regret to the people of the district over which he presided. Returning to the bar, he soon resumed his practice in Northampton and adjoining counties. In the early part of March, 1843, while Mr. Porter was attending to a cause in the Circuit Court of the United States, in Phila- delphia, he received an invitation from President Tyler to come to Washington. On arriving there, he was informed that the President wished him to take charge of the office of Secretary of War of the United States. After some consultation together he agreed to accept it, and was commissioned and sworn into office about the 8th of that month, and applied himself assiduously to the duties of it, to the satisfaction of all persons having business to transact with it. He gave it his entire personal attention, and established the character of being one of the best secretaries who had ever filled the department. His report made to the President, which accompanied his message to Congress in December, 1843, is a methodical, lucid, and intelligent document ; as much so as any that ever emanated from the War Department. His whole administration of the office met the unqualified ap- probation of the officers of the army, who still hold him in grateful remembrance for the kindness, amenity, and promptness in his business intercourse with them. But Mr. Tyler had offended the Whigs by the independence and democracy of his measures, and certain politicians of the Democratic party feared his success with their party ; in this complication of political feeling, Mr. Porter's nomination was not confirmed by the Senate, when the matter was brought up before that body in the latter end of January, 1844. This result was brought about by political con- siderations only. He immediately resigned, although commissioned until the end of the session of Congress, and was succeeded by the Hon. William Wilkins of Pittsburg. His rejection by the Senate, most probably, was the means of saving his life. He had been invited to attend a fete given on board the steam Frigate Princeton by Commodore Stockton. He sent an apology, as by his arrangements he was to leave the city on the morning of that day, which he did, and on its evening re- ceived intelligence at Harrisburg of the bursting of the gun on board that vessel whereby Judge Upshur, the Secretary of State, Mr. Gilmer, the Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Marcy, Col. Gardiner, and others, had been killed. Judge Porter, having been an artillery officer, having devoted a good deal of attention to the subject of ordnance, and, having no fears of gunpowder, would most probably have been near the breech of the piece when it exploded, and have been killed as the others were. Returning again to the bar at Easton, he resumed the practice of the law, his business having suffered little during the absence of a year. He pursued his pro- fession with unAbated vigor until the fall of 1849, when he was elected a member of the State legislature, and, at the opening of that body, was appointed by the Speaker at the head of the Judiciary Committee, of which he made a learned and industrious chairman. It was composed of Judge Porter, Judge Conyngham, Judge Smyser, Mr. Cornyn, Mr. Parker, of Northumberland, Mr. Craig Biddle, Mr. Rhey, 422 APPENDIX. Mr. Laird, and Mr. Scofield, embracing some of the ablest lawyers in the State ; and, by their course of conduct, they established the reputation of being, perhaps, the ablest Judiciary Committee ever appointed in the House of Representatives of this State. They were strongly conservative, and opposed to all radical, hasty, and inconsiderate measures. Among other subjects upon which they acted and reported, was that of repealing in part the act to prevent kidnapping, passed 3d March, 1847, in which an interesting review is made of the constitutional and legislative provisions on the subject of fugitive slaves, and the power of Congress and the State to legislate in relation thereto. The paper is one of great ability, and is understood to be the work of Judge Porter, the chairman, and adopted by all the members of the committee. It will be found on the journal of the House of that year, page 495, &c. Upon the adjournment of the legislature, Mr. Porter returned to Easton, and was not re-elected to the legislature. In the spring of 1853, the Hon. N. B. Eldred resigned the office of President Judge of the Twenty-second Judicial District, composed of the counties of Wayne, Pike, Monroe, and Carbon. The Hon. George R. Barret was commissioned to suc- ceed him until the next election, when Mr. Porter was elected to fill the situation for the ensuing ten years. On the 1st December, 1853, he was inducted into office, and held the courts of Wayne, Pike, Monroe, and Carbon Counties, until the latter end of March, 1855, when, in consequence of ill health, he was obliged to resign, to the great regret of the people of the district. During his administration of the judicial affairs of the Twenty-second District, he gave, as Presiding Judge, entire satisfaction, for the ability, learning, and integrity manifested in his judicial office. He then again commenced the practice of the law at Easton, as far as his health permitted, and has pursued it with his usual industry, as it regards office and con- sulting business, although, until recently, he has not tried as many causes as formerly. His health has now measurably been re-established. Since his residence at Easton, Judge Porter has been at the head of nearly all the improvements in the place. He has served some twelve or fifteen years in the municipal corporation of the borough, and greatly aided in the regulation and im- provement of the streets and footwalks. The Lafayette College, in a great measure, owes its origin to him, who originated it, and by his funds, as well as by his per- sonal exertions, largely contributed to its support. For twenty-five years he served as President of the Board of Trustees of that institution without compensation, and resigned that situation some five years since ; nearly the same length of time he was Professor of Jurisprudence of that college, also without compensation, in which capacity he delivered several lectures of great merit on constitutional law. For a long period he was, and still is, the President of the Easton Delaware Bridge Company, and bestowed much attention to its affairs. This is also one of the great local institutions of the place, commanding a large capital, and no small influence. He served several years as President of the Belvidere Delaware Railroad Company, and was also for a number of years President of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Com- pany, which road was constructed under his administration. One of his late enterprises was the origination of The Dime Savings Institute of Easton, which is now in a very wholesome and flourishing condition. Later still, he was one of the originators of the Farmers' and Mechanics' Institute of Easton, which was organized and chartered in 1855. The object of this institution is to promote the interests of agriculture and the mechanic arts. Their exhibition building is surpassed by none in the country since the destruction of the Crystal Palace, and their annual fairs are well encouraged. APPENDIX. 423 He is a man of great enterprise and liberality, and it may well be said of him, that he has done more for the improvement and the interest of the borough of Easton and the county of Northampton than any other man in it. In the year 1843 he received from Marshall College, as the free will offering of that institution, the degree of Doctor of Laws, which, he remarked, was the only college degree he had ever taken. He is a fine classical scholar, with an immense stock of general information, and his general reading is perhaps equal to that of most men in the country. How he has found time to acquire the minute knowledge which he seems to possess on almost every subject, is a marvel to all, and when some person spoke to him, not long since, in relation to his extensive attainments and general litera- ture, he remarked, " that nature had blessed him with a very retentive memory, that his father was a man of science and general reading, and had given him a good education, and that his mother was a most remarkable woman for her general attainments, especially in classical literature, and had done everything to give him a taste for the English classics, and created in him an ambition, if possible, to equal her. That he had mixed much with the world and his professional brethren, and, therefore, little credit was due him personally, if he had reached mediocrity in his attainments, for he had been but the creature of the circumstances in which he had been placed." Judge Porter has never given anything to the world in the shape of a regular book. There are, however, a great number of his speeches reported in the debates of the convention, and some in our periodical works ; and occasional jeu d'esprit in the shape of poetry, parody, &c, and several addresses or lectures delivered before colleges, literary societies, &c, among which may be enumerated an address in 1831 on "Education and College Learning," before Lafayette College ; an address before the Mechanics' Institute of Easton, a few years later, on "Mental Cultivation as applied to Mechanic Arts;" an address, in 1838, before the literary societies of Marshall College, drawing a parallel between the " Olympic Games and the Modern System of Mental Training ;" a lecture, in 1840, before the Mercantile Library Company of Philadelphia, on " The Anglo-Saxon Race, and their probable Influence upon the Destinies of Mankind ;" a lecture, in 1843, before the William Wirt In- stitute of Philadelphia, on the subject of " Pennsylvania, her Institutions and her Men;" a centenary address delivered in Easton in 1852, "Northampton County and its Folks ;" which have been printed in pamphlet form, and several other addresses of his have also been printed in newspapers. He is now about sixty-seven years of age ; and it may be said of him, as can be said of few others, that he has always been found equal to every position in which he has been placed. Few families have produced four brothers equal in ability to Robert Porter, David Rittenhouse Porter, George Bryan Porter, and last, though not least, James Madison Porter. HON. HENRY D. MAXWELL. Henry D. Maxwell was born in the village of Flemington, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, on the fifth day of December, A. D. 1812. His great-grandfather, John Maxwell, who was of Scottish extraction, emigrated to this country from the North of Ireland in the year 1747. He had been a farmer in Ireland, and, in 424 APPENDIX. removing, brought with him his whole family, consisting of four sons and two daughters. He purchased a fine tract of land in Greenwich Township, in then Sussex, now Warren County, New Jersey, about three miles from Easton, where he settled and resided until his death. His eldest son, William, who had been in a counting-house in Dublin previous to the family emigration here, attached himself to the English army, went west with it in the time of what is known as the French War, was with Braddock, also at Quebec when Wolfe fell, and was at the battle of the Three Rivers. He was in the commissary department of the British army stationed at Mackinaw when the Revolutionary War broke out. He immediately threw up his commission, marched on foot, through a then wilderness, to Trenton, and there tendered his services to the Provincial Congress of New Jersey, who gave him a colonel's commission, with directions to raise a battalion to proceed to Quebec. He enlisted some of the finest young men of the State, a number of whom joined him from Princeton College, among them the subsequent Governor Howell, who continued his warm personal friend until his death. He subsequently received the appointment of brigadier-general, and made an active and efficient officer, highly esteemed by General Washington, who reposed great confidence in his patriotism, prudence, and valor. He was engaged in the battles of Brandy- wine, Germantown, and Monmouth, was with the suffering army at Valley Forge, and had principal command in the battle of Springfield in 1780. He also, at Washington's request, accompanied General Sullivan in the expedition of that gallant officer against the Indians in 1779. Washington, on transmitting his resignation to Congress, said : " I believe him to be an honest man, a warm friend to his country, and firmly attached to its interests." John Maxwell, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was the second son of his father, born November 25, 1739, and was of course quite young at the time of his emigration. That spirit of freedom which strongly characterized the Scotch- Irish who came to this country induced him to join the first company raised in Sussex County, New Jersey, for the defence of his adopted country, of which com- pany he was made lieutenant. He subsequently joined the Revolutionary army as captain of one hundred volunteers. When he reported himself to Washington, then in great need of recruits, as Captain Maxwell, with one hundred good men and true from Sussex, the commander-in-chief gave him a most cordial reception, and made marked expression of the pleasure his appearance caused. He partici- pated in the battles of Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, and Springfield, and long lived to enjoy the fruits of that independence he had aided to win. He died at Flemington, February 15, 1828, aged eighty-nine years, universally respected and esteemed. His first wife was a Miss Clifford, a lady of great strength of mind and character, a regular descendant of one of the Pilgrims who came over in the Mayflower. Their eldest son, George C. Maxwell, became one of the leading lawyers of New Jersey, the compeer of Stockton, Hunter, and the famous lawyers of that day, and represented New Jersey in Congress in 1S12. Their youngest son, William, prepared himself for Princeton College while on his father's farm in Greenwich, N. J., walking daily from there to Easton to secure the instruction of the Rev. Messrs. Feltus and Miles, two distinguished instructors, who taught there for many years. He had commenced the languages under the tuition of his brother-in-law, the late Adam Ramsay, Esq., of Phillipsburg, N. J., and prepared himself to enter the junior class in Princeton in a year and a half from the commencement of his study of the languages. At Nassau Hall he formed one of that celebrated class of 1804, of which Samuel L. Southard, Theodore Fre- APPENDIX. 425 linghuysen, Joseph R. Ingersoll, George Chambers, and Philip Lindley were mem- bers, and who, with a number of others of that class, became distinguished men in after life, reflecting honor both upon themselves and their alma mater. He was a favorite with both his instructors and classmates. After graduating, he studied law with his brother, and was admitted an attorney at law in New Jersey, Novem- ber 10, 1808. He continued in the practice of his profession at Flemington, N. J., until his death, in 1828. As evidence of his popularity and position, the records of the Court of Common Pleas of Northampton County, Pa., show his admission as an attorney of that court, January 24, 1810 ; and December 2, 1811, he was admitted as attorney in the county of Bucks. Henry D. Maxwell was his eldest son, and was prepared to enter Princeton Col- lege in the fifteenth year of his age, when his father's death required him to abandon this cherished project, and bend his energies in aid of a widowed mother, who was left with six children. He at this early age commenced to battle life for himself. He obtained a situation as usher at the boarding-school of the Rev. Robert Steel, D. D., at Abington, Pa., and there for about eighteen months prepared young men, many of whom were his seniors, for that college life which he was required to forego. From this place he returned to his home in Flemington, and commenced the study of the law, under the late Nathaniel Saxton, Esq., a distin- guished practitioner of the Hunterdon County bar, which study he afterwards pursued with Thomas A. Hartwell, Esq., in Somerville, and completed with his cousin, the Hon. John P. B. Maxwell, at Belvidere. He was admitted to the bar of New Jersey, September 4, 1834. His mother (a daughter of the late Major Henry Dusenberry, a successful merchant in Philadelphia, and at New Hampton, N. J.) having removed to Easton, Pa., in the autumn of 1833, he, at her request, determined to remain with her, for a time at least, and commenced the practice of law at Phillipsburg, N. J., residing with his mother at Easton. He was admitted to the bar of Northampton County, Pa., on the seventh day of November, A. D. 1834, and opened an office in Easton in 1835. He was subsequently admitted to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in December, 1836, and to the Supreme Court of the United States in 1841. Shortly after he opened his office in Easton he asso- ciated himself in partnership with the Hon. J. M. Porter, and continued in that connection for several years. In 1848 he was appointed Deputy Attorney-General for the county of Northampton, and again in 1849. In 1850, his health having become impaired by too close application, he was appointed by General Taylor Consul to Trieste, in Austria, to which post he repaired, and continued in the exer- cise of its duties about one year, when he resigned, and returned to his home and the pursuits of his profession. He continued in the active discharge of these until in July, 1856, when he was appointed, by Governor Pollock, President Judge of the Third Judicial District of Pennsylvania, to succeed his brother-in-law, the Hon. Washington McCartney, who had died. He was again reappointed in December, 1856, and continued in the discharge of the duties of that important post until December 1, 1857 ; how satisfactorily, will appear by the subjoined extract from the Allentown Democrat, of December 9, 1857, all the more complimentary in ap- pearing in a paper of an opposite political character: — " On Wednesday of last week, Judge Maxwell held an adjourned court in this borough which terminated his connection with us as President Judge of this judi- cial district. The following letter, signed by all the members of the Bar, and other citizens of the county, was addressed to him asking his participancy in a public 29 426 APPENDIX. entertainment to be given as a testimonial of their appreciation of his character as a man and as a jurist. Allentown, Dec. 1, 1857. Hon. Henry D. Maxwell. Dear Sir : The undersigned members of the Bar of Lehigh County and other of its citizens, anxious to give some appropriate expression of their high opinion of your character as a man and jurist, do hereby invite you to participate with them in a public entertainment at such time and place as may best suit your convenience. The relation that has existed between us for the past two years enables us to accord to you the highest praise as a patient, courteous, in- dustrious, honest, and learned Judge, and impels us to regret that we are about to part with one whom in that important position we have learned to esteem so highly. In returning once more to the labors of the Profession we beg leav^e to assure you of our best wishes for your happiness and prosperity and of our firm belief that one who so well performed the duties of a Judge, and sustained the dignity of the Bench, can never fail to grace and adorn the Bar." The same paper states that the festival that followed was a most happy one evidencing in the strongest possible manner, " that Judge Maxwell left the Bench with the kindliest feelings of all parties." The late Samuel L. Southard the warm friends of his father and family in 1829 while Secretary of the Navy, voluntarily forwarded to him a warrant as midship- man in the United States Navy. This he retained for some time, but finding that his mother was greatly opposed to his acceptance, he yielded to her wishes and resigned in May, 1830. He gave his first vote in approval of the principles held by the then National Republican party, afterwards merged into the Whig party, and has continued of that political faith unswervingly. He was a delegate to the National Convention in 1844 at Baltimore, when Clay and Frelinghuysen were nominated, and in 1846 was a candidate for Congress in the district called the Tenth Legion of Democracy, opposed to the Hon. Richard Brodhead, the nominee of the dominant party, when the usual majority of from 4000 to 5000 was reduced to about 1000. He was elected to fill a vacancy in the Town Council of Easton, in 1853, when he was at once made President of Council. At the succeeding spring election he received the highest vote of any candidate, and continued President of Council until the spring of 1856, when be declined a re-election. At an encampment held at Easton in 1842, over which General George Cadwalader commanded, he was appointed Quarter Master General. The popular title of General was then accorded to him, which continued until his subsequent appointment of Judge. He has re- presented the party to which he is attached in numerous conventions, State and National, as also served very frequently upon their State Central Committees. Through his instrumentality a Young Men's Christian Association was organized in the borough of Easton in Dec, 1856, of which he was made President, and still continues to hold that position. He is also Secretary of the Fire Insurance Com- pany of Northampton County, Secretary and Director of the Easton Gas Company, and Director of the Easton Cemetery. He has also been for many years one of the Directors of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, also a member of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and one of the Vice Presidents of the Pennsylvania State Agricultural Society. He received the Honorary Degree of A. M., from Jefferson College, Canonsburgh, Pa., in 1844. In the practice of his profession, to which he has now returned, Judge Maxwell has been unusually successful. Frankness and cordiality, joined with quick business tact and unremitting industry, has given him an extraordinary hold on the confidence APPENDIX. 427 of the community as a practitioner ; -while vigor of intellect, profound knowledge of the law, and the constant habit of thorough research have made him prominent as a jurist. It is a nattering commentary upon his career as a public man that, in the high positions, he has so frequently and satisfactorily occupied, a becoming dignity of position has never given way to insolence of office. Popular among all classes of his fellow citizens, because philanthropic in motive, tried in positions of trust and confidence while scarcely yet in his prime, we are safe in saying that he will gather honors as he gathers years. In the social qualities, too often overlooked in the estimate of character, Judge Maxwell is highly endowed. A nature generous to a fault, a kind word for every one, and a happy tact in ascertaining and gratifying the desires of those he is thrown in contact with, are qualities too rarely met, to pass unnoticed. Add to these a high moral character, and we can readily account for his commanding in- fluence in society. Active and energetic as ever, interesting himself in every good movement, Judge Maxwell stands prominent as one of the " high-minded men that fitly constitute a State." HON. HENRY KING. There are few men living in Eastern Pennsylvania, whose names are so intimately connected with so many of the important public measures of the commonwealth as the subject of this brief sketch ; nor any who bear their well-earned honors with more of true gentlemanly modesty than he. Entering the " Valley of the Lehigh" when it was comparatively unknown, he has ever since been most active in every movement that has tended to develop its wonderful resources, and this, too, without claiming or seeming to care whether his agency was known to others or not. Mr. King was born on the 6th day of July, A. D. 1790, in the town of Palmer, Hampden County, Massachusetts, and received the rudiments of his education in the local schools and seminaries of that county. When about fifteen years of age he became one of the few select pupils of the Rev. Ezra Witter, who resided in the town of Wilbraham, Hampden County, under whose care his general education was finished. In 1810 he commenced the study of the law in the office of W. H. Brainerd, Esq., an eminent lawyer of New London, Connecticut, with whom he remained until the autumn of 1812. In consequence of the disturbed condition of that part of the country, which was occasioned by the then existing war with Great Britain, his studies were inter- rupted, and finding that they could not be pursued there, he removed to Wilkes- barre, in this State, where he completed his preparation for the bar in the office of the Hon. Garrick Mallery, and was, on the motion of the Hon. John Ross, admitted to practice in the month of April, 1815. In the month following he removed to Allentown, Lehigh County, and was for some years the only resident lawyer in the county. Here, where he was thrown in contact with such minds as Sitgreaves, Ross, Wolfe, Evans, J. M. Porter, Smith, and other distinguished lawyers of that day, he rapidly arose to the highest position in the profession, and for many years led the bar of Lehigh. In 1825 he was elected to the Senate of Pennsylvania for a term of four years. 428 APPENDIX. In 1829 he was re-elected. Before his second term expired, to wit, 1830, he was chosen as a representative in the Congress of the United States, which position he filled for four consecutive years. The volumes which contain the statutes of Pennsylvania from 1825 to 1831, are full of the results of his labors, having been for the most of that time at the head of several of the more important committees. He was chairman of the committee to re-model the penitentiary system of the State, and was at the same time, for a period of four years, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and also chairman of the Committee on Corporations (a new committee which was raised the second year after his election.) The bill which divided the State into districts, and established the Western Penitentiary was drafted by him, and was the first act on this subject. The next was the celebrated act of 1829, to reform the penal code, in the preparation of which he was assisted by the " Prison Discipline Society" of Philadelphia, whose favorite project it was. A commission had been appointed by the Governor, consisting of Joel B. Suther- land, T. J. Wharton, and Judge King, of Philadelphia, who were empowered to visit the prisons of the several States, and report to the legislature a system for the government of our penitentiaries. After a full examination they reported in favor of the New York system. This was strenuously opposed by the " Prison Discipline Society" of Philadelphia, who found in Mr. King an able and effective advocate in the Senate. After a severe struggle the plan now in force in Pennsyl- vania was adopted. He also drafted the bill under which the Arch and Walnut Street prisons in Philadelphia were removed, and the Moyamensing prison erected in their stead. So active had he been, and so closely was his name connected with these re- forms, that the commissioners appointed by the King of Prussia, to visit this country and report at length on the subject of the improved system of penitentiary punishments, sought him out in his quiet home at Allentown, that they might see him and hear from his own lips, the history and details of a system which was then attracting so much attention in the " European World." During his senatorial career, the great question of internal improvements came up, which from the outset was most strenuously opposed by Mr. King, not because he had any objections to railroads or canals, for he has since then shown himself to be their warmest friend when in proper hands, but because he saw in the way this scheme was commenced, that it must end in the system of wholesale plunder and threatened insolvency which has so crippled the energies and strained the reputation of our good old commonwealth. Several other important laws still in force on our statute books owe their origin to him ; among which may be mentioned the acts for " recording releases for pay- ment of legacies," for " preserving the lien of first mortgages," for " distributing the proceeds of sheriff's sales," and for the present admirable system of judgment and mortgage indexes, and the general preservation and supervision of the records of our courts. Many other laws prepared by him were included in and now make part of the revised code of Pennsylvania. In Congress, Mr. King was a thorough active tariff man, having voted for the tariff of 1832, and opposed every reduction since. Differing in this and some other matters, from the administration party under Gen. Jackson, he, at the close of his second term, retired to private life, where he has remained ever since. Notwith- standing his advanced age, Mr. King is a hale and hearty man, fond of out-door APPENDIX. 429 exercises, and is in the enjoyment of the highest mental and "bodily health. "With a mind well stored with varied and accurate information, and manners that have all the dignity and courtesy of the old school, Mr. King has been for years, and is still, the centre of a large circle of acquaintances, who are proud to know him as their friend. ASA L. FOSTER. Asa L. Foster was horn on the 19th of August, 1798, in Hampshire (now Franklin) County, Massachusetts. His parents were descendants from the early settlers of Massachusetts colony, and one branch traces its genealogy back to the eccentric Captain Miles Standish, famed in history and in song. His parents died when he was quite young, but he found a home among his relatives, who, as he advanced in years, gave him the advantages of what was in those days termed, in New England, " a good common school education." At the age of twenty, like other young adventurers feeling a desire to see some- thing of the world beyond the green mountains of his native State, and realizing that he must, for the future, depend upon his own personal efforts, he started for what was then the "far west," and in 1818 entered the retail store of an elder brother who had preceded him, at Berwick, Columbia County, Pennsylvania, where he remained until 1822, when he married, and opened a store upon his own account, in Bloomsbury, in the same county. His store soon became popular, and his sales and traffic large. At that time there was very little money in circulation, and the merchant disposed of his goods in exchange for the products of the farm and the forest, which, from that locality, at that early day, were floated down the Susquehanna upon the spring and fall freshets, to Baltimore and other markets. If good luck attended the run of the arks, a fair return was generally realized by the merchant ; but if the arks were sunk, or broken upon the rocks, as was not unfrequently the case, the receipts and profits of several months' business were often a total loss. Such was the misfortune of the subject of this notice, who lost by one of these accidents all he had made in a fair business of three years. Closing his store business at Bloomsbury, he accepted a situation in the spring of 1826 in the large dry goods establishment of Messrs. Newkirk & Stryker, in Philadelphia, where he remained until May, 1827, when, having accepted an offer of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, he removed to Mauch Chunk and took charge of their extensive store at that place. Here he held the position of the " Lehigh Company's storekeeper," until they discontinued this department of their business. Mr. Foster soon became identified with the progress and advancement of the Lehigh region, and particularly of Mauch Chunk. As early as 1829, having ob- tained the consent of his employers, through their agent, Josiah White, acting manager, Mr. Foster purchased a press and materials for a printing-office, and having secured the services of Amos Sisty, a young acquaintance known to possess the requisite literary and mechanical talent, by paying his master for the unex- pired time of his apprenticeship, and arranging with him to conduct the paper in his (Sisty's) name, the publication of the first newspaper printed at Mauch Chunk was commenced in that year (1829), under the title "The Lehigh Pioneer and Mauch Chunk Courier." So great was the novelty and so deep the interest felt 430 APPENDIX. in this new weekly messenger of intelligence from the coal mountains and lumber forests of the Lehigh, that for a few years it promised to be a profitable as well as useful enterprise. During the first three years of the publication of this paper, Mr. Foster devoted all the time he could spare from his employment of storekeeper, to writing and collecting matter for its pages ; and although we live in an age of "progress," very few if any of the country papers of the present day exhibit greater evidence of editorial or mechanical ability than that early " Pioneer." Without himself seeking prominence, but on the contrary of unassuming dis- position, Mr. Foster became one of the leading men of the region. He was among the foremost in advocating measures for the improvement of the town and neigh- borhood. An earnest advocate of the common school system, with which his New England training had made him familiar, his influence was united with that of the few who succeeded, in spite of the opposition which it at first met, in making it one of the permanent institutions of the Commonwealth. He was prominent also as a politician, and frequently received the nomination of his party for im- portant public offices, but the party being a hopeless minority, he was never elected, although his friends were sometimes inspired with the hope that his per- sonal popularity would be sufficient to overcome the large majority (more than two to one) against them. Mr. Foster is what is commonly termed a " far-seeing man," looking beyond the present, and closely calculating the future progress and resources of the country. Nearly thirty years ago he saw the vast revenue that would eventually be derived from the forests along the Upper Lehigh, and endeavored unsuccess- fully to induce men of capital to unite with him in the purchase of the lands which at that time were generally considered scarcely worth the taxes. While a resident of the iron region of Columbia County, he saw in the future the great wealth that would be derived from those rich deposits, and was one of the first who made systematic explorations, by means of shafts, to ascertain the location and extent of the ores, with a view to lease or purchase. The ore was found, but others profited more by the discovery. About the year 1834, the Lehigh Company laid out a portion of the present site of the borough of Mauch Chunk in lots, and offered them for sale. Mr. Foster immediately selected the lot upon which Judge Packer's block of buildings is now erected, at the corner of Broadway and Susquehanna Street, which at that time was the roughest and most undesirable in the plot. It was partly overflowed by the creek, and partly covered by an old mill-dam and race, and being lower than the " road," had been used for many years as a place for the deposit of stumps, old logs, stones, and, in short, all the refuse of the neighboring clearings. The reader can form some idea of the change effected at this point by the hand of improvement, when he is informed that from the street opposite the County Com- missioners' Office to the bridge over the creek at " Packer's Corner," there was so much descent, that the boys used it in the winter as a sliding place for their sleds. The agents of the company did not wish to sell this lot, but desired to retain it, probably for the uses for which it had long been found convenient, and had fixed the price at the enormous sum of $600, not supposing any one " would be foolish enough" to pay so much. Mr. Foster, however, looked beyond the rub- bish pile, and became the purchaser of the lot. His wisdom and foresight, then questioned by his friends, is established now. As many thousands would not buy the naked lot now as he paid hundreds then. APPENDIX. 431 Upon this lot Mr. Foster, in company with Dr. B. Rush McConnell and James Brodrick, erected a store, and for several years carried on a profitable mercantile business. The interests of his partners were, during the time, purchased by Mr. Foster ; and, in 1837, having engaged in the coal business and removed to the Buck Mountain Mines, he sold the store and stock in trade to A. & R. W. Packer. In the winter of 1836 and 1837, Mr. Foster, who, in company with the heirs of Isaac A. Chapman, owned the lands upon which the Buck Mountain Company's mines are located, opened the coal upon them ; and associating himself with several wealthy gentlemen of Philadelphia, who had claimed an adverse title, which was compromised in the arrangement, organized the " Buck Mountain Coal Company," was appointed their superintendent, and directed the exploration of their lands and opening of their mines until they commenced the construction of their railroad, when he, in company with others, became the contractors for the whole work. Since 1837, Mr. Foster has devoted the greater portions of his time to the study of the geology of the anthracite coal formation, and has acquired a proficiency in this branch of the science which few if any excel. His explora- tions at the Buck Mountain mines were the keys which unlocked to him the treasures of the Great Black Creek basin ; and when, a few years since, men of capital and experience sought his advice as to a location for a coal business, this basin was readily selected, operations commenced, and where, four or five years since, the wilderness was undisturbed, is now a flourishing town of six or seven hundred inhabitants, actively and profitably employed. Other coal basins north of this, yet untouched, were many years since explored, and their coal limits defined by him for the owners of the lands, and his maps and descriptions have enhanced the value of their property one hundredfold, at an expense to them very little exceeding the wages paid for sinking the shafts and making the borings. Like many other men of talents and ability, his labors and developments have pecuniarily benefited other parties more than himself. "We have in this sketch exceeded our usual limits of biographical notices. Our apology, if any is required, must be that the subject of this notice was connected more generally with the progress and advancement of that part of the valley where he resided, than others who have been noticed in our history, while a por- tion of the sketch is historical in its details, showing the commencement and pro- gress of events which are worthy of note and preservation in our pages. HON. ASA PACKER. Hon. Asa Packer was born December 29th, 1805, in Mystic, Connecticut, and came to Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, when a youth, with few advan- tages for preferment in wealth and influence ; there he had a small " beech woods" farm, and also followed his trade as carpenter. He came to Mauch Chunk about twenty-seven years since, with his stock in trade, which consisted of the clothes on his back, a hand-saw, jack-plane, and stout heart, and indomitable de- termination to make his own way in the world, and, if report speaks true, with but very little change in his pocket. Here his honest and straightforward integrity soon procured him friends. In a short time we find him boating coal on the canal. From that he opened a store, then contracted for building dams on the upper navi- gation; next lessee of the Room Run Mines, belonging to the Lehigh Company, 432 APPENDIX. then owner of his own coal mines near Hazleton, and contracted for constructing the Lehigh Valley Railroad (forty-seven miles) in 1853, which he prosecuted with great vigor. Although the formal contract with Judge Packer for the construction of the road was not signed until the 12th of February, 1853, yet he began the work immediately after the acceptance of the offer, on the 27th of November, 1852. On the 24th of September, 1855, he delivered the road to the Company, and it was accepted. In the construction of the road he encountered great difficulties and embarrassments, from the rise in the price of provisions and necessaries for the hands — the sickliness of some of the seasons, the failures of sub-contractors, and the necessity of re-letting the work at advanced prices ; and then the difficulty of raising money upon, and disposing of the bonds of the Company, from the strin- gency of the money market ; but with an energy and perseverance seldom met with, he worked through it all. During his residence at Mauch Chunk, he was a mem- ber of the State legislature two or three terms, during which he had Carbon County erected, then an associate judge of that county for five years, in which time he had frequently to hold the courts and try the cases, in consequence of the absence of the President Judge, and afterwards a member of Congress, from the celebrated 10th Legion of Pennsylvania, re-elected after having voted for the Ne- braska bill. Judge Packer has always enjoyed the reputation of being a very liberal, as well as correct business man ; he engaged in business with spirit, and was fortunate in various daring enterprises, which have placed him in affluent cir- cumstances. I mention these circumstances as an encouragement to our young men, to teach them what may be accomplished by a life of integrity, energy, and devotion to business. This hasty and brief sketch has been prepared, in lieu of a more lengthy biography which was intended to be written, but which, from circumstances beyond the control of the writer, it was impossible to complete in time for insertion. INDEX. Allentown, 261 origin of name, 261 tradesmen in 1776, 265 early residents, 266 present appearance of, 272 great fire in, 273 improvements in, 275 seminary, 281 papers published in, 285 churches in, 282 Bank, 285 manufactures, 289 Iron Company, 287 Allen, fort, 322 Arrival of first steamboat at Easton, 149 Arndt, Capt. John, 102 Jacob, 103 Artillerists, Stockton, 344 B Barren lands at Easton, 78 Belvidere Delaware Railroad to Easton, 151 Beaver Meadow Railroad, history of, 400 Beaver Meadow, 364 Bethlehem, 172 first house in, 177 sisters' house at, 179 inhabitants in 1756, 197 Sun tavern at, 201 early trades and professions, 203 test law in, 208 oath of allegiance in, 211 during the revolution, 212 Washington at, 215 in 1778, 217 scenery at, 224 islands, 226 Seminary, 229 graveyard, 230 churches in, 231 waterworks, 233 manufactures in, 234 South, 235 township, petition for, 195 Biographical sketches, 407 Blue Mountain hermit, 331 C Carbon County, 327 early appearance of, 329 30 Catasauqua, 291 schools in, 293 churches, 293 Bank, 293 Iron Works, 294 and Fogelsville Railroad Bridge, 298 Captivity of the Gilbert family, 323 Church, first at Easton, 65 at Phillipsburg, 5 Conferences with the Indians, 69, 72, 73 rules observed at, 69 Coplay, 300 Coal, discovery of, 377 fields, middle, 372 Continental paper, value of, 108 hotel bill paid by, 109 meeting in relation to, 110 Court-house at Easton, 76, 79 petition against, 76 Courts at Easton, early, 79 Council Ridge Coal Company, 368 Chain dam, 168 Claim of Connecticut colonists, 20 Craig, General Thomas, 312 Craigs, 310 Customs of early settlers, 44 Curry's Ferry, 171 D Depreciation of continental money, 108 Discovery of coal, 377 Distances of Switch-Back, &c, 356 Difficulties in obtaining lodgings at Easton during conferences, 74 interesting letters concerning, 74, 75 Dry lands, 78 Easton, when laid out, 48 origin of name, 48 original names of streets, 48 geological formations at, 51 in 1752, 51 first dwellings in, 56 ferry house at, 57 erection of prison at, 57, 63, 67, town lots in 1753, 57 families in 1752, 58 history of early residents, 60 first church and school in, 65 434 INDEX. Easton — condition of inhabitants during Indian wars, 68 court-house at, 76 taxables in 1763, 80 in 1773, 81 fate of a flirt in, 84 in 1782, 91 as a hospital during the revolution, 111 military spirit in 1812, 115 in 1798, 116 incorporated, 118 population of at different times, 119 general description of, 119 bridges, 120 Water Company, 123 banks in, 125 Insurance Company, 125 Cemetery, 126 Farmers' and Mechanics' Institute, 127 churches, 128 Academy, 133 public school system, 134 Lafayette College at, 137 papers, 140 military and fire companies, 143 manufactures, 146 advantages of, 147 South, 158 Bckley, 367 Edmunds. William, 36 anecdote of, 37 F Fate of a flirt, 84 Ferry at Easton, 57 at Ereemansburg, 171 Feud between the Governor and Quakers, 17 First European settlements, 17 Freemansburg, 169 G German immigrants, first, 20 opinion of, 21, 22 Ghost on Mount Parnassus, 13 Gilbert family, captivity of, 323 Glendon, 166 Gnadenhutten, 317 Indian massacre at, 319 Benjamin Franklin at, 321 Gordon Lewis, 59 II Hauto, Geo. F. A., letter from, 386 Hazleton, 365 Hesenkoph, 45 History of Lehigh Coal and Nav. Co., 375 of Lehigh Valley Railroad, 395 of Beaver Meadow Railroad, 400 Hokendauqua, 299 furnaces, 300 Hopeville, 168 Hostility of Indians, 25 Hazleton Railroad, 365 Indians, dissatisfaction with walking pur- chase, 16 hostility of, 25 dislike to the Irish, 25 grievances, 70 conference with, 69 wars with, 25, 26 treaty with, 15, 25 causes of war with,' 27 cease hostilities, 26 peace with, 73 Indian chief, Tatamy, 49 • Phillip, 2 Teedyuscung, 2, 27, 70, 71, 73 Iron furnaces, South Easton, 163 Cooper's, 7 Glendon, 166 Allentown, 287 Catasauqua, 294 Kokendauqua, 300 Coplay, 301 Parryville, 313 Ironton Railroad, 301 Jeansville, 366 Jennings, Solomon, 36 K Kichline, Peter, 92 Laubaehsville, 301 Laury's, 305 Lehigh Zinc Works, 236 and Luzerne Railroad, 369 Coal and Navigation Company, 375 tonnage of, 394 Valley Railroad, 395 Crane Iron Works, 294 Slate Company, 306 water gap, 308 Lehighton, 314 early history of, 317 Lehigh County, 243 early customs in, 250 singular occurrence in, 259 agricultural fair, 283 Letters descriptive of Mauch Chunk, 35S M Marshall's Creek, 16 Mauch Chunk, 334 early appearance of, 336, 338 churches, 342 military of, 343 Bank, 342 public buildings, 345 manufactures, 346 scenery, 347 INDEX. 435 Mount Pisgah Plane, 352 Moore Township, 17 Mountain, Hexenkoph, 45 Parnassus, 12 Moravians, cause of emigration, 172 settlement at Nazareth, 176 features of organization, 180 marriage by lot, 185 dress of, 188 children, 189 intercourse between the sexes, 191 acknowledgments of errors, 192 punishment of refractory, 194 petition to assembly, 196 property of, in 1763, 198 graveyards, 230, 315 Miner, Chas., letter from, 379 N Nancy's Run, 169 Nesquehoning, 361 Northampton County, Old, 31 first European settlements in, 17 population of, in 1752, 18 Irish emigrate to, 24 danger during Indian wars, 25 hardships of early settlers, 37 petition for roads, 39, 56, 57 occupation of farmers' families, 40 wedding parties in, 40 customs of early settlers in, 44 early pioneers of, 19 first road in, 55 terror of the inhabitants in, 67 reason for the erection of, 31 origin of the name, 32 first court held in, 32 second court held in, 32 first election, 33 difliculties at elections, 34 letters concerning election frauds, 35 punishment of horse thieves in, 38 owners of slaves in, 97 non-associators in, 106 true to all emergencies, 114 Old Northampton County, 31 Outline History of Pennsylvania, 14 Parryville, 312 Paint mines, 313 Peace with Indians, 73 Parsons, Grace, 64 "William, 51, 58 Palatinates, 20 Pennsylvania, outline history, 14 Penn, William, 14 charter to, 14 Indian grant to, 15 treaty, 15 Pennsylvania, divided into counties, 14 Petition for wagon roads in Northampton County, 39 bridge at Allentown, 271 Plane, Mount Pisgah, 352 Penn Haven, 363 Pulaski's flag, 215 Phillipsburg, 1 situation of, 1 origin of name, 1 owners of the land in 1750, 3 in 1849, 4 ' Land Company, 5 advantages of, 5 first church, 5 sacramental relic in, 6 schools, 6 manufactures, 7 bank, 10 general appearance, 11 scenery of, 12 Q Quakers, influence of Germans, 23 R Railroad, North Pennsylvania, 239 New Jersey Central, 150 Belvidere Delaware, 151 Lehigh Valley, 395 Beaver Meadow, 400 Hazleton, 363, 365 East Pennsylvania, 288 Ironton, 301 Catasauqua and Fogelsville, 298 Lehigh and Luzerne, 369 Lehigh and Susquehanna, 370 Reward for scalps, 26 Redemptioners, 21 Rockport, 369 Rockdale, 305 S Shreiber's station, 300 South Easton, 158 laid out, 158 water power, 159 schools, 160 manufactures, 161 early manufacture of iron in, 163 Song of the witches, 45 Soldiers in the Revolution, 101 Soul drivers, 22 anecdote of, 22 South Bethlehem, 235 Shimersville, 170 Slatington, 305 Stockton, 366 Shades of death, 330 St. Anthony's wilderness, 20 Switch-back Railroad, 349 distances of, 356 Sisters' House at Bethlehem, 179 origin of, 1S2 Spangenberg, Rev., 182 436 INDEX. Sitgreaves, Hon. Samuel. 407 Chas., 11 Siegfried, Col. John, 105 Spring Mountain Mines, 365 T Treaties, Indian, 15, 25 Test act, 106 Trial of John Pries, 255 Tatamy, Indian chief, 49 Taylor, George, 94 Traill, Robert, 93 W Washington, letters from General, 105 War of 1812, 114 Walking purchase, 15 Wedding parties in olden times, 40 Weatherly, 363 Wetherill, 235 Wechquetank, 313 Weissport, 314 Fort Allen at, 322 Weiss, Col., 315 Witches, 45 trial of, 46 Wish shiksy, meaning of, 72 Wesley, Rev. John, 175 Whipping-post, 80 White Hall, 302 White Haven, 370 Zinzendorff, Count, 178 To be completed in Five Numbers— Price 50 Cents each,— No. 1. HISTOET LEHIGH VALLEY. CONTAINING A COPIOUS SELECTION OP THE MOST INTERESTING FACTS, TRADITIONS, BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, ANECDOTES, ETC. ETC., RELATING TO ITS HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES. A COMPLETE HISTORY OF ALL ITS INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS, PROGRESS OF THE COAL AND IRON TRADE, MANUFACTURES, ETC. it Illustrate fog mmxm dnpbiitp. Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1S59, by Bixler & Corwin, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Pennsylvania. PUBLISHED BY BIXLER & COR WIN, EASTON, PA. 1859. !W COLLINS, PRINTER. BUTZ'S OLD SADDLERY. JOHN H. HECKMAN, T&o. X£> nSTorrtla. 3P , oixrt3i Street, E A STO N, PA., MANUFACTURER OF ADDLES, HARNESS, & TRUNKS, COLLARS, WHIPS, TRAVELLING BAGS, &c, AND DEALER IN BUFFALO ROBES, HORSE BLANKETS AND COVERS, FLY NETS, And in fact, everything connected with the Stable. A LARGE ASSORTMENT OP THE BEST MANUFACTURED LBATHEH BITS, on lismca.. These bits are now being used by the best horsemen in the country, and are far perior to any bit now in use. We have received premiums and diplomas at the late Fairs held at Easton,;Pa.^ nd Flemington, N. J., over all other Harness Makers and Saddlers for the be? jianufactured Harness, Saddles, and Bridles. All articles sold at this establishing ire warranted to be of better manufacture, and from ten to twenty per cent, cheap ;han can be purchased elsewhere. WHOLESALE AND RETAIL. JOHN H. HECKMAN. P. F. EBLENBERGER'S JL JOl J% JE».A.. CLOTHING WHOLESALE AND RETAIL. CONSTANTLY ON HAND CLOTHS, CASSIMERES, AND TAILOR'S TRIMMINGS. ring mabe to mkt at % shortest iw&e. J8@* JOHN C. RICHARDS, the well known Cutter, will always be on band to gh neat fit to those in want of good Clothing. ^ To be completed in Five Numbers— Price 50 Cents each,— No HISTORY LEHIGH VALLEY. CONTAINING A COPIOUS SELECTION OF THE MOST INTERESTING FACTS, TRADITIONS, BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, ANECDOTES, ETC. ETC., RELATING TO ITS HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES. A COMPLETE HISTORY OF ALL ITS INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS, PROGRESS OF THE COAL AND IRON TRADE, MANUFACTURES, ETC. IMratrir fog \wmn% <$npbmp. Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by Bixler & Couwin, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Pennsylvania. w PUBLISHED BY BIXLER & COBWIN, EASTON, PA. 1859. SMf)~ COLLINS, PRINTER. » *• BUTZ'S OLD SADDLER'S". JOHN H. HECKMAN, No. 19 IKToxrtla. IPouLi-tlx Street, E A STO N, PA., MANUFACTURER OF SADDLES, HARNESS, & TRUNKS, COLLARS, WHIPS, TRAVELLING BAGS, &c, AND DEALER IN BUFFALO ROBES, HORSE BLANKETS AND COVERS, FLY NETS, And in fact, everything connected with the Stable. A LARGE ASSORTMENT OF THE BEST MANUFACTURED These bits are now being used by the best horsemen in the country, and are far superior to any bit now in use. We have received premiums and diplomas at the late Fairs held at Easton, Pa., and Flemington, N. J., over all other Harness Makers and Saddlers for the best manufactured Harness, Saddles, and Bridles. All articles sold at this establishment are warranted to be of better manufacture, and from ten to twenty per cent, cheaper than can be purchased elsewhere. "WHOLESALE AND RETAIL. JOHN H. HECKMAN. P. F. EILENBERGER'S w xk o? ivr x ~%r it jljl y& XSL JL ^SL CLOTHING EMPORIUM, No. 53 NORTHAMPTON STREET, BASTOKT, FA. CLOTHING WHOLESALE AND RETAIL. CONSTANTLY ON HAND CLOTHS, CASSIMERES, AND TAILOR'S TRIMMINGS, (Orfjjing mak to mkx at % sjwrtet rite. fi@- JOHN C. RICHARDS, the well known Cutter, -will always be on hand to give a neat fit to those in want of good Clothing. «3S To be completed in Five Numbers— Price 50 Cents each.— No. 3. //STf HISTORY LEHIGH VALLEY, CONTAINING A COPIOUS SELECTION OF THE MOST INTERESTING FACTS, TRADITIONS, BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES,"ANECDOTES, ETC. ETC., RELATING TO ITS HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES. A COMPLETE HISTORY OF ALL ITS INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS, PROGRESS OF THE COAL AND IRON TRADE, MANUFACTURES, ETC. BY M. S. HENRY. Illustrate bg mwxm inpiiinp. Entered fccording to the Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by Bixler & Corwin, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Pennsylvania. PUBLISHED BY BIXLER & CORWIN, EASTON, PA. 1859. affo „ '/iiVT) COLLINS, PRINTER. , ^ To be completed in Five Mumpers— Price 50 Cents each.— No. 4. jyf LEHIGH VALLEY CONTAINING A COPIOUS SELECTION OF THE MOST INTERESTING FACTS, TRADITIONS, BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, ANECDOTES, ETC. ETC., RELATING TO ITS HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES. A COMPLETE HISTORY OF ALL ITS INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS, PROGRESS OF THE COAL AND IRON TRADE, MANUFACTURES, ETC. BY M. S. HENRY. Illustrate fog nuiMwa inplimp. Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year'1859, by Bixler & Corwin, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Pennsylvania. PUBLISHED BY BIXLER & CORWIN, EASTON, PA. 1859. COLLINS, PRINTER. Dealers can be supplied with COOKING STOVES in all their variety, from one of the largest stocks to be found in any one establish- ment in the country, among which are a number that have become celebrated for operation and durability. They also manufacture tinned and enamelled HOL- LOW WARE of every des- cription. PHILADELPHIA. Price List and Catalogue furnished by mail or otherwise, by sending your address to LEIBRANDT & McDOWELL, I*liil£ic3Lel^Dla.ia« 6M3 To be completed in Five Numbers— Price 50 Cents each,— No. 5. tf% HISTORY LEHIGH VALLEY, CONTAINING A COPIOUS SELECTION OF THE MOST INTERESTING FACTS, TRADITIONS, BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, "ANECDOTES, ETC. ETC., RELATING TO ITS HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES. A COMPLETE HISTORY OF ALL ITS INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS, PROGRESS OF THE COAL AND IRON TRADE, MANUFACTURES. ETC. BY M. S. HENRY. Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1S60, by Bixler & Corwin, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Pennsylvania. PUBLISHED BY BIXLER & CORWIN, EASTON, PA. 1860. COLLINS, PRINTER. FINE AMERICAN LEVER WATCHES. TO THOSE IN WANT OF A GOOD ARTICLE, THE SUBSCRIBER OFFERS THE LARGEST ASSORTMENT OF Pafcjp*, Jei»bg, |fe atxtt ||W& paw, SPECTACLES, THIMBLES, GOLD PENS, NAPKIN RINGS, CLOCKS, BRITANNIA WARE, ETC., TO BE FOUND IN EASTON, At prices to defy competition. Look at the following, and judge. Gold Lever Watches, full Jewelled .... from $26 00 to $120 j > Gold Lepine Watches " .... 20 00 H m Silver Lepines and Levers of all kinds . . . " 9 00 to 50 rj Gold Fob, Vest, Guard, and Neck Chains . . . " 4 00 to 30 Gold Finger Rings . . . . . " 50 to 35 Coral, Cameo, Mosaic, Lava, and Plain Gold Breastpins and Ear Rings ; Mourning Pins for Hair and Daguerreotypes ; Gents' Pins, Studs, and Sleeve Buttons ; Ladies' Band ; Engraved and Plain Bracelets ; Gold and Silver Thimbles ; Medallions ; Gold, Silver Plated, and Steel Specs ; Silver and Plated Tea and Table Spoons, Forks, J" Ladles, and a large assortment of Jewelry of every description. Clocks from $1 upwards. A written guarantee given with, every clock. GEO. B. TITUS, Call and see. 71 Northampton Street, Easton, Pa r < m > z o PLATED CAKE BASKETS. SEMPLE & BROTHER, WHOLESALE -A_ND EETAIL k «? vy> ^ <§ tc3ix street, EASTON, PA., MANUFACTURERS OF WHITE LEAD, ZINC PAINTS, COLORS IN OIL, CAMPHENE, BURNING FLUID, &c. DEALERS IN Tarnishes of every description, BB068, GH11IIGALS, ?Y|~8f 0??8, MIM„ PERFUMERY, PURE LIQUORS FOR MEDICINAL USE. AND AGENTS FOR ALL THE POPULAR PATENT MEDICINES OP TIIE DAY. South Easton, Pa. FRANCIS M. WELLS, Proprietor. MANUFACTURER OP AGRICULTURAL MACHINES AND IMPLEMENTS. STEAM ENGINES, MINING, WELL, AND MILL IRONS, HOUSE CASTINGS, IRON RAILINGS, ETC. ETC. His iron-framed, double-geared Horse-powers are the best in the world. They move as glibly as the best tread-powers; will do more work with equal team; will wear twice as long without repairs; and will not stiffen or kill horses. His cast-steel stafted, iron-framed, and truly balanced Threshing Machine is of the same order, and is pronounced by all who have them in use, as unequalled. Mjg* All work executed in the best style, of the best materials, and at low prices. IF YOTJ WA.ISTT TO BUY HATS, CAPS, T 1 TOW 9 W A W^IT WTTI>1? OR CHILDREN'S FANCY HATS AND CAPS OF ALL DESCRIPTIONS, O TO HEISS' WHOLESALE AND RETAIL CASH STORE, FINE AMERICAN LEVER WATCHES. TO THOSE IN WANT OF A GOOD ARTICLE, THE SUBSCRIBER OFFERS THE LARGEST ASSORTMENT OF PaMj0, Jefetey, pilfer atttr ||lat& Paw, SPECTACLES, THIMBLES, GOLD PENS, NAPKIN RINftS, CLOCKS, BRITANNIA WARE, ETC., TO BE FOUND IN EASTON, At prices to defy competition. Look at the following, and judge. Gold Lever Watches, fall Jewelled . . . . . from $26 00 to $120 Gold Lepine Watches " .... 20 00 Silver Lepines and Levers of all kinds . . " 9 00 to 50 Gold Fob, Vest, Guard, and Neck Chains . . " 4 00 to 30 Gold Finger Rings . . . . . . ". 50 to 35 Coral, Cameo, Mosaic, Lava, and Plain Gold Breastpins and Ear Rings ; Mourning Pins for Hair and Daguerreotypes ; Gents' Pins, Studs, and Sleeve Buttons ; Ladies' Band ; Engraved and Plain Bracelets ; Gold and Silver Thimbles ; Medallions ; Gold, Silver Plated, and Steel Specs ; Silver and Plated Tea and Table Spoons, Forks, Ladles, and a large assortment of Jewelry of every description. Clocks from $1 upwards. A written guarantee given with every clock. GEO. B. TITUS, ^j^T Call and see. 71 Northampton Street, Easton, Pa. PLATED CAKE BASKETS. SEMPLE & BROTHER, WHOLESALE .A-DNTD RETAIL ISTo. 121 IKTc>x ,, t;l3.£i3aa.^>tc>EL Street, EASTON, PA., MANUFACTURERS OF WHITE LEAD, ZINC PAINTS, COLORS IN OIL, CAMPHENE, BURNING FLUID, &c. DEALERS IN • Varnishes of every description, BftfffiS* CH1IKIGJIL8, BTJhfl.WFS, AGIB8» 3E» 3E3 H. IE" XT Ti/L DE3 XI "X" , ®II®&IB3 ®{? AkiL &IBM9GD@» PURE LIQUORS FOR MEDICINAL USE. AND AGENTS FOR ALL THE POPULAR PATENT MEDICINES OF THE DAY. South Easton, Pa. FRANCIS M. WELLS, Proprietor. MANUFACTURER OP AGRICULTURAL MACHINES AND IMPLEMENTS, STEAM ENGINES, MINING, WELL, AND oistehn :f»tt:m::e»s, mill irons, house castings, iron railings, etc. etc. His iron-framed, double-geared Horse-powers are the best in the world. They move as glibly as the best tread-powers; will do more work with equal team; will wear twice as long without repairs; and will not stiffen or kill horses. His cast-steel stafted, iron-framed, and truly balanced Threshing Machine is of the same order, and is pronounced by all who have them in use, as unequalled. 5®"" All work executed in the best style, of the best materials, and at low prices. IF YOU W^ItsTT TO BUY (Stoofo, fl$raqj, aitfc faspuiraWi HATS, CAPS, OR 9 CHILDREN'S FANCY HATS AND CAPS OF ALL DESCRIPTIONS, C3rO TO lEXIESJSiS'iS WHOLESALE AND RETAIL CASH STORE, WHITE'S EASTON HOTEL North-West Corner of Centre Square, ^757% 11- ABEL, 3E*ror>:rxeto:r., This Hotel is situated in one of the most pleasant parts of the town. The rooms are large and well furnished, and the table always contains the very best the market affords. From the reputation this Hotel has heretofore had with the travelling community, the Proprietor flatters himself that their patronage will be continued. Omnibuses in waiting at the different Depots, IT VEB'l HOTEL, Nos. 117 and 119 NORTH SECOND STREET, 3VE a Jb£JiSX33IjE3H., Proprietor. This house has recently been thoroughly renovated, and adapted to the wants of the travelling community. Every effort will be made to satisfy its patrons and yield them the comforts of a home. The rooms are well arranged, servants under strict discipline, and the Proprietor gives his personal attention. The table will be supplied with the best the market affords. Travellers can take the City Cars at the various depots, and come to the house direct for five cents. liar ^ rM W -f No. 52 NORTHAMPTON STREET, THE FINEST AND MOST APPROVED ALWAYS ON HAND. ALL GARMENTS CUT ON THE MOST SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES, BY ACTUAL^ MEASUREMENT, AND BY THE MOST EXPERIENCED CUTTERS, Slisfits seldom occurring at this establishment TlIHffi Mi 0F Will BBttlWi THE VERY BEST BLACK AND BLUE BLACK LYONS & GENO ALWAYS ON HAND. la fact a better cloth, better trimmings, and a better fit and Work- manship can be had at No. 52, than at any other establishment in Easton, BLOWERS, BARKERS, AND RHYMESTERS, To the contrary notwithstanding. l>on ? t forgot tlx© niimTDer, And. tli.© name. J. H. WILKIIMC. ^-) 0^ . s '"**& : ■ • " ^ <*V V- F * V > o o ^ "* ■^ .H Xl ■ » e*. * - \V ^ y* - - ' ^. \v -^ V a> "^ / / ^ - (5 ^ *.<& ~, ^ '^. V ? ^r- ^