Local History:  XLII & XLIII - Part I : Davis's 1877 History of Northampton Co, PA

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                                  HISTORY

                                    OF

                       NORTHAMPTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.


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141


                               CHAPTER XLII.

                     PROSPERITY-GEOLOGY-AGRICULTURE

  NOTWITHSTANDING the great drain and expenditure of the war of the 
Rebellion, the county of Northampton, emerged from that struggle full of 
vital energy and recuperative power, and, during the succeeding eight 
years, enjoyed a season of great prosperity.

  It was fortunate for her then that, rich as she was, and is, in 
agricultural resources, she had not, these alone. She had mills, and 
furnaces, and foundries, which were taxed to their full capacity to refill 
the gap which had been caused by the unparalleled waste and destruction of 
material resulting from four years of war, waged on so gigantic a scale; 
and, at the same time, to supply the additional demand created by the 
construction of long lines of railway in every part of the country, even to 
the shores of the Pacific Ocean. She had mines, too, and limestone ledges, 
and ore-beds, all within her own borders, from the products of which her 
mills and manufactories and forges could be stocked; and, although she had 
given her rich anthracite fields as a dowry in the setting-up of her 
youngest daughter, Carbon,1 yet she still had railroads and water-ways, 
over which the exhaustless supplies must reach their market; and every ton 
must pay an indirect tribute in passing through the maternal domain.

  In the autumn of 1873, the failure of the great house of Jay Cooke
Company, and the consequent collapse of the gigantic Northern Pacific 
Railroad scheme, sounded the first note of alarm, resulting in a panic and 
financial revulsion, which has, continued, and seemed to intensify, for 
nearly four years. It suddenly closed the sluices of prosperity on all 
enterprises, of traffic or manufacture, but in its effects, it appears to 
have been peculiarly disastrous to those branches of industry most closely 
allied to, and connected with, the iron interest, in all parts of the 
country. From this misfortune, Northampton county has, by no means, escaped 
unharmed. Many of her furnace-fires have gone out, her mills are but 
slightly employed, or wholly silent, while ore-beds and mines are, for the 
time, left alone.

   The blow has been, and is, a severe one; bringing want into many a 
household where, before, was comfort; ruining many who had just began to 
struggle upward; and, for the time, annihilating value in enterprises where 
millions have been invested. Yet even in these depressing circumstances, 
Northampton enjoys an amelioration which is known to but few (in any) 
counties in the State, all which comes from the variety of the subterranean 
resources. In the whole northern portion of her territory, is found a 
formation of slate, which has been known and quarried for many years,2 and 
which, at the present time, is being taken out, both by companies and by 
individual enterprise, at great profit. Among the most notable of these, 
are the quarries of Chapman, Bangor, Penargil, and Portland; though in a 
hundred other places in the county the business is successfully prosecuted. 
It will, doubtless, seem a matter of great surprise to many, to know that 
slates from Northampton county are now constantly exported to Great 
Britain, and even to her possessions at the antipodes, thus reversing the 
order of things,  by which it was formerly considered necessary, if good 
roofing slates were required, to import them from Wales.

  To those who have seen, and are conversant with, the, almost universal
depression of manufacturing and business interests, in other localities, it 
must seem an almost providential boon to Northampton that, just in the time 
when other industries fail, her very ledges should prove to be such sources 
of profitable, employment to her people; and it is a, most gratifying 
commentary on the extent and variety of the wealth that ties hidden beneath 
her surface.


                         GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS.

            By PROF. FREDERICK PRIME - Lafayette College.

  The rocks, which everywhere underlie the soil or crop out to the surface of 
Northampton county, belong to the oldest formations which occur in the 
United States.

  That, portion of the county lying south of the Lehigh River, is chiefly 
occupied by crystalline rocks, for the most part gneiss and syenite, 
belonging to the Laurentian formation. Here and there, small basins of 
limestone are found overlying the crystalline rocks, as at Uhlersville, on 
the Delaware, and in the Saucon Valley. Just south of the Lehigh, and lying 
along the flank of the South Mountain, occurs a hard, quartzose rock, from 
five to twenty-five feet thick, which is known as Potsdam Sandstone. It is 
not always visible, being, at times removed by denudation, or often covered 
by the debris due to the weathering of the crystalline rocks.

  Directly over this occurs a series of crystalline slates, often 
decomposed to a white or yellow clay, called by Rogers the Upper Primal 
slate, which is composed of hydromica, usually damourite. This slate is of 
considerable importance, as containing important and valuable deposits of 
brown hematite (or limonite) ore, used in the furnaces at Glendon, 
Redington, Bethlehem, Bingen, and Hellertown.

  Overlying the hydromica slates is the magnesian limestone, called the 
Auroral limestone, by Pennsylvania geologists. This extends from south of 
the Lehigh, in an almost unbroken sheet, to Martin's Creek, Nazareth, 
Bath, and Siegfried's Bridge. There is a slight interruption in the 
continuity due to Chestnut Hill and Quaker Hill; these hills are composed 
of syenitic rocks, overlaid by Potsdam Sandstone, serpentine, and 
soapstone. These last two rock may prove to be of some economic importance. 
The Auroral limestone is of value as lime for fertilizing purposes, for 
making mortar, and as a flux in the blast-furnace. For the latter purposes 
it is so necessary that it is taken all the way from Siegfried's Bridge to 
Parryville, in Carbon county.

  Close to Martin's Creek, Stockertown, Nazareth, Bath, and Siegfried's
Bridge, the Auroral limestone is succeeded and overlaid by the Trenton
limestone, which is generally fossiliferous, but otherwise not to be always 
distinguished from the former. The upper portion of this limestone, 
extending entirely across the county, contains a large quantity of alumina, 
which renders it excellently well adapted to the manufacture of hydraulic 
cement, as yet but one establishment for its manufacture exists in the 
county, and it is probable that, by the discovery of good beds of this 
hydraulic limestone, a very valuable industry might be developed.

  It is also probable that valuable beds of brown hematite ore occur close 
to the junction of the Trenton limestone with the slates. It generally 
would be well for the owner, of land, close to this junction, to make a 
careful search for the ore, which will, in the near future, be of 
considerable value to the furnace, along the Lehigh.

  North of the limestone occurs the slates, known as the Matinal slate, by 
Pennsylvania Geologists, which extend into the Kittatiny or Blue Mountain. 
These slates are very valuable for building purposes, when they occur cleft
in such a way as to be easily extracted. There are many large and valuable 
quarries through the county, and the slate extracted is sent to great 
distances, at times as far even as Europe.

  In many places the slate and limestone are covered with bowlders of 
sandstone, with gravel, and with beds of fine sand. All these are due to 
ancient glaciers, which formerly, coming down from the Kittatiny Mountain, 
extended across the Lehigh to the base of, and even some distance up the 
flank of the South Mountain. These glaciers, on their way, tore away and 
ground up the rocks they passed over, and left them scattered as we now 
find them.

  No more fertile portion of the State exists than the limestone of 
Northampton county, as is seen from the large crops which are raised off of it.


                               AGRICULTURE.

  The most ancient, and one of the most honorable, as well as the safest, 
and least harassing of human vocations, is that of agriculture.  In times 
of business disaster, when the most, promising enterprises fail, when the 
merchant and manufacturer see their prospects and profits melt away like 
the fog of the morning, and even the sober and industrious mechanic finds 
himself unable to procure the necessities of life, the farmer may stand 
upon his acres and fear no financial ill, for his flocks and herds will 
increase, although banks refuse to discount; and, although corporations 
become insolvent, yet his lands will still give their increase, and his 
seed-time, and harvest will not fail.

  Northampton, though not placed in the very first rank, yet stands high 
among the agricultural counties of Pennsylvania. Her limestone lands are 
inferior to none lying under the sun. Along the extensive tract which was 
once contemptuously called the Dry-lands, where there grew only stunted 
scrub-oaks, and where it was said that it would be impossible for men to 
make their homes, so parched and poverty-stricken was it, are now seen 
fine, fertile farms, excellent barns and thriving cattle-all the result of 
labor and the intelligent application of lime and other fertilizers-and the 
term "Drylander" has long, years ago, lost its sting of oppobrium. Nor is 
it alone, there material thrift which is seen among the farmer of the 
county there is a spirit of enlightenment, a desire to do more than merely 
to plough and sow as their fathers, did, to improve and advance in the best 
practices or their calling. Previous to too, fall [sic] of the Northampton County 
Agricultural Society was formed, with a view to mutual emulation and 
improvement in the trade-the science-of agriculture, and the attainment of 
the highest, practicable degree of excellence in methods and results.

  Their first exhibition and fair was held at Easton in 1853, on the fifth, 
sixth, and seventh days of October. By the rule of rotation, the next years 
fair was held at Nazareth; but it became necessary to erect permanent 
buildings for the purpose of holding the Society's annual exhibition.  
There were members of the Society belonging to both Easton and Bethlehem, 
and each of these parties claimed it as a right, that the grounds should be 
purchased, and buildings erected in their town, each claiming for their own 
place the advantage of eastern access, and superior facilities and 
inducements for the attraction of visitors to the annual exhibition; which 
last named consideration was, of course, of prime importance. However, as 
neither the Eastonians nor the Bethlehemites could be, induced to yield it 
was at last agreed that, neither place should he selected, but that the 
Society's grounds and buildings should be, established at Nazareth, as a 
point of compromise. The next year, however, another society was 
established under the name of the Farmers and Mechanics' Institute of 
Northampton County, which located its, grounds and buildings in Palmer 
township,2 very near the borough line of Easton: where the first fair of 
the Institute was held on the twenty-third, twenty-fourth, twenty-fifth, 
and twenty-sixth days of September, 1856, during which time, forty thousand 
people were said to have entered the enclosure. The very next week, the 
Society exhibition was held on their grounds at Nazareth, and attracted an 
attendance only less numerous than that at the Institute Fair.

  These societies are in a flourishing condition, and great interest is 
felt in agriculture through the county.
__________________________________________________________________________

1 Carbon county was erected March 13th, 1843.

2. An account of these grounds is given in the history of Palmer township  
and of the Society's establishment at Nazareth,  in the history of that 
borough. The county institution are noticed with Easton and Nazareth.


142


                               EDUCATION.

  "THAT which is elsewhere left to chance, or to charity," said DANIEL 
WEBSTER, "we secure by law. For the purpose of public instruction, we hold 
every man subject to taxation in proportion to his property, and we look 
not to the question whether he, himself, have or have not children to be 
benefited by the education for which he pays. We regard it as a wise and 
liberal system of police, by which, property and life and the peace of 
society are secured. We seek to prevent, in some measure, the extension of 
the penal code, by inspiring a salutary and conservative principle of 
virtue and of knowledge at an early age. We hope to excite a feeling of 
responsibility, and a sense of character, by enlarging the capacity and 
increasing the sphere of intellectual enjoyment. By general instruction, 
we seek, as far as possible, to purify the whole moral atmosphere, to 
keep good sentiments uppermost, and to turn the strong current of feeling 
and opinion, as well as the censures of the law and the denunciation of 
religion, against immorality and crime. We hope for a security, beyond the 
law, and above the law, in the prevalence of enlightened and 
well-principled moral sentiment. Education, to accomplish the ends of good 
government, should be universally diffused. Open the doors of the school 
house to all the children of the land. Let no man have the excuse, of 
poverty, for not educating his own offspring. Place the means of education 
within his reach, and if they remain in ignorance, be it his own reproach. 
If one object of the expenditure of your revenue, be protection against 
crime, you could not devise a better or cheaper means of obtaining it. 
Other nations spend their money in providing means for its detection anti 
punishment, but it is for the principles of our government to provide for 
its never occurring, The one acts by coercion, the other by prevention. On 
the diffusion of education among the people, rest the preservation and 
perpetuation of our free institutions."

  The following paper on education in Northampton county is from the pen of 
PROF. SELDEN J. COFFIN, of Lafayette College:

  "At a council held in Philadelphia, October 27th, 1683, at which William 
Penn, himself, was present, serious consideration was had to the great 
necessity there is of a schoolmaster for the instruction and sober 
education of the youth. In consequence of this, Enoch Flower, who had been 
a teacher for twenty years in England, in the ensuing December, opened a 
school in a rude hut of pine and cedar planks, containing two rooms. His 
charges were, 'to learn to reade, 4 shillings a quarter; to reade and to 
write, 6 shillings quarter;' to learn to cast accounts, 2 shillings extra 
were charged, and if a scholar received diet, lodging, washing, and 
schooling, £10 a year.

  "One of the first acts of the Pennsylvania Assembly, on Governor Fletcher's 
accession to office, in 1693, required parents and guardians to have their 
children taught to read and write, beside acquiring some useful trade.

  "As to Northampton county, in the absence, of express information, it 
seems reasonable to suppose that those of the same race and blood, and who 
gave names of English origin, both to the, county itself and to many of the 
localities in it, should also have made in early attempt to give an impetus 
to the cause of education in it.

  "The first record on the subject is connected with the erection of the
Academy in Eaton, a structure remaining to this day, and that has ever
been in use for its original purpose. It was built in 1755, by funds 
contributed through a general subscription of the citizens to the object, 
the list being headed with £3O, by William Smith, in behalf of the 
Proprietor and Trustee, and ending with numerous gifts of labor and materials. 
For the last twenty years, the edifice has born the inscription, 'Bushkill Ward 
Academy.'  It is 50 x 42 feet, and two stories in height, surmounted by a
low cupola, from which the bell-call for school has been sounded for a 
century. In 1850, the ladies of Easton, by a fair and festival, obtained 
funds with which to improve the appearance of the now beautiful plot that 
surrounds this venerable structure. The grassy mound, with its spiral 
terraces, flanked by the high school buildings, and facing the Easton 
Library -which was founded in 1811- forms a worthy setting for this 
educational centre.

  "In the middle of the last century, the enterprising inhabitants of Allen 
township instituted an Academy, located one mile south of Bath. This was 
on the east side of the old Presbyterian congregation, in that township; 
the rival party of the west side were moved to show their energy in 
building the Weaversville Academy, located three miles west of 'The 
Academy.' The Parochial School, in Williamsburg, Upper Mount Bethel 
township, founded in 1848; the Easton Classical and English School, 
conducted by the Rev. John Vanderveer, D.D., from 1824 to 1858, where, 
more, than one thousand young men have received a liberal education; the 
Opheleton Female Seminary, conducted by E. Dean Dow, A.M., from 1851 to 
1857; are instances of individual efforts, successful in their time, but 
now numbered among the things that were.

  "Of the Nazareth Hall, organized in 1788, and the notable institution for 
the other sex, founded by the Moravian Church, in Bethlehem, in 1785, 
fuller sketches will be found in the chapters devoted to those towns; and 
likewise with the histories of Lafayette College. and the Lehigh 
University. Now as to the progress of general education in the county.

  "Northampton county claims the high honor of being the birthplace and 
home of the Hon. George Wolf, who, as Governor of the State, in 1834, 
signed, with warm endorsement, the bill providing for the establishment of 
free schools, a measure that had been heartily advocated by the Hon. 
Thaddeus Stevens.  This resulted in the speedy increase of the number of 
school houses in the county; many were built in the inexpensive form of an 
octagon, twenty to twenty-five feet in diameter, with a peaked roof, from 
the summit of which rose a short chimney, whose base rested on the rafters 
beneath  the rude building was without vestibule, closet, or out-house, 
without blackboard, map, or globe; a desk fastened to the wall ran around 
seven sides of the room; a bench firmly fixed to the floor, and without a 
back, surrounded this inner periphery. When scholars recited they had but 
to reverse their position, by throwing their feet over the bench, and so 
faced the inner part of the circus, where was the stove and the magisterial 
form of him who wielded the rod. All the scholars were taught to make their 
manners exhibited by formal 'courtesey', to strangers whom they might meet 
on the road. The writer has frequently seen the little ones form themselves 
in line, and make a bow, and say good afternoon, as he chanced to pass 
them on their way homeward from school.

  "The County Superintendency from 1854 to the present time, has been 
filled, for six years each, by Messrs. Valentine Hilburn, Abraham Kind, 
William N. Walker, and Benjamin F. Russell, gentlemen who have all given to 
their office indefatigable and earnest labor. In the report of the former 
for 1858, of the one hundred and sixty-four school houses in the county, 
sixty-nine were classed as good, seventy-one improvable, and twenty-four 
unfit; of the two hundred and one teachers, ninety-three per cent were born 
in Pennsylvania-their average age was thirty-one years; sixty-four had had 
a longer experience in teaching than three years, and but twenty-one of 
these intended to continue permanently in their occupation; one-third of 
the schools had play-grounds, one-half had blackboards, and but six had 
maps or globes. Of the nine thousand and fifty-eight pupils on the 
lists-one thousand eight hundred and twelve scholars, in Easton, not being 
included in this enumeration-four thousand five hundred and ninety-four 
were able to speak German only, while three thousand one hundred and 
thirty-five were accustomed to the use of both English and German; leaving 
thirteen hundred who spoke the English tongue alone. The inability to use 
the English language, with ease, or even at all, was therefore a great 
obstacle to progress in education. The entire annual expenditure for all 
school purposes, was less than forty-two thousand dollars.

   "In eighteen years the school term has increased to six and three 
quarter months; the schools are two hundred and seventy-six in number; the 
salaries of lady teachers have been doubled, and those paid to male 
teachers increased from twenty-seven dollars and twenty-four cents to 
forty-seven dollars and seventy-nine cents. And, although the gross 
expenditure had advanced to one hundred and seventy-eight thousand dollars, 
the tax rate for the purpose had been reduced from 4.42 mills to 3.22 
mills. None of the antiquated school houses are now standing, and nearly 
all of the scholars pursue all their studies in the English language. The 
most improved school furniture is in general use, and globes and maps are 
no longer a rarity."

                          ______

  The primitive school houses have disappeared; and in place of them, in
every part of the county, are substantial and commodious educational 
structures, many of them, in the boroughs and towns, being of large size 
and fine architecture. It is no longer the farm laborer, leaving his work 
for a mouth or two, in the inclement winter season, who is depended on, to 
lead the Youth up the rugged hill of knowledge; that office is now placed 
in the hands of competent teachers, who are aided in their labors by 
expensive books and apparatus. So it is too, in regard to religious 
worship. No longer do the worshipers gather at the log school house, the 
settlers cabin, or in the open air, but in comfortable, oftentimes elegant, 
church edifices, where the Word of Life is preached to them amid the softening 
and refining influences of modern civilization.


143


  It is profitable to reflect on these marvelous changes; to recall the 
past, and compare it with the present; but let us beware, lest we glorify 
ourselves and our achievements too touch, at the risk of unjustly 
detracting from the merits, of those who came before us. We must not forget 
that the early schools, rude as they were, lacking almost every element 
which we now consider indispensable, were yet, in some degree,  
institutions of learning, founded, in the midst of the most adverse 
circumstances, by those who realized that knowledge is power, and who did 
their best to arm their children with its weapons, to enable them to defend 
their rights, and maintain and perpetuate self-government. Nor should we, 
while we enjoy the great privilege of worshiping God in appropriate and 
costly edifices, indulge for a moment the belief that our prayer and praise 
are, on that account, more acceptable in the sight of Heaven than were the 
life-long sacrifices and humble devotion of the men of the old time., who, 
with an ever present sense of their need of Divine aid and guidance, 
sought it early and late, without outward form or ceremony, but with an 
unfaltering faith that their sincere petitions would find favor in His sight.
 
  And, in contemplation of our material prosperity too, our gratitude 
should go out to the memory of those old pioneers, those brave hearted men 
who made their habitations in the wilderness, in the midst of dangers from 
boasts and savage men, and who, through all the years of their lives, 
labored on in loneliness and privation, to fell the forests, subdue the 
obdurate soil and to lay the deep foundations of all the ease, and 
Pleasantness, and enlightenment, which have descended to us.


144


                                 HISTORY

                                  OF THE

                         BOROUGHS AND TOWNSHIPS

                                   OF

                         NORTHAMPTON COUNTY, PA.

                             ___________

                  XLIII.   THE BOROUGH OF EASTON.  PART I.

   THE location of Easton is upon the west bank of the Delaware and the 
north bank of the Lehigh, it their confluence; ninety miles, by the course 
of the former, above Philadelphia. By railway, its distance from New York 
is seventy-five miles; from Philadelphia, sixty-six; and from Harrisburg, 
one hundred and eight miles.

  From the Delaware, the borough extends westwardly up a gradual declivity, 
and then over the crest of a hill, which is everywhere steep, and, in some
parts, precipitous.  Still higher eminences surround and command the town 
on the north, east, and west, The most eligible of these, as a point of 
observation, is Phillipsburg heights, across the river Delaware. Looking
from thence, the eye takes in at once nearly the whole of the borough of
Easton. It is well built and picturesque, and has none of the monotonous 
tameness which always characterizes towns located on level grounds. The 
large preponderance of brick and stone buildings, and the almost universal 
use of the smooth, dark-blue slate for roofing, give at once the idea of 
well-kept solity entirely opposite to that produced by the frail, 
perishable, and inflammable architecture, so frequently seen in "cities" 
and towns in many portions of the country. On the right, upon the heights 
which tower abruptly from the north bank of the Bushkill Creek, stand out 
the imposing halls of Lafayette College. In the central part of the 
picture, rise the steep crags, of Mount Jefferson, the towers, and spires 
of the churches, and the bold pillars and cupola of the Court House, 
flanked by the sombre walls of the County Prison, while far to the west, 
beyond the town, are more faintly seen the domes and roofs at the 
Agricultural Fair Grounds.

  On the extreme left appear the railway stations and shops, and the 
manufactories and dwellings of South Easton, looking very pretty, in the 
distance, as a adjunct to the main picture, but losing considerably on 
nearer inspection. Almost underneath it, flowing majestically southward
in the foreground, is the Delaware, spanned by the crowning curve of the 
old carriage bridge, and, lower down, by the magnificent rectilinear iron 
trusses of the railways. The little Bushkill enters the river just 
between us and the College, but so small is the stream, and so deeply 
indented is its bed, that we scarcely see it, except at the point where it 
flows into the Delaware. But the Lehigh, curbed and swollen as it is by 
the canal dam at its mouth, proudly shows the sheen of its bright waters 
in a long reach, dividing the two boroughs, and then swerving to the 
southward around the headland towards Glendon.

  Every artificial thing which we see here flow, dwelling, streets, mills,
bridges, railways, all have been created by man during the past century and 
a quarter of time. But God's handiwork-the Delaware, the Lehigh, the 
Bushkill, the limestone crags-were there, all unmarred by human hands, and 
half hidden by wild parasites and forest tree- when, nearly a hundred and 
forty years ago, the peace-loving Moravians first came to build their 
Brothers' House in the woods, at the Forks of the Delaware.

  In his Journal of Travels of America (1797), the Duke de la Rochefoucault 
Liancourt, thus speculates concerning the formation of the site of the 
town, "it lies compactly between the river and the mountains; it is nothing 
but sand and pebbles, 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." But 
whether ancient rivers had flowed over it or not, the white man, when he 
came, surely found it a wild and beautiful place.

  Sherman Day, in his Historical Collections of the State of Pennsylvania
says: "It is said that Easton was laid out by Hugh Wilson, of Allen
township; and Colonel Martin, of Mount Bethel, commissioners, about the
year 1737 or 1738, or soon after the Italian walk. It does not appear, 
however, to have been settled for some years afterward. "It is more than 
doubtful whether Messrs. Martin and Wilson laid out any town there, 
although they probably surveyed a tract of land, and it is certain that, 
when, on the ninth of May, 1750, William Parsons, Esq., as agent for Thomas 
and Richard Penn, met Nicholas Scull, the Surveyor-General, of 
Pennsylvania, at the Forks of the Delaware, and they, together with their 
axemen and chainmen proceeded to lay out the town of Easton for the 
Proprietaries, the nearest lodging place which they (Scull and Parsons) 
could avail themselves of, was the house of John Lefebre, six miles up the 
Bushkill, on the road to the Wind Gap. (This old tavern stood on a site now 
embraced in the premises of Peter Werkheiser, in Forks township.) From 
this, it seems very plain that there could have been no settlement there, 
excepting the Brothers' House 1 and the log cabin, built in 1739, by David 
Martin, who plied the ferry across both rivers for the accommodation of 
such travelers as wished to pass from Bethlehem or Nazareth across into 
Jersey, or down the river towards Newtown or Bristol.

  The work of laying out the town occupied ten days. The chainmen, and 
other assistants, received, for their services, eighteen pence (about 
twenty cents) per day, furnishing their own board, Messrs. Parsons and 
Scull, all before mentioned, were entertained at Lefebre's house, and his 
bill for their ten days accommodation was £2 11s. 9d. or about $6.90. This 
amount not only included food and lodging, but "slings"2 and other 
spirituous sustenance. As they came from Philadelphia and were the 
representatives of the Proprietaries, there can be no doubt that Lefebre's 
house did its very best for them in the way of entertainment.
________________________________________________________________________

1. As regards the Brothers' House, the precise date of its erection is not 
known, but it probably at least as early as 1745.  Bishop de 
Schweinitz. who is the very highest authority in all matters pertaining 
to Moravian history, has been unable, after long and careful search 
to find any account whatever, of it in Moravian records. It is certain 
that it was never occupied by them, but it was without doubt built in 
the expectation of such occupancy, from which they were, perhaps, 
deterred by a discovery of the Proprietaries' plan of establishing a 
town and the county seat there; for it is well known that it was the 
strong desire of the Moravians, to avoid contact with other communities 
and peoples.  We are, by tradition, assured that the house was of 
Moravian origin, and there is little doubt that it was such, and that 
it remained unoccupied by them, for the above named reason. Its very 
character indicated it, for at that time, no others than they would 
have built so large and substantial a building. It is represented by 
those who saw it, to have been it stone structure, as large as 50 x 40 
feet, and with exceedingly thick and massive walls. More than a century 
ago, before the old church in Third street was erected, this house was 
occupied by the Lutherans, as a meeting house and parsonage. It stood on 
the site, at present occupied by the new brick and iron block on the 
west side of Third street, and cornering on the alley next below Ferry street.

2. This is the precise word used in Lefebre's bill, which is still in existence.


145


  The Proprietaries had been quick to note the natural advantages of the 
location, and the enterprise was wholly a private one in their hands. The 
wife of Thomas Pen was Johanna Fermor, a daughter of Lord Pomfret, who 
resided at his estate of Easton, in Northamptonshire, England-hence the 
naming of the town (and of the county afterwards), and hence, also, the 
names given to the streets, as-Northampton, Fermor, Julianna, and Pomfret. 
Hamilton street-now Fourth-was named for the Governor of Pennsylvania. It 
is difficult to imagine why those very proper and euphonious names-should 
ever have been abandoned.

  The boundaries, of the town, as then laid out, were: "On the south, by 
the west, branch (Lehigh) and on the east by the main branch of the river,
which runs, in this place, nearly north and South, about one hundred and
twenty perches, to a very pleasant brook of water called Tatamy's Creek,1
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 one hundred
and thirty perches from, the main branch."

  The town lots, sixty by two hundred and twenty feet, were sold, subject 
to an annual ground rent of seven shillings; and it was a condition of 
every sale, that a house, at least twenty feet square, with a lone 
chimney, should be built, on the lot, within two years from the date of 
purchase. A public square, intended for the erection of a court house, was 
laid off on the crown of a gentle knoll, from which the ground sloped in 
all directions; the centre of the square being the pointed where 
Northampton and Pomfret Streets would-if carried through-cross each other 
at right angles.  The lots forming this square were transferred to the 
county on the sole condition of the annual payment of a red rose to the 
Proprietaries, or to the head of their house, forever.

  William Parsons2 Clerk of the Courts of the newly-erected county, and 
ex-Surveyor-General of Pennsylvania, removed to Easton, as a permanent 
place of residence, but he appears to have done so with some misgivings 
from several causes, the principal of which was the doubt, of a sufficiency 
of provisions being obtainable from the surrounding country, for in a letter 
dated December 3d, 1752, and addressed by him to Richard Peters, Esq. 
(to be found page 95, 2d vol. Pennsylvania Archives), he says:

  "Upon removing my family to this place, my thought, have been more
engaged in considering the circumstances of this infant town than ever, its
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 considerable 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 town itself, that is to say, its situation as to 
health, trade, and pleasantness. The site of the town is pleasant and very 
agreeable; the banks of all the waters bounding it are high and clear; and 
if it was as large again as it is-being now about one hundred 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.

  "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 any kinds of timber 
above the mountains, where 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 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. 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 themselves, 
corresponding only with one another, where they can possibly 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 foreigners, it is not likely that they will, in time 
to come, raise sufficient provisions for themselves, but are obliged to 
purchase great quantities from their neighbors, who would otherwise bring 
it to the town; but this is not, to be expected while they can dispose of 
it 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 
Drylands 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 sole 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.  Upon the whole, 
the town has, hitherto, been very well supplied with meat-beef, pork, 
mutton-butter, turnips, & c.  But it will be supplied with hay and 
pasturage, I can't clearly foresee; I mean, if the town increases, as I am 
in great hopes it will. 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 Drylands might be appropriated for out-lots, and that all 
the rest were to be settled 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, add 
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 
gentlefolks don't always prove the fittest to begin new place, where labor 
is chiefly wanted. I cant hear of any considerable body of clay, for making 
bricks or potters work, upon any of the Proprietory's land near the town, 
but upon the five hundred-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 five hundred acre, belong now to one Corry in 
Chester county. I wrote to you about it very largely in the 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 hope that it soon 
will be, as it is now covered in, there is great probabilities that the 
number will increase before the spring."

  By the above extracts from Mr. Parsons' letter, we may readily perceive
that, although he duly appreciated the advantages of the water-power and
facilities, the heathfulness, the lumber, and jail, yet he feared an 
insufficiency of supplies, scarcity of brick-clay, and the overshadowing 
importance of the settlement, on the Jersey side of the river; and that, 
besides these, he deprecated the near proximity of the peaceful, but 
unpopular Moravians, as well as the presence of "poor gentlefolks," in the 
new town.

  The Proprietaries seem to have shared in his fear, that the growth of 
Phillipsburg would operate unfavorable on the prosperity of Easton, and 
Thomas Penn, so expressed himself, in his letter to Richard Peters under 
date of May 9th, 1732, "I think we should secure all the land we can on 
the Jersey side of the water."
___________________________________________________________________________
 
1. Now in Bushkill

2. William Parsons who was for years the most prominent citizens of Easton, 
and who in fact may be said to been the father of the infant town, was born  
in Great Britain, on the sixth of May, 1701.
Even before reaching his majority he had emigrated and settled in 
Philadelphia, where he married in the year 1722, and worked at his trade-
that of shoemaking for many years. In some way, he secured the friendship 
and confidence of the Proprietaries' agent in such a  degree that in the 
year 1743 he received the appointment of Surveyor-General of Pennsylvania. 
It was a position of honor and of considerable profit, but yet a very 
laborious one, on which account-as his health seemed never to of been 
robust-he was obliged to resign the office in 1748. He then removed to 
Lancaster, and remained there until the laying out of Easton, and the 
erection the new county Northampton, rendered his services once more 
indispensable to the Penns, who induce him to leave Lancaster and take up 
residence in Easton, for the purpose of filling the offices of 
Prothonotary and Clerk of the courts of Northampton; and also to act as 
Proprietaries agent in the care of their property interests in the county 
all of which duties he faithfully performed as long as his low condition 
of health would permit.  At the time of the commencement of the Indian wars 
in 1755, he was appointed Major of militia, but does not appear to have seen 
any actual military service. He died at Easton on the twenty-second of 
December 1757 and was buried in the old graveyard on Fifth street.


146


  At that time, the dwellings and inhabitant in the Phillipsburg settlement 
did considerably outnumber those at Easton, and, to a superficial observer, 
it seemed to possess some superior advantages. The heirs of David Martin 
(the old ferryman who had established his ferry across the Delaware, as 
early as 1739) were owners of a large portion of the lands upon which 
Phillipsburg stands, and another tract of four hundred and eleven acres was 
owned by Mr. John Cox, of Philadelphia, who, when he saw the laying out of 
the town in the Forks, conceived a similar project upon his own side of the 
river, and this it, was which produced anxiety to the Proprietaries, and a 
desire, on their part, to gain such a foothold on the Jersey side as might 
enable them to nip the rival enterprise in the bud.

  The start which Easton had, however, in the establishment there of the 
county seat with its public buildings, seemed to deter Mr. Cox from the 
prosecution of his plans, and after a time they were definitely abandoned.
But, although the Proprietaries feared danger from the rivalry of 
Phillipsburg, they by no means shared Mr. Parsons adverse view of the 
eligibility of Easton's location, nor those which were so freely expressed 
in a petition of remonstrance which, thirteen years later, was addressed to 
the Assembly praying against the erection of the Court House at Easton, in
which it was asserted that "there could not have been a place devised, more
improper and inconvenient than Easton appears 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 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 mules from Bethlehem to Easton, there are 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, travelers are in danger of 
perishing with cold, or of being parched up in summer with heat; that the 
remote situation of Easton is grievous so they hope that, in this free, 
government, a greater evil, though established by law, shall not continue 
and prevail, only to obtain a lesser good, and that, though the inhabitants 
of Eaton, in case of removing from there the seat of judicature, may in 
some measure suppose themselves to be sufferers, yet it is certainly better 
that they should bear a small inconveniency, than that the whole county 
should languish forever under a law which, at first view, appears so 
grievous and burthensome.

  "On the contrary, the Proprietaries, from the first, saw and believed in 
the natural advantages which the location afforded, and they steadfastly 
adhered to this, their original belief. How far they were correct in their 
view, let a century and a quarter of experience, let the now teeming 
fertility of those despised "Dry-lands", let the railroads and the 
water-ways, overcrowded with the products of mills and furnaces and mines, 
give answer!

  The prison,1 upon which Mr. Parsons, in his Peters' letter, seemed so
strongly to rely, as a means Of increasing the population, was completed
early in the next season, 1753. It stood on a lot at the corner of Pomfret
(Third) street and Pine alley, just south of the square, upon a part of 
which is now Howell's marble-yard.


                      TAVERNS-OCCUPATION-COURTS.

  It is often the case that a public house built at some cross-roads, or 
favorable intermediate point between populous centres, decides the location 
of a town. A settlement of a few houses springs up around the tavern-nucleus, 
and in the event of favorable circumstances, grows to the dignity of a town, 
or, perhaps of a city. But this was not the case with Easton; Parsons and 
Scull were obliged to go six miles to Lefebre's for their food  and their 
"slings," for there was no inn nearer than that. There was not even so much 
as a road leading to the town site from any direction. The only improvement 
was Martin's old log ferry house, at the "Point".  Mr. Martin had, seven 
years[?] before, petitioned the Court of Bucks county, for a road to be 
laid out from his ferry to Bethlehem, and the court had granted his prayer, 
but with that action the matter had died for the time, and years elapsed 
before the building of the road was accomplished.

  Concerning the old ferry and the route of travel leading to and from it, 
some light is thrown by the account which Mr. John Green (who was ferryman 
there in 1792) gives of his interview with an old man who crossed it in 
that year, after an absence of half a century. This old man told Mr. Green 
that when he had last crossed the ferry (about 1742 or 1743, in David 
Martin's time), it was in a canoe, and that he swam his horse alongside, 
that the site of Easton at that time was covered with woods and thick 
underbrush, and that from thence to Bethlehem, which had just commenced to 
be settled, the only route was over an Indian path.

  But, although the establishment of public houses did not, in this case, 
precede the settlement of the town, they were among the very first of the 
erections which formed that settlement. The first tavern, was that of 
William Craig and John Anderson, who received their license at the first 
term of court held in the county, June 16th, 1752. Their house stood on the 
public square, near its southeast corner, the rear of their premises 
adjoining the old jail lot. It afterwards fell into the hands of Christian 
Rinker, who kept it in a creditable manner for many a year.

  The second inn in Easton was opened in the old ferry house, at the Point, 
in December, 1752, just at the time when Mr. Parsons was expressing himself 
so despondingly to Richard Peters in regard to the future prospects of the 
town.  The proprietor of this second public house was Nathaniel Vernon, who 
was also the ferryman.2  He had been refused a license at the June Term of 
the Court, the same which granted it to Craig and Anderson. Perhaps a 
reason for this action might be suspected in the fact that Vernon was 
strong in the Quaker interest, while the other house was is strongly for 
the Proprietaries; and besides this, William Craig was, himself, one of the 
justices.

  As the old log building was not sufficiently capacious to answer for both 
ferry house and tavern, Mr. Vernon added several shells or shanties, much 
on the principle, though probably not strictly in the style, of the cottage 
system, so fashionable at the watering-places of the present day.

  A third public house, of which Paul Miller was landlord, was opened at 
the southwest corner of Northampton and Hamilton (now Fourth) streets, the 
spot at present occupied by Becker Rader's store.  This, however, was not 
started until more than a year after that at the ferry house, by Vernon. It 
became a house of good repute, and in its day entertained many of the 
notables, who had occasion to stop in Easton from time to time. Among these 
was Governor Denny, who availed himself of its hospitality while attending 
the Indian council, in 1758. This building was erected for Miller by Jasper Scull.

  One of the eleven heads of families mentioned by Parsons in his letter, 
was Anthony Esser, who was the first to start the business of butchering in 
the new town. He lived in a house belonging to Nathaniel Vernon, who, once, 
on the occasion of an Indian treaty at Easton, forced his tenant to vacate 
the house, for the accommodation of his (Vernon's) Quaker lodgers. Esser 
was an honest and public-spirited man, and very much respected.

  About the same time, George Ernst Becker, a German, fresh from the 
Fatherland, commenced the baking business, though at first in an extremely 
small way. When be arrived in the town, he encamped with his family in a 
sort of tent, upon the public square, but soon, with the assistance of 
neighbors, he erected a small house, which answered well the purpose of 
sheltering his family. He was determined to push on in business, and after 
having established his humble domicile, he started for the Moravian mill, at 
Bethlehem, to procure flour for his first batch of bread. He traveled both 
ways on foot, over the Indian path, and brought back the flour in a sack 
upon his shoulder.

  The business of blacksmithing was prosecuted by Abraham Berlin, and there 
can be no doubt that in so new a settlement, and particularly while a jail 
was in process of erection, he was blessed with plenty of work.

  A good part of the masonry work of the jail, was done by John Finley. 
Indeed, the building of the outer walls, enclosing the yard, was given to 
him by contract, at the rate of seven shillings and sixpence per perch. He 
was a good stone mason, and was another of the eleven householders then 
composing the little settlement of Easton.

  The first, and only, house carpenter and joiner in the place, was Henry 
Allshouse, one Of the original settlers, who lived on the public square, at 
the northeast corner, near where the Post Office now is. He did the 
carpentering work on the Jail, and afterwards on the Court House, and he 
lived a most esteemed citizen of Easton, for more than a quarter of a 
century. He was a member of Captain John Arndt's company of soldiers, who 
marched to join General Washington at Long Island, in 1776, and he was 
captured by the British at the  battle of Fort Washington, on November 
16th, of that year.

  The first store in the settlement, was opened by an Israelite, named 
Meyer Hart. His stock was very small, but he prospered, of course. 
Afterwards he drifted into innkeeping, and, in eleven years after his 
modest commencement with the store, his county tax was higher than that of 
any other person in Easton. He appears to have been a man of public spirit 
and a respected citizen.
 
  Easton's first lawyer, Lewis Gordon, Esq., "was, upon his prayer, 
admitted an attorney to practice in the county of Northampton." This was 
done at the first session of Northampton county court, June 16th, 1751. He 
was a man of ability, and, for many years, occupied a prominent place in 
the affairs of the county; but his fair fame was indelibly stained, by his 
defection from his country's cause, in the darkest hour of the Revolution.

  These were the trades and professions of those who (including Mr. Parsons 
himself) were the heads of the eleven families, spoken of by him in his 
letter of December 3d. But which of these he had in mind, when he made his 
disparaging allusion to "poor gentle-folks" can hardly be conjectured.
Probably running the ferry for the heirs of David Martin.
_________________________________________________________________________

1. Mr. B. M. Youells, of Easton, has in his possession the key of this old 
prison.

2. Probably running the ferry for the heirs of David Martin.


147

  Until the completion of the Court House, the courts were held in the
different taverns. The landlords were glad enough to have the sessions held
at their houses, and exacted but small remuneration for it-four, five or at
the most, seven pounds1 per year, being the prices paid by the county.
These sessions were extremely ceremonious and imposing. At the present
day, no official, however exalted, would think of assuming such awful 
dignity as was then habitual with the justices of the courts of Northampton
county. On their passage to the place of holding court-preceded and 
followed by constables with badges and staves; of office-these provincial 
justices, in their severe gravity, and cooked hats, were fearful and 
wonderful personages to behold. But when they mounted the bench, and the 
court officers commanded the silence, then, was the hour of their triumph; 
for the loyal courtiers of King George as be sat upon his own throne at 
Windsor Castle, scarcely regarded their sovereign with more awe and 
adoration, than the townspeople, and the litigants gave to those worshipful 
wearers, of the county ermine, as they sat in solemn session, in the tavern 
courtroom at Easton.

  In 1754, the same year in which Paul Millers inn was opened, Peter 
Kichline erected still another, more pretentious than any of its 
predecessors; and this became probably the most considerable among the 
public houses of the town, for, in the next year after it, erection, he 
rented to the commissioners "his large room" in the second story of this 
house, as a court room, and for the transaction of the public business. The 
sum received for rent, was hardly more than nominal, but he was reimbursed 
many times over, by the increase of custom and consideration which the 
elections and sessions of court brought to his establishment.

  Still another was added to the list of public houses during this year, by 
the opening of Adam Yohe's inn-making no less than five taverns in it 
little settlement, not yet four years old. An unnecessarily large number, 
one would think.

  In the matter of the keeping of public houses, at that day, the popular 
and prejudices evidently ran very much against Catholics, as landlord, for, 
in 1755, a petition, praying against the licensing of such, was numerously 
signed in Easton and presented to the court, its tenor was as follows:

  "To the Worshipful, the Justices of the Court of General Quarter Sessions
of  Peace, held in, Easton, for the County of Northampton the 18th June,
1755. The petition of divers inhabitants of said town, and others, humbly
showeth: That your petitioners are very apprehensive your worships have
been greatly imposed upon, in granting recommendations to his honor, the
governor, for sundry Roman Catholics, out of legiance of his present 
Majesty, our gracious Sovereign, for keeping public houses in this town, 
when those who profess the Protestant religion have been rejected; that 
Your petitioners humbly conceive this practice may have pernicious 
consequences, at this time, when an open rupture is now daily expected 
between a Roman Catholic powerful and perfidious prince, and the crown of 
Great Britain; as the Romans have thereby a better opportunity of becoming 
acquainted with our deigns against them, and are thereby the better enabled 
to discover those designs and render them abortive.

  "Your petitioners, therefore pray, that your honors will make proper 
inquiry into this matter, and grant such redress as the circumstances of 
things may require: And your petitioners will ever pray."

  Signed by Jasper Scull, Henry Rinker, Stophel Wagoner, Philip Mann, 
Nathaniel Vernon, and many others.

  This petition received the following endorsement: "John Fricker is not 
allowed a recommendation to his honor, the Governor, for license to keep a 
public house, by being a Roman Catholic."


                  SCHOOL HOUSE-CHURCH-PRISON.

  In 1754, and 1755, was agitated the project of the erection of a public 
school house in Easton, William Parsons being its warmest advocate. Four 
years earlier there had been formed, in England, and in parts of Germany, a 
society whose purpose it was to promote the instruction of poor Germans, 
and the descendants of such, settled in Pennsylvania. To the funds of this 
society, the King of England himself George the Second had given a thousand 
pounds, and other members of the royal, find of noble families, had 
contributed very handsome sums. The society's funds, obtained in this way, 
were very considerable to amount, and were placed in the hands of properly 
appointed trustees in this country, for distribution, according to their 
best judgment.  Application being made to William Smith, President of the 
University of Pennsylvania, and one of these trustees, for pecuniary aid 
from the fund towards the establishment of the school at Easton, he 
responded by an official subscription of thirty pounds. To this, William 
Parsons added his individual subscription, and these were supplemented by 
smaller sums, given by other citizens, amounting in the aggregate to 
sixty-one pounds and one shilling, in money, in addition to which were many 
donations of labor and material.

  Mr. Parsons was strongly opposed to allowing the people of the town to 
subscribe at all, for, as he said, they were, all Dutch, and so stubborn 
were they, that if permitted to have any voice in the matter, they would, 
by their obstinacy, wholly frustrate the design of the enterprise.  By 
this, however, he did not desire to shut out the children of any from the 
benefits of the school, but preferred that they should receive its 
advantages gratuitously, rather than by receiving the subscriptions of the 
parents, to incur the risk of their interference in its management.
The subscription agreement was as follows:

  "We the subscribers, being truly sensible of the great advantages out, 
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 do engage and agree to, and with, 
William Parsons, James Martin, Peter Trexler, Esq., John Lefebre, Lewis 
Gordon, and Peter Kichline, 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 he made use of 
as a church for any Protestant minister, to our names hereunto respectively 
set down and affixed. Easton, Pa., July 31st, 1755."

  To this subscription was appended of Wm. Smith, with, for the trustees, 
for £30: William Parsons, for £5: Lewis Gordon, £3; Nicholas Scull, £3; 
Nathaniel Vernon, £3; Peter Kichline, £2; John Fricker, £1 6s., and 
eighteen others for smaller sums while still eighteen others subscribed 
various amounts of labor and material. A very creditable result to be 
obtained from so small a community. And it is a fact which may be, noticed 
with surprise by some that the subscription of John Fricker -a Catholic-was 
one among the more considerable in amount, although it was for the 
establishment of a school from which his own children-if he had any-would 
be debarred on account of faith, and for the erection of a building which 
might be used as a church by any Protestant minister, but never by one of 
his own religion, and although only so recently as the previous month, he 
had been denied a recommendation for license, for the reason of "being a 
Roman Catholic," this denial being granted by the court, upon the prayer of 
petitioners, among whom were Nathaniel Vernon, and several others of those 
whom he was now assisting to build their exclusively Protestant school house.

  A sufficient amount being subscribed in money and labor, the work was
commenced forthwith, and the house was completed in 1775. It was a log
structure, commodious for those days, and was, as indicated in the 
subscription agreement, intended to be used as a church as well as a 
school house. Its location was at the northeast corner of Sitgreaves street 
and Church Alley.

  The settlers at Easton had, up to this time, no stated place where they 
could enjoy religious worship within the town. Outside the settlement, 
however, it was but a mile, on the Philadelphia road, to the old log 
meeting, house of the Lutherans;2 or, if they crossed the Delaware, they 
might see the rude log church, which the devout ones in Phillipsburg and 
vicinity, had erected some few years before. To be sure, these seemed 
convenient, enough, in point of distance, and the worshiper of that day 
would cheerfully make far longer journeys than these, to attend church 
service, for, to quote the words of a most charming authoress -Mrs. Ellet-
"the practice of church going was 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 an omission."

  To have a permanent church edifice, however, and stated worship within 
their own borders, was a matter of religious public spirit with the 
settlers at Easton, and it is supposable that the slow-going Lutheran, and 
the more fiery Presbyterian agreed, that if their town was to be the 
central point of trade and of political importance, so site ought, also, to 
be the religious centre of all the region round about the Lehigh and 
Delaware, and that this feeling culminated and found its satisfaction when 
the log school house-church was completed in 1755 -an edifice in which all 
might preach, and worship without let or hindrance, so long as that 
preaching and that worship breathed no odor of Catholicism.
_________________________________________________________________________

1.The Pennsylvania Pound was but $2.66 1/3

2.It stood on land now owned by Mrs. Miller, in Williams township. It was     
probably built and occupied about 1730.


148


  Until the year 1755, them was no road to or from Easton, nor any adequate 
means of communication with the surrounding country. All the growth of the 
place had been made in the face of natural obstacles, which were not 
inaptly described to the petition made in 1763, by the opponents of the 
permanent location of the county seat at Easton, in which paper the 
memorialists said that it was only at imminent peril of life and limb, that 
residents of the outlying settlements could come to their seat of justice, 
on account of the steep and rugged paths they must pass to reach it.

  If the townspeople wished to go towards Philadelphia, the route was a
very bad one-almost impassable-being only a bridle-path, as far as Durham; 
and it they would reach Bethlehem (the only considerable settlement
in all the surrounding region) they must make the journey as the 
enterprising Ernst Becker had done, over a vague Indian trail; while the 
route to the more northerly settlement, was encompassed by equal 
difficulties. As to the use of vehicles at that time, Mr. Parsons-referring 
to Easton, in 1755, says "Nobody had wagons, or even if they all 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, wagons, horses, 
etc.  Most of their customers came on foot, and such as had horses, swam 
them over."

  In 1745, Mr. Martins petition for a road from his ferry, to Bethlehem, 
had been granted, and, in 1753, it was laid out, as was also a road from 
Bethlehem on to Reading. In 1755 it was so far completed, as to be barely 
passable. This was the first highway affording access to, and from the 
county seat. Entering the town from the west, it passed down by the route 
of Ferry street, to the river, at the tavern and ferry of Nathaniel Vernon, 
who was no longer lessee, but owner of that property; having then just 
purchased it from the estate of David Martin, deceased.

  Although the jail building had been completed in 1753, yet, at the 
commencement of 1753, the enclosing walls had not been built, nor any wells 
sunk for the supply of water. And on the twentieth of January, in that 
year, the commissioners agreed to, and did, levy a tax, to defray the 
expense of these. They were contracted for on the twenty-first of February, 
and were completed before the autumn.  Including these, the whole cost of 
the prison was about four hundred pounds, or a little short of eleven 
hundred dollars.

  The town at this time comprised some forty dwellings-including the tavern 
of Kichline, Miller, Craig, Yohe, and Vernon -the school house and jail, 
and the old Moravian  "Brothers' House" The stone mansion Of William Parsons 
had not then been completed.


                       ALARMS-TREATIES

  Late in  the fall of that year, the air became filled with rumors of 
impending Indian hostilities, and then the inhabitants of Easton, while 
they made every preparation for the worst, congratulated themselves that 
the thick walls of the jail, and its strong enclosure-just completed-would 
afford them a place Of comparative security, in case of a savage attack.

  But notwithstanding their preparations, the tidings of the barbarous
massacre of the missionaries at Gnadenhutten (Nov. 24th, 1755) fell upon
them like a thunderbolt.  All those who could leave the town, fled southward 
for safety, and all was panic and dismay. There were neither arms,
ammunition, nor sufficient male defenders, and but little opposition to an 
attack could be offered, though the few stone houses, the largest and 
strongest of which was the Moravian house, on Pompfret street, and the 
walls of the give them security for a time. In the midst of all this terror
and panic, Mr. Parsons wrote Lieutenant-Governor Robert H. Morris, under
date of nineteenth of December, 1755, advising him of the generally 
desperate state of affairs at Easton -their lack if the means of self-
protection, and of the universal flight of the inhabitants all along the 
river, and making an appeal for some measures to be taken to place them in 
a better condition for defence.

  This despairing letter he sent, with others, by a special messenger, and 
that courier was, his own daughter, Grace! In speaking of this, Mr. Parsons
said, he sent his daughter as a matter of necessity, for he had no money 
to pay another messenger. But it is no impeachment of Mr. Parsons, if we
believe that he was unwilling to spare any male, who might be needed to 
defend the town; or that he was more than willing that his beloved child
should place herself safely out of reach of the horrors, which he believed
were in store for the devoted town upon the Delaware. And lonely as was
her two days' ride to Philadelphia, she, herself, was no doubt lightened in
heart, and accelerated in speed, by the thought that safety was before, 
while tomahawks were behind her. But it wast a necessary service, and she 
bravely and faithfully performed it. We may imagine how proudly she stepped 
from the low door of her fathers house, and how daintily she mounted, and 
how the bashful beaux stood at respectful distance, and gazed in rustic 
admiration on her aristocratic beauty, and how tenderly her father gave her 
his parting kiss -the last he might ever give her1 -as he bade her God 
speed.

  It is it matter of great regret, on behalf of the ladies of the present 
day, that no detailed account was preserved, enumerating and describing the 
article of her attire on that occasion; but we may feel reasonably sure-and 
there is profound consolation in the belief-that Miss Grace was a young 
lady of correct and fastidious taste, and that her traveling dress, on that 
memorable ride, was of the proper material, and irreproachably fashioned in 
the (then) prevailing mode.

  There was now but one thought pervading the community that of 
self-preservation. During the long, dreary winter and spring, the 
townspeople were in continual dread of attack, and they ventured not far 
away from the places which offered the best promise of security. All 
business was at an end-public as well as private. For seven months, there 
was not so much as a meeting of the County Commissioner-their first 
meeting, after the massacre, being held June 22d, 1756. About that time the 
attitude of the Indians became less menacing, and they finally consented to 
meet the whites in council at Easton.

  A week or two before the time set for the council, Indians from the West
and the North began to gather in the town, and the citizens became 
intensely alarmed in consequence. Earliest endeavors were made to prevent 
their access to liquor, but these were only partially successful. Major 
Parsons view of the situation, as well as his opinion of the German 
settlers in the vicinity, may be pretty clearly understood from the tenor 
of his letter to Secretary Peters at that time (July, 1756), He said: 
"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 beg whiskey or rum of them and the 
Dutch all drink a great deal, and 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, the Indians will become 
enraged and do mischief in town." From this, it will be seen that the 
authorities had already sent a few troops to Easton, but that Mr. Parsons 
was very anxious that more should be ordered there.

  The meeting of the council had been named for the twenty-fourth of July. 
It was held at Nathaniel Vernon's ferry house tavern, but, although there 
were present the Lieutenant-Governor of Pennsylvania, four commissioners, 
appointed by the Assembly, and four members of the Governor's council, 
besides a large number of distinguished gentlemen from Philadelphia, and 
Colonel Conrad Weiser, the Indian agent, with forty-eight soldiers from 
Heidelberg, Berks county, they found only twenty-four Indians in 
attendance. This being the case, no important business was transacted, and 
the council was adjourned to the following November.

  At the reassembling November 8th, 1756 the Indian attendance was
large. The Proprietaries had taken care to secure the presence of the warriors 
and chiefs of the Iroquois, or Six Nations, probably to overawe, and
hold in check, the power and influence of Tadeuskund, the great chief of
four tribes, and master spirit of the whole Delaware nation; he who had
been principally instrumental in inducing his tribes to side with the 
French, and in causing the massacre at Gnadenhutten. He was present, 
swelling with complacency and importance, for he wore a fine, cloth coat, 
which had been given him by the French at Niagara, and a cocked hat, 
purchased of James Burd, of Philadelphia, both profusely decorated with 
gold lace; which caused him to be regarded with wonder by the little boys 
of Elision, and with admiration and envy by the other Indians. He, however, 
became the principal Indian speaker of the occasion, and wielded great 
power, not only over his own nation, but also over the Mohicans and 
Shawnese, who were numerously represented at the council.

  On the part of the whites, the array was still more imposing, than at the 
July conference. Governor Denny, himself, was there, accompanied by his 
Secretary and Council; also the Assembly's Commissioners, and a large 
concourse of eminent Quakers, and citizens of the Proprietary party, with 
Colonel Conrad Weiser and his soldiers, and John Pumpshire, interpreter.

  To make the occasion as impressive as possible, on the minds of the 
Indians, Governor Denny proceeded in great state to the council place, 
guarded and escorted, from flank and rear, by detachments of soldiers,
"Royal Americans" and "Provincial," with drums, fifes, and colors, and all 
the imposing show of pump and power that was at his command.
___________________________________________________________________________

1. In his letter to Secretary Peters, sent at the same time, he discloses 
his fears, when he says: This is probably my last letter to you."


 149


  In the council, Tadeuskund was very exacting in his demands in behalf of 
his people, the Delawares, and he was supported by the Quakers, who 
accorded him every possible advantage during the proceedings, both from an 
honest desire to preserve peace, and to procure justice for the Indians, 
and also from a willingness to thwart as far as possible, the designs of 
the Proprietary government. Had it not been for the assistance and support, 
which they gave him, he would hot have secured the advantages which he did, 
from the treaties of 1756 and 1758. "They (the Quakers) suggested to 
Tadeuskund the propriety of having a secretary of his own (Charles. 
Thompson, Esq.,) to take minutes of what was said and done in council. This 
was to prevent that convenient forgetfulness, which often seized the. 
government secretaries whenever the Proprietary interest required it. This 
measure was strenuously objected to, both by the Governor and by George 
Croghan, but was firmly insisted on by Tadeuskund.1

   The duration of the proceedings at this conference was nine days, and on 
each day, the processions of the Governor to, and from, the council-house 
at Vernon's ferry, were but repetitions of the parade and stare of the 
opening day, Tadeuskund was well "treated" by his pale-faced brethren, and 
at the close of the deliberations, a peace had been concluded between the 
English and the Delawares and Shawanese. But still there remained the 
question of the Minisink lands, and, although the Proprietary government, 
through Governor Denny, expressed a willingness to give full satisfaction 
in the promises, yet, as many of those concerned in the original ownership 
of those lands were absent, it was deemed best to postpone that matter for 
deliberation at another council, to be called in the following year.

  The main result-peace-which the whites had desired having been gained, they 
were entirely willing to agree to the postponement of the Minisink question.

  Tadeuskund was the prime instigator of the postponement, and the 
assembling of another council, for the big Indian heart swelled within him 
at the thought of the friendly deference accorded to him by the Quakers, of 
the prospective liberation of his people from the galling domination of the 
Iroquois (already half accomplished by the present council), and still more 
particularly by the certainty of unlimited rations of rum which these 
deliberative assemblages were sure to bring him. Doubtless, he would have 
thought it advisable to meet the Governor and Council and Commissioners of 
Pennsylvania and his pale-faced Quaker brethren, four times a year, if such 
frequent convocations had been possible. Tadeuskund was a man of "unbounded 
stomach" for strong drink. Major William Parsons, in a report made to 
Lieutenant-Governor Morris, in 1756, said of him "He can drink three quarts 
or a gallon, of rum a day, without being drunk." And so much who he puffed 
up by the importance he had been permitted to assume, and by the spirituous 
indulgences; which had been allowed him, that, on the occasion of a 
subsequent call for a council at Easton, he said, in a dictated letter to 
Governor Hamilton: "As Sir William Johnson hath appointed a time he 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. I beg also to appoint some small 
beer and cyder at some houses where we shall stop on the road to refresh 
ourselves."  He, doubtless, would have preferred rum, but thinking it 
doubtless whether the mightier stimulant would be entrusted to, except 
under his white brother's eye, he stipulated only for cider and beer.

  Before the time for assembling the council appointed for the next July,
(1757), the Indians again became troublesome and menacing, and the 
inhabitants of Easton and Bethlehem were as panic-stricken as they had been 
in the previous year. The sessions of the courts, and the meetings of the 
commissioners were interfered with, witnesses and jurors could not be 
induced nor forced to attend, and all thoughts have again turned to the 
one question of defence.  This state of uncertainty continued during all the 
spring months.

  Major Parsons removed to his new house in April, and probably felt much 
mere secure after he was fairly domiciled within its thick stone walls. It 
was an imposing mansion, for those days; though it now looks modest 
enough2 among the statelier building which surround it; as it stands, 
antiquated, gray, and weather-beaten, but with walls and foundations so 
massive that it seems likely yet to outlive many of its more youthful neighbors.

  It appears that he had much trouble to procure the viands necessary for 
his housewarming, for he wrote to Peters (April 3d, 1757) "I have no mutton 
since last treaty, neither have I any person in my house that knows how to 
dress it.  I have sent for some to Philadelphia." Such an occasion as the 
inauguration of his new mansion could not be allowed to pass without 
roasted mutton, even in the shadow of the deadly peril which surround them.

  Neither were the Governor and the members, of the Council at all disposed 
to accept "camp fare" when they came to attend the conference, Secretary
Peters wrote from Philadelphia to Easton, July 7th: "The Governor intends 
to live in Mr. Parsons house whilst at Easton, which is now empty, Mr.
Parsons being indisposed, and on a journey for the recovery of his health.
By what, means can butchers meat, and butter, bread, fowls, and other sorts 
of provisions he 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."

  Innkeeper Vernon responded to Mr. Peters: "As to fresh provisions on
every day shall be duly provided, such as fowl, beef, mutton, veal, bread
and butter, by me Nicholas Scull undertakes to provide servants that shall 
be necessary for the Governor and what gentlemen shall come with
him whilst at Mr. Parsons'.  No cook can be got at Easton, but, good water
plenty." It is not known whether or, out this was intended as an  
implication that the Governor might possibly drink water, if beer could not  
be obtained. Certainly His Excellency appears to have thought it 
impossible-even under the pressure of very grave necessary to travel, and 
lodge and live as simply as Governors of the State of Pennsylvania 
frequently do at the present day.

  The citizen had looked with fear to the gathering of the savages for the 
council, but no violence occurred, Tadeuskund was present, gay enough in  
his cooked hat and gold-laced coat, and was, as usual, the chief spokesman 
of the Indians, but he become so intoxicated -notwithstanding his great 
capacity for liquor-drinking-that his Quaker friend, could only with the 
greatest difficult keep him on the track of his own interests. Nothing. 
whatever was settled between Indians and whites at this sitting; the 
question being referred by mutual consent to the King of England and his 
council, for decision.

  At the close of the conference, Tadeuskund requested "that the lock be 
taken off from the rum cask, and the liquor allowed to run." This was 
acceded to, and the great "War Trumpet of the Delawares"3 for once in his 
life, at least, laid prostrate, completely conquered by, little John 
Barleycorn.

  Still another treaty meeting was held at Easton, in September, 1758.  The
attendance was far more numerous than at any of the preceding conferences.
No less than five hundred and eight Indians, were present, including the
great chiefs of the Six Nations; while on the part of the whites there were
Sir William Johnson, Colonel Croghan the Governors of New Jersey and of 
Pennsylvania, with their suites, and, as a matter of course, a large number
of eminent civilians and Quakers.  Lodgings were more than over in
demand, and subterfuges find browbeating were resorted to by the 
proprietary party to procure the best quarters, and to exclude the Quakers-
and vice versa. Nathaniel Vernon, mine host of the Ferry tavern -where the 
convocation was to be held -was in the Quaker interest, and used some high-
handed measures to secure lodgings for members of that party.  Anthony 
Esser, the butcher, occupied a house belonging to Vernon, who informed his 
tenant that unless he (Esser) vacated the house, so that the Quakers might 
have their quarters there, he (Vernon) would withdraw his patronage for 
meats, which would have been very severe on Esser, who was a poor man, and 
had moreover laid in if considerable stock of cattle, and sheep, to be 
killed for this very occasion, for which Vernon, being landlord of the 
ferry house inn had been depended on as a principal customer. So the 
alternative of moving the family into the open air seemed almost as bad as 
the loss of his landlords trade, he was obliged to comply with the cruel 
demand, or deal with Vernon as best, he might.

________________________________________________________________________

  1 This house the oldest building in Easton, is still standing in good 
preservation on the north east corner of Fourth and Perry streets being 
now owned (and the lower part occupied by a meat market) by Jacob 
Duchrodt who was Lieutenant-Colonel of the one Hundred and Fifty-third 
Pennsylvania Regiment in the war of the Rebellion. Its walls are more 
than two feet thick and so solid that, if not disturbed they will 
doubtless stand for another century. After the death of Mr. Parsons in 
1757, the house passed to the ownership of GEORGE TAYLOR, the Signer of 
the Declaration.  It was by him occupied as a residence at two different 
periods, and it was within its walls that he died, February 25th, 1781. 
It has been said that General Washington was a guest in this house when 
he passed through Easton on his way to the army at Newburgh New York. 
This may or may not be true but the probabilities are against the 
statement. If Mr. Taylor had then been living, there is no doubt that 
the Commander-in-Chief would have lodged at his house, but he had  
been dead a year when Washington came and therefore there is no reason 
to suppose that the General stopped there rather the reverse for he  
would naturally have shrunk from the sad associations of the house which 
had been made desolate by the recent death to his compatriot and friend.


3. This was an appellation offer, applied to Tadeuskund, and of which he 
was very proud.


150


  As for the Governors and great lose, thee were as fastidious as ever. The 
all-pervading Richard Peters wrote to Easton (this time, to Charles
Swaine, Esq.,) to procure quarters, far His Excellency and the members of 
the Council, to which Swaine replied, under date of fourth of September,
1758:

  "Sir: I received the favor of yours, and am glad that my services are 
acceptable, should its fond of every opportunity to oblige Mr. Peters, or 
any gentlemen of the Council. 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 
treaties), by which I understand provision is to be daily fetched from his 
houses, and the gentlemen's servants to dress it. As to the lodgings it 
will be necessary to bring bedsteads, bed, &c.; I shall take care to have 
the several lodging rooms well cleaned. The wine here is very indifferent 
and our tea equipages generally earthen cups and spoons. I shall not in the 
best manner I can, as circumstances offer, and tender 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." Our tea equipages are earthen cups and pewter spoons. Poor man! 
that fact was a costly one to him, for his good wife, despising the homely 
earthenware and pewter, resolved that the gentlefolks front the commercial 
capital should find something better than these, upon her table, and to 
that end she borrowed from Mrs, Stedman, of Philadelphia, a tea service of 
silver, in which was, an elegant tankard, the beauty of which so won her 
heart, that she absolutely refused to restore it to the owner, and return 
the use of earthenware, after her visitors had departed; and she was only 
to induce to do so by strong persuasion of a suit at law, which brought 
mortification, and disgust, to Prothonotary Swaine. Who will say that the 
inordinate love of hollow show and display had no existence in the ancient 
time?
 
  Upon this occasion, the Governor of Pennsylvania established his lodgings 
at Millers tavern, at the southwest corner of Hamilton-now Fourth-and 
Northampton streets, where Messrs, Becker & Raders Store now is.

  The council convened on the eighth of October; its  sitting being as usual 
at Vernons hostelry and ferry house. Tadeuskund was, of course, the Indian 
orator of the occasion, but this time he was more careful in his use of 
liquor, and-as is said by Day-"he bore himself with dignity and firmness, 
refusing to succumb to the Six Nations, and was, proof against the wiles of 
Colonel Croghan and the Governor."

  The chiefs of  the Iroquois were angry end much disgusted at the importance 
assumed by the great Delaware, and used all their influence against him or 
but to no purpose; he procured the restoration of all the lands beyond the 
mountain, and then fully confirmed the white title to the remainder; and 
thus, after a session of eighteen days, amicable relations were restored, 
and red-skin and paleface smoked the pipe of peace, in a general treaty 
concluded October 26th, 1758. Then Tadeuskund preferred his modest request 
that the, fire-water might flow, the Governor nodded his assent to Vernon, 
and soon Iroquois and Delawares had forgotten their enmity, and were all on 
a level, in the wild orgies of indiscriminate intoxication.

  Other councils were held at Easton in 1761 and 1762 in reference to the 
Indian ands at Wyoming. As usual, Tadeuskund was the master spirit in the 
Indian interest, but the deliberations passed quietly, and nothing, 
occurred worthy of special note.


end of XLIII - Part I