Northampton County PA Archives History - Books .....The Erection Of Northampton County 1920 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 November 12, 2008, 11:51 pm Book Title: History Of Northampton County CHAPTER VIII THE ERECTION OF NORTHAMPTON COUNTY Northampton, the seventh county to be organized in the province, was formed March 11, 1752, from a part of Bucks. Its name did not originate with the Assembly, but from Thomas Penn, one of the Proprietaries, who in a letter to Governor Hamilton, dated London, September 8, 1751, expressed the desire that the new town (which had been ordered to be surveyed at the Forks of the Delaware) be named Easton, and whenever a new county should be erected it be called Northampton. There was a sentimental reason for this suggestion of names. Penn had just married Juliana Fermor, the daughter of Lord Pomfret, whose county seat, Easton-Neston, was located in Northamptonshire, England. At the time of its erection the county contained 5,321 square miles, which included the entire northeastern section of the province, now made up wholly or in part of fourteen counties. The first reduction of the area of the county occurred when Northampton county was organized, March 27, 1772, when 2,072 square miles were taken to form that county. The erection of Wayne county, March 21, 1798, further reduced the area 720 square miles. This was followed, March 11, 1811, by the organization of Schuylkill county, when 175 square miles were taken. The erection of Lehigh county took place March 6, 1812, and the area of the county was again reduced 389 square miles. Columbia county was formed March 22, 1813, when 25 square miles were taken. The erection of Pike county, March 26, 1814, was the occasion of the loss of 580 square miles, and when Monroe became a county, April 1, 1836, there was placed under her jurisdiction 600 square miles. By the erection of Carbon county, April 1, 1836, there were 390 square miles taken. These reductions aggregated 4,951 square miles, leaving the present area of Northampton county 370 square miles. Of the 2,072 square miles taken to form Northumberland county, there were 713 square miles in 1786 taken in the formation of Luzerne county, and in 1810 a further reduction of 797 square miles was included in the organization of Susquehanna county. On the erection of Bradford county in 1810, Northumberland county again sacrificed 390 square miles. Wyoming county was organized in 1842, when 172 square miles were taken. Of the 713 square miles taken to form Luzerne county, there were 424 square miles used in the formation in 1878 of Lackawanna county. Thus it can be readily seen that the end of the first century and a half of its existence Northampton county was genealogically the parent of eight counties, the grandparent of four counties, and great-grandparent of one. The population of the county at the time it was erected was estimated at about 4,000; her population in her restricted terriory in 1910 was 127,667. The townships which had been formed and named prior to the erection of Northampton county were Smithfield and Milford, in 1742; Saucon, Upper and Lower, and Macungie, in 1743; Bethlehem and Mount Bethel, in 1746; Allen and Williams, in 1749. The only township north of the Blue Mountains was Smithfield, inhabited by Hollanders, and all beyond was an unbroken wilderness known as "Towamensing," a county practically uninhabited, and on a map printed in 1749 called "St. Anthony's Wilderness." The erection of Northampton county was a political movement on the part of John and Thomas Penn. One of the first acts of William Penn was to divide the province into three counties—Philadelphia, Chester and Bucks. The increasing German emigration into the province had become quite a factor in the erection of Bucks county. In co-operation with the Quakers, the Germans wielded a political power in the assembly in opposition to the proprietary interests. In order to break this alliance and thereby reduce it, the Penns fathered the project of the creation of a new county that would embrace within its limits the rapidly growing German communities. Easton was named as the shiretown, and the Penns donated a lot for the erection of a court-house. There was a good deal of opposition to the selection of Easton from those living remote from the proposed location. The petitioners contended that Easton was in the extreme southeast corner of the new county; it was inaccessible, there being no roads, and it was surrounded by high hills which were difficult to ascend. The courts for over a decade of years assembled at the taverns, and it was not until George Taylor was appointed to attend to the building of a court-house in 1764 when he came to Easton, that any active steps were taken. The court-house was modeled after Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia, and was completed at the cost of $4,589.67. It was an inspiring structure, built of limestone, and surmounted by a cupola, in which a bell was placed that was cast at Bethlehem. The court-house was situated on the central square, and south of it stood the pillory and whipping-post, those ancient instruments of punishment which ornamented the square for twenty-five years. At the time of the erection of the court-house there were only sixty-three houses in Easton. After the first court-house had stood about seventy-five years, the people of the county became satisfied that the public interests demanded a new one. Then arose the contention for its location; the citizens did not want the central square to be any longer filled with public buildings; the lawyers did not want it removed from the center of business. The citizens finally won; David D. Wagner and James Thompson donated the site on the north side of Walnut street. The excavation was made on June 15, i860, the building finished in October, 1861, and on November 18th of that year the first term of court was held in the new court-house. The venerable building on the square was razed, the material removed, and the ground graded. The first building erected by the county was the jail in 1752; it was situated south of the court-house, fronting Third street. It was designed not only for criminals, but for a place of safety for women and children in the case of an Indian invasion. The cost of the jail, with wells dug, was $1,066.67. This jail served its purpose until the construction of a new one in 1850-51 on the same site. The new jail contained twenty-three cells, nine by twelve feet square. It was built of limestone, and was surrounded by a wall fifteen feet in height. It was used until 1871, when a third jail was built on the same plot of land that the court-house occupied. The size of the new jail is one hundred and eighty by sixty feet; a wall enclosing it two hundred and twenty by one hundred and fifty feet. The building is a massive stone structure; the contract for building was $139,000, but the total expense did not fall short of $200,000. The act providing for the Northampton County Almshouse was approved March 11, 1839, by Governor Joseph Ritner. There were at that time comparatively few such institutions in the State. Barnabas Davis, George Barnet, Jacob Vogel, Jacob Wagener, Jacob Mower, Jacob Young, John D. Bauman, David Kemmerer and Conrad Shimer were appointed as commissioners to purchase the necessary real estate for the accommodation of the county poor. The commissioners, after examining various localities, purchased from the Moravians a tract of land near the present borough of Nazareth in the township of Upper Nazareth, and erected the necessary buildings. The original land purchase has at various times been added to by acquiring subsequent additions. The insane hospital was erected in 1861, and in 1875 extensive additions to the building were made. The institution has an adequate supply of pure spring water; a small reservoir was erected, which is supplied by several springs rising in the hills about a half mile from the almshouse buildings. Additional Comments: Extracted from: History of Northampton County [PENNSYLVANIA] and The Grand Valley of the Lehigh Under Supervision and Revision of WILLIAM J. HELLER Assisted by AN ADVISORY BOARD OF EDITORS VOLUME I 1920 THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY HOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/pafiles/ File size: 8.7 Kb