As printed in:

A History of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania
From the Earliest Settlements to the Present Time
Published by James J. Hauser, 1902
Introduction through Chapter

Transcribed by Vicki Koller Hartman for GenealogyTrails March 2011

It is both interesting and instructive to study the history of our fathers, to fully understand through what difficulties, obstacles, toils and trials they went to plant settlements which struggled up to a position of wealth and prosperity.

These accounts of our county have been written so as to bring before every youth and citizen of our county, an account of the growth of the population, its resources, the upbuilding of the institutions that give character and stability to the county.

It has been made as concise as possible, and everything which was thought to be of any value to the youth and citizen, has been presented as best as it could be under the circumstances with the hope that by perusing its pages, many facts of interest can be gathered that will be of use in future years.

Hoping that any shortcomings of the work will be kindly overlooked by a generous public.

It is now presented to the public for its careful perusal and we hope that the youth of our county will be benefitted thereby, and that the teachers of our public schools will find much valuable aid which the author has tried to gather while engaged in the schoolroom, and that by perusing its pages the grand principle of patriotism and love of country will be instilled into the minds of our youth.

In preparing this work I acknowledge the assistance of aid given by Profs. Alvin Rupp, the County Superintendent of Schools, J. O. Knauss, of the Department of Public Instruction, Mr. Clinton A. Mohr of the Emaus Times, Mr. Steltz and others.

This volume is now dedicated to the teachers, pupils and fellow citizens of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania.

Emaus, Penna., May 11, 1901.       J. J. Hauser.

This new edition has been thoroughly revised and largely rewritten. Every effort has been made to profit by the suggestions and friendly criticisms of many friends, to all of whom the author is greatly indebted.

Great pains have been taken to correct all errors in statements of fact, dates and references. The aim of this work is to give the main facts of the history of our County, clearly, accurately and impartially. To give the people a short but concise record of all that is of interest to the general public.

The author acknowledges the valuable aid and suggestions in the revision of this work to Rev. Dr. A. R. Home, Supt. Alvin Rupp, Hons. J. F. Moyer, J. W. Mayne, Harry G. Stiles, Mr. David Miller of The Morning Call, Mr. Daniel F. Leiby and others.

James J. Hauser.       Allentown, Pa., May 1, 1902.

LEHIGH COUNTY embraces the beautiful Kittatinny Valley, lying between the Lehigh or South Mountains on the South and Blue Mountains on the north. It is dotted with thriving towns and villages, fertile fields, running streams of water flowing through every part of the valley, making the soil very productive, also part of the beautiful and romantic Lehigh Valley stretching along the Lehigh River, and the fertile Saucon Valley south of the Lehigh or South Mountains. The advent of the white settler and his adventures with the Indians are full of incidents and hairbreadth escapes, showing at a glance that our forefathers had to undergo the same trials and cares as his western friend had in building up the country. The Aborigines or Indians, living in what is now Lehigh County, where the Minsies or Delaware tribe of Indians, who were the owners of our beautiful Lehigh County. It was undoubtedly included in the second purchase of land from the Indians. It will perhaps be of interest to the reader to know the different purchases and what was acquired at each.

The first purchase of land was made in 1682 by William Markham, Deputy Governor of the colony, before the arrival of Penn, which included the country between the Neshaminy Creek ami Delaware River to Wrightstown and Upper Wakefield.

The second and third purchases were made by William Penn himself and included the land along the Pahkehoma (Perkiomnen). In 1686, it is claimed another treaty was made with the Indians, but no copy of the treaty is known to exist. The treaty of 1684 was made by William Penn and Maughaugsin (Macungie), the leading chief of the Delewares, and was for a consideration of two Matchcoats, four pair of Stockings and four bottles of Sider. The Indian deed is as follows :

"Upon my own desire and free offer. I, Maughaughsin, in consideration of two Matchcoats, four pair of Stockings and four bottles of Sider, do hereby grant, make over all my land upon the Pahkehoma, to William Penn, Propr. and Govern'r of Pennsylvania and territories, his heirs and Assignees forever, with which I own myself satisfied and promise never to molest any Christian so call d yt shall seat thereon by his orders.

Witness my hand and seal at Philadelphia ye third day day of ye fourth mouth 1684.

The mark of Maughaughsin.

Signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of us,
Philip Thomas Lehman, Thomas Holmes, John Davers, George Emlin."

The Indians removed beyond the Blue Mountains, only a few remaining on their old hunting grounds, the beautiful Kittatinny Valley.

The purchase of 1686 was said to include all the land beginning at the line of the former purchases to as far northwest as a man could ride in two days, but as no copy of the treaty was preserved, the claim was disputed by the Indians, and the purchase was undecided, but settlers began to flock into the new region which they supposed had been purchased from the Indians, who believed that their rights were being encroached upon. They held several meetings with the proprietors of the colony to fix definitely the limits of the ceded territory.

The first meeting was held in Durham, several miles below Easton. 1734. The second meeting was held at Pennsbury, 1735, and the last meeting was held at Philadelphia, which resulted in an agreement that the treaty of 1686 should be followed, and the purchase should be repeated in a novel way, namely, the colony of Pennsylvania should receive as much land as was included in a line drawn northwest from a point at Wrightstown as far as a man could walk in a day and a half. This treaty is known as the "Walking purchase." Subsequent to the treaty, the proprietors caused a trial walk to be made to ascertain what amount of land could be obtained ; this trial walk was made in April, 1735, and the trees along the route were blazed so that the parties engaged in making the walk, deciding the ownership of the land, would have the advantage of a marked pathway. So when the treaty was signed August 25th, 1737, the Receiver General of the colony, James Steel, secured the man who had endured in the trial walk. Edward Marshal, James Yeates and Solomon Jennings, were selected, all noted for their power of endurance. The sheriff of Bucks County, Timothy Smith, and John Chapman, the surveyor, accompanied the three walkers, provided their meals, etc. The time set for the walk, according to the treaty, was September 12th, 1737, but was postponed until September 19th. It had been agreed that the Indians should send some of their young men along to see that the walk was fairly made. The compensation of each of the walkers was five pounds in money and five hundred acres of land. The point of starting was at a large chestnut tree near the fork of the Pennsville and Durham roads at the meeting house in Washington, Bucks County, very close to the Markham purchase. The three walkers stood close to the tree, their hands resting upon it, and as the sun rose, Sheriff Smith gave the signal for starting. The route was as straight as it possibly could be, on account of the ground and obstructions in the way, it led along the Durham road. Yeates led the way with an easy step, followed by Jennings with two Indian walkers who were followed by Marshall, at a distance, swinging a hatchet and walking with an easy and careless step. In two and a-half hours they reached Red Hill, Bedminster township, where they took dinner with Wilson, the Indian trader. Durham Creek, where the old furnace stood, was followed and they crossed the Lehigh River a mile below Bethlehem at Jones Island, and from Ibis place they passed to the Blue Ridge at Smith Gap, Moore township, Northampton County, and they slept at night on the northern side of the mountain. At sunrise the next morning they resumed their journev and concluded their walk at noon. Marshall alone held out and throwing himself upon the ground, grasped a small tree which was marked as the end of the line. Jennings was the first to give out about two miles north of Tohickon, but he straggled along until the Lehigh River was reached.

He left them there, and went to his home on what is now the Geissinger farm, a few miles north of Bethlehem, which is now in Salisbury township, where he lived for twenty years after. He was a famous hunter and woodsman. One of his sons, John Jennings, was sheriff of Northampton County from 1762 to 1768.

Yeates gave out at the foot of the mountain on the morning of the second day, when he was picked up he was nearly blind and died three days after, while Marshall the champion walker was not the least injured by exertion, lived to be seventy-nine years old, and died in Tinicum, Bucks County. Walking Pur- chase, the Indians said was 11 No sit down to smoke, no shoot squirrel, but lun lun, lun all day long."

Marshall received 5£ and five hundred acres of land in Monroe County, near Stroudsburg.

The Indians were disgusted with the walk, and frequently said to the walkers that they should not run and they were so disgusted with the walk, that they left before it was completed. The distance traveled was 61 1/4 miles. When the end of the line had been reached in a northwest direction, it still had to be run to the Delaware River, which made another disagreement between the Proprietors and the Indians. The Indians thought that the line should be drawn straight to the river from the nearest point, instead they ran the line at right angles reaching the river at the Laxawaxen, taking in about twice as much ter- ritory as the other way. The survey embraced nearly all the land between the forks of the Delaware and Lehigh Rivers, including all the land south of the Blue Mountains, comprising 500,000 acres of land.

The Receiver General, James Steel, wrote to a friend of his, in 1737, said that it took four days to walk from the upper end of the "Long Walk" (day and a-half,) and that very little good land for settlement was to be seen. This walking purchase, as it was called, gave a great deal of dissatisfaction to the Indians, and was one of the principle causes of the council held in Easton, in 1756, where it was ably discussed. The complaint of the Indians was 1st, That the walkers walked too fast. 2d, That the walkers should have stopped to shoot game and smoke. 3d, That they should have walked as they do when on a hunt. 4th, That the line was not drawn to the river as it should have been drawn. 5th, They claimed the line should have been drawn from the nearest point to the river. 6th, They accused the Proprietors of trickery and dishonesty.

Whether true or not, the "Walking purchase" drew upon the Proprietors the hatred of the Indians and was the beginning of a feeling which was fanned into stirring events a generation later, creating great havoc among the settlers in the region now composed of the counties of Lehigh, Northampton and Carbon.