USA > Pennsylvania > Carbon County > History of Carbon County, Pennsylvania; also containing a separate account of the several boroughs and townships in the county, with biographical sketches > Part 21
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42
Its name is derived from Stephen S. Palmer, the president of this company.
The place is beautifully located near the western bank of the Lehigh within the northern shadows of the majestic Blue Ridge, commanding a view of the wild grandeur of the Lehigh Water Gap. The southern portion of the town borders on the Aquashicola creek.
This stream was thus named by the Delaware In- dians, and in their tongue signified the place of fishing with bush-nets.
Palmerton is on the line of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, being one hundred and ten miles distant from New York, and eighty-two miles from Philadel- phia. Mauch Chunk lies ten miles to the northward.
The first white man to settle on the present town site of Palmerton was Nicholas Opplinger, who in the year 1752 was appointed constable of Towamensing town- ship.
It was on the farm of this German that Benjamin Franklin and his little army were quartered in Janu- ary, 1756, while enroute from Bethlehem to New Gnad- enhütten, now Weissport, where they built Fort Allen.
When the Indian troubles of 1755 broke upon the frontier, the settlers of this vicinity erected a block- house, surrounded by a stockade, immediately in the rear of the spot where the First National Bank of Palmerton now stands.
The land on which it was built originally belonged to Nathaniel Irish, one of the first residents of Bethlehem, and whose property adjoined that of Opplinger.
4
304
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
Within the enclosure of this fortification, later known as Fort Lehigh, the settlers and their families gathered for protection.
Among those who sought the security afforded by the protecting walls of this little haven of safety was a man named Boyer and his family.
Boyer had established his home about a mile and a half east of the fort on land until recently owned by Josiah Arner and James Ziegenfuss, and that still held by George Kunkel.
One day, accompanied by his son, Frederick, then a lad of thirteen, and several of his other children, he went from the fort to his farm to attend the crops.
The father was ploughing and his son busied himself with hoeing, while the rest of the children were in the house or playing nearby.
Suddenly a party of hostile Indians appeared upon the scene, and the father, seeing them, called to Fred- erick to run, and himself endeavored to reach the house.
Finding that he could not do so, he ran toward the Aquashicola, being shot through the head as he reached the farther side.
Frederick, who had escaped to an adjacent wheat field, was captured and brought back. The Indians then scalped his father in his presence, took the horses from the plow, and making captives of his sisters, started for the Stony Ridge, in the rear of the house.
There they were joined by another party of Indians, and uniting their forces, they marched northward to Canada.
On the journey the sisters were separated from their brother and were never again heard from.
Frederick was held as a prisoner among the French and Indians in Canada for five years. Upon his re-
305
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 1
lease he was sent to Philadelphia, whence he proceeded to his old home to take possession of the farm.
Soon after his return he married a daughter of Con- rad Mehrkem, with whom he had four sons and four daughters. He died on October 31, 1832, aged eighty- nine years. His remains lie in St. John's Union Cem- etery.
The inscription on his tombstone states that he was born in 1732, and that he was nearly one hundred years of age when he died. This is thought to be a mistake, because it was admitted by his descendants that he was but a lad when captured, and there were no Indian troubles in this region prior to the year 1755, when Braddock was defeated and the Indians were incited to deeds of violence. Frederick Boyer's descendants in the county are still quite numerous.
Fort Lehigh, commanding the approach to Lehigh Gap, and being situated at the junction of the road leading to Fort Allen, on the north, and that extending to Fort Norris, on the east, in Monroe county, occu- pied a very important position.
It was garrisoned by provincial troops for a number of years, and there were sometimes as high as thirty men stationed there.
Nothing definite is known of the close of its history; but it appears to have been abandoned as a station in 1758, when hostilities had almost come to an end, only to be again occupied in 1763, when Pontiac's war broke out and the Indians began to make incursions into Pennsylvania.
The last mention that can be found of it refers to the latter year, at which time Captain Jacob Wetherhold with a company of soldiers was posted here.
The incident bringing this intelligence to light is decidedly to the discredit of that officer and the men under his command.
306
HISTORY OF.CARBON COUNTY.
During the year 1760, the Moravians established a missionary settlement among the Indians in the pres- ent township of Polk, Monroe county, locating it on the exact spot where Frederick Hoeth and his family were slain in the uprising of 1755.
The place was called Wechquetank, and prospered exceedingly for a few years. But when the Indian troubles of 1763 began, there was grave danger of a repetition of the dreadful occurences of 1755. Not only were the Moravians and their converts disliked by the hostile Indians, but they were also suspected by the settlers and the soldiers, who looked upon their villages as convenient lurking places for the savage foe.
Wechquetank had several times been threatened with destruction by the whites, and some of the more pru- dent of the converts had forsaken the mission on ac- count of the two-fold danger which menaced it.
Among the number was an Indian named Zachary, his wife and child.
During the month of August, 1763, they returned to the village for a brief visit, earnestly trying to per- suade their friends who remained there to leave the locality.
A woman named Zippora accompanied them as they started on their return journey to the Susquehanna.
They stopped for the night at Fort Lehigh, and were permitted to sleep in the hayloft of a barn near the fort.
During the darkness they were rudely aroused from their sense of fancied security when they were sud- denly attacked by the soldiers.
Zippora was thrown upon the thrashing floor and killed.
Zachary escaped from the building, but was pursued, and, with his wife and little child, put to the sword,
307
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
though the mother begged for their lives upon her bended knees.
It was deemed best to abandon Wechquetank soon after this event. The place was burned to the ground by the whites during the fall of 1763.
The ruins of Fort Lehigh, in the form of a heap of stones, may still be seen on the western bank of a little stream which passes through Palmerton on its way to the Aquashicola.
One of the first steps taken by the New Jersey Zinc Company of Pennsylvania in locating its immense manufacturing establishment at Hazard, about a mile north of Palmerton, was the organization of the Pal- mer Land Company.
It was wisely decided that the works should be erect- ed at some distance from the point where it was deter- mined to build the town which would be necessary for the accommodation of its employes.
Horace Lentz, of Mauch Chunk, was appointed to the agency of this land company, and during the year be- ginning in September, 1897, over four hundred acres were purchased.
Most of the land which was thus acquired by the company was under cultivation, while the improve- ments thereon consisted of the necessary farm build- ings.
Those from whom the first purchases were made were: John Craig, William George, William H. Gru- ber, John Smith, Smith Brothers, and the estate of Charles Straup.
The company's holdings were augmented from time to time by additional purchases, and the present town site now comprises about five hundred acres.
The works at Hazard, which give employment to nearly two thousand men, were finished and placed in operation in the fall of 1899.
308
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
Over two hundred acres are covered by the plant, which is operated day and night.
The finished products of this manufactory are oxide of zinc, spelter, and spiegeleisen.
Zinc ore, the raw material from which these are made, is obtained from mines of the New Jersey Zinc Company in Sussex county, New Jersey.
Palmerton was planned and plotted during the year 1899. An experienced engineer in the person of Har- rison N. Blunt was now appointed as the agent of the land company. Most of the improvements which have since been made were carried forward under his imme- diate supervision.
Delaware avenue, the principal thoroughfare of the town, having a width of ninety feet and extending through the entire property from east to west, was the first laid out. Lehigh, Lafayette, and Columbia ave- nues followed in the order named.
After the establishment of the streets, and before the houses were completed, water and sewer systems were installed.
A sewage disposal plant, modeled after the system originated by the late Colonel George E. Waring, formerly street commissioner of New York, was also installed. Every precaution was observed to make the new town sanitary and healthful. The result is that Palmerton has the lowest death rate of any community in the Lehigh Valley.
Not only did the company wish its employes to live in neat, substantial homes, but it was willing to make it possible for them to own them. Virtually it has acted as a big building and loan association.
Under the plan devised in the beginning, and which is still in force, the company requires the applicant for a home to pay ten per cent. of the price of the house
309
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
and lot in advance, the company then erecting the house according to plans approved by him.
After the house is complete and occupied, monthly payments must be made, which are so graduated that in three years and seven months, thirty-five per cent. of the value of the premises shall have been deposited.
The purchaser then acquires title to the property, while the company takes a mortgage on the remaining sixty-five per cent., due in five years, and bearing in- terest at the rate of four and four-tenths per cent.
In the event of default of payments, the purchaser may under certain specified conditions return the house to the company, and receive back the money he has de- posited, due allowance being made for repairs, re- newals, and the natural depreciation of the property.
Should a man die during the continuance of his con- tract, his widow may, if she so wishes, receive back all of the payments made from the beginning on account of the purchase price, together with interest at five per cent.
This plan has worked most satisfactorily and suc- cessfully to all concerned.
Lots are also sold for cash, or on the instalment plan. In the latter case, ten per cent. of the value of the lot must be paid in advance, while the remainder is pay- able at monthly intervals, covering a period of two years.
Unlike most towns, Palmerton has been developed in obedience to a well defined and intelligent plan.
Not only is this noticeable in the plotting and general arrangement of the streets, but it is also true archi- tecturally and in other respects.
The houses are all designed under competent direc- tion, while due regard is given both to individual ex- pression and to utility.
310
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
Electric lights are furnished at moderate rates, while the Palmerton Telephone Association, which is a sub-licensee company of the Bell system, affords cheap and efficient service in this direction.
A little to the westward of the center of the town, and fronting on Delaware avenue is a beautiful public park, nine acres in extent.
This park, with its scheme of ornamentation, was de- signed by Major Barrett, a famous New York land- scape engineer, who died before the completion of the work.
Many thousands of dollars have been expended by the company in its maintenance and improvement.
One of the beauty spots of Palmerton is that portion known as "The Reservation."
Here, thirteen acres of land have been set aside by the zinc company as a place of residence for the local heads of its various departments.
In 1908 the company established a hospital which is open to the public. Three years later, a large addition was built to it.
This is the only institution of its kind in Carbon county. It has from the beginning been in charge of Doctor John W. Luther, and is furnished with X-ray apparatus, laboratories, and full modern equipment.
Having made ample provision for the physical and material well-being of its workmen and their families, the company did not stop here.
Proceeding on a principle which is frequently ig- nored and lost sight of, it was felt by those in authority that corporation responsibility toward the human beings under their charge warranted the support of an institution that would offer fuller opportunities of life, not only to their employes, but to their wives and chil- dren.
1
THE PALMERTON HOSPITAL.
F
NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE, PALMERTON.
311
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
Accordingly, in 1907, a sociological department was organized and a neighborhood house established.
The children of kindergarten age were provided with playgrounds, amusements, and instruction suited to their understanding.
Manual training and general educational facilities were supplied for the larger boys, while classes in domestic science and industrial handwork were organ- ized for the girls.
Reading and lounging rooms for men were fitted up, and, during the winter months, mothers' meetings, de- voted to the general conduct of the home, were held.
As the work grew, larger quarters became necessary. A new neighborhood house, opened during the summer of 1911, was erected. This is now the social and civic center of the town.
Every facility for carrying on the work which has already been outlined is provided for in this building. It also contains a well selected circulating library; a gymnasium, which can quickly be converted into a small theatre or auditorium; bowling alleys, club rooms, with pool and billiard tables, baths, and the like, the equal of any to be found in the Young Men's Chris- tian Associations or clubs of the large cities.
Miss Florence Hughes, an experienced settlement worker, and a graduate of Pratt Institute. with a corps of trained assistants, has been in charge of the work from the start.
Every attempt is made to encourage individual en- terprise, and to those desiring sites for manufacturing, business, or residence purposes, Palmerton offers many attractions and advantages.
A large addition to the company's works, situated east of the town, opposite Millport, has recently been built, and further extensions are contemplated.
312
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
Palmerton is well supplied with schools, churches, stores, and hotel accommodations.
The town grew so rapidly that the problem of pro- viding school accommodations was a difficult one for the township authorities to solve. In 1909, however, a handsome brick building, housing all the schools of Palmerton, as well as the high school of the township, was erected. The high school was established in 1904.
The first church to be erected in this immediate vi- cinity was that of the Evangelical Association, built in 1844, largely through the efforts of Jacob Snyder and Jacob Bauman.
This was the mother of quite a number of the churches of this denomination in the Lehigh Valley. When the United Evangelical church was organized the old building was abandoned. It is still standing and is put to occasional uses.
Trinity United Evangelical church was built in 1896. A union Sunday school chapel was erected by the Re- formed and Lutheran people in 1902.
St. John's Protestant Episcopal church was given to the people of the town by Stephen S. Palmer as a memorial to his wife. It is a beautiful edifice, and is constructed of native stone, having been designed by H. J. Hardenbergh, a celebrated New York architect. The church was dedicated in 1906.
The Roman Catholic church here was built in 1908.
The corner stone of the First Reformed church was laid during the month of January, 1912.
Missions have also been established in the town by the Lutheran and Presbyterian churches, and these will no doubt become self-sustaining congregations.
The principal hotel of Palmerton is the Horse Head Inn, a splendid hostelry, opened in 1900.
٤ منك عـ
ST. JOHN'S CHURCH AND SECTION OF PARK, PALMERTON.
IL W YORK
4
MILK, LIBRARY
i
. TO .. LEROY AND TIDEN FOUNDATIONS.
313
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
The remaining hotels are the Palmerton, Waldorf, Golden Anvil, and that until recently conducted by Cal- vin Nicholas.
Palmerton's post-office was established in 1900. Prior to that date the office was located at Lehigh Gap. During 1911, the postal savings system of the govern- ment was extended to this place.
Early in January, 1907, the First National Bank of Palmerton, having a capital stock of $25,000, was or- ganized. D. O. Straup and Allen Craig have served the institution as president and cashier, respectively, from the beginning.
The water supply of the place is obtained from arte- sian wells, situated on the slope of the Blue mountain, south of town. These wells furnish about 400,000 gal- lons every twenty-four hours.
During the fall of 1911, the Towamensing Volunteer Fire Company was organized, with Thomas Craig as president. A lot and building were provided by the company, and modern equipment has been installed.
The Chestnut Ridge Railway, extending from this place to Kunkeltown, Monroe county, which is ten miles distant, connects at Palmerton with the Central Rail- road of New Jersey.
The tracks of this road have been elevated through Palmerton.
An independent industry of the town is the silk mill of the Read and Lovatt Manufacturing Company, es- tablished in 1903.
At the first borough election, held in November, 1912, Dr. John W. Luther was chosen to fill the office of chief burgess.
314
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
.
PARRYVILLE BOROUGH.
The borough of Parryville is located on the eastern bank of the Lehigh river and on the line of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, about half a dozen miles below Mauch Chunk.
The first settler here was Peter Frantz, who came to the locality in 1780. Leonard Beltz and Frederick Scheckler took up land in this vicinity in 1781.
Soon thereafter Scheckler and Frantz erected a stone grist mill on the banks of Poho Poco creek, which flows into the Lehigh at this point. This property passed into the possession of Peter and Jacob Stein in 1815. The latter conducted the mill, while the former built a large stone hotel, which was later util- ized as a dwelling house.
Upon the organization of the Pine Forest Lumber Company, about 1836, this place was made its head- quarters. The company owned extensive tracts of rich timber land in the northern part of the county and in the southern portion of Luzerne. Its mills were estab- lished on Poho Poco creek, near the river, and the manufacture of lumber, was carried on on a large scale. The president of the company was Daniel Parry, and as the settlement grew up around these mills, the place became known as Parrysville, and later, Parryville.
In 1836, the Beaver Meadow Railroad Company com- pleted its line to the opposite side of the river from this place, and Parryville became the terminus and shipping point.
The coal was here transferred from the railroad cars to the boats of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. The freshet of 1841, however, swept away the wharves, trestle work, and chutes of the company, together with the roadbed from Parryville to Penn Haven Junction. The railroad was rebuilt from Penn
PARRYVILLE, FROM THE WESTERN BANK OF THE LEHIGH.
-
-
-
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.
315
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
Haven to Mauch Chunk, but the stretch from the latter place to Parryville was abandoned. From this time forth, Mauch Chunk was the shipping point of the Beaver Meadow Company.
New life was injected into the village when, about 1855, Dennis Bauman, his brother Henry, and others, established an anthracite blast furnace here. This fur- nace was run by water power furnished by Poho Poco creek until 1857. More capital being necessary to the proper conduct of the business, a stock company, known as the Carbon Iron Company, was then formed, Dennis Bauman being chosen as its president. The new company made various improvements and in- creased the capacity of the works. The water power of the creek was now no longer adequate, and steam was introduced as the motive power. An additional furnace was erected in 1864, and another in 1869; but the revolution which took place in the iron business about this time and the great panic of the seventies, which closed up nearly every iron manufacturing es- tablishment in the Lehigh Valley, worked severe hard- ship to the company.
In the year 1876, the property passed into the hands of the Carbon Iron and Pipe Company, and a pipe manufacturing department was added. The experi- ment of making pipe out of iron direct from the cupola was tried at this place, but without success. Large quantities of pipe were, however, turned out in ac- cordance with the established process. The works are now operated by the Carbon Iron and Steel Company, of which M. S. Kemmerer, of Mauch Chunk, is chair- man. This is the only iron furnace in the Lehigh Val- ley lying north of the Blue mountain. It is the only industry in the village.
Parryville became an independent school district on March 4, 1867.
316
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
It was incorporated as a borough early in the year 1875, Dennis Bauman serving as its first chief bur- gess. The town had 657 inhabitants in 1880. In 1900 the population numbered 723, but during the last de- cade there was a falling off in the number of people living here.
The first road passing through this locality was that built by the Moravians in 1748, extending from Bethle- hem to Gnadenhütten. It was known in this region as the Fire Line Road, and described a loop over the hills between Parryville and Bowmanstown. From 1756 to 1761, during the time when Fort Allen was garrisoned, it was used as a military road.
At the time of the massacre of Gnadenhütten, a com- pany of militia from the Irish settlement in Northamp- ton county are said to have come in pursuit of the In- dians as far as the hill overlooking the hollow where Parryville now stands. Fearing to go any farther in the darkness, they are said to have fired down into the bushes, and to have then departed. From this circum- stance the term "Fire Line" is supposed by some to have been derived. Others adhere to the belief that the name had its origin from the fact that the elevated ground traversed by the road in question was em- ployed to build signal fires upon during the Indian war period.
The first schoolhouse here was opened about the year 1820. Like most of the other schoolhouses erected through the region at that time, it was of logs. The annual term amounted to but three months. A modern brick structure now houses the three schools of the borough.
Public religious services were first conducted at Parryville about the year 1840. Meetings were first held in the schoolhouse, while Methodist ministers also
317
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY.
addressed meetings at occasional intervals in private houses.
In 1863 the Methodists built a brick church which was dedicated on the 13th of December of that year by Bishop Scott.
The present building of the Reformed denomination was erected in 1897, the edifice previously used having been destroyed by fire in 1896.
There is also an Evangelical church in the town. The Iron Exchange and the Fairview Inn are the only hotels in the place. The latter was licensed in 1907, having formerly been occupied as a dwelling by Dennis Bauman. It is now the property of his son, Robert Bauman.
PENN FOREST TOWNSHIP.
Penn Forest township is bounded on the north by Kidder, on the east by Monroe county, on the south by Franklin and Towamensing townships, and on the west by the Lehigh river. Prior to the year 1768 it was a part of that vast district lying north of the Blue Ridge which was known as "Towamensing," or "the wilder- ness." Being then divided, Towamensing township contained all of Northampton county lying east of the Lehigh, and thirty-six miles north of the Blue Ridge. Following the War of Independence, part of the terri- tory now belonging to Monroe county and that com- prised within the confines of Kidder and Penn Forest townships was set off as Tobyhanna township, which became a part of Monroe county upon its organization in 1836. In 1842 Tobyhanna township was divided, and that portion of territory now contained within the limits of Kidder and Penn Forest townships was named "Penn Forest." When Carbon county was erected, in 1843, Penn Forest township became a part
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.