USA > Pennsylvania > Lehigh County > History of the counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pt. 1 > Part 5
USA > Pennsylvania > Carbon County > History of the counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pt. 1 > Part 5
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Northampton County was divided into four election districts, as follows :
The First District .- Easton, William, Lower San- con, Betltlehem, Forks, Mount Bethel, Plainfield; to be held at Easton.
The Second District .- Northampton, Salisbury, Up- per Saucon, Upper Milford, Macungie, Weissenberg, Lynn, Whitehall, Heidelberg; to be held at Allen's 'Town.
The Third District .- Allen, Moore, Chestnut Hill, Towamensing, Penn, Lehigh ; to be held at Peter Anthony's.
The Fourth District .- Hamilton, Lower Smithfield,
1 The term " associntors" was adopted to designato those who sub- scribed to the test-oath of allegiance to the provincial government, as prescribed by resolution of Congress. Those who did not take this valli were called " non-associators."
Delaware, Upper Smithfield ; to be held at Nicholas Depue's.
It will be observed that the whole of the present county of Lehigh, except Hanover, was included in the second district. The judges of clection for this district were David Deshler, George Breinig, and John Gerhart.
The quota of Northampton towards the formation of the Flying Camp was three hundred and forty six, of which number, it is said, two hundred came from the territory now comprised in Lehigh (though that estimate is probably too hight). We learn from the Bethlehem Diary that on the 30th of July, 1776, "one hundred and twenty recruits from Allentown and vicinity" passed through that place on their way to the " Flying Camp in the Jerseys." Some of these men joined the company of Capt. John Arndt, of Baxter's battalion, which early in August joined Washington's army on Long Island, and participated in the battle which ensned there on the 27th of that month, and which resulted so disastrously to the colo- nial troops. The company suffered severely in this engagement, and also in that at Fort Washington, Nov. 16, 1776. Following is the roll of the company as taken at Elizabethtown the day after the battle :
.Capt. John Arndt. 20 Lient. Peter Kichline.
Sergeants.
Robert Scott.
Philip Arndt.
Corporals.
Elijah Crawford.
Peter Richter.
Jacob Kichline.
Frirates.
Daniel Lewis.
Alexander Syleman.
John Middaghı,
Henry Onangst.
John MeFerren, Adam Yohe.
Robert Lyle. James Ferrill.
Jacob Wagner.
Conrad Smith.
Samnel MeCracken,
George Essig.
Henry Fatzinger.
John Kestler.
Michael Kehler.
Valentine Vent.
Henry Wolf, Jr.
Michael Piel.
Isane Shoemaker.
John Yent.
Daniel Schler.
James Symonton.
Christian Stont.
Jacob Miller. Michael Kless.
Benjamin Depni,
Names and rank of those killed or taken prisoners on Long Island, Aug. 27, 1776 :
Sergeants.
Androw Heister.
Andrew Reifer.
Thomas Sybert.
l'eter Kern.
Jacob Dufford.
Anthony Frutchy.
Richard Overfield.
Peter Lehr.
Josoph Stout.
Philip Bosh.
Jacob Weidknecht.
Poter F'ress.
Martin Derr. Barnet Millor.
George Fry.
Abraham Peter.
Matthias Strittingri.
John Harpel.
Henry Bush, Sr.
Lawrence Eile.
Peter Beyer.
Privates.
Names and rank of those killed or taken prisoners at Fort Washington, Nov. 16, 1776 :
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14
HISTORY OF LEHIGH COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
Ist Lieut. Joseph Martin.
3d Lieut. Isaac Shimer.
Drummer, John Arndt. Fifer, Henry Allshouse.
Privates.
John Wolf.
Frederick Wagner.
Christian Rodt.
Sammel Correy.
James Ilyndshaw,
Ilenry Frez.
John Ross.
fleury Bush, Jr.
Jacob Andrews.
Henry Straup.
Johns Bush.
Isaac Koon.
Conrad Bittenbender.
Christian Harpel. Joseph Minim.
Paul Reiser.
John Shuck.
Henry Weidknecht.
Isaac Berlin.
Jacob Traunfeeter.
Frederick Rieger.
Adam Weidknecht.
Jacob Engler.
Adam Bortz.
Lewis Collins.
George Edinger.
Joseph Keller.
Christian Harpel.
William Warrand.
Jacob Kreider.
Fred. Wilhelmn.
Joseph Chass.
Henry Wolf, Sr.
Washington, after the disastrous battle of Harlem Heights, retreated across the North River, and the army marched rapidly through the State of New Jersey by way of Newark, New Brunswick, Prince- ton, and Trenton, making none but brief and neces- sary halts until Pennsylvania soil was reached. The Delaware was then relied upon to cheek the progress of Cornwallis' pursuing forces. The General Hospital had been located at Morristown, N. J., but this retreat made it necessary to remove it within the con- tracted lines of the army. The town of Bethlehem, in the estimation of the commander-in-chief, was the most advantageous location, being well situated and healthful, and far enough removed from the front to be practically secure from the enemy. In pursuance of Washington's wish, John Warren, general surgeon to the Continental Hospital, sent to Bishop Ettwein, spiritual and temporal head of the Moravians, the following communication :
" According to his Excellency General Washing- ton's order, the General Hospital of the army is removed to Bethlehem ; and you will do the greatest aet of humanity by immediately providing proper buildings for its reception."
The express bearing this notification arrived in Bethlehem Dec. 8, 1776, and one of the principal buildings was immediately vacated and put in readi- ness for the sick and wounded who were expected. When the first two hundred and fifty human wrecks of war arrived, they were made as comfortable as possible under the circumstances. They were entirely destitute of provisions, and it was three days before any arrived. During that time the benevolent Mora- vians supplied them with food gratuitously.
The Moravians at Bethlehem and elsewhere never turned a deaf ear to the cries of distressed humanity. Their position, as regarded the belligerents in the war of the Revolution, was one of strict neutrality, in full accordance with their long-established principles, but they were suspected in some quarters to be in sympathy with the British. One of the men high in their councils said, " It is our desire to live at peace
with all men. We wish well to the country in which we dwell. Our declining to exercise in the use of arms is no new thing, nor does it proceed from certain considerations, being a fundamental principle of the Brethren's Church,-a point of conscience which our first settlers brought, with them into this province. We never have, nor will ever, act inimically to this country ; we will do nothing against its peace and interest, nor oppose any civil rule or regulation in the province or country wherein we dwell. On the other hand, we will submit ourselves in all things in which we can keep a good conscience, and not with- draw our shoulders from the common burden."
Not only were these people under the suspicion of many of the settlers in Northampton County, but there was a feeling of animosity against them on the part of some of the officers and soldiers of the Ameri- can army. It was therefore with a feeling of some alarm that they saw troops encamped opposite Beth- lehem on the night of Dec. 17, 1776. For some reason, which does not elearly appear, the division of Gen. Lee, then, however, under the command of Gen. Sullivan, after crossing the Delaware in the retreat from Fort Washington, had inoved up the Lehigh as far as the Moravian town. Gen. Lee had been captured at Basken Ridge, N. J., and he had been heard to say at the time that if ever he had opportunity to do so he should sack the town of Beth- lehem, for he believed the Moravian people inimical to the American eause, and in some mysterious way responsible for his being made a prisoner. If the citizens of Bethlehem, however, had any serious fears, they were soon dispelled, for Gen. Sullivan showed himself to be their friend, and nninfluenced by the all too-prevalent hue and ery against them. Gen. Gates, too, who happened to be at the town, enter- tained a very high regard for the Moravians.
While the chief centres of operations and of inter- est in Northampton County were Bethlehem and Easton, Allentown (then called Northampton), al- though a comparatively insignificant hamlet of about three hundred and fifty population, was a place of some importance historically, as we shall show, and was frequently mentioned in the official correspond- ence of the times.1 A considerable number of the Hessians taken prisoners by Washington at Trenton, on Christmas, 1776, were brought here and kept for a time in tents. According to the testimony of an old citizen,? the camp was in the northern part of town, probably where Gordon Street now is. Some of these mercenaries settled down here and became free citizens, being very willing to give up soldier- life when they had opportunity. At a later period of the war other prisoners were brought to Allentown, and also some of the American soldiers who were sick or wounded, to be nursed. In this contingency
-₩4 2
I Pennsylvania Archives.
" From the . Allentown Friedensbote.
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MANUFACTURES FOR THE ARMY AT ALLENTOWN.
the only church in town was temporarily converted into a hospital.
In the summer of 1777 it appears that Allentown was the centre of operations for the formation of a wagon-brigade. John Arndt, Esq., of Easton, writing under date of July 9th, to Thomas Wharton, president of the Supreme Couneil, says, "On June 26th, as many of us as could assembled in Allenstown, and elected Conrad Kreider, of Allen township, wagon-master." On July 5th, Kreider reported that there were in the county five hundred and fifty wagons. In this same year the bells of Christ Church, Philadelphia, were brought here for coneealment' when the British took possession of the city, and the Bethlehem Diary says that the wagon conveying them broke down in the street at that place.
The Bethlehem Diary of Feb. 10, 1777, says, "We have been informed last week that eertain militia in the neighborhood of Allentown have expressed threats towards Bethlehem and its inhabitants." This threat was doubtless made because of the reputed Tory, or at least non-resistant, spirit of its people. It was by reason of the same feeling on the part of the Ameri- cans that they refused to have the laboratory for the manufacture of cartridges remain in Bethlehem, and removed it to Allentown, Sept. 23, 1777. After this removal works were also established here for repair- ing arms, making saddles, and other articles needed by the military. These works, as we shall duly make it appear, were quite extensive. One Capt. Stiles was in charge of the stores, tools, and arms, and orders upon him for various quantities of the differ- ent articles in his possession were frequently given to officers needing them by Col. Benjamin Flowers and others.
The extreme rigors of the Revolution were felt among the workmen at Allentown, as they were by the American soldiers and artisans employed in that war almost everywhere. Under date of Feb. 17, 1778, John Wetzell, lieutenant at Allentown, wrote to the president of the Executive Council at Lancaster, " My duty demands that I should give news to you of a new order received yesterday, viz., in relation to shortness of rations issued to military workers and saddlers, the same having created such great unrest among the workmen that they coneluded to give up work. A conversation with David Deshler and Fred. Hagener made them more content. The sub-lieuten- ants have received many arms to be repaired, and re- ceived yesterday four hundred muskets, and more are expected daily. The quartermaster writes that he wants a large quantity of repaired guns, because he is expecting new militia every day, as well as militia of this eounty, which is to be fully equipped. We have decided to allow former rations until we receive further instructions. Our department is now in good order, and is increased every day, so that I entertain
the hope to obtain the necessary workmen to finish our labor."
"P.S .- The rations which at present are issued are 12 pounds of beef, 13 pounds of bread, also flour and vegetables, ¿ pint of rum or whiskey, wood, soap, and candles."
Lieut .- Com. Cornelius Sweers, of Lebanon, writing to Wharton, May 4, 1778, says, "On investigation of the stores at Allentown, 1 found certain barrels and chests containing sail-cloth. Since we are in imme- diate need of this article, I asked Capt. Stiles for the same, which he said could only be surrendered on an order of the Council. I flatter myself that you will give this order, as Gen. Washington needs the same for ordnance wagons, etc."
The quantity of arms and stores repaired and in readiness at Allentown was reported by Sub-Lieut. Fred Hagener to Wharton, May 7, 1778, as follows :
" 800 minskets and bayonets with scabbards. 550 bayonet belts.
750 haversacks. 45 shot pouches.
18 powder flasks. 400 knapsacks.
75 Idankets.
25 tents.
140 camp kettles.
31 rifles (in John Tyler's possession).
150 muskets (could be ready May 20).
" These guns and arms are in good condition, and we will do our best to make others ready and serve our country."
On July 20, 1778, Richard Peters, in the name of the War Office, informed the Vice- President of Penn- sylvania that "the condition of affairs on the borders was of the most alarming nature, but that the War Offiee had done everything in its power to serve out military stores." At that time the State had at least twelve thousand stands of arms at Allentown await- ing orders to be issued to the militia. This serves to show that Allentown was at this period extraordina- rily active in the cause of liberty. Its people, and those of the surrounding country, were almost without exception intensely patriotie.
Among the most actively patriotic citizens of the county of Northampton were David Deshler,2 of Al- lentown, and Capt. John Arndt,3 of Easton, both of whom advanced money to the provincial government when the public treasury was empty, and that too at a time when the prospect of its being returned was not very bright. They both labored with unflagging zeal to promote the welfare of the public cause and to fill the quota of the county, as required by the acts of Congress and the Provincial Assembly. We have already exhibited proof of Deshler's great influence
2 He was the son of Adam Deshler, of Whitehall, who acted as com- missary for the Provincial troops in the Indian war beginning in 1755. (See chapter on the city of Allentown.)
3 Capt. John Arndt, after passing through the disastrous campaign ¡ of 1776, retinned lo Easton, crippled and broken in health from the wonnd he had received in the battle of Long Island and from the hard- ships he had passed through. Notwithstanding, he declined to ask for 1 the pension which the law would have given him.
1 Rupp, quoting R. E. Wright, Esq.
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HISTORY OF LEHIGH COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
in quelling the mutinous feeling which broke out among the artisans engaged in the Allentown shops for the manufacture of cartridges and the repair of arms. Deshler and Arndt were appointed commissa- ries, and in that eapacity performed most valuable ser- vices, which they were enabled to do fully as much through their wide acquaintance and popularity with the farmers as by their business ability. Such in- stances were not by any means rare. In fact, the ma- jority of the people, sustained by a pure patriotism, did all in their power to advance the cau-e of the colonies. Most of the farmers voluntarily came forward and gold to the commi-are- and their purchasing agents their cattle and produce, receiving only the depre- ciated Continental currency, when they might have transferred them to the British agents for gold.
But while the majority were loyal, there were of course some exceptions to the rule, men in whom the mercenary was stronger than the patriotic feeling, and who for gain surreptitiously sold their grain and corn and live-stock to merchants in Philadelphia and else- where engaged in supplying the enemy with provis- ions. To prevent the British from purchasing cattle or breadstuff's in the province of Pennsylvania the Assembly passed an act, Jan. 2, 1778, "to prevent forestalling and regrating, and to encourage fair deal- ing," the principal object of which was to deter all persons from making purchases (especially of cattle) from the farmers except those to whom permits were granted. One, John Peter Miller, of Macungie town- ship, could not resist the temptation of seeuring British gold by evading this law, and was prosecuted under it in the Court of Quarter Sessions of Northampton County. The entry of the case on the docket was as follows : "The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania rs. John Peter Miller, of Macungie, For purchasing a number of cattle without a permit to do so, contrary to an act of the General Assembly to prevent fore- stalling and regrating, and a complaint lodged by Mich'el Shaefer, committee man of Maeungy town- ship." Miller was brought before Justice Robert Levers, Sept. 3, 1779, and was bound over to the next term of the General Quarter Sessions, being admitted i hundred men, four hundred of whom were Tory
to bail in the sum of one thousand pounds, one-half' secured by John Peter Miller, farmer of Upper Mil- ford, and two hundred and fifty pounds each by Peter Miller, farmer of Macungie, and Peter Fox, tailor of the same township.
The necessities of the American army were often- times very great and urgent, and cattle became so scarce through the frequent levies made on the whole country that most families had to do without meat. Tallow was as a matter of course equally scarce, and the people in many instances had recourse to a bush ealled the candle-berry-bush to obtain the material for candles. The stems and twigs of this bush, eut in small fragments, were boiled in a kettle, when a pe- culiar wax or grease arose to the surface, which was carefully skimmed off, and when a sufficient amount
was proeured, formed into candles by dipping or moulding. The eandles were of a delieate green color, and gave a pale but elcar light. This serves as a fair illustration of the expedients to which the people were driven to provide the commonest necessities An extreme scarcity of -alt was a more serious depri- vation during Revolutionary times than would at first be imagined. It brought from eight to twenty dollars per bushel, and oftentimes was not to be had for any price. A plant of the fern species was used by many families as a substitute. but poorly answered the pur- pose, though it made meat and vegetables inore savory and palatable than they would be without its applica- tion.
The asperity of life during the Revolution in what is now Lehigh County, and throughout the whole of the great territory of old Northampton, as well as in other portions of the province, was very great, and the imagination with all of the aids of fact fails to draw an adequate pieture of it. Added to privation the most severe, there was in the latter years of the war period the haunting fear that the war-whoop of the red allies of the British would be heard in the settle- ments, and scenes of savage butchery follow, which would be illumined by the lurid glare of burning cabins.
Nor was this fear a groundless one. The confederated Six Nations, which had been indneed by the English to take the war-path against the Americans during the year 1777, committed great ravages in the State of New York, and in 1778 they determined to make a murderous foray into Pennsylvania, with the especial object of striking the settlements on the two branches of the Susquehanna, which were left in an almost defenseless condition through the departure of their patriotic men for the army. The Wyoming settle- ment was very naturally the object of the English- men's especial hatred, because of the devotion its people had shown to the cause of liberty; and it was easily accessible by the North Branch of the Susque- hanna. Late in June there descended that stream, under command of Col. John Butler, a force of eleven rangers and regular soldiers of Sir John Johnson, Royal Greens, with seven hundred Indians, chiefly Senecas. Jenkin's fort capitulated, and Winter- moot's (which, as was afterwards learned, was built to aid the incursions of the Tories) at once opened its gates to the invading host. At Wyoming were several so-called forts, mere stoekades, in no one of which was there a cannon or an adequate garrison, the arms-bearing men nearly all being absent, as has here- tofore been stated. Col. Zebulon Butler, who happened to be at Wyoming, took command by invitation of the people, and the little band, consisting chiefly of old men and boys, with a handful of undisciplined militia, against whom eleven hundred warriors had marched, made as heroic a stand as the world ever saw. On the 3d of July they marched out to meet and fight the
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17
FRIES' REBELLION.
enemy, for a safe retreat with their families was impossible, and surrender seems never to have been thought of. It is beyond our province in this work to deseribe the uneven battle and the slaughter which ensued. Suffice it to say that the brave defenders, about four hundred in number, were defeated by the assailing force, ontnumbering them by nearly three to one. Then followed the horrible massacre, a carni- val of murder and torture performed by fiends, But who is there who knows not Wyoming? Who that does not shudder at the reeall of that name? Of four hundred men who went into battle, but sixty escaped the fury of the Indians. That bloody day made one hundred and fifty widows and six hundred orphans in the valley. And now the Wyoming Valley is a seene of pastoral quiet and loveliness, as if in recom- pense for the dark deeds done, the Creator had breathed upon the bosom of nature the benison of eternal peace.
The massacre of Wyoming thrilled the world with horror. What, then, must have been the feeling of those people who had reason to think they might at any hour meet with the same fate which had ex- tinguished the lives of the four hundred settlers in the beautiful valley ? The whole border was filled with the wildest alarm, and a fever of fear took pos- session of the people even as far down the country as Bethlehem and Easton. Fortunately, no great raid southward was undertaken by the Indians, and their subsequent atrocities, committed by small bands, were . confined to the region north of the Blue Ridge, and were similar in character to the capture of the Gil- bert family and some other occurrences which are re- lated in the history of Carbon County. Gen. Sulli- van's expedition in 1779 quieted the Indians by ereating in them a wholesome fear of the military, and the effective blows which he strutek forever de- stroyed the Iroquois confederacy. The danger, how- ever, was not entirely passed, and two companies of rangers were maintained in Northampton County for the protection of her people during 1781 and the fol- lowing year. One of these was Capt. Philip Shraw- der's Pennsylvania Rangers, and the other Capt, Jo- hannes Van Etten's Volunteers, a body of veterans who had been in the field in 1777, and had fought at the Brandywine.
After 1778 the battle-line was broken, and swept away from the Delaware to the north and the south, to the highlands around New York and the Carolina swamps. The lull of quiet had fallen npon busy Bethlehem, which De Kalb had once thought of forti- fying. Washington and Lafayette, "Mad Anthony" Wayne, Sullivan, and many other heroes of the war, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Richard Henry Lee, Henry Laurens, John Adams, and a host of other eivil leaders, who had sojourned at the Moravian town, were engaged in their labors as soldiers and statesmen in other localities ; the drum's wild roll and the tramp of armies no more resounded by the Le- 2
high, and only the news of the distant battle eame occasionally to arouse the dwellers in the region which had been for two years a centre of war planning and of war activity. A condition of comparative peace had come to the people, a sense of partial se- curity, which was made complete at the close of the war, when, although left in poverty in common with the citizens of all the colonies, they enjoyed liberty and stood upon the threshold of a greater and truer prosperity than the most sanguine had ever imagined could be theirs.
CHAPTER IV. FRIES' REBELLION.
The Trial of John Fries and bis Followers for High Treason.
Tim first occurrence of unusual character which broke the ealm and monotonous current of affairs in the region of which we write, after the close of the Revolution, was that organized opposition to law which has variously been called " Fries' Rebellion," the " Milford Rebellion," the " Hot-Water War," and the " House-Tax War." This opposition to Federal authority reached its height in 1798 and 1799. The theatre of its action centring in Milford township, Bueks Co., included Bueks, Northampton, and Mont- gomery, and a large proportion of its scenes were enacted in the territory which constitutes Lehigh.
Shortly after the inauguration of John Adams as President of the United States, on March 1, 1797, a number of aets were passed by Congress, and ap- proved by the Executive, which, by many of the people of the country, were regarded as obnoxious. Among these were the alien and sedition laws, and another known as the house-tax law. The latter, which was looked upon as especially unjust and burdensome by a portion of the people of Eastern Pennsylvania, contained a provision directing the assessors to meas- ure, count, and register the panes of glass in cach and every honse, and make their number and size the basis of a direct tax for government revenue. This tax led to what we shall hereafter uniformly designate as Fries' Rebellion, which was by no means the first revolt caused by taxation in the United States.1
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