USA > Pennsylvania > Carbon County > History of the counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pt. 2 > Part 3
USA > Pennsylvania > Lehigh County > History of the counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pt. 2 > Part 3
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From Oct. 9, 1748, until 1771, Rev. John Philip Leydich served the people very acceptably, as shown by the testimony of an old lady who, near her death, testified to his excellency. On the 14th of June, 1854, Mrs. Margaret Moser, living at the Trappe, in Montgomery Co., Pa., aged one hundred and four years, who was baptized in infancy and confirmed Washington Union Sunday-school chapel was erected in 1872, by the communicants at HIofferts when fourteen years old by Mr. Leydich, was asked whether she remembered any of the oldest ministers i Church. There is preaching here every two weeks in this country? She remained silent while the I by the Lutheran and German Reformed ministers.
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410
HISTORY OF LEHIGH COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
The Markle Union Sunday school was organized Jan. 28, 1877, its prominent supporters being Reuben Markle, John A. Abbott, Thomas Cope, and William Bower. It has at present sixteen officers, twenty teachers, and one hundred pupils. The present ofli- cers are : Superintendent, C. A. Groman ; President, Daniel Hiltinger ; Secretary, Reuben Markle; Treas- nrer, William Bower.
Schools .- Originally the township had very few schools. The children living in the eastern part of the township attended school at Bethlehem, those in the western part at Emaus and Salisbury Church. The school-house at this place dates with the erection of the church. Those living in the central part of the township attended school at Allentown, while a few families living between Bethlehem and Allentown crossed the Lehigh River and attended school at Rittersville, in Hanover township. (See note about Jacob Geisinger, relative to schools, about the year 1819.)
The village of Emaus formed a part of this town- ship until its incorporation into a borough. Markle's school-house was built about the year 1820, Ritter's, Hofford's, Yost's, and Eisenhard's between 1830 and 1840, Scholl's and Mountain about 1845. All these have been rebuilt since 1860, except Salisbury Church school-house and Mountain school-house. Hofford's school-house and the one called "Bethlehem Woods" were abandoned. The school-houses at Wieand's, Keek's, Jeter's, Aineyville, and Mountainville, with their districts, are of later formation. The one- roomed school-house at Aineyville was built in 1871, and formed a new sub-district. In 1877 a two-story brick building, thirty-two by forty-two feet, was creeted and two graded schools were established, the first of the kind in the township. In 1882 one of the large rooms was divided and an additional graded school formed.
A large two-story brick school-house was erected near Bethlehem in 1880. The house is called Jeter's sehool-house. It contains two rooms on the first floor and one on the second. Two graded schools were formed and are in successful operation.
At Mountainville a two-story brick house was erected during the summer of 1883, and two-graded schools were formed.
All these double, or two-story buildings are very com- plete in all their appointments. The erection of these new buildings form a new era in the history of the schools of Salisbury township, because with them date the establishment of graded schools. There are seven graded and nine ungraded schools in the township.
There are now nine one-roomed buildings, one two- roomed, and two three-roomed ones in the township. The sub-districts are known by the names of Jeter's, Markle's, Yost's, Mountain, Mountainville, Ritter's, Keck's, Salisbury Church, Wieand's, Eisenhard's or Green Meadow, Scholl's, and Aineyville.
The district employs 16 teachers. Term, five and a
half months. Average salary for male teachers, $33.42 per month ; for female teachers, $28. Number of male pupils enrolled, 388; of female pupils, 313; total, 701. Per cent. of attendance, 88. Cost per pupil per month, 75 cents. Number of mills levied for school pur- poses, 13. Valuation of school property, $15,000.
Mountainville .- The land on which Mountain- ville is located was seventy years ago in possession of Rudolph Smith. A small log tavern was kept at that place many years, and until the present one was built, in 1856. A little before this time the Smith farm passed into possession of Charles Witman and -- Snyder, who laid a part of the farm out into lots and sokl them, on which small dwellings were erected.
Soon after the tavern was erected, in 1856, a post- office was established, and Edwin Sell was appointed. After a year it was removed to another part of the township, where it remained but a short time, and was again returned and established with Reuben Kammerer, postmaster. He held the position until 1880, when the present postmistress, Miss Amanda Sheetz, was appointed. The earringe-factory was es- tablished in 1874 by Walter Sheetz, and is still con- ducted by him. The hotel was built in 1856 by- Snyder, and is now owned by Samuel Parsons.
Mountainville Evangelical Church.1-The origin of this church was in a private house of William Bortz in the year 1858. Revs. Moses Dissinger, C. K. Fehr, and others, preached the word of God in the above- named house. Several other families moved in the village a few years afterwards. In the year 1863 the present church was built, by contract of Lewis Sheldon, under the supervision of Henry Romig, its member- ship then being about ten. Between the years of 1863-68 the membership had an increase of some twenty. The appointment was served mostly by min- isters from Allentown until the year 1877, when it was connected with Emaus Mission, and served regularly by Rev. F. Hoffman for three successive years. In the year 1888 the church was remodeled, and several hun- dred dollars expended upon it. B. H. Miller, pastor of Emaus Mission, has charge of the above-named church, under whose supervision a suitable spire and bell were added. The present membership is com- posed of a few families, with a promising Sunday- school, numbering about one hundred.
Aineyville is a collection of dwellings that have grown up around the Lehigh Iron-Works near East l'enn Junction, an account of which is given in Al- lentown. It contains beside the dwellings a store, and Temperanee Hall, in which the Aineyville Division, No. 46, Sons and Daughters of Temperance, and " The Band of Hope" hold their weekly meetings,
The society of the Sons and Daughters of Temper- anee was organized Aug. 28, 1879, with eleven men- bers and the following officers: Peter L. Stemer, president; Solomon Z. Hillegas, secretary ; Reuben
1 By Rev. B. H. Miller.
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SALISBURY TOWNSHIP.
Knauss, treasurer. The present officers (1884) are Mrs. Sarah Stemer, president; Mrs. Sarah Leiben- speiger, secretary ; Renben Knauss, treasurer. Present numberof members, sixty-three. The " Band of Ilope" was organized Feb. 5, 1883, with eleven members, and a membership in 1884 of forty-two. It is connected with the Division No. 46. The hall in which meet- ings were held was erected in 1882, at a eost of eight hundred dollars.
Cold Spring Chemical-Works. -- In January, 1882, a company was formed to manufacture explo- sives. A site was selected about two and a half miles from Allentown, on the south side of the mountain, and on the Henry Miller tract. The site was desira- ble, from the distance from thickly-populated districts and from its proximity to a spring of water. An aeid- house, nitro-glycerine vault, mixing, packing, drying and grinding houses, and a magazine were built. On the 4th of December, 1883, a company was incorpo- rated with one hundred thousand dollars, under the name of the Vulcan Dynamite Company, with Ed- ward S. Wertz, president; W. B. Shaffer, treasurer ; and Osear Moyer, secretary. In January, 1884, a new and larger plant was made in Hanover township, and the works in Salisbury township were discontinued.
The explosives of this company are sold for use in the ore-beds of New Jersey, lead and zine mines of Missouri, and the iron-ore region of Lake Superior, as well as many other places.
Fountain Hill .- The northeast part of Salisbury township adjoins the borough of South Bethlehem, i and is known as Fountain Hill. The ridge lying along the river was formerly known as Ostrom's | later ealled Bishopthorpe. Fish died in 1866, and the Ridge. A tract of land was obtained by Andrew Os- property soon after was sold to Tinsley Jeter, by whom it was laid out into lots. trom under a warrant from the l'enns in 1745, for which he received a patent in November, 1760. In the year 1764 he conveyed it to the Moravians, who retained it in their possession till 1853, when it was sold with other lands to Charles W. Rauch. On this farm are inexhaustible quarries of stone, which has been used for building since 1766, at which time the old Bethlehem buckwheat-mill was built. The stone was taken from these quarries for the Bethlehem Iron Company's buildings and for the Lehigh University.
Another settler on this tract was JJobst Vollert, who came from Coventry, Chester Co., to Bethlehem in the summer of 1746. He soon after became the landlord of the Crown Inn, and Nov. 2, 1747, purchased eighty- one acres of land lying south and southwest of the Simpson traet of Tobias Weber, who had built a house upon the land in 1744. In September, 1754, Vollert purchased one hundred and fourteen and one- half acres of land, formerly the property of Anthony Albrecht. It extended from the south line of the Weber or original Vollert tract to the east of the mountain. These two tracts, in Angust, 1755, were sold to the Moravians.
was occupied by Cornelius Weygandt. It is supposed that he erected, abont 1759, the old farm-house in the rear of Bishopthorpe. This soon after came into pos- session of the Moravians.
About the year 1769 the Moravians commenced to rent the land on the south bank of the Lehigh, of which they then owned about five hundred acres.
In February of that year the Weygandt farm was rented to Max Keifer, who died in 1791. He was succeeded by John Christian Clewell, who, about the year 1810, was followed by John Hoffert, whose son, Samuel Hoffert, eame into possession in 1834, and who retained it till it was sold by the Moravians.
The first sale of these lands on the south bank of the Delaware was of two acres of mountain land to Francis H. Oppelt, in April, 1846. He was at that time erecting a building in which was opened the "Lehigh Mountain Springs Water Cure." He later purchased six acres additional, which is occupied by St. Luke's Hospital.
The four Moravian farms were purchased in 1847, and that part in Salisbury township, one hundred and seven acres, was sold to Charles C. and Oliver Tombler, and six acres to F. H. Oppelt. On the 7th of August, 1850, L. Oliver Tombler sold to Daniel Freytag twenty-two acres, and on the 1st of April, 1851, to Augustus Fish ten acres. Fish had previously purchased of Charles C. Tombler the one hundred and seven acres, in De- cember, 1850. In 1848, Tombler had built the store- house in rear of the old one, which Fish enlarged. He purchased twenty-nine acres of the old Vollert tract. He then named the place "Fontainebleau,"
That portion of the town of South Bethlehem known as Fountain Hill, extending southwest from the Union Depot, lies partly in Northampton and partly in Lehigh County. In May, 1854, the Desh farm, consisting of about ninety acres, of which the largest part was in Northampton County, was pur- chased by Charles Hacker and Samuel R. Shipley, of Philadelphia, and Rudolphus Kent. of Gwynedd. Charles Hacker was interested to the amount of three- fifths, the other two one-fifth each. This farm ex- tended southwest as far as Seminole Street, which, as originally laid out, was intended to run from the Salisbury road to the extreme western boundary of the farm, where Ostrom Street has since been located. Beyond this line of Seminole Street, the portion cast of where Delaware Avenue now runs belonged to the Freytag place (of twenty-two deres); west of that street it belonged to Augustus Fiot.
Very soon after this purchase Messrs. Hacker, Shipley & Kent had the whole farm laid out into streets, blocks, and lots for building purposes, it being foreseen that the early completion of the Lehigh Valley and the North Penn Railroads would largely
Another tract of eighty acres of mountain land was purchased in 1744 by George Hartmann, and | increase the value of the property. The present sta-
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412
HISTORY OF LEHIGH COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
tion and buildings near it are situated on a portion of this farm.
In tinding names for the new streets to be laid out Mr. Shipley suggested the adoption of Indian names, and this was carried ont in all the streets laid out by them. The name of Delaware Avenue was given to the principal street, and this, though not Indian in origin, had been borne by a powerful and important tribe of Indians. Itasca has never been borne by any tribe of Indians, being a composite name formed for a special purpose, but from its origin and form was deemed appropriate. Alaska Street was not laid out till 1883, and takes its name from the Territory of that name. With these exceptions, we believe all the other streets laid ont by Messrs. Hacker, Shipley & Kent bear Indian names.
It has already been said that the present Union Depot is on a part of the Desh farm, the North Penn Railroad Company having early purchased ten acres of this ground. Among the first purchases made for building residences was that of Robert 11. Sayre, Esq., chief engineer and general superintendent of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. He bought the lower or eastern portion of the block bounded by Wyandot Street, Delaware Avenue, Ottawa, and Lenni Lennape Streets, of which the upper portion was, some years subsequently, purchased by John Smylie, Esq. Mr. Sayre erected his residence there in 1857, and this, we believe, was the first of the many beautiful dwellings which now cover the whole of this farm. All of this part, and indeed nearly the whole of this tarm, lying in Northampton County, it is hardly proper to say more about it here.
In November, 1860, the Freytag place was purchased by Mr. Tinsley Jeter, then a resident and member of the bar of the city of Philadelphia, but who at this time was engaged in building the Ironton Railroad, to . connect his iron-mines, at Ironton, with the Lehigh Valley Railroad. In 1866, Mr. Augustus Fiot, the owner of the Hoffert farm, or Fontainebleau, as he called the place after his purchase, died, and Fon- tainebleau was purchased by Mr. Jeter. One or two smaller pieces of ground to the southwest were also purchased by him. Having in the same year sold out his railroad and mines, Mr. Jeter decided to give his undivided attention thenceforth to the subdivision and sale of this property, and to such enterprises as would tend to add to the moral or material welfare of that portion of the town. Later in the year he made purchases of portions of the Desh farm, as already divided by Messrs. Hacker, Shipley & Kent. At the commencement of his operations he felt the need of some distinctive name for this portion of the town, and finally adopted that of Fountain Ilill, by which it has ever since been known. There was no special significance in the name, it being simply a fancy name. Delaware Avenue, Cherokee, Seneca, and Pawnee Streets were continned southwestwardly. In doing this it was found that if continued out in the same
line Delaware Avenue would, after crossing Fiot Street, descend rather rapidly, and as this is the main thoroughfare, it was decided to make it diverge some- what to the right, so as to give it a nearly even grade to the Salisbury road. This divergence was made in the other parallel streets also, and commences at the line of Seminole Street, where Mr. Jeter's property commeneed. Ostrom Street was laid ont entirely by Mr. Jeter, and has no break. At first Huron Street, now a prolongation of Fourth Street, was only laid out by Messrs. Hacker, Shipley & Kent from Wyandot Street to Cherokee Street. In 1867 the block of ground bounded by Delaware Avenue, Cherokee, Seneca, and Daeotah Streets was purchased by Mr. Jeter, and Huron Street was then extended by him to Seneca Street and Delaware Avenue, its present termins.
In the original plan of Messrs. Hacker, Shipley & Kent, Sencea Street was considered an alley, and made only thirty feet wide. When Mr. Jeter purchased from them the ground referred, he made it a condition that this street should be widened to fifty feet, and this was done. In adopting names for such streets as he should lay out, Mr. Jeter abandoned the Indian nomen- clature for the purpose of perpetuating in these names such families and individuals as were or had been more or less connected with this part of the town. Hence the series of names now attached to these streets, many of which were suggested by the Rev. W. C. Reichel, author of the " Crown Inn" and other works connected with the history and antiquities of Bethle- hem and vicinity.
Bishopthorpe School .- On the southeastern slope of one of the ridges of South or Lehigh Mountain is located what was formerly known as the Hoffert Farm. This was owned by the Moravians, and was one of the few farms they owned on this side of the Lehigh River. It was long ocenpied by a family named Hoffert, and hence the name. The farm- house was a long low one-story stone house, with high-pitched roof, small windows, and queer little old-fashioned dormers. It was built in the last century, and is still occupied as a dwelling. In 1848 this farm was purchased by Charles Tombler, who built a new house farther down, and front of the one | above mentioned. This building was also of stone, but larger and more commodious than the former. The place was owned and ocenpied by Mr. Tombler till December, 1850, when he sold it to Augustus Fiot, Esq., a retired merchant, born in France, but for many years carrying on business as a dealer in music in Philadelphia. As such he had acquired a modest. fortune, and purchased this place for a summer resi- dence. On coming to reside here in the summer of 1851, he was so much delighted with it that he never left, even for the winter. He added a third story to the main building, and enlarged it by other additions and very much changed the interior arrangements. The grounds also were very much enlarged and beau- tified, several fountains were introduced, and a large
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SALISBURY TOWNSHIP.
number of beautiful exotic trees planted. A beau- tiful green-house and grapery were also built and added to the beauties of the place, which was then named Fontainebleau, from the village and palace of Fontainebleau in France, near where Mr. Fiot had resided some years in his boyhood. For fifteen years , prior to his death, which took place in April, 1866, this place was the most beautiful in the environs of Bethlehem, and undoubtedly one of the most charm- ing in the State.
At this period the space extending from this farm to the Lehigh River, where the station is now, and which is now called Fountain Hill, had not been laid out in lots, streets, etc., and the approach from the old Lehigh bridge to Fontainebleau was first by the Allentown road (now Lehigh Street) to what is now Uncas Street ; thence nearly southwest, partly along what is now Ostrom Street. Then it diverged to the right and passed through what now belongs to St. Luke's Hospital; nearly opposite the hospital build- ing it diverged to the left, and passed to the east of Ostrom Street. Then marking nearly a right angle, it went again into the grounds of the hospital and through a beautiful avenue planted with horse-chest- nut-, poplar-, and linden-trees to a gate opposite the northern end of the building. It was a rather devious, but always a most beautiful, approach to the mansion.
As already stated, Mr. Fiot died in 1866, leaving neither wife nor children. He had devised the place to his brother Mr. Jules Fiot, of Philadelphia, who immediately sold it to Tinsley Jeter, who since 1860 had owned and occupied the Freytag place, closely adjoining on the east, and which contained twenty- two acres. The Fiot place contained nearly one hun- dred and fifty acres, and other lands in the vicinity having subsequently been purchased by Mr. Jeter, he owned at one time about two hundred and thirty acres. Having early in the year sold out his mines and railroad in another part of the county, he deter- mined to devote himself entirely to the building up and improvement of that portion of the vicinity of South Bethlehem where his property was sitnated. The establishment of Bishopthorpe school was one of the enterprises projected by him with that object in view. Some others may perhaps be referred to elsewhere.
The Rt. Rev. William Bacon Stevens, bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Penn- sylvania, was consulted, and from the first gave the project his earnest and most cordial sympathy and support. The first meeting of those interested in the ; matter was held on the evening of Dec. 11, 1867, at the house of Robert H. Sayre, Esq. Those present were the Rt. Rev. Bishop Stevens, the Rev. E. N. Potter, then rector of the Church of the Nativity, Robert II. Sayre, William H. Sayre, Jr., John Smylie, James Jenkins, II. S. Goodwin, Dr. Henry Coppee, then president of the Lehigh University, and Tinsley Jeter. The minutes of the meeting state that the i cordingly elected.
bishop stated the object of the meeting, which was to establish a young ladies' academy of the highest character, and gave many and cogent reasons for it. Bethlehem has had a renown throughout the country as a place for the education of girls ; its salubrity was remarkable; the Lehigh University is here, and the two schools will thus offer unusual facilities to parents having both sons and daughters to educate. He also referred in high terms to the property, which could now be obtained on very favorable terms.
Messrs. William II. Sayre, Smylie, Coppie, and Goodwin made remarks of the same tenor. The bishop then stated that he had received a letter on the subject from Mr. Jeter, and requested that it should be read, which was done. This letter, addressed to the bishop, stated that on the formation of a board of trustees satisfactory to the bishop he (Mr. Jeter) would sell the house and a certain amount of land at a valuation, and would make a donation of one-fourth thereof as a gift to the school. Or he would make all the necessary additions and changes in order to fit it for a school at his own expense, and would then give it free of rent for two years, with the privilege of purchasing it at the end thereof. The latter offer was accepted. The board of trustees, as constituted at a subsequent meeting, were the gentlemen already named, the bishop being the president of the board.
Messrs. William II. Sayre, Jenkins, and Goodwin were made a committee to arrange and supervise the additions and alterations which Mr. Jeter agreed to make in order to fit the place for its new uses,
The bishop, the Rev. Mr. Potter, and Dr. Coppee were appointed a committee to secure the services of a competent lady as principal of the school.
The next meeting was held Jan. 17, 1868, at the rectory, the bishop and the same gentlemen being present. The subject of a name was much discussed, and finally, on motion of Dr. Coppee, it was miani- mously decidedly to call it " Bishopthorpe School for Girls," and it is proper to state here the origin of this name. The bishop stated that he thought a good name was a matter of some importance; that during a late visit to England he had been a guest of the Rt. Rev. the Archbishop of York at his country- place or villa, named " Bishopthorpe." The word thorpe meaning, in Anglo-Saxon, place, village, ham- let, and Bishopthorpe the place, hamlet, or village of the bishop. Ile suggested, therefore, that this might be a very good name, inasmuch as it seemed the general desire to have a name which had not already been appropriated elsewhere. The motion above mentioned was then made by Dr. Coppee, and was unanimously adopted.
At this meeting the committee on the selection of a principal reported that they had secured the services of Miss Edith S. Chase, of Philadelphia, of whom the bishop spoke in the highest terms as, in his opinion, eminently qualified to fill the place, and she was ae-
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HISTORY OF LEHIGH COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
In pursuance of the proposal already mentioned, and in conjunction with the committee on alteration, Mr. Jeter proceeded at once to make the necessary changes and additions to the buildings. The princi- pal addition made was the erection of a new building in the rear, which contains the dining-room on the lower floor and the school-room above. Other minor additions were also made at the same time.
The school was opened in September, 1868, and at once took the high character for careful, consci- entious training and culture which it has maintained ever since.
In 1870, Miss Chase accepted the post of principal of a much larger school, then being built under the supervision of the Rt. Rev. Bishop of Albany, N. Y., and left Bishopthorpe at the close of the academical year, in June, 1870.
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