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Pennsbury,
a reconstruction of William Penn's home
Photograph courtesy of Pennsbury Manor |
Pennsylvania was first
inhabited as early as 12,000 years ago by bands of Native Americans
who were cold-adapted, highly-mobile nomadic hunters from Trans-Siberia.
By the time of European contact, Susquehannock Indians, an Iroquoian-speaking
group who split from the main body of the Iroquis had migrated
to this region of Pennsylvania, and established semi-permanent
agricultural villages. The Susquehannock subsistence was a combination
of seasonal farming, hunting, fishing, collecting wild forest
products, and fresh water mollusks. European settlers first
journeyed to the southern region of the Delaware River Valley
and what is now Bucks County at the end of the 17th century.
When William Penn arrived in the colony of Pennsylvania, he
maintained a friendly and peaceful policy towards the Native
Americans. The "Great Treaty" of Shackamaxon was Penn's most
famous treaty with them, and according to Voltaire it was "the
only treaty never sworn to and never broken." Penn's policy
of dealing fairly with the region's native peoples protected
European settlers from hostilities during his lifetime and after,
until 1755. By then, the growing number of English colonists
arriving on the eastern seaboard had alarmed the native peoples,
many of whom allied with the French for survival of their ancestral
lands. After Pontiac's War (1763) and the French and Indian
War, Pennsylvania was largely secure for further European colonization.
Penn's 1690 promise of religious toleration brought thousands
of people seeking both religious and economic freedom to the
new province of Pennsylvania. English and Welsh members of
the Society of Friends, or Quakers, arrived at the port of
Philadelphia and claimed allotments in lower and central Bucks
County, clearing the forest and establishing farms on the
rich soil. Their meeting houses are still found in many of
the towns in the region. Their farm buildings, built of local
stone, followed traditional English models. German immigrants,
in search of lives free from war and servitude, were also
attracted to Pennsylvania. They traveled up the Schuylkill
and Perkiomen Valleys to settle in upper Bucks County, where
they soon outnumbered the Quakers. The village names of Reigelsville,
Kintnersville, and Uhlerstown testify to the origins of their
founders.
The elements that influenced the Delaware Valley's development--the
Delaware River, the canal, the steep hillsides of the river
valley, the fertile soils, and its agricultural heritage--are
still visible throughout the county. Above the fall line, development
of towns was limited. Tributary streams of the Delaware River
fell sharply from the highlands down into the valley. Gristmills
and sawmills were built to exploit the water power, serving
local farmers in the largely rural economy. Along the upper
reaches of the Delaware Canal, between Easton
and New Hope, the River Road connects a string of historic villages,
separated by steep and sometimes sheer hemlock-covered hillsides,
which force the road and canal to the river's edge.
Just south of New Hope, the River Road and the canal pass
through the northern part of Washington
Crossing State Park, where an early farm is preserved.
Taylorsville is the location of the southern part of Washington
Crossing State Park. Here George Washington and 2,400 troops
crossed the ice-choked Delaware River to make a successful
surprise raid on the Hessian soldiers at Trenton on Christmas
Eve 1776. At Morrisville the canal leaves the last hill of
the Piedmont behind and enters the level Coastal Plain, locale
of the earliest settlements in the county. Historic Fallsington
is a restoration of a Quaker village of three centuries ago.
Nearby is Pennsbury, a reconstruction
of William Penn's 1683 county seat, which includes the service
buildings, orchards, and gardens that made the plantation
self-sufficient.
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Fonthill
home of Henry Mercer in Doylestown
Photograph by Sue Pridemore |
The Quaker town of Bristol was established
in 1697 as a market town for the county. A location was chosen
just below the head of navigation on the Delaware River, and
Bristol quickly grew into an important commercial and ship-building
center. The county seat of Doylestown,10 miles inland, is a
showcase of Federal and Victorian architecture. Henry C. Mercer
recognized that industrialization was fast eliminating traditional
crafts and ways of work and began assembling what is now the
nation's most comprehensive collection of early American tools,
housed in the Mercer Museum. This building
and nearby Fonthill, a National Historic
Landmark, which was Mercer's home, are early experiments in
the use of poured concrete. Mercer was also fascinated by tile
making, and built the Moravian Pottery and
Tile Works, which continues to produce his designs, based
on themes from mythology, fable, and nature. Nearby, in the
rehabilitated jailhouse, the James Michener Museum exhibits
the works of important American artists.
As late as the 19th century, few of the Delaware River Valley
villages had outgrown their agricultural roots. Unlike the
neighboring Lehigh Valley, the area's resources never fostered
industrial development. Even today it is primarily known for
its scenic, natural and agricultural landscape and well-preserved
historic towns. The Delaware Canal provided
the first easy access to markets for the valley farmers and
the people of the river villages. Locktenders' houses, stores,
inns, and warehouses were established to serve the canal traffic.
Camelback bridges traverse the canal. Today the canal and towpath,
a National Historic Landmark, are preserved by the Delaware
Canal State Park, and the River Road, which parallels the canal
from Morrisville to Easton, provide the link to 300 years of
history.
The lower Lehigh River Valley, between Blue Mountain and
South Mountain, was first settled in the 1720s by German immigrants.
They were soon followed by the Scotch-Irish, who built their
houses near Catasauqua, and by the English, who settled near
Easton. Missionaries of the Moravian Church, who had immigrated
from what is now the Czech Republic and Slovakia, came here
in 1740. They founded the towns of Nazareth, Emmaus, and Bethlehem,
as well as a number of missions on the frontier. Also, in
the mid-18th century, settlers from Connecticut migrated into
northeastern Pennsylvania, intent on establishing a colony
of their own. The town of Wilkes-Barre reflects their distinctive
influence: it was laid out in a New England pattern with a
town square and a river common along the Susquehanna.
The geological history of the Lehigh Valley formed the coal
which fueled the region's economic boom starting in the 19th
century. With the exception of small regions in Colorado and
New Mexico, Pennsylvania contains the only anthracite coal regions
found in the United States. Productive soils, vast mineral deposits,
and the Lehigh Canal created this region's landscape of farms,
early industries, and historic towns. Iron-making was one of
Pennsylvania's earliest and most important industries, and talented
iron masters became powerful and wealthy. The George
Taylor House, a National Historic Landmark, overlooking
the Lehigh River in Catasauqua, was the magnificent 18th-century
summer residence of the Master of Durham Furnace and a signer
of the Declaration of Independence. White and Hazard's Lehigh
Coal and Navigation Company took an active role in the development
of the valley by selling water power and providing incentives
for the use of anthracite. A tremendous boom came after 1840
when the first commercially successful anthracite-fueled blast
furnace for iron smelting went into production at Catasauqua.
Canal-borne fuel and new technological developments freed entrepreneurs
from rural furnace locations. Forges and factories began to
be built in the growing towns along the canal, particularly
in Easton. Ironmaking of the 19th century is interpreted at
the Lock Ridge Furnace Complex in Alburtis.
Until 1885 the Lehigh Valley was the most productive iron-making
region in America.
Bethlehem is the oldest of the valley's
three cities and strongly displays its origin as the settlement
of Moravian missionaries. A communal way of living and working
called the Economy was established, in which each member was
assigned the craft or position for which he or she had the
most talent. Men and women lived separately in large stone
and square-timbered dormitories, which remain. Produce and
high-quality manufactures supported the towns and the mission
settlements. The experiment ended by 1762. The Gemeinhaus
is the town's oldest building and is typical of the carefully
built 18th-century stone buildings lining the streets of the
historic district. The Moravian Sun Inn
has been restored and is once again being used as a hotel. A
10-acre 18th-century industrial complex is now being restored
along Monocacy Creek. The Bethlehem Steel plant extends for
several miles along the Lehigh River. Although the plant is
not open to the public, a drive along 3rd Street reveals the
massive scale of this most powerful of industries.
Easton was founded at the Forks of the Delaware in 1752
by Thomas Penn, a son of William Penn. Following Penn's innovative
concepts of town planning, as exemplified in Philadelphia,
Thomas laid out the town in a grid around a "great square."
From Revolutionary times, Easton was an important commercial
center. Buildings and homes built by merchants near the great
Square are part of the Easton Historic District.
During the 19th century the city's strategic location at the
junction of the Delaware and Lehigh Rivers, the canals, and
five major railroads contributed to it becoming one of the
nation's earliest industrial centers.
The tremendous industrial growth that followed the Civil
War increased the demand for laborers. Coal and iron companies
initially recruited German, Irish, and Welsh workers. As more
and more labor was needed, Slavs, Poles, Ukrainians, Lithuanians,
Czechs, and many others were bought over. Quarrying and stone
dressing attracted Italian masons. Wives and children of the
workers were employed in silk mills,
situated to take advantage of inexpensive labor. Distinctive
ethnic neighborhoods and mining company towns emerged. The
poor working conditions of these immigrants eventually created
a workforce sympathetic to representation by labor unions.
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Historic image of Mauch Chunk
in 1896, now known as Jim Thorpe, and the railroad and
canals that met here
Photograph courtesy of Library of Congress Prints and
Photographs Division [pan 6a19671] - Click here
for a high-resolution historic panorama view |
The experience of this labor force differed sharply from those
able to profit greatly from this industrial growth. The town
of Jim Thorpe reflects the lives of some
of the regions more affluent residents. Tucked in the narrow
valley of the Mauch Chunk Creek, exuberantly designed 19th-century
buildings reflect the wealth and activity of the town. Jim Thorpe
was the boom town of the canal era, the early headquarters of
the powerful Lehigh and Navigation Company, and a transfer point
between the mountain railroads and the canal. Hauled over the
mountain on a gravity railroad, anthracite coal was loaded into
canal boats to be transported downstream to markets in Philadelphia.
First operated in 1827, the gravity railroad was a marvel and
generated the first tourist boom for this tiny mountain town,
by carrying thousands of tourists attracted to the prospects
of mountain scenery and cool air.
The preserved Asa Packer Mansion,
a National Historic Landmark, illustrates the sudden wealth
which could be attained here. Asa Packer came to Jim Thorpe
as an apprentice boatbuilder. He died 57 years later as a
millionaire, after founding boatyards, construction and mining
companies, the Lehigh Valley Railroad, and Lehigh University.
Asa Packer built a second mansion for his son, and the Harry
Packer Mansion is now used as an inn. St. Mark's Church, of
rural Gothic design, and the restored Mauch Chunk Opera House
are remarkable period pieces. From the renovated train station,
occasional steam railroad excursions take visitors up the
scenic Lehigh Valley Gorge. The site of the Gravity Switchback
Railroad is now an 18-mile trail linking Jim Thorpe with Summit
Hill.
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