A history of Catasauqua in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania
At a regularly called meeting of the Historical Committee of the Old Home Week Association, held in the parlors of the Phoenix Fire Co., November 29, 1913, James F. Lambert and Henry J. Reinhard were unanimously elected editors of a proposed History of Catasaucpa, which it was resolved to publish.
At a meeting of the same Committee held in the Directors' Room of the High School Building, May 6, 1914, it was resolved that one thousand copies of the History be printed.
History is a written statement of what is known; an account of that which exists or has existed. The task of the historian lies in his search for authenticity. The editors of this volume addressed letters and series of questions to practically every industry and individual in Catasauqua, inquiring after definite data, in order that they might make the subject-matter authoritative. "Many men, many minds," is verified by the fact that more than once have they heard two persons of equal intelligence relate the same incident along such vastly different lines that it did not at all seem like the same incident. May the reader who will discover fancied inaccuracies be sure to balance well his own mind and recollect that there are other minds, both clear and strong, that see or recall the incident from a different angle.
Table of Contents
CHAPTER I. - CATASAUQUA
CHAPTER II. - INDUSTRIES
CHAPTER III. - CHURCHES
CHAPTER IV. - SCHOOLS
CHAPTER V. - FRATERNAL AND SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS
CHAPTER VI. - BANKS
CHAPTER VII. - TRADESMEN AND CRAFTSMEN
CHAPTER VIII. - HOTELS
CHAPTER IX. - PROFESSIONAL MEN
CHAPTER X. - BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
CHAPTER XI. - REMINISCENCES
CHAPTER XII. - BOROUGH OFFICIALS
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Among the early settlers of this tract were: Thomas Armstrong, Robert Gibson, Robert Clendennin, Joseph Wright, John Elliott, Andrew Mann, George and Nathaniel Taylor, all Irish names, showing that the town is situated within the bounds of the original Irish settlement which extended from Siegfried's to Koehler's locks, along the Lehigh, and eastward, along irregular lines, to the vicinage of Bath.
The advent of the Pennsylvania German however soon brought about many changes. While his Irish neighbors were discussing the possibilities of impending wars, he was content to toil and dig. This enabled him soon to offer prices for the land about him. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, not a single Irish land-owner was left along the river, nor within two or three miles of it.
The Irish having sold out, moved westward. Some settled in Central Pennsylvania while others found locations in the neighboring state of Ohio. Here land was much cheaper.
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