First Cement, Coplay, Lehigh County

The subject of this blog post is unique in that it's the only one of these historical markers which I can visit by taking a fairly short and safe walk. The back of my residence is connected to Saylor Park, home of the Saylor Kilns, by the Ironton Rail Trail, where I've spent a lot of time since I moved here. A quick walk, or an even quicker bicycle ride, brings me into the little community of Coplay.

Despite the way it's spelled, Coplay is pronounced COP-lee. I recently learned the origin of the name; the borough is named for the Coplay Creek, which runs near it, and the creek in turn was named after Kolapechka, the son of Native American chieftain Paxanosa, who lived near the creek's origin point in Schnecksville. (As you might guess, growing up in the Lehigh Valley sort of requires you to be a very good speller.) Anyway, Coplay is a very small borough, with a strong industrial history that's partly due to the influence of our old buddy David Thomas. But that's for another day; today we're not talking about iron, but cement.

(Thanks to Facebook's Scott Nagy for pointing out a small error in this article.)

Gnadenhütten, Lehighton, Carbon County

As promised on Facebook, I'm making my first foray into Carbon County with this article, but also keeping with the Moravian theme of the last one. Gnadenhütten (or Gnadenhuetten if you write it without the umlaut) is a German word literally meaning "huts of grace," and this was the name given to many settlements established by the German Moravian church. 

Two such settlements by this name were formed in North America, both of which came to unfortunate ends. "The Gnadenhütten Massacre" specifically refers to the incident in Ohio, in 1782. But a few decades earlier, here in Pennsylvania, there was a similar but smaller massacre in what today is known as Lehighton.

Edited 2/23/2024: This blog post is now available as a podcast episode! Learn even more facts about Gnadenhütten by downloading the episode today at Audio.com, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.

Moravian Cemetery, Bethlehem, Northampton County

By popular decree - meaning that I polled people on the Facebook page and this won by a landslide - my second post will cover the Moravian Cemetery in Bethlehem! The Moravian quarter is, of course, one of the most famous historical areas in the region; the Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites organization is working on getting Bethlehem declared a UNESCO historical site because of this. That will be pretty awesome if it happens.

Edited 2/29/2024: This blog post is now available as a podcast episode! Learn even more facts about God's Acre by listening today on Spotify or your preferred podcast provider.