Portland Cement, Lehigh and Northampton Counties

My thoughts today are with two friends who are in the hospital; one of them I won't name out of respect for their family's privacy, but the other (who is quite open about it on his social media) is the Hometown Historian. Jon's always been a good friend to this blog, so please keep a good thought for him as he undergoes a difficult but necessary procedure.

I'm having trouble getting this week's blog post started through no particular fault of my own. No, it's the children who are to blame - my two younger cats, Kashi and Sashi, are living up to the nickname my friend Rachel gave them. She calls them "the chaos babies" and they keep trying to sit on my laptop keyboard. This is making it difficult to write, because I keep having to fix the 'additions' they're making to the post. But the history must go on, I suppose.

For this second quest of 2026, I'm staying relatively close to home and looking at the background of one of the Lehigh Valley's resident industries. I already touched on it quite some time ago, when the blog was still pretty new and I still lived within walking distance of the First Cement marker. The blog and I have since moved elsewhere, but then again, so has the cement industry.

Davies and Thomas Company, Catasauqua, Lehigh County

One final reminder: I will be signing copies of Laury's Island: The Lehigh Valley's Forgotten Park at the Laurys Station Volunteer Fire Company's annual Community Day this coming Saturday, September 21st. The event runs from noon to 8 p.m. and will include a ton of activities for kids, plus food vendors, crafters, local non-profits, live music, and more. If you're within driving distance of the Lehigh Valley and this sounds like it might interest you, check out this Facebook page for more information, including the address of the fire station.

As I said on my own Facebook, I will be there until I run out of books. Please help me run out of books. ;)

Speaking of running out, I am genuinely starting to run out of markers! I haven't been able to take too many road trips this summer for various reasons, so I haven't had a lot of opportunities to add to my stash. I do still have a few from prior trips, but I need more. I have a visit planned with a friend next week in Chester County, so that will help. In the meantime, I'm going to start occasionally updating Confessions of a Wandering History Nerd on Wednesdays instead of MQ, just to help my content stretch a bit farther, so look for a new post over there next week. (It'll be about a cemetery, for those of you who like that sort of thing.)

My hometown of Catasauqua put up a new marker last year when I wasn't looking, so for this week's regularly scheduled nonsense, let's go visit my former neighbors and see what we can learn.

Allentown State Hospital, Allentown, Lehigh County

As I mentioned last week, husband Kevin and I attended the marker dedication ceremony for Allentown State Hospital this past Friday. My longtime readers know that I usually do separate posts for the ceremonies and the markers themselves; however, this event was probably the shortest of its kind that I've ever attended, and it just made more sense for me to combine it with the history behind the marker. So as a result, this post may be a little longer than usual.

Troxell-Steckel House, Whitehall, Lehigh County

I had hoped to be starting this post with the announcement that I've got a new podcast episode ready to roll. As it happens, however, I'm still waiting on YouTube's account verification and a couple other details. (I'm trying to clean up the audio quality.) So instead we're just getting straight into the blogging.

This will be a slightly odd blog post, at least by my own standards. I have two markers for the location, because the wording is just a little different on each, but I won't be sharing pictures of the actual farmhouse. That's not to say that I don't have pictures - I do. Quite a few, in fact, and I would love to share them. But it's a peculiar quirk of the Lehigh County Historical Society that you can't publish photographs of either the Troxell-Steckel House in Whitehall or Trout Hall in Allentown without their explicit written permission, and I just never got around to requesting the permission. Maybe they wouldn't mind, but then again, maybe they would, and I don't feel like dealing with any possible legal fallout. I'd rather play by the rules. Eventually I'll remember to write and ask for permission at a time when I'm actually able to do it, and I'll come back and add my photos to the post.

Crane Iron Works, Catasauqua, Lehigh County

Before we get into this week's quest, I have a very exciting announcement. Next month I will be celebrating five years running this blog! Over the years it's transitioned from updating twice a month to every week (usually), the day of update has changed, and the whole thing has grown beyond what I had ever dared to hope. I've met fantastic people and had some extraordinary opportunities that I never expected. And a lot of is thanks to you, my loyal readers, who have accompanied me on my quests. 

There's a lot more to come, but the big news is that I'm celebrating my anniversary with a special contest. I'm still finalizing the details, especially with regards to prizes. It's going to be a virtual scavenger hunt, which will send you back through the various quests I've already completed in search of answers. I'll be launching the contest on Monday, May first, and it will run through the blog's actual anniversary on Wednesday, May 24th. Be sure to follow the blog on Facebook and/or subscribe to the email list! That'll give you first crack at signing up to participate. 

Meanwhile, as the anniversary month is about to begin, I'm going to head back to the very first quest (is that a clue? it might be!) and revisit good old David Thomas, the founding father of my hometown and one of the leading industrialists of the 19th century. My terrible sense of humor makes me really want to make a joke about how I certainly hope Crane iron works. If I have to live with that in my head, so do you.

History Endangered: Can the Shrine Be Saved?

This isn't the blog post I had intended to write today, but it's the one that I'm writing because... well, to put it bluntly, I'm upset.

A while back, my friend John, who lives in Allentown, contacted me to say that the Liberty Bell Shrine on Hamilton Street was in trouble. My regular readers may recall that the old Zion's Reformed Church is where the Liberty Bell was concealed for safekeeping during the American Revolution; for sixty years, a museum has been maintained in the church basement to celebrate this fact. Last summer they got a PHMC marker and I attended the dedication ceremony. At the time, attendance in the church was dwindling, due to an aging congregation, and they were expecting to sell the building.

John was letting me know that the museum was in danger of not surviving the forthcoming transition. As a member of the museum, I was concerned; however, due to various schedule conflicts I didn't have a chance to follow up on his tip, and what I had heard from other sources was that the buyers of the church were interested in maintaining the museum's presence, so I thought it was one of those things that would work itself out.

I have always been a little too optimistic.

Indian Jasper Quarries, Vera Cruz, Lehigh County

I've been wanting for some time to do this post, but my past attempts to visit the location in question never worked in my favor. But that ended up being a good thing! The Longswamp Township Historical Society invited their members and the general public to join them on a visit to the Upper Milford Historical Society to learn about the jasper quarries of the Lenni Lenape, and so off I went.

Our guides were John Fegley and Neil Moser of the UMHS, and as Neil put it, they "learn something new every week" in the organization. John in particular is an absolute fount of knowledge about the jasper quarries, which are so much the pride of the area that the community of Vera Cruz uses a jasper arrowhead as its emblem. 

Liberty Bell Hiding Place, Allentown, Lehigh County

We have returned triumphant from our trek to Altoona! Kevin and I collected a whopping 22 markers in five counties - Luzerne, Columbia, Montour, Centre, and Blair. (We almost added Union and Clinton Counties to the list, but I didn't have my lists handy for those.) It was a lovely trip and he very much enjoyed his birthday celebration, and was an absolute champion about asking me if I wanted to stop for markers. We visited a number of interesting places and I look forward to telling you all about them in future posts.

But first, we're picking up where I left off last time. In last week's post, I talked about my experiences attending a marker dedication earlier in the month at the "Liberty Bell Church" in Allentown. It was a fun event and I was glad to be there. Now this week, I can tell you about the actual history which led to the marker being put there.

Marker Dedication: Liberty Bell Hiding Place

Husband Kevin's birthday is this week, so we're getting ready to head out on our little road trip. The plan is to leave first thing in the morning tomorrow - if I can get my to-do list cleared! That includes updating this blog, of course, so here we are. As part of the lead-up to his birthday celebration, we attended the marker dedication in his home city of Allentown this past Saturday, where the beautiful Zion's Reformed United Church of Christ celebrated their very unique place in history.

Lots of churches have bells. Not too many have had bells underneath their floorboards.

Slate Industry, Lehigh and Northampton Counties

June is going by entirely too fast. But as an acquaintance of mine recently observed, it always seems to do that for some reason. I've been enjoying the wonderful weather - not something you have seen me post often! The temperatures have been mild and the humidity has been low, so except for my seasonal allergies, this is the kind of weather which is kindest to me.

This week's quest partially takes us back to my grandmother's hometown of Slatington, in northern Lehigh County, to examine the third and final of their historical markers. I already spoke on the subject of Slatington's namesake substance in my post about the First School Slate Factory, but the slate industry itself is more than manufacturing chalkboards. In fact, it has more than one marker, that's how big it was in this region; we're also visiting Bangor in Northampton County.

Allentown, Lehigh County

I am once again trying to unsubscribe from weather. This time it's Tropical Depression Fred, which is crawling over Pennsylvania and threatening to dump rain on us. Hopefully it passes without much incident.

While I'm attempting to move as little as possible, let's take a virtual visit to my husband's hometown. The third-largest city in the commonwealth has, unsurprisingly, multiple markers to its name, all of them with the same information, and we'll take a look at what was originally just a little rural village. However, I must apologize - I only have a picture of the marker in this post at the moment, because I'm having difficulty uploading images to Blogger. I'll come back and edit in the future to add some more pictures.

Harriet A. Baker, Allentown, Lehigh County

I've done quite a bit of traveling lately in this blog, so it's nice to return to my home county for a bit of a breather. This is one of the markers I collected on my last birthday, and the subject is an interesting one. I could wish that slavery wasn't part of our country's history, but it's one of those chapters that we have to acknowledge. The woman at the heart of today's quest was never a slave herself, but the reality of slavery impacted her for most of her life and shaped who she was and who she became.

George Taylor, Lehigh and Northampton Counties

Today, we're taking a look at the most famous resident of my Lehigh County hometown of Catasauqua. He had two different houses, and thus has two different markers, but I've never actually managed to see the one in Northampton County. Despite living in the same county, I don't get to Easton very often. Luckily, my biggest fan was in Easton some weeks ago and took some pictures for me, so I get to add another name to my list of guest photographers.

Emmaus, Lehigh County

October is here, which means that this utterly bizarre year is slowly drawing to a close. I've been trying to get out and enjoy the autumn sunshine while I can - this is actually my favorite time of year, in most respects - but it isn't always easy.

A fun little sidebar for my readers, before we get into the meat of this week's post. If you weren't aware, the PHMC has its own channel on YouTube, where they share a lot of videos related to Pennsylvania history. I recently participated in their webinar about how markers are selected and created. It was hosted by Karen Galle, my direct contact in the organization, and you can watch it here. It was really very interesting! Thanks Karen!

Now, about today's marker - it's a first for this blog. The majority of communities don't have their own specific markers, as the markers are more likely written about a person or location within the community's borders. There are some which do, however, and our subject today is one of them. I deliberately chose to write about this one today because yesterday, if he were still with us, would have been my beloved grandfather's 90th birthday, and this particular community has a connection to our family tree.

Trucker's Mill, Slatington, Lehigh County

July is almost over, which is jarring to realize when you consider what a weird year this has been. The summer is flying, almost like 2020 itself is in a hurry to be finished. I hope my readers all continue to be well and safe.

Tomorrow would have been my maternal grandmother's 89th birthday if she were still with us, which is also hard to imagine, and she and my grandfather would be celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary. (Pop always said they got married on her birthday so he didn't have to worry about remembering two different dates. I always said he was the smartest man I ever knew.) So in honor of the occasion, I thought that this week I'd wander back over to Nana's hometown of Slatington, to talk about some of Pop's ancestors. It always sounded a little peculiar in my head, but while it's my grandmother who grew up in the little borough, it's my grandfather whose family founded the place.

Lehigh County

I hope that all of my readers are safe and well during this unprecedented situation with COVID-19. My heart goes out to everyone who has been affected. 

Before we get into today's quest, I wanted to share the announcement of the 2020 historical marker selections. Of course, circumstances being what they are right now, it's hard to say when the dedication ceremonies for any of these will be taking place, but I'm looking forward to a time when that becomes possible again. I'm especially excited that the Liberty Bell Museum in Allentown will be receiving a marker, since I had been surprised to find that they didn't already have one, and I will definitely be attending that ceremony whenever it gets scheduled. And my thanks to Karen Galle for promoting this blog in the article!

Moving on to the main event here, I was looking through my remaining saved markers - I have enough material to take us through June, at least, thankfully. For today's post, I thought we might wander around the county of my own birth.

Bryden Horse Shoe Works, Catasauqua, Lehigh County

Before I get started on today's post, I wanted to share something from the PHMC - today, January 15th, is Museum Selfie Day! Do you have a picture of yourself visiting one of Pennsylvania's museums or historic sites? Share it on social media and use the hashtag #MuseumSelfie so they see it! (Somewhat ironically, I do not have any such selfies.)

Growing up in Catasauqua, two things in particular stuck with me in terms of my education. One, I became an excellent speller, mostly in self-defense. Two, the town has a peculiar place in Pennsylvania's history. I mean, it's literally the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution, thanks in part to founding father David Thomas. It has, as of this writing, six different PHMC markers, which is kind of impressive when you remember that the town is roughly a mile square in size. Most of the subjects of those markers are fairly well known to me, and indeed I've already covered Father Thomas and George Dery. However, today's subject was one that had me scratching my head a little bit, because what's so special about horseshoes?

First School Slate Factory, Slatington, Lehigh County

For this first post written in my new residence, I'm going back to the county of my birth, to the hometown of my grandmother and her sisters. Slatington gets its name from the local deposits of slate, which have been used over the years to make many things. In particular, it's been used to make school chalkboards, which is what today's post discusses.

Fort Deshler, Whitehall, Lehigh County

Hello and Happy 2019, history fans! I'm looking forward to another year of sharing with you the fascinating stories of our beloved commonwealth. To start us off, I'm back in my native Lehigh County for a marker which I pass almost every day.

A few months ago I told you about Fort Allen, up in Carbon County, which was built during the French and Indian War to help protect the local settlers from Native American raids. In fact, Pennsylvania was home to quite a number of similar forts, most of which are gone. One of these stood in Whitehall, near what today is Route 145, and it was called Fort Deshler.

Dery Silk Mill, Catasauqua, Lehigh County

I ended up doing this week's blog post a few days later than usual, on account of some bad weather in my area. My internet was extremely unreliable. I appreciate the patience shown by my Facebook followers, and now I'm taking you back to my hometown of Catasauqua for a look at another famous industrialist.

As I mentioned when talking about David Thomas, I grew up in the tiny borough which is proud to be known as the birthplace of the industrial revolution. The first thirtymumble years of my life were spent on Race Street, the town's main drag, which is also home to the Dery Silk Mill - a cornerstone of the company which was once the largest single private producer of silk in the entire world.