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Biographies
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Lehigh County
The following is from the book,
History of the Counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania by Alfred Mathews and Austin N. Hungerford, 1884:
"Erection of Lehigh County: That part of the territory of Northampton lying west of the Lehigh, south of the
Blue Ridge, and bounded on the southwest by the county of Berks, had by 1810 so increased in population that the
project of securing its organization as a separate county naturally arose in the minds of its most active men.
The people settled here were so far away from Easton that the journey thither to transact business was a great
inconvenience to them. Besides that, Allentown ahd for a number of years aspired to become a seat of local government,
and in early days her citizens had even hoped and endeavored to have the town made the capital of Northampton County.
these considerations led to the petitioning of the General Assembly for the organization of a new county. The project
met with favor, and upon March 6, 1812, the Assembly passed an act erecting Lehigh County. It was decreed by that
law -
"That all that part of Northampton County, lying and being
within the following townships, to wit, the townships of Lynn, Heidelberg, Lowhill, Weissenberg, Macungie, Upper
Milford, South Whitehall, North Whitehall, Northampton, Salisbury, Upper Saucon and that part of Hanover within
the following bounds to wit, beginning at the Bethlehem line where it joins the river Lehigh, thence along the
said line until it intersects the road leading from Bethlehem to the Lehigh Water Gap, thence along said road to
Allen township line, thence along the line of Allen township westwardly to the Lehigh, shall be and the same are
hereby, according to their present lines, declared to be erected into a county henceforth to be called Lehigh." "
Its county seat is Allentown.
Lehigh County is named after the Lehigh River, which runs through the county's two largest cities, Allentown and
Bethlehem. It is located in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania, in the eastern part of the state.
Recent Updates
May 2013: News: George Kern Kills Me and Himself - Submited by Peggy Thompson
March 2013: Obituary - Clarence Bumgardner - Submitted by Kathy McDaniel
December 2012: 1883 Pensioners - Transcribed by Debbie Ovechka
June 2012: Added the 1840 Veteran's
Census for Lehigh County, Also added Chapter V to the History of Lehigh County by J. J. Hauser, 1902
January 2012: History of the Forty-Seventh Regiment P. V.
with list of dead included (Civil War) Church History and Records where available for the following churchs:; Egypt
Churches -General History; Egypt Reformed Church History and some records; Egypt Lutheran Church History and some
records; Jerusalem Eastern ; Salisbury Church; St Paul's (Blue Church) Evangelical Lutheran Church; St. Peter's
Lutheran and Reformed Churches"A" Surname Bios added from the History of Lehigh County PA and a Genealogical
and Biographical Record of It's Families, Vol II;
SURROUNDING COUNTIES
Carbon County (North)
Bucks County (Southeast)
Berks County (Southwest)
Northampton County (Northeast)
Montgomery County (South)
Schuylkill County (West)
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County
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