(Photo by Richard F. Hope)

Sigal Building (342-48 Northampton Street, Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society, formerly Able Opera House (344 Northampton Street), and Sigal’s Bridal Gallery).

This is substantially the Original Town Lot No.171, as surveyed by William Parsons when Easton was formed in 1752.1 The Lot was patented by the Penn Family Proprietors to Jacob Meiner (sometimes spelled Miner), a “cordwainer” (shoemaker),2 in 1754 for a ground rent (or quit rent) of 7 shillings sterling, payable on the 1st of March of each year.3

1 Compare A.D. Chidsey, Jr., The Penn Patents in the Forks of the Delaware Plan of Easton, Map 2 (Vol. II of Publications of the Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society 1937) with Northampton County Tax Records map, www.ncpub.org. The modern property has a 50’ frontage on Northampton Street, not including the alley running down the eastern side. We know that 6’ of this alley came from this property, when the alley was formed in 1798. Agreement, Jacob Mixsell and Jacob Opp, E2 312 (22 Aug. 1798). These measurements combine to equal the original 56’ Northampton Street frontage of the Original Town Lot No.171.

2 See Deed, William (Eleanor) Ledlie to Lewis Gordon, C1 50 (7 Oct. 1773)(recitals); A.D. Chidsey, Jr., A Frontier Village 244 (Vol. III of Publications of The Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society 1940)(Entry No. 15).

3 Thomas Penn and Richard Penn to Jacob Meiner, Patent Book A18 259 (14 Mar. 1754); see Deed, Jacob (Catharine) Meiner to Bartholomew Kelsey, B1 243 (13 Apr. 1756)(recitals);

Easton’s First “Pretentious” Stone House

Meiner’s patent required him to built a “one substantial Dwelling House . . . Twenty Feet square at the least” on the property, “with a good Chimney, of Brick or Stone”.4 Meiner in fact “erected and built a Good Stone Messuage or Dwelling House two Stories high” on the site,5 which was “the first pretentious house” in Easton.6 After owning the property for just over two years, Meiner in 1756 “became infatuated with the grandeur of Wyoming Valley, [and] disposed of his Easton residence”7 by selling it for £90 to Bartholomew Kelsey, a “gentleman” residing in Easton.8

A.D. Chidsey, Jr., The Penn Patents in the Forks of the Delaware Plan of Easton, Map 2 (Vol. II of Publications of the Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society 1937); Deed, William (Eleanor) Ledlie to Lewis Gordon, C1 50 (7 Oct. 1773)(recitals); William J. Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car 12 (Express Printing Co. and Harmony Press 1911, reprinted 1984)(Jacob Miner).

A. D. Chidsey’s A Frontier Village states that John Meiner (not Jacob) “secured a patent for this lot and built the house” in 1754. A.D. Chidsey, Jr., A Frontier Village 244 (Vol. III of Publications of The Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society 1940)(Entry No. 15). However, Chidsey himself lists the patent holder as Jacob Meiner in The Penn Patents (for Lot 171, cited above), so the name “John” is apparently an error.

See also Northampton County Warrant No.M32 issued to Jacob Meiner, Patent Book A18 259 (11 Feb. 1754, returned 8 Mar. 1754), indexed online for Northampton County Warrants p.112 Warrant No.32, survey copied at Survey Book C115 277 (returned 8 Mar. 1754).

4 Thomas Penn and Richard Penn to Jacob Meiner, Patent Book A18 259 (14 Mar. 1754); see Deed, Jacob (Catharine) Meiner to Bartholomew Kelsey, B1 243 (13 Apr. 1756)(recitals).

5 See Deed, Jacob (Catharine) Meiner to Bartholomew Kelsey, B1 243 (13 Apr. 1756); see also Deed, Bartholomew Kelsey to Ann Daugherty, B1 244 (1 May 1767)(description of house); Deed, Ann Daugherty to William Ledlie, B1 246 (13 Oct. 1767)(same).

See also William J. Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car 12 (Express Printing Co. and Harmony Press 1911, reprinted 1984). Heller indicates that the site was “on the site where the present Opera House stands,” which would have been the Abel Opera House when Heller’s book was published in 1911. Heller also indicates that it was on an alley at the Opera House Court: the modern tax map does snow an alley running just East of the property, which the Director of the Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society states is known to them as “Abel Court” (presumably for Edward Abel, builder of the Abel Opera House). See Northampton County Tax Records, www.ncpub.org; Interview by Andria Zaia (Curator) with Colleen Lavdar within hearing of Richard F. Hope (10 Dec. 2008). All of this comports with the plot shown in A.D. Chidsey, Jr., A Frontier Village 234-35 (Vol. III of Publications of The Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society 1940)(Entry No. 15).

6 Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car, supra at 12. 7 Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car, supra at 12. Heller does not

mention the sale to Kelsey, but only records that the property “finally . . . became the home of Louis Gordon.” He states (erroneously) in footnote 2 that Gordon purchased the property from Jacob Miner.

8 Deed, Jacob (Catharine) Meiner to Bartholomew Kelsey, B1 243 (13 Apr. 1756); see Deed, Ann Daugherty to William Ledlie, B1 246 (13 Oct. 1767)(recitals identify prior seller as Jacob Miner, cordwainer); Deed, William (Eleanor) Ledlie to Lewis Gordon, C1 50 (7 Oct. 1773)(recitals).

2

By 1767, Bartholomew Kelsey had moved to Philadelphia, and in that year he sold his Easton house for £150 to Ann Daugherty, a Philadelphia widow.9 She promptly resold it after only a few months, for the same price, to William Ledlie, an Easton merchant,10 and an additional few months later took a mortgage on the property for a total of £190 that Ledlie owed her. This loan was due to be paid in full by 27 March 1769; it was in fact apparently paid (since no Sheriff’s sale or other foreclosures are recorded). Ledlie then proceeded in August of that year to record all three of the Northampton County Deeds that underlay his title.11 William Ledlie was apparently the brother12 of Easton’s first doctor, Andrew Ledlie, who lived in the NE corner of Centre Square.13 This relationship to the only doctor in town may have been useful: although William Ledlie failed to have himself named Collector of Excise in 1767,14 he was successful in becoming the Coroner of Northampton County in 1769 and 1770.15

By 1773, however, William Ledlie had moved to Philadelphia, and he sold the Easton house for £250 to Lewis Gordon, Northampton County’s first resident lawyer.16 They shared a Scot-Irish background: William Ledlie was apparently from the North of Ireland,17 while Gordon was a Scottish immigrant.18 A Gordon family tradition holds that Gordon (a native of Scotland) had been “out with the Pretender in the ‘Forty-Five’”19 – that is, he had joined the forces of “Bonnie Prince Charlie” Stuart in his unsuccessful rebellion against English King George II in 1745, which was crushed at the Battle of Culloden, after which the rebel clans and much of the Highlands were brutalized by a subsequent British Army occupation. Historian A.D. Chidsey, Jr. rejects this tradition, because Gordon secured warrants for three land tracts in Pennsylvania dated 1 Nov. 1745, and those documents referred to him as a merchant from Philadelphia, suggesting that he was already in America at the time of the Bonnie Prince’s rising.20

9 Deed, Bartholomew Kelsey to Ann Daugherty, B1 244 (1 May 1767)(Kelsey identified as being from Philadelphia); see Deed, William (Eleanor) Ledlie to Lewis Gordon, C1 50 (7 Oct. 1773)(recitals); Edward Sieger, “Museum weds part of city’s past” (Box “Centuries of History”), EXPRESS-TIMES, Fri., 24 Oct. 2008, p.B1, at B3, cols.2-3.

10 Deed, Ann Daugherty to William Ledlie, B1 246 (13 Oct. 1767); see Deed, William (Eleanor) Ledlie to Lewis Gordon, C1 50 (7 Oct. 1773)(recitals).

11 See Deed, Jacob (Catharine) Meiner to Bartholomew Kelsey, B1 243 (13 Apr. 1756)(recorded 17 Aug. 1769); Deed, Bartholomew Kelsey to Ann Daugherty, B1 244 (1 May 1767)(recorded 18 Aug. 1769); Deed, Ann Daughter to William Ledlie, B1 246 (13 Oct. 1767)(recorded 23 Aug. 1769).

12 See Henry F. Marx (ed.), VII Abstracts of Wills of Northampton County 1752 – 1840 73 (Easton Public Library 1935); accord, Charles McIntire, Physic and Its Practitioners in Old Northampton: an Historical Sketch for the Jubilee Meeting of the Medical Society of Northampton County, 17 (paper read 13 June 1899, first printed in Lehigh Valley Medical Magazine, reprinted by Chemical Pub. Co. 1900).

13 See separate www.WalkingEaston.com entry for 62 Centre Square, regarding Dr. Andrew Ledlie.

14 Charles F. Hoban (ed.), Votes of Assembly, Pennsylvania Archives, Eighth Series, Vol.VII (Pennsylvania Bureau of Publications 1935), at 5950 (Ledlie’s Petition received 9 Jan. 1767) and 5984 (old Collector reappointed on 9 Feb. 1767, despite Ledlie’s Petition).

15 State of Pennsylvania, Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, Colonial Records (Theo. Fenn & Co. 1852), at 623 (listing of 5 Oct. 1769) and 688 (listing of 4 Oct. 1770).

3

In Philadelphia, Gordon became a clerk to Richard Peters (the Secretary of the Governor’s Council in Philadelphia). Peters was instrumental in securing William Parsons’s appointment as Prothonotary of Northampton County, when Parsons founded Easton for the Penns in 1752.21 (The Prothonotary, as the principal administrative official to the English-speaking court system in a German-speaking county, was the “most considerable personage” in the new town.22) Peters then sent Lewis Gordon, his clerk, to Easton “as a check on Parsons”,23 to become Northampton County’s first resident lawyer.24 Gordon was also to be Parsons’s expected successor as Prothonotary.25 Not surprisingly (given this relationship), “[c]onsiderable friction existed” between Gordon and Parsons.26

In Easton, Lewis Gordon lived in a stone house built at the SE corner of Northampton Street and Centre Square.27 Two years after Easton was founded, the French and Indian War began. In 1755, Gordon accompanied the party of some 50 men who failed to save the settlement of Gnadenhütten from Indian massacre, and succeeded only in recovering their bodies. Either the Indian dangers, or his disgust with Parsons, caused Lewis Gordon to move to Bordentown by 1 April 1756.28 He also continued his legal practice back in Easton, and attended the Easton Indian Conferences (although not in an official capacity).29 When Parsons died in 1757, the Governor initially appointed his friend Charles Swaine as Prothonotary, but after Swaine’s departure Gordon received the Prothonotary appointment in 1759.30 The following year (1760), Gordon obeyed orders to make a fact-finding trip among the settlers from Connecticut who were moving into the upper Delaware Valley. His investigation was apparently made while he and his party posed as poor farmers. His report served as the basis for Pennsylvania’s petition to the King and Council for relief31 -- an early legal step that led to the Pennamite Wars which flared intermittently in the region for decades.32

Lewis Gordon moved back to Easton in the early 1760s.33 He became a County Justice in 1764.34 In 1769, he went to the Wyoming Valley to arrest Connecticut settlers, in the ongoing Pennamite dispute. His principal, Thomas Penn, later complained about his hourly charges over the matter.35 In addition to his lucrative government office and law practice, Gordon also was able to lease the profitable Easton ferry over the Delaware and Lehigh Rivers. He became one of the wealthiest men in the County.36 In 1773, he purchased Meiner’s “pretentious” house on Northampton Street.37 In 1776, he also acquired rights to the vacant lot next door, at the SE corner with Hamilton (later 4th Street.38

Politically, Gordon cautiously championed the American colonists’ complaints against the British government in London. He served for six months as Chairman of the local Committee of Correspondence,39 and then on 21 December 1774 was elected Treasurer (later also appointed Chairman) of the successor Committee of Observation and Inspection. This Committee essentially became the government of the County during the early days of the Revolution.40 Gordon attended (and presided over) Committee meetings until 30 May 1776, when he was suddenly “indisposed” for the formal vote to support complete independence from Britain.41 He then resumed the Committee’s Chair until 2 December, when he informed the Committee that he would no longer be able to attend meetings.42 This was just a few days after British General Howe offered amnesty to colonists who would reaffirm their allegiance to the crown: an attractive offer as his

4

professional army moved through New Jersey after crushing Washington’s colonials in New York.43

Although Gordon did not renew his allegiance to his King, his conduct cast sufficient doubt upon his political reliability, that the operation of the strategic Easton ferry was taken over by the Revolutionaries in January.44 He was also called to answer questions before the Committee. After resisting this call for six months on pleas of ill health, he was arrested and placed on parole.45 Several captured British officers were also billeted in his house.46 Although the terms of Gordon’s parole were very liberal, allowing him to travel anywhere within 6 miles of Easton except to New Jersey, the situation, his failing health, and his irritation at the wartime antics of the local Easton citizenry caused him to remain mostly at home.47 Lewis Gordon’s oldest son, John, was also arrested and investigated for suspected Toryism, in part because of his visits to British occupied Philadelphia to visit his sister, Isabella Affleck, married to a suspected Tory (see below).48 Much of the Gordon Family’s political trouble appears to have arisen because Lewis Gordon became the personal enemy of “local dictator”49 Robert Levers, the principal Revolutionary official in charge of Northampton County who succeeded Gordon as Prothonotary.50 They had both been young clerks for Richard Peters in Philadelphia many years before, and Gordon regarded Levers as an intellectual lightweight.51 They had been involved in a business dispute as early as 1768, resulting in a 5-1/2 shilling debt from Levers that Gordon left in his estate when he died, years later.52

When Levers succeeded Gordon as Prothonotary in 1776, Gordon had refused Levers’s demands that he turn over certain court papers, on the plea that they were lodged with him personally by the King’s attorney – and this argument was sufficient to defeat Levers’s attempt to obtain a court order otherwise.53 Beginning in 1777, Levers persistently demanded that Gordon take a loyalty oath to the revolutionary government of Pennsylvania, and Gordon refused.54 Despite Levers’s advice to Philadelphia that Gordon was a “fixed, determined enemy of the American States”, Lewis Gordon was released from his parole in April 1778.55 In May, Gordon took the oath of allegiance to Pennsylvania – just a few days before the deadline required to avoid confiscation of his estate.56 He then died during the summer.57 Three prominent Easton citizens were appointed as guardians for Gordon’s two younger sons, who were then still minors. The guardians included:58

o Robert Traill, another Scotsman who had studied law with Lewis Gordon, and then became a member and the clerk of the Northampton County Committee of Safety and Observation.59 Traill was later Northampton County Sheriff (1781-84), member of Pennsylvania’s Supreme Executive Council (1786-87), and Associate Judge of Northampton County (1790-92).60

o Henry Fullert, who had been High Sheriff of Northampton County from 1774-77.61

o Henry Allshouse, original Easton settler and first carpenter,62 Allshouse was one of the five trustees who purchased the land in Centre Square for the construction of the first Northampton Courthouse (built in 1765-66),63 and he did the carpentry to build the building, for which he received wages of 4s. 6d per day.64 He also donated five days of carpentry work on the original school house built by William Parsons.65

5

Picture, with caption by William J. Heller.66 Building No. 6 (“Louis Gordon’s Home”) is the Meiner House

6

The Tangled Lewis Gordon Estate

Lewis Gordon’s will gave equal shares of his estate (including this property) as tenants in common to his five children: three boys (John, Alexander and William) and two girls (Elizabeth and Isabella). The oldest boy, John, was appointed co-executor, with the help of another man.67 This relatively simple will, written by a lawyer, provides a stark example of what can go wrong to complicate an estate.

For a starter, it appears that John Gordon used his executor’s position to appropriate a large amount of personal property from the estate. He was called to

67 Northampton County Orphans Court, File No. 853 (will proved 22 Sept. 1778). The Orphans Court microfilm record is largely obstructed and illegible, but the operative text of the will was transcribed and included as a recital in the Indenture Tripartite, Isaac (Mary) Willis, Thomas (Margaret) Newman, and Ann Affleck; and George Taylor and Jacob Arndt Jr., C2 536 (28 Apr. 1796).

See generally Armistead C. Gordon, Gordons in Virginia 109 (William M. Clemens 1918)(available on Heritage Quest)(oldest son of Lewis Gordon was John Gordon, born in Easton in 1755).

16 Deed, William (Eleanor) Ledlie to Lewis Gordon, C1 50 (7 Oct. 1773); see Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car, supra at 12 & n.2 (“Louis” Gordon); Chidsey, A Frontier Village, supra at 234-35, 243-44 (see Chidsey’s Map Nos. 11 and 15). Heller states (erroneously) that Gordon purchased the house from Jacob Miner.

Heller states that Gordon purchased the Northampton Street house upon his return to Easton, but the Deed for that purchase lists Gordon as being already an Easton resident, apparently referring to his ownership of the house on Centre Square. See Deed, William (Eleanor) Ledlie to Lewis Gordon, C1 50 (7 Oct. 1773). It is unclear whether he stayed in the Centre Square house before moving to Northampton Street.

A.D. Chidsey, in A Frontier Village, supra at 244, makes a confusing reference to Lewis Gordon securing “a deed from the Penns for the vacant lot adjoining and at the southwest corner of Northampton and Hamilton Streets” in 1776. This statement seems only intended to show that the Hamilton Street property was a vacant lot, and did not contain any house, and therefore was not the location of the house where Lewis Gordon resided on parole during the Revolution. The ambiguous phrasing of the paragraph, however, is open to misinterpretation.

17 See Charles McIntire, Physic and Its Practitioners in Old Northampton: an Historical Sketch for the Jubilee Meeting of the Medical Society of Northampton County, 17-18 (paper read 13 June 1899, first printed in Lehigh Valley Medical Magazine, reprinted by Chemical Pub. Co. 1900)(Dr. Andrew Ledlie was probably from the North of Ireland, and William Ledlie was probably his older brother).

18 A.D. Chidsey, Jr., A Frontier Village: Pre-Revolutionary Easton 144 (Vol. III of Publications of the Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society 1940)(Chidsey’s Map Nos. 11 and 15). Chidsey’s conclusion was based upon Gordon’s charter membership in the St. Andrew’s Society of Philadelphia, whose members were required to be either native born Scotsmen, or sons of native born Scotsmen. The Society’s purpose was to aid poor immigrants from Scotland. See also Francis S. Fox, Sweet Land of Liberty 37 (Pennsylvania State University Press 2003). Gordon was elected Secretary of the Society in 1752, but resigned to move to Easton. Chidsey, A Frontier Village, supra at 145.

19 Armistead C. Gordon, Gordons in Virginia 108, 117-18 (William M. Clemens 1918)(available on Heritage Quest).

7

account in 1788. A meeting was convened between himself, his brother Alexander, and his co-executor, to evaluate the property taken. During this meeting, the original inventory of this property was left on a table while the three were “called down to dinner”. When they returned, it had mysteriously disappeared, and the inventory had to be reconstructed from memory.68

Aside from bother John’s activities as co-executor, the 1/5 shares of the two Gordon girls were further complicated by their early deaths, each after producing large families. Daughter Elizabeth Gordon Taylor had five children, while her sister Isabella Gordon Affleck had six.

The oldest Gordon daughter, Elizabeth, married James Taylor, who was himself the oldest son of Easton’s Declaration of Independence signer George Taylor. Husband

20 Chidsey, A Frontier Village, supra at 144; see William henry Egle (ed.), Provincial papers: Warrantees of Land in the Several Counties of the State of Pennsylvania 1730 – 1898, vol. XXIV of Pennsylvania Archives Third Series, 129 (Wm. Stanley Ray, State Printer 1898)(three warrant in Bucks Co. all dated 1 Nov. 1745). Historian Francis S. Fox states that Gordon settled in Philadelphia “Around 1742”, although his footnote for the statement does not detail his reasoning. Francis S. Fox, Sweet Land of Liberty 37, 178 n.1 (Pennsylvania State University Press 2003).

21 Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car, supra at 12 n.2. 22 Francis S. Fox, Sweet Land of Liberty 37-38, 179 n.8 (Pennsylvania State University

Press 2003), quoting Alexander Graydon, Memoirs of His Own Times with Reminiscences of the Men and Events of the Revolution 102 (Philadelphia 1811).

23 Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car, supra at 12 n.2; see also Chidsey, a Frontier Village, supra at 145-46 (Gordon moved to Easton in 1752, and was authorized to practice law in the first court session there on 16 July 1752).

24 A.D. Chidsey, Jr., A Frontier Village 143-69 (Vol. III of Publications of The Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society 1940).

25 Fox, Sweet Land of Liberty, supra at 37. 26 Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car, supra at 12 n.2. 27 See Chidsey, A Frontier Village, supra at 149, 234-35, 242-44 (Chidsey’s Map Nos. 11

and 15). Chidsey (at 168 n.13) cites to a Deed recorded in Northampton County at C1 472. However, it appears that Gordon did not obtain official title to the Centre Square property from the Penn Family. See A.D. Chidsey, Jr., The Penn Patents in the Forks of the Delaware Plan of Easton, Map 2 (Vol. II of Publications of the Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society 1937)(Patent obtained by Michael Hart, who purchased it from Lewis Gordon). See generally separate www.WalkingEaston.com entry for 1 Centre Square.

28 Chidsey, A Frontier Village, supra at 147-48 (attributes the move to the War dangers; date based on Gordon’s legal business advertisement in the Pennsylvania Gazette); see Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car, supra at 12 n.2 (attributes the move to disgust with Parsons).

29 Chidsey, A Frontier Village, supra at 149. 30 Fox, Sweet Land of Liberty, supra at 39; see Chidsey, A Frontier Village, supra at 150

(Gordon’s appointment in 1759).

Fox suggests that Governor admired Swaine as an explorer of Hudson’s Bay and book writer, but “More to the point, the governor admired one of Swaine’s female relatives who had accompanied the governor from England to America.”

8

James Taylor was a ne’er-do-well, who frequently required financial help from his father, and died in 1775.69 His widow decided that her children “ought to be supported and maintained out of my Share or Portion of the Estate of my said dead Father” (Lewis Gordon), and so deeded half of her 1/5 interest in her Gordon’s estate to the children’s grandfather, George Taylor, Sr., on condition that he take over all support for the children “without any further burden or Expense on me”.70 Instead of simplifying matters, however, George Taylor Sr. died in 1781, apparently leaving his interest in the property to an estate that was so involved that it was not completely untangled and settled for eighteen years (until 1799), and then found to be insolvent.71 By 1783, Elizabeth Gordon Taylor herself was dead, leaving her involved affairs to be sorted out amongst her children.72 The problem of child care was partially resolved when the oldest of the

Mrs. Swaine made an impression in Easton, by borrowing a tea service from Mrs. Steadman of Philadelphia (evidently in preparation to receive guests during the Easton Treaty Conferences), and then refusing to return a silver tankard that had caught her fancy. She was sued. See M.S. Henry, History of the Lehigh Valley 74 (Bixler & Corwin 1860).

31 Chidsey, A Frontier Village, supra at 151-52. 32 See generally separate www.WalkingEaston.com entry for the Hooper House at 501

Northampton Street. 33 Compare Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car, supra at 12 n.2

(returned in 1773) with Chidsey, A Frontier Village, supra at 149 and Armistead C. Gordon, Gordons in Virginia 117-18 (William M. Clemens 1918)(available on Heritage Quest)(Gordon’s son Aaron born in Bordentown, NJ in 1857, son William born in Bordentown, NJ in 1860, and son Alexander George born in Easton in 1762). The 1773 Deed for the Meiner house property (see below) refers to Lewis Gordon as already being an Easton resident at the time of that purchase, contrary to Heller’s assertion.

34 Chidsey, A Frontier Village, supra at 150. 35 Chidsey, A Frontier Village, supra at 153-54. 36 Chidsey, A Frontier Village, supra at 154. 37 Deed, William (Eleanor) Ledlie to Lewis Gordon, C1 50 (7 Oct. 1773). 38 Chidsey, A Frontier Village, supra at 244 (Number 15 – “vacant lot”); Patent, John Penn

the Younger and John Penn the Elder to Lewis Gordon, Patent Book AA9 228 (16 May 1776), recited in Deed, Alexander Gordon to Thomas Affleck, B2 64 (8 May 1784).

39 Francis S. Fox, Sweet Land of Liberty 12-13, 44-45 (Pennsylvania State University Press 2003)(from June 1774).

40 Chidsey, A Frontier Village, supra at 157-58; see also Fox, Sweet Land of Liberty, supra at 44-45 (states Gordon was appointed Chairman); William H. Egle (ed.), II Pennsylvania in the War of the Revolution 1775 – 1783, in Pennsylvania Archives Second Series vol. xiv, at 563 (Clarence M. Busch, State Printer 1895)(listing of representatives elected to Northampton County Committee of Observation, including Lewis Gordon – listed first, Jacob Arndt, and George Taylor).

41 Fox, Sweet Land of Liberty, supra at 48. 42 Chidsey, A Frontier Village, supra at 159, 161. 43 Fox, Sweet Land of Liberty, supra at 50-51. 44 See Chidsey, a Frontier Village, supra at 162-63. Robert levers, Gordon’s successor and

enemy, complained about the lax operation of the ferry.

9

Taylor girls, Ann, married Samuel Swann of Powhatton, Virginia, and made a home there for her brothers George and James, Jr.73 But this did nothing to clean up the property subdivision, with each of the five Taylor children’s two 1/20 interests in Lewis Gordon’s property (one directly from their mother, and another with a short ownership detour through their Grandfather, George Taylor).

Meanwhile, Lewis Gordon’s second daughter, Isabella Gordon, married cabinet maker Thomas Affleck of Philadelphia,74 and had six children of her own. She, too, had died by 1783.75 Fortunately, her husband Thomas Affleck was a man of affairs, and well able to take charge. He was born in 1745 in Scotland,76 and trained in England as a cabinet maker. He specialized in Chippendale style furniture, whose characteristics

45 Fox, Sweet Land of Liberty, supra at 51; see Chidsey, A Frontier Village, supra at 163-64.

Chidsey points out that the letter accompanying the arrest order gave, as its sole reason, that all the officers of the King in Philadelphia had been arrested and this policy was being extended to Easton as well. Chidsey, A Frontier Village, supra at 163-64. Francis Fox, however, notes that in replacing 9 of 11 colonial Prothonotaries, Lewis Gordon was the only one who was arrested. Fox, Sweet Land of Liberty, supra, at 51.

46 Chidsey, A Frontier Village, supra at 244. 47 Chidsey, A Frontier Village, supra at 163-64; see also Heller, Historic Easton from the

Window of a Trolley-Car, supra at 12. 48 Chidsey, A Frontier Village, supra at 165-66. 49 B.F. Fackenthal, Jr.,”The Homes of George Taylor, Signer of the Declaration of

Independence”, Paper read before the George Taylor Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, at Easton, PA, 6 Dec. 1922 (copy at Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society), obtained online from Penn State University Libraries, Digital Library Collections, 128.118.88.226/cdm4/page_text.php?CISOROOT=/digitalbks2&CISOPTR=21345&CISOBOX=0&OBJ=21391&ITEM=89 (copy begins at p.114), at 1 (accessed 17 Dec. 2008)(“local dictator”); Heller, Historic Easton From the Window of a Trolley-Car, supra at 7-8 (“dictator”).

50 Chidsey, A Frontier Village, supra at 162-63, 167. 51 Fox, Sweet Land of Liberty, supra at 51.52 Fox, Sweet Land of Liberty, supra at 7 and 170 nn.34, 35.53 Fox, Sweet Land of Liberty, supra at 20. 54 Fox, Sweet Land of Liberty, supra at 51.55 Chidsey, A Frontier Village, supra at 167. 56 Fox, Sweet Land of Liberty, supra at 51; see also Chidsey, A Frontier Village, supra at

167-68 (does not mention the potential land confiscation). 57 Chidsey, A Frontier Village, supra at 168. 58 Northampton County Orphans Court Docket Book, Roll #1, at 280 (also indexed as

D280) (22 Dec. 1778). 59 Fox, Sweet Land of Liberty, supra at 45. 60 B.F. Fackenthal, Jr.,”The Homes of George Taylor, Signer of the Declaration of

Independence”, Paper read before the George Taylor Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, at Easton, PA, 6 Dec. 1922 (copy at Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society), obtained online from Penn State University Libraries, Digital Library Collections,

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included “Marlborough legs and elaborate carving.” Thomas Affleck immigrated to Philadelphia in 1763, and “is considered by many scholars to be leader of the Philadelphia cabinetmakers.” “[M]any of his furniture pieces can be traced to the wealthy and most important citizens of Philadelphia”, due in part to Affleck’s meticulous business record-keeping.77 His furniture “for Governor John Penn at Lansdowne and his Sixth Street house brought an unparalleled urbanity of Chinese Chippendale pattern to Philadelphia furniture”, while in turn the Philadelphia school of furniture makers had “certain and undisputed supremacy” over the other American makers of the time.78 Because of Thomas Affleck’s suspected Tory sympathies, Affleck (along with others) was arrested in the Fall of 177779 before the British Army occupied Philadelphia80, and

128.118.88.226/cdm4/page_text.php?CISOROOT=/digitalbks2&CISOPTR=21345&CISOBOX=0&OBJ=21391&ITEM=89 (copy begins at p.114), at 130-31 & n.16 (accessed 17 Dec. 2008).

61 Chidsey, A Frontier Village, supra at 257-58 (Item No.48). 62 Chidsey, A Frontier Village, supra at 140-41; M.S. Henry, History of the Lehigh Valley

60 (Bixler & Corwin 1860); see history of Henry Allsbouse in separate www.WalkingEaston.com entry for 301 Northampton Street, and sources cited therein.

63 See Chidsey, A Frontier Village, supra at 206; A.D. Chidsey, Jr., “The Old County Court House” in The Old County Court House and other Northampton County History 3 (Papers Read before the Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society 1964).

64 Henry, History of the Lehigh Valley, supra at 60. Henry translated this to 60 cents, although a calculation (based upon 12 pence in a shilling) shows that it was worth only 54 pence at the time.

The original three trustees who petitioned the Pennsylvania Assembly for authority to raise funds in 1762 were John Jones, Thomas Armstrong, and James Martin. When the Assembly passed the bill in 1763, Henry Allshouse and John Rinker were added as trustees. Compare Chidsey, A Frontier Village, supra at 206 with Chidsey, “The Old County Court House”, in The Old County Court House and other Northampton County History, supra at 3. George Taylor was also appointed a trustee, apparently a little later, and he moved to Easton in 1764 in order to take up that duty. Rev. Uzal W. Condit, The History of Easton, Penn’a 65 (George W. West 1885 / 1889).

65 M.S. Henry, History of the Lehigh Valley 67 (Bixler & Corwin 1860); Rev. Uzal W. Condit, The History of Easton, Penn’a 17 (George W. West 1885 / 1889); see generally separate www.WalkingEaston.com entry for the German Reformed Church at 27-29 North Third Street. Since Allshouse was also a member of the German Reformed Church (see above), it seems likely that he also donated carpentry work to build the old portion of that Church when it was constructed at the start of the Revolutionary War.

66 William J. Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car plates facing 12 (Express Printing Co. and Harmony Press 1911, reprinted 1984)(dated as post-Revolutionary War Easton). The same picture appears, dated to 1800, in Rayner Wickersham Kelsey, At the Forks of the Delaware 1794 – 1811, Paper Read at Easton, Pennsylvania, November 13, 1919, before the Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society, plate facing 2 (The Pennsylvania History Press 1920). The picture was originally published in the September 1798 edition of The Philadelphia Monthly Magazine and attributed to I. Hoffman, together with an article about Easton by Joseph Hopkinson. Hopkinson, the son of Declaration of Independence signer Francis Hopkinson, had studied law in Easton in 1791. In 1798 – the year his article on Easton was published – Hopkinson wrote the words to “Hail Columbia”, the “first American song of a national character”. Henry F. Marx, “Easton of Long Ago”, EASTON EXPRESS, Sat., 19 Apr. 1930, p.13, cols. 3-4; see also Liam Riordan, Many Identities, One Nation Fig.11 facing p.15 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 2007).

11

was deported to Virginia. However, he was set free again in April 1778, and allowed to return to Philadelphia;81 the British Army left the City in June.82

On June 20, 1783, Thomas Affleck took steps to begin simplifying the complicated Gordon Estate property in Easton. He petitioned Northampton County Orphans Court to become the guardian of his own six children (Lewis, Thomas Jr., Mary, Margaret, John, and William) for purposes of holding that property. Upon winning that motion,83 he also petitioned to become co-guardian of the five Taylor children (George, Ann, Mary, Thomas, and James), who were his nieces and nephews. This motion was also granted, although Henry Allshouse (see above) was also appointed as co-guardian in this case.84 Next, Affleck got court permission for the executors of George Taylor Sr.’s

See also Richard F. Hope, “Walking Tour: Easton in 1797”, EASTON IRREGULAR 4 (March 2009)(correctly guessing, without reference to the above, that the picture’s actual date was about 1797-98). This guess was based upon two items in the picture. First, Heller (apparently correctly) identifies Lewis Gordon’s house in this picture; it appears directly adjacent to building next door to the East. In 1798, Jacob Mixsell (then the owner of what had formerly been Gordon’s house) entered into an agreement with Jacob Opp, the owner of this adjacent building, to build a common alley between them – a private alley that continues to exist to this day. Agreement, Jacob Mixsell and Jacob Opp, E2 312 (22 Aug. 1798). Since that alley does not appear in the picture, it must be dated to 1798 or before.

Moreover, an imposing building appears to the West of Lewis Gordon’s house, after Gordon’s courtyard. This building was probably built by Daniel Wagener after April 1897, based upon a deed’s property description as of that date that fails to mention any “Messuage” or “Tenement” on the land at that time.

This dating is not certain. Such language in property descriptions was customary, but not legally necessary. Moreover, prior increases in property value could, instead, indicate a somewhat earlier construction date. However, fluctuations in the value of currency during those years, as well as other factors, could explain the changes in property value. See discussion in separate www.WalkingEaston.com entry for 352 Northampton Street.

Construction of Wagener’s building after April 1797 would also be consistent with dating the picture to late 1797 or early 1798.

68 Remarks and Explanation on the Administration account of George Palmer and John Gordon Executors of Lewis Gordon late of Easton Esquire deceased, filed in Northampton County Property (Deed) Records F1 351 (affirmed 1 March 1788).

69 B.F. Fackenthal, Jr.,”The Homes of George Taylor, Signer of the Declaration of Independence”, Paper read before the George Taylor Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, at Easton, PA, 6 Dec. 1922 (copy at Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society), obtained online from Penn State University Libraries, Digital Library Collections, 128.118.88.226/cdm4/page_text.php?CISOROOT=/digitalbks2&CISOPTR=21345&CISOBOX=0&OBJ=21391&ITEM=89 (copy begins at p.114), at 120-21 (accessed 17 Dec. 2008). See generally Armistead C. Gordon, Gordons in Virginia 108 (William M. Clemens 1918)(available on Heritage Quest)(Lewis Gordon’s oldest daughter, Elizabeth (born 1750), married James Taylor, son of Declaration of Independence signer George Taylor).

70 Deed, Elizabeth Taylor to George Taylor, C1 545 (18 July 1780). 71 Fackenthal, “The Homes of George Taylor, Signer of the Declaration of Independence”,

supra, paper copy at 21-22, digital copy at 126-27. 72 See Northampton County Orphans Court Docket Book, Roll #2, at 29 (20 June 1783)

(Second Petition, seeking appointment of a Guardian for the five minor Taylor children).

12

estate to pay some money for the maintenance and care of the two youngest Taylor children (Thomas and James Jr.).85

On that same day, a Writ of Partition of the Gordon Estate was issued (presumably by Thomas Affleck’s arrangement), which removed the three Gordon brothers (John, Alexander and William) from any interest in the Northampton Street real estate.86 The boys’ shares in the estate were presumably to be satisfied with different assets; indeed, oldest brother John had apparently already received some of his share of the estate through the personal property he had already taken (see above). Alexander received the vacant lot next door, at the corner of Northampton and Hamilton (later 4th) Streets.87 At all events, this partition left only the families of the two Gordon daughters with interests in the Meiner House and land. Although this Writ of Partition is not reflected in the Orphans Court records for that date, a subsequent deed recital shows further that the property was in fact partitioned between the Gordon girls’ families. The westernmost 31’ of the property went to Isabella Gordon Affleck’s husband Thomas

73 Fackenthal, “The Homes of George Taylor, Signer of the Declaration of Independence”, supra, digital copy at 121.

74 Chidsey, A Frontier Village, supra at 165; accord, Armistead C. Gordon, Gordons in Virginia 109 (William M. Clemens 1918)(available on Heritage Quest).

75 See Northampton County Orphans Court Docket, Roll #2, at 29 (20 June 1783)(First Petition, seeking appointment of a Guardian for the six Affleck children).

76 Wikipedia, ”Thomas Affleck”, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Affleck (accessed 17 Dec. 2008).

77 Christie’s Collecting Guide: American Furniture, “Affleck, Thomas (d.1795)”, www.christies.com/features/guides/american-furniture/makers.aspx (accessed 17 Dec. 2008).

78 Joseph Downs, American Furniture Queen Anne and Chippendale Periods in the henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum xxiv (Bonanza Books, New York 1952).

79 Chidsey, A Frontier Village, supra at 165; accord, Wikipedia, “Thomas Affleck”, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Affleck (accessed 17 Dec. 2008).

80 Genealogy Inc., The American Revolutionary War, “Defense of Philadelphia”, www.myrevolutionarywar.com/campaigns/1777-philidelphia.htm (accessed 17 Dec. 2008).

81 Chidsey, A Frontier Village, supra at 165; accord, Wikipedia, “Thomas Affleck”, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Affleck (accessed 17 Dec. 2008).

82 Genealogy Inc., The American Revolutionary War, “Philadelphia - Monmouth”, www.myrevolutionarywar.com/campaigns/1777-monmouth.htm (accessed 17 Dec. 2008).

83 Northampton County Orphans Court Docket, Roll #2, at 29 (20 June 1783)(First Petition).

84 Northampton County Orphans Court Docket, Roll #2, at 29 (20 June 1783)(Second Petition).

85 Northampton County Orphans Court Docket, Roll #2, at 29 (20 June 1783)(Third Petition).

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Affleck (now guardian of all the Affleck children discussed above), and the easternmost 24’ of the property went to Elizabeth Gordon Taylor’s five children88 (for whom Affleck was also now co-guardian). It appears from a later deed’s description of the transactions that the Meiner house was located on the “easternmost”(Taylor) portion of the Lot, although the owners of the “westernmost” (Affleck) portion also had an interest in “parts shares and Proportions” of the house.89 This asymmetrical location of the house may also explain why additional footage was apportioned to the Affleck portion of the property, in order to equalize the value of their interests.

In a subsequent agreement, the oldest Taylor grandson (George, presumably named after his famous grandfather) bought out the interests of his brothers and sisters, leaving him as the sole owner of the entire “easternmost” (Taylor) portion of the property.90 This George Taylor was one of the two grandsons who were raised by their married sister Ann, in Virginia (see above).

In 1795, Thomas Affleck died91 intestate, leaving the “westernmost” (Affleck) portion of the property to his surviving “issue” (children). By this time, the surviving children included: Lewis Gordon Affleck (now married to a wife named Ann, who got a double share); Mary (now married to Philadelphia merchant Isaac Willis); Margaret (now married to Philadelphia merchant Thomas Newman); and William Affleck (still a minor under the age of 21).92 A pair of transactions the following year (1796) gave Lewis Gordon Affleck’s interest to his wife, Ann, legally free of spousal rights, using cousin George Taylor in Virginia as a proxy and brother-in-law Isaac Willis as a trustee.93 These transactions set up a conveyance by “Indenture Tripartite” just a few days later, in which Taylor and the Affleck heirs collectively sold both parts of the property to two purchasers: Easton Merchant John Herster, and Easton property owner Jacob Arndt, Jr.94

90 Id. 86 See Indenture Tripartite, Isaac (Mary) Willis, Thomas (Margaret) Newman, and Ann

Affleck; and George Taylor to Jacob Arndt Jr. and John Herster, C2 536 (28 Apr. 1796) (recitals).

87 See Deed, Alexander Gordon to Thomas Affleck, B2 64 (8 May 1784)(recitals). 88 See Indenture Tripartite, Isaac (Mary) Willis, Thomas (Margaret) Newman, and Ann

Affleck; and George Taylor; to Jacob Arndt Jr. and John Herster, C2 536 (28 Apr. 1796) (recitals).

89 See Deed, Jacob (Elizabeth) Arndt Jr. and John (Margaret) Herster to Daniel Wagener, B2 644 (29 Nov. 1796).

91 Wikipedia, ”Thomas Affleck”, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Affleck (accessed 17 Dec. 2008).

92 Indenture Tripartite, Isaac (Mary) Willis, Thomas (Margaret) Newman, and Ann Affleck; and George Taylor; to Jacob Arndt Jr. and John Herster, C2 536 (28 Apr. 1796)(and recitals).

93 See Deed, Lewis Gordon (Ann) Affleck to George Taylor, B2 597 (21 Apr. 1796)(sale price £300); Indenture Tripartite (Deed in Trust), George Taylor; Ann Affleck (wife of Lewis Gordon Affleck), and Isaac Willis, B2 598 (22 Apr. 1796)(conveyance of property to Isaac Willis for 5 shillings, in trust for life to Ann Affleck, on condition that she could sell the property). See also Indenture Tripartite, Isaac (Mary) Willis, Thomas (Margaret) Newman, and Ann Affleck; and George Taylor; to Jacob Arndt Jr. and John Herster, C2 536 (28 Apr. 1796)(recitals describing these transactions).

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It is perhaps ironic that Arndt’s brother, John Arndt, had earlier served as the official who registered the explanation of John Gordon’s personal dealings with the Gordon Estate back in 1788.95

These complicated transactions may also shed some light on the history of Lewis Gordon’s younger sons, Alexander and William Gordon.96 In 1785 (after the Revolution), these two younger sons took revenge on Robert Levers for his animosity to their father and older brother,97 by mobbing Levers and his family in the Levers home on South Second Street. With three other men, they assembled “with force and arms, that is to say with stones, tomahawks and axes” in front of Levers’s house,98 and “making a forcible entry into his home, assaulted the old patriarch to such an extent that he de[c]lined rapidly in health and died a few years later”. The perpetrators (except one) escaped punishment by “fleeing to Virginia, where they resided for many years, settling up their interests in Easton through proxy and power-of-attorney.” 99 The relationship with Virginia, and idea of using George Taylor (of Richmond, Virginia) as a proxy in the Gordon estate dealings in 1896 as described above, may have resulted from dealings a decade earlier resulting from the younger Gordon boys’s flight.

“The Homestead”

The two men who purchased the property from the Gordon Estate heirs in 1796 were leading citizens in Easton.

o Jacob Arndt was a major property owner in the Easton area. Among other things, from 1789 until 1793, he owned the entire town of Phillipsburg, New Jersey.100 He also built the house at the corner of North Third Street and Centre Square, that later became the basis of the Hotel Huntington;101 and from 1789 – 93 owned the Log Cabin Lot property on Northampton Street.102 He was the son of Major Jacob Arndt, Sr., who obtained his commission during the French and Indian War and owned a mill in Forks Township at the dam on Bushkill Creek where Bushkill Park operated in the 20th Century.

94 Indenture Tripartite, Isaac (Mary) Willis, Thomas (Margaret) Newman, and Ann Affleck; and George Taylor; to Jacob Arndt Jr. and John Herster, C2 536 (28 Apr. 1796); see Deed, Jacob (Elizabeth) Arndt Jr. and John (Margaret) Herster to Daniel Wagener, B2 644 (29 Nov. 1796)(recitals). In the transaction, the three listed Affleck heirs undertook that minor William Affleck’s share in the property would be sold to Arndt and Herster for 5 shillings either upon his reaching his majority (at age 21) or upon his prior death.

Arndt and Herster also became responsible to pay the 7 shillings annual Quit rent to the Penn Family.

95 See Remarks and Explanation on the Administration account of George Palmer and John Gordon Executors of Lewis Gordon late of Easton Esquire deceased, filed in Northampton County Property (Deed) Records F1 351 (affirmed 1 March 1788). John Arndt and Jacob Arndt, Jr. were sons of Jacob Arndt, Sr., a Major during the French and Indian War who owned a mill in Forks Township where the Bushkill Park dam used to be located. See Dr. Richmond E. Myers, Northampton County in the American Revolution 56 (Bicentennial Publication of Northampton County Historical Society 1975); James Wright, History of Forks Township Northampton County, Pennsylvania 23-24 (1991)(mill at Bushkill Park location).

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o Jacob Arndt Jr.’s brother, John Arndt, was a Captain in Washington’s Army in the Revolutionary War.103

o John Herster (1758 – 1856) was an early Easton industrialist who built two mills and two distilleries along Bushkill Creek104, including “the old stone mill at the north end of the Third Street Bushkill bridge” (built in 1789).105 He was a Burgess of Easton, County Treasurer from 1795 until 1801, and an incorporator of the Easton and Wilkes-Barre Turnpike Co. (1803), the Easton Water Co. (1817), the Lehigh Chain Bridge (1811), and the Easton Delaware Bridge Co.106 He owned properties on Northampton Street, West of Hamilton (later named 4th) Street.107 Even in his 90s, he was remembered as being an “imposing figure”.108 His son, George Herster, married Susanna Mixsell109 --

103 See James Wright, History of Forks Township Northampton County, Pennsylvania 24 (1991). During the Revolution, Jacob Arndt (Sr.) owned 150 or more acres of land in Forks Township, while Jacob Arndt (Jr.) lived with him, joined in 1776 by his brother, John. See Rev. A.S. Leiby (translator), Tax Lists in Northampton County Court House 1774 – 1806 53, 56 (Easton Public Library [undated])(1775: 150 acres; 1776: 25 acres of Woodland, 115 acres of Clear Land, 10 acres of Sowed Land). For additional history of John Arndt, see separate entry for Easton National Bank Building at 316 Northampton Street.

96 Chidsey, A Frontier Village, supra at 167.

See generally Armistead C. Gordon, Gordons in Virginia 109, 117-18 (William M. Clemens 1918)(available on Heritage Quest)(identifies four sons of Lewis Gordon: John, Aaron, William, and Alexander George, and states that Alexander George Gordon was Lewis Gordon’s “fourth and youngest” son). Alexander was born in 1862 in Easton, Alexander married Mary Morris, niece of Robert Morris (financier of the American Revolution), and later lived in Alexandria, Virginia. He died in Leesburg, after fathering eight children. Id. Of his children, one of his sons (William Lewis Gordon) was a U.S. Navy Captain in the War of 1812, and another (Alexander George Gordon) died in 1849 as the Commander of the U.S. Naval Brig “Porpoise”. Id. at 110.

97 Chidsey, A Frontier Village, supra at 163, 166. 98 Arrest Warrant issued by Justice of the Peace Peter Rhodes “To any Constable of this

County” (21 Sept. 1785)(quoted at length in Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car, supra at 149-50).

99 Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car, supra at 149 (Levers’s house located at the (apparently SE) corner of Pine and Second Streets); see also separate www.WalkingEaston.com entry for the First Methodist Church at 34 South Second Street.

The Property Indenture of 28 April 1796 recited in the Deed, Jacob (Elizabeth) Arndt Jr. and John (Margaret) Herster to Daniel Wagener, B2 644 (29 Nov. 1796), shows the Eastern half of the property sold by George Taylor, a cabinet maker from Richmond, VA. No explanation is given as to how Taylor obtained the property – but since the Gordon boys were said to have fled to Virginia, it appears likely that Taylor was their “proxy and power-of-attorney”.

100 Anon, Phillipsburg, N.J. Centennial 1961: A Souvenir Booklet, Commemorating 100 Years of Corporate Life 9 (Phillipsburg 1961).

101 Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car, supra at 143; Deed, John (Margaret) Herster and Peter Miller to Jacob Arndt, D3 232 (7 Nov. 1808)(Original Town Lots 82 and 83).

102 Deed, John Penn (the Elder) and John Penn (the Younger) to Jacob Arndt, A2 162 (20 Oct. 1789); Deed, Jacob (Elizabeth) Arndt to John Turnblaser, H1 354 (23 Aug. 1793); see also separate www.Walking Easton.com entry for The Log Cabin Lot at 209-17 Northampton Street.

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who was the daughter of a subsequent property owner, Jacob Mixsell, and herself inherited the property in due course (see below).

o John Herster, at age 18, had enlisted in the army in 1776 during the Revolutionary War, but his place was taken by his father, Andrew Herster. The elder Herster became second Sergeant in Captain John Arndt’s company, and was captured (as was Captain Arndt himself) at the Battle of Long Island. Andrew Herster died on board the British prison ship “Jersey” on Christmas Day (25 December) of that same year.110 This relationship between the Herster and Arndt families helps explain the cooperation between John Herster and Jacob Arndt in their joint ownership of the property.

o One of George Herster’s daughter, Eliza (Elizabeth), married John Tindall,111 and that couple became leaders of Easton society in the mid-1800s.112

111 John Eyerman, Genealogical Studies: The Ancestry of Marguerite Eyerman 42 (Free Press Book and Job Print 1898).

Floyd Bixler clearly identifies Eliza (Herster) Tindall as the daughter of John Herster. Floyd S. Bixler, The History with Reminiscences of the Early Taverns and Inns of Easton, Paper read before the Northampton County Historical Society on 25 Oct. 1930, at 21 (Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society 1931). This identification is almost certainly not correct. According to Eyerman (see above), John Herster did have a daughter named Elizabeth, who married his forebear Captain John Eyerman. It is unlikely that he would be incorrect in an identification so near to his main concerns. Captain Eyerman’s wife Elizabeth was the Aunt of John Tindall’s wife. Eliza (Elizabeth) Herster Tindall was the daughter of George Herster, who was John Herster’s oldest son.

112 For a history of Mr. and Mrs. John Tindall, see entry on the Tindall Family Residence as part of the separate entry on the Mayer Building, 1 Centre Square.

104 John Eyerman, Genealogical Studies: The Ancestry of Marguerite and John Eyerman 54 (Eschenbach Printing Company 1902); see also John Eyerman, The Ancestors of Marguerite Eyerman: A Study in Genealogy 41 (Free Press Book and Job Print 1898).

105 John Eyerman, The Ancestors of Marguerite Eyerman: A Study in Genealogy 46 (Free Press Book and Job Print 1898).

106 John Eyerman, Genealogical Studies: The Ancestry of Marguerite and John Eyerman 54 (Eschenbach Printing Company 1902); see also John Eyerman, The Ancestors of Marguerite Eyerman: A Study in Genealogy 41, 46 (Free Press Book and Job Print 1898).

107 See separate www.WalkingEaston.com entries for the Eyerman Building at 444-48 Northampton Street, and the Villa at 440-42 Northampton Street.

108 Floyd S. Bixler, The History with Reminiscences of the Early Taverns and Inns of Easton, Paper read before the Northampton County Historical Society on 25 Oct. 1930, at 21 (Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society 1931).

109 John Eyerman, The Ancestors of Marguerite Eyerman: A Study in Genealogy 42 (Free Press Book and Job Print 1898).

110 John Eyerman, The Ancestors of Marguerite Eyerman: A Study in Genealogy 41, 45 (Free Press Book and Job Print 1898).

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Arndt and Herster immediately resold their property to Daniel Wagener for £735.113 Born in 1766, Daniel Wagener (1766 – 1842) had come to Easton as a boy in 1777.114 He built the Merchant Mill on Bushkill Creek in 1792,115 and consequently is referred to as a “Miller” in the 1796 deed for what later became the “Sigal” property.116 Daniel Wagener also served as Associate Judge of the Northampton County Court for 39 years.117 He died in 1842.118

After owning the property for less than six months, Daniel Wagener resold it in April 1797 for £750 to Jacob Mixsell.119 This appears to have been part of a property swap between the two men. They had been partners in the ownership of the lot next door (at the corner of Northampton and 4th Streets), which Mixsell had purchased from Thomas Affleck in 1794.120 Three days before Wagener sold the Meiner House to Mixsell, he bought out Mixsell’s other half interest in the property next door.121 Thus, the two men effectively dissolved their real estate partnership, and became separate owners, each with his own adjoining lot.

Jacob Mixsell was a “Storekeeper”122 (elsewhere also spelled Meixsell123). Mixsell (1762 – 1841124) was a wealthy Easton merchant, who in 1833 enlarged the Mixsell House property on South 4th Street (at Ferry Street) – a home that later became the basis for the Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society’s museum at 101 South 4th Street today.125

Jacob Mixsell entered into a 1798 Agreement with Jacob Opp (then owner of the adjacent property to the East) to create a common alleyway, each landowner contributing a strip 6 feet wide for the purpose.126 This alleyway was later called Abel Court127 or Opera House Court128 after Edward Abel built the Abel Opera House in 1873 (see below).

Jacob Mixsell died in 1841.129 His will left one-third shares of his property to his three surviving children, including his daughter (Susanna Pomp) whose share was to be

113 Deed, Jacob (Elizabeth) Arndt Jr. and John (Margaret) Herster to Daniel Wagener, B2 644 (29 Nov. 1796); see Edward Sieger, “Museum weds part of city’s past” (Box “Centuries of History”), EXPRESS-TIMES, Fri., 24 Oct. 2008, p.B1, at B3, cols.2-3 (“David Wagener Miller”).

114 Peter Fritts, History of Northampton County 266 (1877, reprint by Higginson Book Company). See also John Eyerman, Genealogical Studies: The Ancestry of Marguerite and John Eyerman 44 (Eschenbach Printing Company 1902)(states died in 1833). See also separate www.WalkingEaston.com entry for the Wagner Mansion (Pomfret Club) at 33 South 4th Street.

115 Peter Fritts, History of Northampton County 266 (1877, reprint by Higginson Book Company).

116 Deed, Jacob (Elizabeth) Arndt Jr. and John (Margaret) Herster to Daniel Wagener, B2 644 (29 Nov. 1796). But see Edward Sieger, “Museum weds part of city’s past” (Box “Centuries of History”), EXPRESS-TIMES, Fri., 24 Oct. 2008, p.B1, at B3, cols.2-3, which states the buyer was “David Wagener Miller”, but this is a mistaken reference to the fact that David Wagener owned a mill, and was a “Miller” by trade.

117 Rev. Uzal W. Condit, History of Easton, Penn’a 193 (George W. West 1885 / 1889); John Eyerman, Genealogical Studies: The Ancestry of Marguerite and John Eyerman 38-39 (Eschenbach Printing Company 1902)(came to Easton in 1776).

118 Peter Fritts, History of Northampton County 266 (1877, reprint by Higginson Book Company); but see John Eyerman, Genealogical Studies: The Ancestry of Marguerite and John Eyerman 44 (Eschenbach Printing Company 1902)(states died in 1833).

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placed in trust for her during her lifetime. The trustee for her share was John J[acob] Herster130 (c.1810 – 1866131), who was also her son by her first marriage to George Herster.132 George Herster (himself the son of prior property owner John Herster) had died in 1819,133 and Susanna had married again in 1827, this time to Peter Pomp.134 Evidently, Papa Jacob Mixsell established the trust in his will to protect his daughter and her first family’s interests, in light of her second marriage. At all events, in administering the Mixsell estate in 1842, a commission of two delegates from each child was chosen to divide Mixsell’s real estate into three shares, and each child chose a share for their own. Susanna’s share included this property, which was referred to as “the Homestead”.135 This designation appears to signify that Jacob Mixsell had used the Meiner house on Northampton Street as his principal residence before his death, rather than the newer brick house on South 4th Street. Susanna Pomp continued to use the Meiner house as her residence after her father’s death.136

o Prior to the modern street numbering scheme adopted in 1874, her address was 134 Northampton Street.137

In 1855, Peter Pomp138 was listed at 132 Northampton Street.139 While it is just possible that the number changed in the intervening five years, or that Peter Pomp was living separately from (and next door to) his wife, it seems more likely that the Meiner house simply had two entrances, and at this time the family was using both of them. Indeed, for eleven months beginning in June 1848, John J. Herster (Mrs. Pomp’s son and trustee) also used the building as Easton’s post office during his tenure as U.S. Postmaster,140 perhaps indicating that a separate business entrance was used as the post office in 1848 and gave its number to the 1855 Pomp Family listing, while another entrance was numbered 134 and listed in the 1860 directory. A blow-up of the post-Revolution drawing of the Meiner house (reproduced above) does in fact show two entrances, tending to validate this assumption.

Peter Pomp (Susanna’s second husband) died of “Softening of [the] brain” in 1856, at the age of 58.141 He had been the owner of the landmark Pomp’s Drug Store at the NW corner of Fourth and Northampton Streets.142 Peter Pomp’s father was Rev. Thomas Pomp (1773 – 1852), affectionately known as “Father Pomp”. Father Pomp was the pastor of several congregations, including the German Reformed Church in Easton for 56 years from 1796 until his death at age 80, conducting 7,870 baptisms, 2,059 marriages, and 1,670 funerals during his 59-year career.143 In his last years, he had gradually reduced the number of the congregations he served, and even in Easton had taken on Rev. J.H.A. Bomberger in 1845 as the English pastor (while Father Pomp remained the German pastor). In 1850, Father Pomp retired from all active duties, although he retained the title (and salary) of pastor.144 It is interesting that despite (or perhaps because of) the strong relationship of Peter Pomp’s father to the German Reformed Church, and Susanna Mixsell-Herster’s first marriage in that Church, her second marriage to Peter Pomp was performed in the Presbyterian Church in 1827.145

Able’s Opera House

Susanna Pomp died on 27 September 1865,146 and the succeeding heirs under her father’s trust petitioned on 1 December for court permission to allow the Trustee, John J.

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Herster, to sell the property and distribute the cash proceeds. Edward Able (also frequently spelled “Abel”) was the “highest and best” bidder, purchasing the property for $16,650 in March of 1866.147 Able was born in 1831 and raised on a farm in Forks Township. He began working in a country store at age 15, and the next year (1847) went to a store in South Easton, where he stayed until 1849. He then secured a job as clerk in Stephen Deshler’s carpet store in Easton, located in the basement of the building at the SW corner of 4th and Northampton Streets (where the Northampton National Bank would later be located).148 The following year (1850), Deshler (along with Edward Able) moved across 4th Street to the SE corner (although the second door from 4th Street itself). Able succeeded as proprietor of the business – for 12 years in partnership with Jacob Rader – until Able retired in the 1890s.149 The carpet store was located next door (to the West) from the Meiner house that Able purchased for his Opera House site after Susanna Pomp’s death.

A few months after his purchase, in August 1866, Able borrowed $15,000 from Lafayette College, and gave the College a mortgage on the new property.150 In 1872-73, Able spent $120,000151 to build the famous Able Opera House (also frequently called the Abel Opera House) on this property. The original building plans appear to call for the Opera House auditorium to be added to the back of the existing Meiner House, which was to be extensively remodeled and incorporated into the finished building. However, as built, it does not appear to have incorporated much (if any) of the colonial house, except perhaps in the basement area.152 The new Opera House building was “one of the finest Victorian opera houses of it[s] time.”153 In its day, the Able Opera House drew the best shows either before or after their New York City seasons, including appearances by Ethel and John Barrymore, Maude Adams, and other “stars”.154 Its opening show, on 3 March 1873, was E.L. Davenport’s performance of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”.155 In addition, community events such as Easton High School graduation ceremonies that “generally ran over a three or four evening period”, were also held in the Opera House itself. Upstairs, the front of the second floor was Able’s Hall, which was also used for parties and community events, as well as occasional theatrical performances.156

o When the modern street numbering scheme was adopted in 1874, the Opera House was assigned No.346 Northampton Street. No.342 was occupied by Isaac Goldsmith’s “Segars” store.157 In 1881, this No.342 was the Opera House Hotel and Dining Rooms.158

o No.352 (the building next door, the number presently assigned to the Lafayette Ambassador Bank) was Edward Able’s carpets store.159

Unfortunately, the Opera House construction appears to have overextended Mr. Able’s finances. In 1877, Able’s debts forced him to convey the Opera House property to two trustees for the benefit of his creditors.160 One of Able’s trustees was John O. Wagener,161 a grandson of earlier property owner Daniel Wagener.162 The Trustees discovered that the income from Able’s property was insufficient to pay his debts, and so they were forced to sell the Opera House (together with another property on Ferry Street) at a public sale. The Merchants Bank of Easton Pennsylvania was the purchaser, for a combined price of $43,700.163 Edward Able continued his carpet business next door until approximately 1897, and died in 1913.164

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Four days after it purchased the Opera House, The Merchants Bank mortgaged the property to four investors for $40,000,165 and then sold it for that same principal amount to the same four men at the end of the following year (1878).166 A month later, Edward Able’s mortgage on the property was also paid off and discharged,167 leaving the title clear.

The four investors who purchased the Opera House were:

o Dr. John J. Detwiller;

o builder John Knecht168 (whose daughter, Arabella, was married to Dr. Detwiller);

o Easton merchant John Eyerman (owner of the Eyerman Building at 444-48 Northampton Street);169 and

o Jesse Lines.

Dr. John J. Detwiller was an Easton physician who succeeded his father, noted homeopathic surgeon Dr. Henry Detwiller, as the owner of the home and doctor’s practice in the Detwiller House on Centre Square.170 Dr. John J. Detwller’s son, Dr. William K. Detwiller, managed the Opera House,171 which continued to exhibit primarily “legitimate theater” performances.172 In addition, other activities generated revenues – for example, the use of a hall for roller skating beginning in 1879.173

The four investors held the Opera House in common until John Eyerman died in 1883. His grandson, also named John Eyerman, ultimately obtained the Eyerman share, but was “unable to agree with the [other three owners] as to the management of the property”. He petitioned in court to partition ownership. This was not opposed by the other owners, but an appraisal commission found that the property could “not be equally divided among the said parties . . . without prejudice to or spoiling the whole.” After the commission appraised the property at $60,000, the owners were allowed to submit bids at an increased evaluation to buy out the others, if they wished. Eyerman submitted a bid based upon a $65,000 valuation, after which the other three (as older, more “senior” owners), were allowed to top him at $65,050. Without allowing Eyerman a further bid, the “senior” owners were awarded the property. Eyerman appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which decided in 1890 that this procedural disadvantage violated Pennsylvania law, and reversed the award.174 Nonetheless, a settlement must have been reached with Eyerman, because the partition proceedings ultimately left the property in halves owned by Dr. John J. Detwiller and his father-in-law, John Knecht,175 after Jesse Lines’s share was bought out by the other two.176

Shortly thereafter (in 1891), Mr. Knecht died. Through a series of transactions, Knecht’s half interest passed to his daughter, Arabella (Knecht) Detwiller (Dr. John J. Detwiller’s wife), and then to her six children.177 The Opera House continued in operation, and adapted to the times. In 1897, the Opera House showed “two hours of life size pictures moving on a canvas screen with a full orchestra accompaniment”, called the “Projectoscope”. In April of 1907, a nickelodeon named “The Jewel” opened in the storefront in the front of the building, operated by David Atkinson, and moved upstairs to Able’s Hall in the summer. It continued operation until 1915.178

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At least by 1910, the Wilmer & Vincent theatrical organization was leasing and operating the Opera House theater. They moved the legitimate theater performances to the Orpheum Theater (on Front Street), and now placed vaudeville in the Able Opera House. A type of talking picture were also presented at the Opera House in June 1913.179 Sidney Wilmer and Walter Vincent also bought out two of the six Detwiller children’s interests in the property in 1923-24.180

179 Ken Klabunde, “PostCard Corner: 344 Northampton St.”, THE IRREGULAR, Oct. 2008, p.5.

180 See Deed, William K. (Eva May) Detwiller to Sidney Wilmer and Walter Vincent, H52 250 (15 Sept. 1924)(William and Eva May were residents of Seattle, Washington); Deed, Frederick K. Detwiller to Sidney Wilmer and Walter Vincent, H50 501 (14 May 1923)(Frederick was a resident of New York City).

119 Deed, Daniel (Eve) Wagener to Jacob Mixsell, C2 600 (14 Apr. 1797). This deed still refers to the annual quit rent of 7 shillings owed to the Penn Family. In fact, the Pennsylvania Divesting Law of 1779 had (as part of setting up the new American government as a result of the Revolution) abolished all the quit rents due to the Penn Family, in return for a lump sum payment of £13,000 and the right to retain private estates and proprietary manors that had been surveyed and returned to the Land Office before Independence was voted by Congress. Donna Bingham Munger, Pennsylvania land Records, A History and Guide for Research 126 (Published in cooperation with the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Scholarly Resources Inc., 1991), quoted in Umstead Family Genealogy Central, “Glossary of Land Terms”, www.umstead.org/glossarylandterms.html (accessed 19 Oct. 2008).

120 See Deed, Thomas Affleck to Jacob Mixsell, B2 65 (4 Feb. 1794); Deed, Jacob (Elizabeth) Mixsell to Daniel Wagener, C2 73 (19 Feb. 1794)(half interest). See also separate www.WalkingEaston.com entry for 352 Northampton Street.

121 Deed, Jacob (Elizabeth) Mixsell to Daniel Wagener, C2 602 (11 Apr. 1797)(sale price £600).

122 Deed, Daniel (Eve) Wagener to Jacob Mixsell, C2 600 (14 Apr. 1797).

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123 See, e.g., Deed, John J. Herster, Trustee for Susannah Pomp, to Edward Abel, E11 13 (14 Mar. 1866)(recitals concerning death and will of Jacob Meixsell).

124 John Eyerman, The Ancestors of Marguerite Eyerman: A Study in Genealogy 21 (Free Press Book and Job Print 1898).

125 Article, “On Our Cover, 2007”, in The Easton Christmas Book 3 (Easton Is Home 2007); see also separate www.WalkingEaston.com entry for Mixsell House / Illick House at 101-07 South 4th Street.

126 Agreement, Jacob Mixsell and Jacob Opp, E2 312 (22 Aug. 1798). 127 Interview by Andria Zaia (Curator) with Colleen Lavdar within hearing of Richard F.

Hope (10 Dec. 2008).128 Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car, supra at 12.129 See Deed, John J. Herster, Trustee for Susannah Pomp, to Edward Abel, E11 13 (14

Mar. 1866)(recital that Jacob Meixsell’s will was proved on 29 Oct. 1841). 130 Deed of Partition, David (Ann) Mixsell, David Mixsell as Trustee for Eliza Ann

(William) Smith, Susanna Pomp (wife of Peter Pomp), and Charles W. (Mary) Mixsell, H6 55 (15 Jan. 1842); see also Deed, John J. Herster, Trustee for Susannah Pomp, to Edward Abel, E11 13 (14 Mar. 1866)(recitals); Edward Sieger, “Museum weds part of city’s past” (Box “Centuries of History”), EXPRESS-TIMES, Fri., 24 Oct. 2008, p.B1, at B3, cols.2-3.

131 Church Record of the German Reformed Congregation of Easton Pennsylvania (Marx Room Church Records designation E) 380 (copied in Easton Public Library 1936)(John J. Herster died 15 August 1866, at age 56).

132 John Eyerman, The Ancestors of Marguerite Eyerman: A Study in Genealogy 22, 41-42 (Free Press Book and Job Print 1898). Also compare Parish Records of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Easton, Pa from 1769 to the Consecration of the New Church, Jan.1, 1832 (Marx Room Church Records designation G) 123 (no date)(Johan Jacob Herster born 1811 to parents George and Susana Herster) with Record of First Presbyterian Church of Easton, Pennsylvania, 1811-1887 (Marx Room Church Records Book designation F) 58 (Copied in Easton Public Library 1936)(Peter Pomp married Mrs. Susan Herster on 26 Jan. 1827). See also Parish Records of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church, supra at 123 (George and Susana Herster also were parents to Joseph Mixel Herster, born 1816 and baptized 1818, whose middle name further confirms the Mixsell family connection).

The Church records show earlier child, Elizabeth, born in 1809 to George and Susana Herster. Parish Records of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church, supra at 88. Since Susanna (Mixsell) Herster was apparently only 16 at the time her daughter Elizabeth was born, her marriage to George Herster was presumably her first marriage. See Parish Records of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Easton, Pa from 1769 to the Consecration of the New Church, Jan.1, 1832

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Able Opera House, with Jewel Theatre, c.1910.181

In 1915, the Laubach (owners of the Department Store next door) and the Able Opera House owners settled a series of disputes that had arisen over rights to use the sewer in the common alley between their two properties, by agreeing to build (and split the costs) of a new sewer down the middle of the alley.182

Fires in 1924 and 1926 damaged the Opera House, which was then closed as Wilmer & Vincent moved their vaudeville performances across the street to the newly remodeled State Theatre. 183 The Opera House was then renovated in 1926 by architect William H. Lee to run movies, and re-opened as the Embassy Theater in 1927184 into a “classic 1927 ‘plaster palace’” movie theater with some 1400 seats, complete with the

(Marx Room Church Records designation G) 148 (no date)(Mrs. Peter Pomp died 27 Sept. 1865, age 72, placing her birth in 1793).

133 John Eyerman, The Ancestors of Marguerite Eyerman: A Study in Genealogy 22, 42 (Free Press Book and Job Print 1898).

134 Record of First Presbyterian Church of Easton, Pennsylvania, 1811-1887 (Marx Room Church Records Book designation F) 58 (Copied in Easton Public Library 1936)(Peter Pomp married Mrs. Susan Herster on 26 Jan. 1827); Obituary, EASTON ARGUS, Thus., 5 Oct. 1865, p.3, col.1 (Susanna Pomp was the widow of Peter Pomp); Church Record of the German Reformed Congregation of Easton Pennsylvania (Marx Room Church Records designation E) 148 (copied in Easton Public Library 1936)(Mrs. Peter Pomp died 27 Sept. 1865 age 72).

135 Deed of Partition, David (Ann) Mixsell, David Mixsell as Trustee for Eliza Ann (William) Smith, Susanna Pomp (wife of Peter Pomp), and Charles W. (Mary) Mixsell, H6 55 (15 Jan. 1842); see also Deed, John J. Herster, Trustee for Susannah Pomp, to Edward Abel, E11 13 (14 Mar. 1866)(recitals); Edward Sieger, “Museum weds part of city’s past” (Box “Centuries of History”), EXPRESS-TIMES, Fri., 24 Oct. 2008, p.B1, at B3, cols.2-3.

Susanna Pomp’s share also included two houses on original town Lot 76. Deed of Partition, supra. This property is today Joe’s Market at the NW corner of Sitgreaves and Northampton Streets, and the first Lauter’s Fine Furniture building next door. Compare A.D. Chidsey, Jr., The Penn Patents in the Forks of the Delaware Plan of Easton, Map 2 (Vol. II of Publications of the Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society 1937) with Northampton County Tax Records map, www.ncpub.org. See generally www.WalkingEaston.com entries for Joe’s Market at 233-35 Northampton Street and Lauter’s Fine Furniture Buildings at 219-31 Northampton Street.

Her brother, Charles Mixsell, chose a share that included a middle portion of Original Town Lot No.200, and the Deed of Partition indicates that Charles already owned the portion of that property to the North. This appears to be the Jacob Mixsell mansion at the SW corner of Ferry and Fourth Streets, that now belongs to the Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society. As part of his share, he also received a Tavern Store House and two Lots in Phillipsburg, NJ; a wharf on the Lehigh River located at the SW corner of Fermor (later 2nd) Street; a triangular lot on the East side of Sitgreaves Alley near the Lehigh River wharf property (both refer to an alley named “New Street”); and “Out Lot No.37” on the South side of the Nazareth Road in Palmer (now, apparently, in Wilson). In 1837, Charles Mixsell and his wife Mary would name a daughter Susan Pomp Mixsell, commemorating the Pomp family name. See Church Record of the German Reformed Congregation of Easton Pennsylvania (Marx Room Church Book designation E) 7 (copied in Easton Public Library 1936).

Susanna’s other brother, David Mixsell, chose a share that contained a grist mill, oil mill, and two houses on the North side of Bushkill Creek below the road up College Hill; a brick store house on the East side of Front Street between Northampton and Ferry Streets; and the southern strip of Original Lot No.200, which is apparently the portion of the Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society’s property on which the Illick House now stands.

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new innovation of a neon marquee.185 In 1931, Wilmer and Vincent used its ownership interest in the Opera House as collateral on bonds given by its owners, Sidney Wilmer and Walter Vincent.186 This mortgage was satisfied of record in 1953, and the realty company used for the transaction was later merged into Wilmer & Vincent Amusement Company.187

o In the theater, David (“Dave”) Bacal was hired to play the theater organ in that year, at a salary of $100 per week. He played at the Embassy and the State Theatre until 1932. He later became well known as the organist for early television shows in the 1950s, and eventually taught music at Pepperdine University.188

In 1957, Arthur P. Sigal purchased all the various ownership share interests in the Opera House property, for $260,000 and a 10-year restriction against using it for theatrical performances (for seller Wilmer & Vincent Amusement Company).189 He established his family’s women’s clothing business on the property. Arthur’s father, Herman Sigal, had immigrated to America from Romania in 1890 at age 14, and with his wife Bertha had started a women’s clothing store in Pittsburgh in 1906.190 That Sigal store had also leased space from the Bush and Bull Department store in Bethlehem (beginning in1922) and in Easton (beginning in 1931).191 The couple had moved to Easton in 1935,192 accompanied by their son Arthur (born in Pittsburgh in 1904),193 and Arthur’s new bride, Serena.194 Arthur and his parents initially worked in the Bush and Bull Department Store in Easton,195 but with the closing of the Bush & Bull store in 1938,196 the family re-established the H.B. Sigal and Sons Corp. at 430 Northampton Street.”197 Herman Sigal died in 1946,198 and his wife followed in 1954.199 Their son Arthur continued the business, purchasing the Opera House in 1957 in order to expand his business. He “completely rebuilt” the building,200 after removing the top two floors, and remodeled the building into retail space for women’s fashions,201 with a small bridal wear section.202 The new store opened in 1958.203 Arthur, a motorcycle enthusiast, frequently commuted to work on a cycle in a business suit.204 Arthur’s son, William (born 1935), joined the business in approximately 1960, after graduating from Harvard University and working briefly for Abraham & Straus in New York.205 William’s wife, Helaine (married 1958), also joined the business in 1971.206 Unfortunately, William died in 1975, “a few days before his fortieth birthday.”207 Helaine took charge of the business after William’s death208 running the store for 25 years until her retirement,209 initially with Arthur Sigal210 before he retired in 1982 and died in 1984.211 Helaine Sigal changed the store’s format in approximately 1981 to a bridal showcase.212 She also leased the front of the Easton store (and sold the Palmer Mall store) in 1982 to Arthur’s nephew, Roland Sigal, who briefly operated a discount clothing operation under the name of “Corner House”.213 With Helaine’s retirement in December of 2000, the Sigal’s Bridal Gallery closed.214 The building was sold to the Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society for $299,900 in 2003215 with a $300,000 loan from the Easton Area Industrial Land Development Corporation,216 although the logo “Sigal’s Bridal Gallery” remained legible on the building until 2008.

136 See Deed, Edward Abel to Lafayette College (2 Aug. 1866)(recitals refer to the property as her residence); accord, William H. Boyd, Boyd’s Directory of Reading, Easton, [Etc.] 127 (William H. Boyd 1860)(Susan Pomp, widow of Peter, at 134 Northampton Street).

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The Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society demolished much of the old building (including its interior and entire front wall), and constructed its new Sigal Museum at this location, with a modern concrete, slate and glass façade. The project was undertaken with the aid of a large “naming-gift” from the Sigal family.217 The museum opened on 11 August 2010.218 In 2011, ArchDaily magazine named the museum (designed by Spillman Farmer Architects) as one of its five finalists for Building of the Year in the museum and library category.219

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