Stem House

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Bush Building (left) and Old Lutheran Parsonage (right)

[Photo by Richard F. Hope]

Old Lutheran Parsonage (168-78 Northampton Street, recently ERS Employment Services).

Small 2-1/2-story brickote facade house. The modern brickote covers at least some stone walls.

The Old Parsonage

In 1783, “the four combined Lutheran congregations” of Easton, Dryland, Plainfield and Greenwich erected a stone building at this location “as a home for their pastor”, Charles Salomon Friderici (also listed as M. Solomon Frederici or Fredericki). Both Easton Historian William J. Heller and Lutheran Church historians record that this stone building was still standing in the early 20th Century. The old stone walls that lie under the brickote on the building at this location today are, therefore, presumably the remains of the same Lutheran Parsonage built in 1783. In the mid-20th Century, Mrs. “Georgie” Chidsey specifically identified “the little old stone building” on the SE corner of Northampton and 2nd Streets (then holding “Asam’s wall paper” store – see below) as being a pastor’s home “built about 1790”.

Pastor Frederici served from 1782 until 1798. His long tenure stands in contrast to his immediate predecessor, Rev. John Frederick Ernst, who served only from the end of 1780 until 1782. The more inflexible and unpopular Ernst had been forced to resign when a majority of the congregation refused to honor the Reverend’s demands that they fire and excommunicate the popular organist and schoolmaster, Philip Helick, who had adopted and sexually fondled one of his teenage Sunday school students. Despite serving several congregations in addition to Easton, Rev. Ernst was apparently in constant need of additional money to live.

By contrast his successor, Pastor Frederici, was on a very different footing. He was never officially ordained prior to being elected pastor at Easton. He had come to America in 1777 (at age 27) with the Hessian troops during the Revolution, “without any call” (i.e. not as a minister), and had later deserted from the army. He then started preaching “in the region above Albany”, but was “driven out by the Indians and English”, and “arrived in Easton on his way to Philadelphia” in 1780 where he was asked to preach a sermon. Apparently, many members of the congregation liked what they heard, because they ultimately asked Frederici to replace Ernst in 1782. At a synod held in Lancaster on 3-4 June 1782, Rev. Ernst reported “that he had been forced to give up the congregation at Eastown since the members of that congregation had taken a vagabond as pastor.” In a letter the following year, Rev. Ernst expressed concern that the lack of Lutheran ministers in New Jersey might leave “all of Morris and Hunterdon Counties . . . without a preacher and consequently everything would be open for Friderici and other freebooters.” As late as 1787, Rev. Ernst wrote a letter to the Lutheran Ministerium complaining that Pastor Frederici was not property conducting his office in Easton. Ernst’s letter somehow came into Frederici’s possession, who sued for defamation. After dragging on for years, the case was finally settled in 1791.

The new parsonage built by the Lutheran congregation may have given Pastor Frederici an easier financial berth than his predecessor had had, although a small residence had also been provided to Rev. Ernst. Pastor Frederici also informally fenced-in an additional two Lots of land along Northampton Street nearer the Delaware River, popularly called “Molasses Hollow”. One might speculate that Pastor Frederici used this “Molasses Hollow” swamp land to keep pigs, in good German fashion. No doubt Rev. Ernst would have regarded as consistent with his opinion of “Freebooter” Frederici, the Pastor’s unauthorized (and uncompensated) use of the two fenced-in Lots of land farther East from the parsonage along Northampton Street that the Penn Family had not sold to anyone, although many other prominent citizens in Easton also occupied Penn land without permission at that time, paying for it grudgingly in 1789 and thereafter after being accosted by the Penn Family’s agents.

As noted above, Rev. Frederici’s pastorship in Easton ended in 1798. The reason for this (his death, or appointment elsewhere) has not been discovered. The Lutherans did not formally purchase their Parsonnage Property from John and Richard Penn until 1810, when they paid $46.89 for it.

· They did not formally purchase the Lots on which Union Church and school themselves were built, until called to account by the Penn Family’s agent in about the year 1790; and even then the purchase was not made until 1802, for a token $10 sale price.

In 1817, the Lutherans divided the front portion of the Lot at Northampton Street and sold it to different buyers. The deed selling the corner portion of the lot to Jon O’Neil confirmed that it, indeed, was the “Lot or Piece of Ground whereon is erected the Parsonage”.

· The rear (South) of the property began behind a twelve-foot “private alley”, which is apparently the alley known as Bush Court today. The Lutherans continued to sell the remaining pieces of their property until at least 1830, and used the proceeds of their land sales to build their new, separate St. John’s Church in Ferry Street in 1831.

Samuel Yohe

Jon O’Neil (also spelled John O. Neill and Oneill) lost the parsonnage property at the corner in an 1820 Sheriff’s sale to John Yohe for debt owed to the Lutheran Congregation. Yohe’s son Samuel, inherited the property. Samuel Yohe (1805 – 1880) had begun to work in his father’s store at age 14 (i.e. in about 1819). The family moved to Lower Mt. Bethel Township in 1821, and John Yohe died at age 42 before his son Samuel reached his majority (i.e. by 1824). In 1825, the family returned to Easton. Two years later (in 1827), young Samuel Yohe opened a general store in his father’s Easton property, one month after his first marriage to Maria Heller. His father-in-law, Jacob Heller, subsequently died leaving him a mill on the Bushkill in Forks Township. Samuel Yohe “improved and beautified the [mill] grounds and building until it became one of the finest places on the Bushkill.” Yohe also operated a distillery. In 1836, Yohe was appointed Prothonotary of Northampton County for three years. In 1839, he was appointed an Associate Judge, also for three years. In 1848, he was elected County Treasurer. He also sat on Easton’s Town Council for “a number of years”, at one point acting as its President. For many years, Yohe commanded the private military company in Easton known as the Washington Grays, which engaged in a friendly rivalry with a competing company known as the Easton Fencibles under the command of Andrew Reeder. A newspaper commented in 1845 that “Captain Yohe, when in uniform, is a perfect beau-ideal of an officer, one that Napoleon, or Frederick the Great, at first sight would have stamped as such – and better than all he is as good as he looks.” After many of the militarily-inclined men in town were recruited for he Mexican War in 1847, Yohe (as Captain) formed a new military company the following year known as the “National Guards”, which came to be considered to be “one of the finest military companies in the State.”

Captain Yohe lost his property at the corner of Northampton and 2nd Street in a Sheriff’s sale in 1850 to Jonathan Durling.

In 1861 when the Civil War started with the attack on Fort Sumter in South Carolina, Samuel Yohe directed a war meeting at the Courthouse in Centre Square (at which Judge Henry Maxwell was a principal speaker). He quickly enlisted a company for service against the seceding states – one of four companies raised in Easton at that early time. Yohe’s company became Company C in the 1st Pennsylvania Regiment. Yohe was then elected as Colonel of this Regiment (and replaced as Captain of Company C by William Armstrong, his near neighbor on North 3rd Street). The 1st Regiment was issued arms and about 12 rounds of ammunition per man, and initially ordered to re-establish communications between Pennsylvania and the national capitol at Washington, D.C. in the face of resistance by Maryland citizens. This assignment apparently provoked the later reminiscence that the Regiment, “without available arms, ammunition, without uniforms, cartridge boxes, or supplies, [was] forwarded to the fields of Maryland to protect, with nothing, the railroads and bridges.”

The Regiment was then withdrawn, “upon the representation of leading public men of Maryland, that a military occupation, and a resort to violent measures, . . . might precipitate a collision, and lead to a secession of the state”. However, acting pursuant to orders from his commanding General emanating ultimately from the White House, Col. Yohe ordered his men to arrest certain southern sympathizers in Baltimore. These included John Merryman, who was then held without trial by military authorities at Fort McHenry in defiance of a habeas corpus writ issued by U.S. Chief Justice Roger Taney. The military’s disregard of the court order – on authority from President Lincoln – provoked Taney’s landmark decision denying President Lincoln’s power to suspend the writ. Taney’s decision that was simply ignored by the military, while Lincoln responded with an order to arrest the Chief Justice (which no federal marshal would actually serve), and continued to order further political arrests and imprisonments for two years on his own authority until he could get a Congressional vote formal suspending citizens’ rights to habeas corpus. However, Taney’s opinion remains a viable legal precedent, and was recently cited in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, the 2004 opinion that upheld the habeas corpus right of a U.S. citizen held without trial in Guantanamo Bay as an “illegal enemy combatant” after being captured in Afghanistan. (Hamdi claimed to have been a relief worker captured by mistake.)

The 1st Pennsylvania Regiment was issued then ordered to maneuver in response to an expected Confederate invasion that did not materialize at that time. The Regiment’s mission was later (somewhat hyperbolically) described as follows: “without available arms, ammunition, without uniforms, cartridge boxes, or supplies, they were forwarded to the fields of Maryland to protect, with nothing, the railroads and bridges.” It received property equipment “late in May”, and marched along the Potomac River in Maryland and Virginia pursuing “the rumored movements of the Rebels.” It never received orders to assemble for the Battle of Bull Run. In the end, the 1st Regiment served out its three month enlistment without being called into any major combat, and returned to Easton.

Samuel Yohe’s first wife, Maria Heller, died in 1862. In May 1863, Yohe was appointed the Provost Marshall of the 11th District of Pennsylvania, charged with enforcing the draft of men into the Union Army. He continued this unpopular duty until April 1865, and was one of the last two such offices closed. During that time (in 1864), he married his second wife, who came from Philadelphia. Yohe moved to Philadelphia in 1866, after his duty as Provost Marshall was done. By 1867, he was looking to sell his distillery on the Bushkill. The Argus newspaper (which supported the Democratic party) jeered that the “heavy tax on whisky . . . has used them up.” This tax was used to support Republic policies and pay for the Civil War, which the Argus had opposed. Unfortunately, this attempted sale appears to have come to nothing when Yohe’s Bushkill mill (which included the distillery in the complex) burned down in 1868.

· That mill was later rebuilt by Jacob Walter, and operated as Bushkill Mill #2 “into the 1870’s and 1880’s”.

Meanwhile, Samuel Yohe found a new occupation to earn a living, by conducting a banking and brokerage office in Easton in connection with his partner, E.A. Depew. Yohe retired in 1877, and died in Philadelphia in 1880, and is buried in Easton Cemetery Plot N-161.

Subsequent History

Jonathan Durling, in turn lost the Old Lutheran Parsonage property in a Sheriff’s sale to Amos Seip in 1856, at which time the building was described as “a two Story dwelling House, part Stone, part brick and part frame, Stone part measuring twenty seven feet and a half by Thirty feet and a half, Brick part Twenty Nine and a half feet by Eighteen feet and Frame part Twenty nine feet by Twelve feet.” The property was then sold normally to Joseph Weill, whose estate lost the property in yet another Sheriff’s sale in 1870 to Nathan Herrmann. In that transaction, the property description had been slightly modified to a “two story stone dwelling house 27 feet front on Northampton Street by 30 feed deep with part brick and part frame building attached 20 by 30 feet”. In addition, a “Store House” – later remodeled into a dwelling – and stable were added to the rear of the property, and the dwelling house was later rented out.

In two months, Nathan Herrmann resold the property to Samuel Stem, who moved his grocery and residence to this corner building. In 1874, Stem was assigned No.170 Northampton Street when the modern street numbering scheme was adopted in 1874. The Stem family residence was in the back, at the property now numbered 8 South 2nd Street. Stem himself was a Civil War veteran, having served with Company E of the 47th Pennsylvania Regiment. That Regiment was initially “accompanied by an excellent brass band, under the leadership of Thomas Coates”, and many members of his Easton Band. It was stationed primarily at Key West, Florida and Hilton Head, South Carolina, and participated in battles at Pocotaligo Bridge, SC (noted on the Easton Monument) and Sabine Cross Roads, Louisiana. Stem himself was wounded in the left shoulder at Pocotaligo, one of the battles that would ultimately be listed on the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument in Easton’s Centre Square.

Stem’s widow sold the property in 1878 to Bernard McGovern, a contractor who moved into the Stem’s residence in the rear of the old Parsonage building. Barney McGovern (presumably a son) lived briefly in the main part of the Parsonage building at the corner.

In 1907, The McGovern Family sold the property to Solomon R. Bush and James V. Bull (the founders of the Bush and Bull Department Store), who also purchased the Bush Building next door (to the East) in the same year from the estate of William Bush. They, or their store, held title to the property for many years. After the death of the two Bush and Bull founders, James Bush’s son (F. Royce Bush) ultimately acquired complete ownership of both properties, and sold them (together with the Mebus Building next door to the East) in 1944 to the Miller Family. The Millers (of the Miller Brothers Hardware Company) retained ownership until 1979.

· In 1957, the ASAM Wallpaper & Paint Store occupied this building, as well as the first floor of the one next door.

The purchasers in 1979 were Joseph Milutis and his wife. Milutis sold the properties in 1991 to Larry Keiper and a partner; Keiper acquired sole ownership in 1999. Keiper is a proprietor of Aura Ceramics at 12 South 2nd Street, whose store is now included in the property, located between the Old Lutheran Parsonage and the house in the rear at 18 South 2nd Street.

� For tax records purposes (apparently because of common ownership), this parcel includes 164-66 Northampton St.

� Interview with Larry Keiper (owner) at Aura Ceramics (6 Sept. 2007).

� Per Church Record quoted in Rev. Franklin K. Fretz (Pastor, apparently for the 175th Anniversary Committee), Historical Sketch of St. John’s Lutheran Church 16-17 (1915) and Barbara Fretz Kempton, A History of St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Easton, Pennsylvania 1740-1940 27-28 (The John S. Correll Co., Inc. 1940). Ms. Kempton (at 29) specifically identifies the location as “the south east corner of Second and Northampton Streets”. Accord, William J. Heller, Historic Easton From the Window of a Trolley-Car 150 (The Express Printing Co., Inc., 1912, reprinted by Genealogical Researchers, 1984).

Ethan Allen Weaver, “Historical Sketches Relating to Easton and Eastonians No.II”, Historical Notes First Series 5 (copied in Easton Public Library June 1936) transcribes a curious footnote by “HSS” under text that refers to the SE corner of Northampton and Sitgreaves Streets. The note reads “(Lutheran Congregation erected its Parsonage on this corner in 1787 – still standing. – HSS 1934)”. This note is inconsistent with the text, which states that this corner was “the site of the late Governor Reeder’s residence”. It appears likely that “HSS” mistook Sitgreaves Street, and should have referred to the SE corner of Northampton and Second Street.

� William J. Heller, Historic Easton From the Window of a Trolley-Car 150 (The Express Printing Co., Inc., 1912, reprinted by Genealogical Researchers, 1984)(Heller dates the construction to “About 1790”); Edith von Zemenszky & Mary A. Redline, A Strasbourger In America: John Frederick Ernst Minister of the Gospel, Lutheran Denomination (1745-1805) 80 (Seaber Turner Associates 2007)(Lutheran parsonage built for Charles Salomon Friderici, Ernst’s successor in Easton); Barbara Fretz Kempton, A History of St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Easton, Pennsylvania 1740 – 1940 27 (Easton: The John S. Correll Co., Inc. 1940)(parsonage built during the “ministration” of Rev. M. Solomon Fredericki from 1782-98).

� Barbara Fretz Kempton, A History of St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Easton, Pennsylvania 1740 – 1940 27-28, 266 (Easton: The John S. Correll Co., Inc. 1940).

� Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car, supra (1911); Fretz, Historical Sketch of St. John’s Lutheran Church, supra at 17.

� The owner, Larry C. Keiper (of Aura Ceramics), has confirmed that stone construction lies underneath the brickote, at least in the rear of the corner building.

� Georgie Lake Chidsey, “And This I Remember”, in Fortnightly Club, II Papers on Easton History 240, at 243 (paper read 2 Mar. 1951).

� Barbara Fretz Kempton, A History of St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Easton, Pennsylvania 1740 – 1940 27, 266 (Easton: The John S. Correll Co., Inc. 1940).

� For example, Rev. Ernst had, for example, rebuked the son of an important Easton citizen in confirmation class for “dancing the whole night” at a wedding celebration, allegedly calling the student an “imp of Satan”. Ernst was later confronted by the irate father, who “cursed me into hell” because “A Christian dance is not sin at a respectable wedding.” The family did not come back to church after the incident. See Letter of John Frederic Ernst to J.C. Kunze (8 May 1781), translated and printed in Zemenszky & Redline, A Strasbourger In America, supra at 147.

� Edith von Zemenszky & Mary A. Redline, A Strasbourger In America: John Frederick Ernst Minister of the Gospel, Lutheran Denomination (1745-1805) 211-12, 222-24, 228-29 (Blandon (PA): Seaber Turner Associates 2007).

� Edith von Zemenszky & Mary A. Redline, A Strasbourger In America: John Frederick Ernst Minister of the Gospel, Lutheran Denomination (1745-1805) 126-27, 187, 204-05 (Blandon (PA): Seaber Turner Associates 2007).

� Zemenszky & Redline, A Strasbourger In America, supra at 430.

� H.M. Muhlenberg record of personnel notes from “Squire Reichardt” (18 Sept. 1780), translated and printed in Zemenszky & Redline, A Strasbourger In America, supra at 53; accord, Clifford Neal Smith, Mercenaries from Hessen-Hanau Who Remained in Canada and the United States after the American Revolution 5 (DeKalb IL: German-American Genealogical Research Monograph, Westland Publications 1976)(information available in ancestry.com).

� See Letter from John Frederick Ernst to J.C. Kunze (4 July 1782), translated and printed in Zemenszky & Redline, A Strasbourger In America, supra at 263.

� Barbara Fretz Kempton, A History of St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Easton, Pennsylvania 1740 – 1940 27 (Easton: The John S. Correll Co., Inc. 1940).

� Letter from John Frederick Ernst to J.C. Kunze (18 Aug. 1783), translated and printed in Zemenszky & Redline, A Strasbourger In America, supra at 320.

� Zemenszky & Redline, A Strasbourger In America, supra at 430-31.

� See Zemenszky & Redline, A Strasbourger In America, supra at 244 (“The Ernst family [in April 1782] still lived in the same small house, which the congregation had provided for the new pastor about a year ago.”). The Lutherans had acquired a property for their pastor in 1763, but it did not appear on a map of 1776. Ernst complained in a letter in 1781 that his accommodation had not “even a small study room”. Zemenszky & Redline, A Strasbourger In America, supra at 80.

� Charles de Krafft, Map of Easton Original Town Lots (from collection of Luigi Ferone, said to have been used by Penn agents to manage town lots c.1779-1800)(Lot Nos.11 and 12 noted: “Vacant – applied [in] by M. Frederitzi, who has it in Fence.”); accord, Deed, John Penn the Younger and John Penn the Elder to Jacob Mixsell, G1 453 (4 Dec. 1789)(regarding original town Lot Nos.10 and 138, which recites that Lot No.11 was in “Terre Tenure” of “Frederici”).

� Frank Whelan, “When Hotels Were Grand – The Hotel Easton Has a Proud Heritage on Which to Base Its Renovation – The Way It Was”, Morning Call, Sun., 13 Aug. 2000, p.E-1.

� Charles de Krafft, Map of Easton Original Town Lots (from collection of Luigi Ferone, said to have been used by Penn agents to manage town lots c.1779-1800)(Lot Nos.11 and 12 noted: “Vacant – applied [in] by M. Frederitzi, who has it in Fence.”); accord, Deed, John Penn the Younger and John Penn the Elder to Jacob Mixsell, G1 453 (4 Dec. 1789)(regarding original town Lot Nos.10 and 138, which recites that Lot No.11 was in “Terre Tenure” of “Frederici”).

� After a dearth of purchases during the Revolution, there is a sudden increase in the number of formal land purchases from the Penn Family, starting in 1789. See, e.g., 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).

The Revolutionary government of Pennsylvania’s Divestment Act of 1779, 1 Dall St. Laws 822 (1779), had seized approximately 24 million acres of unsold land from the Penn Family, and left the Family with only the ownership of the private estates and proprietary manors that had been surveyed before 4 July 1776. The Act’s £130,000 settlement payment to the Penn Family was actually paid in installments from 1786 until 1789. With the completion of these payments in 1789, the Penn Family apparently made a push to collect outstanding quit rent obligations (or sell the quit rents obligation off), and sell its unpatented lots. See Lorett Treese, The Storm Gathering – The Penn Family and the American Revolution 189-91, 196-97 (University Park (PA): The Pennsylvania State University Press 1992); cf. William J. Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car 117-18 (Express Printing Co. and Harmony Press, 1911, reprinted 1984)(Penn Family attorney came “About the year 1790”).

� Barbara Fretz Kempton, A History of St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Easton, Pennsylvania 1740 – 1940 27, 266 (Easton: The John S. Correll Co., Inc. 1940).

� John and Richard Penn to German Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Easton, G3 261 (15 Oct. 1810)(sale price $46.89 for original town Lot No.9, which includes the Bush Building property next door). The 1817 conveyances of each half of this Town Lot incorrectly cite the Penn Deed to Deed Book G Vol.2, instead of Vol.3. See Deed, German Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Easton to George Bush, C4 278 (1 April 1817); Deed, German Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Easton to John O’Neil, C4 181 (1 Apr. 1817)(regarding Parsonage property at corner with Second Street).

� Deed, John Penn and Richard Penn to Peter Snyder, et al., Trustees for German Reformed Congregation fo Easton, and Jacob Weygandt, et al., Trustees for Lutheran Congregation of Easton, G2 402 (23 June 1802)($10 sale price); William J. Heller, Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolley-Car 117-18 (Express Printing Co. and Harmony Press, 1911, reprinted 1984).

� Deed, German Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Easton to Jon O’Neil, C4 181 (1 April 1817)(containing a “Stone Messuage and Lot), at the SE corner of Northampton and Fermor Streets; recites that to the West is the lot sold to George Bush). See also Deed, German Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Easton to George Bush, C4 278 (1 April 1817)(concerning the Bush Building property, but at this time the Deed mentions only a “Lot or Piece of Ground”, without mentioning any building on the property).

The corner portion of the lot was the one “whereon is erected the Parsonage”.

� Compare Deed, German Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Easton to Jon O’Neil, C4 181 (1 April 1817) and Deed, German Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Easton to George Bush, C4 278 (1 April 1817)(concerning the Bush Building property) with Northampton County Tax Records map, www.ncpub.org.

In addition, two more plots of land in Fermor (now Second) Street were sold to William Bagle. See Rev. Franklin K. Fretz (Pastor, apparently for the 175th Anniversary Committee), Historical Sketch of St. John’s Lutheran Church 22 (1915).

� Deed, The German Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Easton to William Nagle, F9 595 (1 Apr. 1830)(a portion of the property that eventually became the Nagle Building at 24-28 South 2nd Street).

� Rev. Franklin K. Fretz (Pastor, apparently for the 175th Anniversary Committee), Historical Sketch of St. John’s Lutheran Church 22 (1915).

� Deed Poll, Daniel Raub, Sheriff, for John O’Neil, to John Yohe, D4 437 (18 Jan. 1820)(sale price $2,368 to pay against a judgment of $5,000 owed by O’Neil to the German Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Easton, probably for failing to pay for the building; property measured 30’ on Northampton Street X 144’ on Fermor Street); accord, Deed Poll, Daniel Raub, Sheriff, for John Oneill, to John Yohe, Sheriff A2½ 139 (18 Jan. 1820)(recording the same transaction); see Deed Poll, John Yohe, Assignee of John Oneill, vs. Jonathan Lick, Sheriff 1½ 59 (17 June 1824: date from Index)(Sheriff J. Carey Jr. recording result of litigation resulting in $900 payment by Yohe for Lick’s interest in 24’ X 120’ property at the corner ).

� See Deed, Samuel (Maria) Yohe by Sheriff to Jonathan Durling, B8 73 (2 Jan. 1850)(reciting that Samuel Yohe had inherited the property from his father, John Yohe).

Samuel Yohe may have been the great-grandson of Adam Yohe, “one of the original settlers of Easton”. See Record Book of Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church of Easton, Pennsylvania (Easton Public Library Code B) 140 (copied in Easton Public Library May 1936)(death notice of Sarah Houck, last member of Adam Yohe’s family, who died of dropsy on 29 May 1855); see also Rev. Uzal W. Condit, The History of Easton, Penn’a 17 (George W. West 1885 / 1889)(Adam Yohe contributed £1 towards the building of the schoolhouse in 1755).

Adam Yohe became the innkeeper of the Red Lion Inn, the forerunner of the modern Hotel Lafayette, at the NE corner of Northampton and Hamilton (now 4th) Streets. See, e.g., A.D. Chidsey, Jr., A Frontier Village 69, 234-35, 239-40 (Vol. III of Publications of The Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society 1940); separate www.WalkingEaston.com entry for 11 North 4th Street.

Adam Yohe “disposed” of that property in 1760. A.D. Chidsey, Jr., A Frontier Village 239-40 (Vol. III of Publications of The Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society 1940).

In 1772, Adam Yohe purchased the hotel on the opposite (SW) corner, where the Northampton National Bank Building now stands at 400 Northampton Street. In 1783, he sold this to his son, Adam Yohe Jr., who took over its operation. A.D. Chidsey, Jr., A Frontier Village 246 (Vol. III of Publications of The Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society 1940); see separate www.WalkingEaston.com entry for 400 Northampton Street; see also Peter Fritts, History of Northampton County 152 (1877, reprint by Higginson Book Company)(by 1783 Adam Yohe Sr. died leaving the hotel to his son Adam Yohe Jr.); see generally Rev. Uzal W. Condit, The History of Easton, Penn’a 67, 144 (George W. West 1885 / 1889)(Adam Yohe Jr. became a tavern keeper; 1780 tax assessment roll showed Adam Yohe Sr. with £380 and Adam Yohe Jr. with £25).

John A. [Adam?] Yohe and Maria Elisabeth Yohe had a son, Johannes [i.e. John], born 27 Jan. 1783 and baptized 9 Mar. 1873. St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Congregation, Parish Records of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Easton, PA (Easton Public Library Reference G) 10 (date stamp 29 Apr. 1980). We discover below that John Yohe, the father of Samuel Yohe, died at age 42, before his son reached his majority (i.e. age 21) in 1824. Consequently, that John Yohe was born in approximately 1792 or 1793, supporting this identification. See Frank B. Copp, Biographical Sketches of Some of Easton’s Prominent Citizens 35 (Easton: Hilburn & West 1879).

John Yohe was the father of Samuel Yohe, born 15 April 1805. Frank B. Copp, Biographical Sketches of Some of Easton’s Prominent Citizens 35 (Easton: Hilburn & West 1879).

� Obituary, “Colonel Samuel Yohe”, Easton Express, Tues., 6 July 1880, p.3, col.3; see St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Congregation, Parish Records of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Easton, PA (Easton Public Library Reference G) 56 (date stamp 29 Apr. 1980)(Samuel Yohe born 15 April 1805 to Johan and Rebecka Yohe).

� Frank B. Copp, Biographical Sketches of Some of Easton’s Prominent Citizens 35 (Easton: Hilburn & West 1879).

� Obituary, “Colonel Samuel Yohe”, Easton Express, Tues., 6 July 1880, p.3, col.3; Frank B. Copp, Biographical Sketches of Some of Easton’s Prominent Citizens 36 (Easton: Hilburn & West 1879)(opened the store in April 1827).

� Obituary, “Colonel Samuel Yohe”, Easton Express, Tues., 6 July 1880, p.3, col.3; see Article, “Fire at Col. Yohe’s large mill on Bushkill”, Easton Express, Fri., 10 Jan. 1868, p.1, cols. 4-5; Frank B. Copp, Biographical Sketches of Some of Easton’s Prominent Citizens 35 (Easton: Hilburn & West 1879)(Samuel Yohe took possession after his “father’s” death – 19th Century usage did not always clearly discriminate between a father and a father-in-law); see also Article, “Fire – Destruction of Yohe’s Mill on the Bushkill”, Easton Argus, Thurs., 16 Jan. 1868, p.2, col.4. The mill that burned down in 1868 was in Forks Township. See James Wright, History of Forks Township Northampton County, Pennsylvania 74 (1991)(Samuel Yohe operated this mill in the 1860s, but it burned down around 1863); accord, James A. Wright, History of Palmer 61 (Palmer Township Historical Society 1984)(burned down around 1867). Wright indicates that this was the mill that had earlier been operated by Jacob Arndt, located “at the old falls at Bushkill Park”). Wright does not mention Jacob Heller. See generally Rev. Uzal W. Condit, The History of Easton, Penn’a 84-85 (George W. West 1885 / 1889)(discussing the Arndt mill).

� Frank B. Copp, Biographical Sketches of Some of Easton’s Prominent Citizens 36 (Easton: Hilburn & West 1879).

� Rev. Uzal W. Condit, The History of Easton, Penn’a 83 (George W. West 1885 / 1889).

� Obituary, “Colonel Samuel Yohe”, Easton Express, Tues., 6 July 1880, p.3, col.3; Frank B. Copp, Biographical Sketches of Some of Easton’s Prominent Citizens 36-37 (Easton: Hilburn & West 1879). Copp also recorded (at 39) that Samuel Yohe had commanded the Washington Grays military unit before he took the National Guards.

� Frank B. Copp, Biographical Sketches of Some of Easton’s Prominent Citizens 39 (Easton: Hilburn & West 1879).

� Frank B. Copp, Biographical Sketches of Some of Easton’s Prominent Citizens 39 (Easton: Hilburn & West 1879).

� See Rev. Uzal W. Condit, The History of Easton, Penn’a 212 (George W. West 1885 / 1889).

� Rev. Uzal W. Condit, The History of Easton, Penn’a 212 (George W. West 1885 / 1889), quoting The Home Journal and Citizen Soldier, May, 1845.

� See Recruiting Notice, Easton Democrat & Argus, Thurs., 14 Jan. 1847, p.2, col.3. Rev. Condit’s history indicates that the Easton National Guards became the only military unit in town. Rev. Uzal W. Condit, The History of Easton, Penn’a 214-15 (George W. West 1885 / 1889).

� Obituary, “Colonel Samuel Yohe”, Easton Express, Tues., 6 July 1880, p.3, col.3 (formed in 1849); Frank B. Copp, Biographical Sketches of Some of Easton’s Prominent Citizens 36-37 (Easton: Hilburn & West 1879).

A contemporaneous newspaper article indicates that Yohe probably actually took command of the National Guard in the latter part of 1848, when the unit was formed. See Article, “New Military Company, Democrat & Argus, Thurs., 21 Sept. 1848, p.2, col.2 (“A new military corps has been organized in our borough, of which Captain Yohe is to take command.”).

� Frank B. Copp, Biographical Sketches of Some of Easton’s Prominent Citizens 36-37 (Easton: Hilburn & West 1879); see also Rev. Uzal W. Condit, The History of Easton, Penn’a 208, 212 (George W. West 1885 / 1889).

� Deed, Samuel (Maria) Yohe by Sheriff to Jonathan Durling, B8 73 (2 Jan. 1850).

In the 1850s and ‘60s, Samuel Yohe’s residence was on North 3rd Street. See separate www.WalkingEaston.com entry for the Parking Lot at 56 North 3rd Street.

� Keith Carlin Clark (Lafayette College Student), Eastonians in the Union Forces: First Pennsylvania Volunteers) 1 (typewritten paper 1973)(Marx Room, Easton Area Public Library call no. 974.822 N11 C598e).

� Rev. Uzal W. Condit, The History of Easton, Penn’a 222 (George W. West 1885 / 1889); see Michael C. Schrader, Bench and Bar, Vol. V of Two Hundred Years of Life in Northampton County, PA. A Bicentennial Review 93 (Northampton County Bicentennial Commission 1976).

� Samuel P. Bates, I History of Pennsylvania Volunteers 1861-5 13, 17 (P. Singerly, State Printer 1869); Obituary, “Colonel Samuel Yohe”, Easton Express, Tues., 6 July 1880, p.3, col.3. See also www.WalkingEaston.com entry for the Armstrong Homestead at 40 North 3rd Street.

The other three companies from Easton were:

Company D (Capt. Charles Heckman), which also left for Harrisburg on 18 April with Yohe’s and Armstrong’s troops.

Company B (Capt. Jacob Dachrodt [Dachardt]), formed from the Easton Citizens Artillary, which left two days later (on 20 April).

Company H (Capt. Ferdinand W. Bell), formed from the Easton National Guard, whih also left on 20 April.

Keith Carlin Clark (Lafayette College Student), Eastonians in the Union Forces: First Pennsylvania Volunteers) 6 (typewritten paper 1973)(Marx Room, Easton Area Public Library call no. 974.822 N11 C598e).

In addition, the Easton Jaegers (Capt. Charles Glanz) left on 22 April to become Company G of the 9th Pennsylvania Volunteers. Clark, Eastonians in the Union Forces, supra at 8.

� Samuel P. Bates, I History of Pennsylvania Volunteers 1861-5 13 (P. Singerly, State Printer 1869).

� Obituary, “Colonel Samuel Yohe”, Easton Express, Tues., 6 July 1880, p.3, col.3.

� Samuel P. Bates, I History of Pennsylvania Volunteers 1861-5 13 (P. Singerly, State Printer 1869).

� Ex Parte Merryman, 17 F. Cas. 144 (C.C.D.Md 1861)(Taney, J. acting as Circuit Judge). Col. Yohe’s involvement in Merryman’s arrest was recounted in the court’s recital of General George Cadwalader, refusing to obey Justice Taney’s habeas corpus writ.

General Cadwalader specifically mentions that the two men who brought Merryman in on Col. Yohe’s orders were “Adjutant James Wittimore and Lieut. Wm. H. Abel”. According to Regimental records, the 2nd Lieutenant of Company D of Col. Yohe’s regiment was William H. Abel, and Col. Yohe’s Adjutant was James Miltimore (General Cadwalader had it slightly misspelled). See Samuel P. Bates, I History of Pennsylvania Volunteers 1861-5 16, 18 (P. Singerly, State Printer 1869).

Special thanks to Mr. Rory Morgan for drawing the author’s attention to this item.

� See, e.g., Patrick S. Poole, Ex Parte Merryman and President Lincoln, thomaslegion.net/presidentabrahamlincolnandexpartemerryman.html (1994).

� See, e.g., Thomas J. DiLorenzo, “Lincoln’s ‘Great Crime’: The Arrest Warrant for the Chief Justice”, thomaslegion.net/presidentabrahamlincolnandthechiefjustice.htm.

� See AbsoluteAstronomy.com (Encyclopedia), “Ex parte Merryman”, www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Ex_parte_Merryman (accessed 21 Aug. 2011).

� Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, 542 U.S. 507 (2004).

� Samuel P. Bates, I History of Pennsylvania Volunteers 1861-5 14-15 (P. Singerly, State Printer 1869).

� Frank B. Copp, Biographical Sketches of Some of Easton’s Prominent Citizens 37 (Easton: Hilburn & West 1879).

� Keith Carlin Clark (Lafayette College Student), Eastonians in the Union Forces: First Pennsylvania Volunteers) 1 (typewritten paper 1973)(Marx Room, Easton Area Public Library call no. 974.822 N11 C598e); see Samuel P. Bates, I History of Pennsylvania Volunteers 1861-5 14 (P. Singerly, State Printer 1869).

� Samuel P. Bates, I History of Pennsylvania Volunteers 1861-5 14-15 (P. Singerly, State Printer 1869); Obituary, “Colonel Samuel Yohe”, Easton Express, Tues., 6 July 1880, p.3, col.3.

� Frank B. Copp, Biographical Sketches of Some of Easton’s Prominent Citizens 39 (Easton: Hilburn & West 1879).

� Obituary, “Colonel Samuel Yohe”, Easton Express, Tues., 6 July 1880, p.3, col.3; Frank B. Copp, Biographical Sketches of Some of Easton’s Prominent Citizens 38 (Easton: Hilburn & West 1879).

� Peggy Moser and Russ Dodge, “Col. Samuel Yohe”, in Easton Cemetery Find A Grave Memorial # 15931685, www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Yohe&GSfn=Samuel&GSiman=1&GScid=44735&GRid=15931685& (accessed 14 June 2011).

� Obituary, “Colonel Samuel Yohe”, Easton Express, Tues., 6 July 1880, p.3, col.3.

� Record Book of Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church of Easton, Pennsylvania (Easton Public Library Code B) 113 (copied in Easton Public Library May 1936)(Samuel Yohe of Easton married Carrie W. Reeves of Philadelphia on 4 August 1864); accord, Obituary, “Colonel Samuel Yohe”, Easton Express, Tues., 6 July 1880, p.3, col.3.

� Obituary, “Colonel Samuel Yohe”, Easton Express, Tues., 6 July 1880, p.3, col.3; see Frank B. Copp, Biographical Sketches of Some of Easton’s Prominent Citizens 39 (Easton: Hilburn & West 1879).

� Untitled item, Argus, Thurs., 29 Aug. 1867, p.2, col.6; see Joan Steiner, The Bushkill Creek 30 (Bushkill Stream Conservancy typewritten MS 1996).

� Article, “Fire at Col. Yohe’s large mill on Bushkill”, Easton Express, Fri., 10 Jan. 1868, p.1, cols. 4-5; see also Article, “Fire – Destruction of Yohe’s Mill on the Bushkill”, Easton Argus, Thurs., 16 Jan. 1868, p.2, col.4.

� James Wright, History of Forks Township Northampton County, Pennsylvania 74 (1991); see also D. G. Beers, Atlas of Northampton County Pennsylvania 47 (A. Pomeroy & Co. 1874, reprinted by Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society 1990)(Bushkill Mill No. 2).

� Frank B. Copp, Biographical Sketches of Some of Easton’s Prominent Citizens 39 (Easton: Hilburn & West 1879).

� Obituary, “Colonel Samuel Yohe”, Easton Express, Tues., 6 July 1880, p.3, col.3.

� Peggy Moser and Russ Dodge, “Col. Samuel Yohe”, in Easton Cemetery Find A Grave Memorial # 15931685, www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Yohe&GSfn=Samuel&GSiman=1&GScid=44735&GRid=15931685& (accessed 14 June 2011).

� Deed, Jacob Cope, Sheriff, for Jonathan Durling, to Amos Seip, Sheriff 2 244 (22 Jan. 1856); see Deed, Amos (Ann S.) Seip to Joseph Weil, F11 185 (1 April 1865)(reciting that Seip had acquired the property in a Sheriff’s Sale from Jonathan Durling).

� Deed, Amos (Ann S.) Seip to Joseph Weil, F11 185 (1 April 1865).

� Deed Poll, George W. Walton, Sheriff, for Abraham Steinfeld and Joseph Weil trading under the firm of Steinfeld & Co., to Nathan Herman, E13 1 (17 May 1870).

� See separate www.WalkingEaston.com entry for 18 South 2nd Street, and sources listed therein.

� Deed, Nathan Herrmann to Samuel Stem, B13 299 (19 July 1870).

� See D.G. Beers, Atlas of Northampton County Pennsylvania, Plan of Easton (A. Pomeroy & Co. 1874)(map showing “Sam’l Stem” in the corner property); Jeremiah H. Lant, The Northampton County Directory for 1873 120 (1873)(alphabetical listing for Samuel Stem grocery and residence at “Northampton cor. S Second”).

Up to 1870, Stem’s grocery and residence had been located at 26 Northampton Street. Fitzgerald & Dillon (compilers), Easton Directory for 1870-71 80 (M.J. Riegel 1870)(Samuel Stem, grocer and residence at 26 Northampton Street); see also Talbot’s Lehigh Valley Gazetteer and Business Directory 1864-65 29 (Press of Wynkoop & Hallenbeck 1864)(same). Under the street numbering scheme in effect prior to 1874, No.26 Northampton Street was not at the corner of Second Street, but instead appears to have been located in the eastern portion of what is now the Hotel Easton. The western strip of that location was No.32 prior to 1874, while the National Hotel next door was No.18 in the 1850s and ‘60s. Compare:

In regard to the western strip of land later used for Hotel Easton: D.G. Beers, Atlas of Northampton County Pennsylvania, Plan of Easton (A. Pomeroy & Co. 1874)(Mrs. E. Otto); Jeremiah H. Lant, The Northampton County Directory for 1873 65 (1873)(alphabetical listings for John B. Otto and Mrs. E. Otto); 1880 Census, Series T9, Roll 1161, p.373B (John B. Otto, confectioner, son of Elmira Otto, keeping house). See separate entry for 140 Northampton Street.

In regard to the National Hotel: C[harles] Kitchen, A General Directory of the Borough of Easton PA (Cole & Eichman’s Office, 1855)(alphabetical listing for the National Hotel, Thomas Keller, proprietor); William H. Boyd, Boyd’s Directory of Reading, Easton, [Etc.] (William H. Boyd 1860)(business listing for Jacob Williamson’s Hotel). See Buscemi, The Easton-Phillipsburg 1999 Calendar, supra (Jacob Williamson was the proprietor of the National Hotel in 1860). See separate entry for 128 Northampton Street.

� Article, “The New Numbers”, Easton Daily Free Press, Friday, 21 Nov. 1873, p.3; see Webb Bros. & Co., Webb’s Easton and Phillipsburg Directory 1875-6 118 (M.J. Riegel 1875)(Samuel Stem, grocer at 170 Northampton Street at the corner with Second Street, residence at 8 South Second Street).

� Webb Bros. & Co., Webb’s Easton and Phillipsburg Directory 1875-6 118 (M.J. Riegel 1875)(Samuel Stem, grocer at 170 Northampton Street at the corner with Second Street, residence at 8 South Second Street).

By 1877, Samuel Stem Sr. is no longer listed in the Easton City Directory, although Mrs. S. Stem’s residence is still listed at 8 South 2nd Street. J.H. Lant, Easton [Etc.] Directory for 1877 135 (M.J. Riegel 1877). The Samuel Stem Jr. who is listed in this directory as a clerk, is not the same person – he had also appeared in the 1875 directory as a separate entry from Samuel Stem and grocer.

� Samuel P. Bates, I History of Pennsylvania Volunteers 1861-5 1174 (P. Singerly, State Printer 1869)(Company E, 47th Pennsylvania Regiment, mustered in 16 Sept. 1861, mustered out with the Company 25 Dec. 1865).

� Samuel P. Bates, I History of Pennsylvania Volunteers 1861-5 1150 (P. Singerly, State Printer 1869). The band was discharged from service in September 1862. Easton Municipal Band, The Easton Municipal Band: History, www.eastonband.org/history/ (accessed 7 May 2011). See generally separate www.WalkingEaston.com entry for the Mebus Building at 158 Northampton Street.

� Easton Municipal Band, The Easton Municipal Band: History, www.eastonband.org/history/ (accessed 7 May 2011).

� Samuel P. Bates, I History of Pennsylvania Volunteers 1861-5 1151-53 (P. Singerly, State Printer 1869); see Easton Municipal Band, The Easton Municipal Band: History, www.eastonband.org/History.htm (accessed 30 Apr. 2007)(stationed at Hilton Head, SC and Key West, FL).

� Ethan Allen Weaver (1853-1929), I The Book Shelf Scrap Book of Easton and Vicinity in the Civil War 20 (copied in Easton Public Library 1936)(“Pokatalico”).

� Deed, Mrs. Samuel Stem to Bernard McGovern, F15 309 (3 July 1878)(widow of Samuel Stem); see also Deed, Bernard McGovern to Margaret McGovern (his wife), E16 112 (20 March 1880)(recitals; contained “two messuages”).

� J.H. Lant, Easton, [Etc,] Directory for 1879 114, 149 (M.J. Riegel 1879)(B. McGovern, contractor, house at 8 South 2nd Street, and Barney McGovern, house at 170 Northampton Street; Mrs. Samuel Stem had moved her house to 737 Washington Street); J.H. Lant & Son, Easton [Etc.] Directory 1881-2 79 (1881)(Barnet McGovern, house at 170 Northampton Street, no mention of Bernard McGovern); J.H. Lant, Easton [Etc.] Directory for 1883-4 95 (J.H. Lant 1883)(Bernard McGovern, contractor, house at 8 South 2nd Street, no mention of Barney McGovern); J.H. Lant, Easton, Etc. Directory for 1884-5 94 (J.H. Lant 1884)(same); George W. West (compiler), West’s Guide to Easton [Etc.] 95 (George W. West 1887)(same); George W. West, West’s Guide to Easton [Etc.] 150 (George W. West 1889)(same; also John C. McGovern at the same home address); George W. West (compiler), West’s Directory of Easton [Etc.] 144 (George W. West 1892)(Bernard McGovern, contractor, house at 4 South 2nd Street).

� Deed, John C. McGovern and Margaret T. McGovern to S.R. Bush and James V. Bull, G36 499 (28 March 1907)(sale price $10,000; recital that Margaret McGovern (Bernard McGovern’s wife) had died leaving the property in 1905 to her children, John C. and Margaret T. McGovern).

� See separate entries for Former Bush and Bull Department Store, 301 Northampton Street, the Parking Lot, 201 Spring Garden Street (former site of Solomon Royce Bush’s mansion), and the Bull Mansion, 226 Bushkill Street.

� Deed, William H. Bush, Executor of the Will of William A. Bush, to S.R. Bush and James V. Bull, G36 518 (22 March 1907). See separate entry for the Bush Building, 164-66 Northampton Street.

� The two partners conveyed the property to their partnership in 1927, but took it back again three years later. Deed, Solomon R. (Susan A.) Bush and James V. (Mary A.) Bull to Bush & Bull Company, D57 180 (26 March 1927); Deed, Bush & Bull Company to Solomon R. Bush and James V. Bull, H62 437 (1 Nov. 1930).

� When Solomon Bush died on 18 September 1932, he left half interests in the property each to his widow (Susan) and to his son (F. Royce Bush). Widow Susan Bush left her interest to her son and daughter, Susan Duryea, who in turn sold her 1/8 interest to her brother, F. Royce Bush, leaving him with all of the family’s half-interest in the property. See Deed, Martha Duryea to F. Royce Bush, F68 338 (30 Mar. 1938); Deed, F. Royce Bush to Philip Miller and Albert M. Miller, C76 64 (31 July 1944)(recitals).

When James Bull died, his executors transferred his half interest to F. Royce Bull. Easton National Bank and William H. Heil, Executors and Trustees of the Estate of James V. Bull, to F. Royce Bush, C72 339 (21 Dec. 1938); see also Deed, F. Royce Bush to Philip Miller and Albert M. Miller, C76 64 (31 July 1944)(recitals).

� Deed, F. Royce Bush to Philip Miller and Albert M. Miller, C76 64 (31 July 1944)(and recitals).

� See Deed, Phillip (Olive E.) Miller to Miller Brothers Hardware Company, H89 189 (11 May 1950)(Purpart No.1 = SE corner of Northampton and South 2nd Streets; Purpart No.2 = brick dwelling house next door on Northampton Street, i.e. the Bush Building; Purpart No.3 also includes an additional parcel of land in the rear acquired at a Sheriff’s sale); Deed, Miller Brothers Hardward Company to Joseph E. (Carol Ann) Milutis, 608 766 (20 Nov. 1979)(sale price $120,000 for many properties – see Parcel A No.1); see also Deed, Joseph E. (Carol Ann) Milutis to Joseph E. Milutis, 698 612 (28 Mar. 1986)(Parcel No.5, Tract One, Nos.1, 2 and 3).

� Leonard S. Buscemi, Sr., Easton Remembered 54 (Buscemi Enterprises 2007).

� Deed, Joseph E. Milutis to Jerry Policelli and Larry C. Keiper, Co-Partners, 828 129 (30 Apr. 1991)(sale price $276,000).

� Deed, Jerry Policelli, Co-Partner, to Larry C. Keiper, 1999-1-142697 (15 Sept. 1999)(sale of ½ interest).

� See Northampton County Tax Records, www.ncpub.org; and visit Aura Ceramics!