Lehigh County is of particular interest to me because several branches of my family lived in this region. My great-great-grandfather, Jesse LaBar (1835–1913), and his wife, Permila Showeriskey (1838–1913), lived in Slatington, where Jesse worked in the slate industry and operated several businesses. Their daughter, Laura LaBarre (1858–1925), married Dr. David Walter Straub (1855–1921), who…
My husband and I both have ancestors who were abducted by native peoples in the 18th century. My ancestors were my sixth great grandfather, Henry Boyer, his son Frederick and his daughters, Dorothea and Catherine, who were taken in a raid of their Carbon County farm in 1755. Henry was scalped and killed but his…
On July 13, 1782, in one of the last incidents of the Revolutionary War, British soldiers and Indians attacked and burned Hannastown. Judge Robert Hanna’s wife, Elizabeth Kelly, and two of their daughters were taken prisoners by the Indians. The women were taken to Montreal, held for a time as their Indian captors debated their…
