The Dry Lands, also called Dryland, the Drylands, or the Barrens, was the name once given to a large area of Northampton County, Pennsylvania, between Bethlehem and Easton. The name described a region rather than a town with definite boundaries. It encompassed portions of what are now Bethlehem, Hanover, Lower Nazareth, and Palmer townships. Today,…
This census was taken in 1810, before the township of Towamensing split into two and before that part of Northampton County became Carbon County. My 5th great grandfather, Theobald Straub (Dewald Stroup), appears here. The 1810 federal census recorded approximately 489 inhabitants in 84 households. The township had a notably young population, with slightly more…
The area now called Towamensing Township and Lower Towamensing Township was established in 1752 as the Towamensing District. An influx of German settlers-and subsequent population growth-in the mid-1700s led to the eventual division into separate townships in 1840. Three years later, in 1843, the Towamensings also changed counties when part of Northampton County was split…
This article caught my attention because of my own LaBar family in Northampton and Lehigh Counties, Pennsylvania. Dunaway specifically mentions Peter Le Barre and his brothers, Charles and Abraham, French Huguenots who settled in the vicinity of the Delaware Water Gap about 1730. These three men are often identified as immigrant ancestors of the Pennsylvania…
Northampton County Northampton County was formed from parts of Bucks County on March 11, 1752. It originally encompassed the areas now covered by Northampton, Monroe, Pike, and Wayne Counties in northeastern PA. It was named for Northamptonshire, England, where Thomas Penn’s father-in-law, the Earl of Pomfret, lived. In 1812, part of the county became Lehigh…
I visited this church on April 10, 2001. The church doesn’t have any old records on file. The Easton Public Library has microfilm copies of the church’s session minutes and birth, marriage, and death records. The original books are deposited in the home church in Philadelphia. Some Surnames From My Tree Who Were Members of…
