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Archiver > AMREV-HESSIANS > 2005-10 > 1128647157


From: "Nelda Percival" <>
Subject: RE: [HESSIAN] Prisoner of War Camp at Allentown, PA
Date: Thu, 06 Oct 2005 18:05:57 -0700
In-Reply-To: <000001c5cad9$13457440$2f01a8c0@barbslaptop>


Hi Barb,
Does it have a particular name? or was it just Allentown POW Camp?
Need info for webpage...

Thanks Nelda

----Original Message Follows----
From: "Barb Wiemann" <>
Reply-To: <>
To:
Subject: [HESSIAN] Prisoner of War Camp at Allentown, PA
Date: Thu, 06 Oct 2005 20:50:12 -0400

Since I could find no mention of the this camp in the archives, I am sending
this for "the record."

The Oct. 3, 2005 Morning Call (Allentown, PA) had an article about a Hessian
prisoner of war camp located at what is present day Third and Gordon Streets
in Allentown, PA.
The article quotes Robert's History of Lehigh County, 1914: "Early in the
year 1777, a number of the Hessians taken as prisoner at Trenton were
brought to Allentown and kept in tents. The camp was located in the
northern part of the town in the neighborhood of Gordon Street, according to
the testimony of an old citizen."
The article goes on to state that during and after the Revolution, many of
the Hessians decided to stay in the Lehigh Valley, since they were in a
German speaking community in the Valley, and that a number of local families
can count a Hessian on the family tree.
A plaque on a stone monument was erected in 1926 by the Liberty Bell Chapter
of the DAR to commemorate the site on the camp.

Barb Wiemann
Descendant of Henry Stemler of Lehigh County, PA


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