Bath, Pennsylvania

History

Bath is located at the head of the Monocacy Creek in an area of the Lehigh Valley that was once rich in agriculture. The greater area of the town, however, lies east of the Monocacy Valley. Prior to European settlement, Bath was inhabited by the Lenape Indigenous tribe.

Bath was established in 1728 as a Scotch-Irish settlement before the American Revolution as the first settlement by white people in the Forks of the Delaware River. It is named for Bath, Somerset, England by Margaret DeLancey, who sold land under her father, lieutenant colonel of the Continental Army, William Allen, in the 1700s.

On March 3, 1737, the 247 acres of land that is currently inside the boundaries of Bath was purchased and surveyed for Daniel Craig. According to borough historians, this land spans from Chestnut Street to the north of Northampton Street. William Allen conveyed the greater part of Bath's land to his son, Andrew, in 1776, the same year that the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia signed the Declaration of Independence, declaring its freedom from British colonial governance. That same year, Andrew Allen sold 150 acres of the land to John Lattimore. Andrew Allen also owned land west of the Monocacy, which was eventually confiscated and sold to local families in the area. Today, Bath's current acreage is 576 acres and is less than 1 sq. mi. in area.

From the History section of Bath, Pennsylvania on Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.