FORKS OF THE DELAWARE

There seems to be some confusion on the term "Forks of the Delaware" so
I thought I'd try to explain actually what this means. 

What is now known as "the City of Easton" was orginally called "The
Forks of the Delaware". By this name it was designated by the Indians
themselves, long before the appearance of the white man at this most
beautiful and romantic spot, and though the white man gave it a new
name, the Indian to the latest generation clung tenaciously to the
title given by his fathers to the place where the Lehigh River empties its
waters into the greater Delaware. To the Colonial and Continental
authorities seeking a council with the orginal proprietors of the soil,
Teedyuscung, the Great King of the Delawares, said -"I will treat you with
nowhere else than at the Forks of the Delaware."

If we are curious to know how this orginal name of the place was exchanged
for that which the city now bears, we are told that when the first settlers
established themselves here, about the year 1739, the territory of
Northampton County was a part of Bucks, and that when the new county
was surveyed and the town established by the authority of Thomas Penn,
it was directed by him that the County should be called Northampton and
the town Easton. The town was thus named in honor of the house of Lord
Pomfred in England, Thomas Penn having married the daughter of Lord Pomfret.

Who was the first adventurous white man to set foot on this most beautiful
and romantic spot, or who first drew up his canoe on the pebble-covered
tongue of land that orginally extended far out between the Delaware and
Lehigh rivers at their intersection, no one can tell; but as one stands
on what remains of "The Point", as it was once called, and looks about
him at the high hills and bold bluffs, on all sides shutting him in, he
may imagine the wild and romantic scene that must have presented itself
to the eye of the first white discover of "The Forks of the Delaware".

The Forks of the Delaware was a mere meeting place for the Indians than
aught else - a place in which "to light the council fire" rather than a
place of permanent dwelling. Better lands for the building of towns and
the cultivation of the soil could be found elsewhere than amongst these
high hills. The more powerful Iroquois had their habitation in the
Genesee valley in western New York; the Lenni-Lenape dwelt eastward along
the Delaware, the Delawares northward in the Minnisink region - but no-
where could a council fire be so well lighted as where the two great
rivers joined their waters with the mighty hills as witnesses of their
union. And to these council fires, long before the advent of the white
man, the Indians came down the Lehigh from the west in their light birch-
bark canoes, or down the Delaware from the north, holding here their
conferences of peace or war, trade or barter, at the well-known and far-
famed "Forks of the Delaware."

We are told  that one David Martin in 1739 build the first house at
"The Point", as the intersection of the two rivers was then called, a
log cabin, rude enough no doubt, but comfortable.  Here David Martin
established his ferry, carry the trader or the traveller across either
the Lehigh or the Delaware  in his rowboat..

The town of Easton was laid out in 1750 by Williams Parsons.  Thomas
Penn in 1752 expressing some fear that what is now called Phillipsburg, PA
might prove a dangerous rival to Easton, suggested that it might be 
prudent to secure all the land possible on the Jersey side of the river.
At all events, Martin's ferry seems to have proved a profitable invest-
ment both to its original founder and his successors.

For it did not always remain a mere Ferry House, but was at an early date
enlarged into a hotel, kept at first by one Nathaniel Vernon, and in his
day it became the celebrated scene of many important Indian treaties, all
of which were held here until the erection of the church on Third street,
which afforded larger and better accommondation. These treaties were
attended by certain very celebrated persons on the white man's side -
by the Governor of New Jersey and his staff, by the Governor of Pennsy.
and his staff, by Williams Parsons and Conrad Weiser and other eminent
people; and on the part of the Indians, powerful chieftains representing
at times as many as eighteen or nineteen distinct tribes here assembled -
amongst whom the representatives of the powerful Six Natins held first
place, though Teedyuscung, King of the Delawares, in his cocked hat
covered with lace, and arrayed in his broadcloth coat cut in the height
of the French fashion, must always have been a commanding figure.


Source: from Historical Introduction found in "Some of the First Settlers"
of "The Forks of the Delaware" and their decendants, being a translation
from the German of the Record Books of The First Reform Church of Easton,
Penna. from 1760-1852.
Translated and published by The Rev. Henry Martyn Kieffer, DD, Pastor
of the church. In Commemoration of the One Hundred and Fify-Seventh
Anniversary of the Founding of the Congregation. 1745-1902, Easton, PA

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