Until the completion of the Court House, the courts were held in the different taverns. The landlords were glad enough to have the sessions held at their houses, and exacted but small remuneration for it-four, five or at the most, seven pounds1 per year, being the prices paid by the county. These sessions were extremely ceremonious and imposing. At the present day, no official, however exalted, would think of assuming such awful dignity as was then habitual with the justices of the courts of Northampton county. On their passage to the place of holding court-preceded and followed by constables with badges and staves; of office-these provincial justices, in their severe gravity, and cooked hats, were fearful and wonderful personages to behold. But when they mounted the bench, and the court officers commanded the silence, then, was the hour of their triumph; for the loyal courtiers of King George as be sat upon his own throne at Windsor Castle, scarcely regarded their sovereign with more awe and adoration, than the townspeople, and the litigants gave to those worshipful wearers, of the county ermine, as they sat in solemn session, in the tavern courtroom at Easton.

 

In 1754, the same year in which Paul Millers inn was opened, Peter Kichline erected still another, more pretentious than any of its predecessors; and this became probably the most considerable among the public houses of the town, for, in the next year after it, erection, he rented to the commissioners "his large room" in the second story of this house, as a court room, and for the transaction of the public business. The sum received for rent, was hardly more than nominal, but he was reimbursed many times over, by the increase of custom and consideration which the elections and sessions of court brought to his establishment.

 

Still another was added to the list of public houses during this year, by the opening of Adam Yohe's inn-making no less than five taverns in it little settlement, not yet four years old. An unnecessarily large number, one would think.

 

In the matter of the keeping of public houses, at that day, the popular and prejudices evidently ran very much against Catholics, as landlord, for, in 1755, a petition, praying against the licensing of such, was numerously signed in Easton and presented to the court, its tenor was as follows:

 

"To the Worshipful, the Justices of the Court of General Quarter Sessions of Peace, held in, Easton, for the County of Northampton the 18th June, 1755. The petition of divers inhabitants of said town, and others, humbly showeth: That your petitioners are very apprehensive your worships have been greatly imposed upon, in granting recommendations to his honor, the governor, for sundry Roman Catholics, out of legiance of his present Majesty, our gracious Sovereign, for keeping public houses in this town, when those who profess the Protestant religion have been rejected; that Your petitioners humbly conceive this practice may have pernicious consequences, at this time, when an open rupture is now daily expected between a Roman Catholic powerful and perfidious prince, and the crown of Great Britain; as the Romans have thereby a better opportunity of becoming acquainted with our deigns against them, and are thereby the better enabled to discover those designs and render them abortive.

 

"Your petitioners, therefore pray, that your honors will make proper inquiry into this matter, and grant such redress as the circumstances of things may require: And your petitioners will ever pray."

 

Signed by Jasper Scull, Henry Rinker, Stophel Wagoner, Philip Mann, Nathaniel Vernon, and many others.

 

This petition received the following endorsement: "John Fricker is not allowed a recommendation to his honor, the Governor, for license to keep a public house, by being a Roman Catholic."

 

 

SCHOOL HOUSE-CHURCH-PRISON.

 

In 1754, and 1755, was agitated the project of the erection of a public school house in Easton, William Parsons being its warmest advocate. Four years earlier there had been formed, in England, and in parts of Germany, a society whose purpose it was to promote the instruction of poor Germans, and the descendants of such, settled in Pennsylvania. To the funds of this society, the King of England himself George the Second had given a thousand pounds, and other members of the royal, find of noble families, had contributed very handsome sums. The society's funds, obtained in this way, were very considerable to amount, and were placed in the hands of properly appointed trustees in this country, for distribution, according to their best judgment. Application being made to William Smith, President of the University of Pennsylvania, and one of these trustees, for pecuniary aid from the fund towards the establishment of the school at Easton, he responded by an official subscription of thirty pounds. To this, William Parsons added his individual subscription, and these were supplemented by smaller sums, given by other citizens, amounting in the aggregate to sixty-one pounds and one shilling, in money, in addition to which were many donations of labor and material.

 

Mr. Parsons was strongly opposed to allowing the people of the town to subscribe at all, for, as he said, they were, all Dutch, and so stubborn were they, that if permitted to have any voice in the matter, they would, by their obstinacy, wholly frustrate the design of the enterprise. By this, however, he did not desire to shut out the children of any from the benefits of the school, but preferred that they should receive its advantages gratuitously, rather than by receiving the subscriptions of the parents, to incur the risk of their interference in its management. The subscription agreement was as follows:

 

"We the subscribers, being truly sensible of the great advantages out, posterity may reap from the excellent charitable scheme lately formed in England, for the education of Protestant youth in Pennsylvania, and being extremely desirous to encourage and promote the same, as far as in our power lies, have engaged and agreed, and do engage and agree to, and with, William Parsons, James Martin, Peter Trexler, Esq., John Lefebre, Lewis Gordon, and Peter Kichline, deputy trustees, mentioned and appointed by the trustees general of the said charitable scheme, that each of us will pay the sum of money, and do, and perform the work, labor, and service, in building and erecting a school house, which may occasionally he made use of as a church for any Protestant minister, to our names hereunto respectively set down and affixed. Easton, Pa., July 31st, 1755."

 

 

To this subscription was appended of Wm. Smith, with, for the trustees, for £30: William Parsons, for £5: Lewis Gordon, £3; Nicholas Scull, £3; Nathaniel Vernon, £3; Peter Kichline, £2; John Fricker, £1 6s., and eighteen others for smaller sums while still eighteen others subscribed various amounts of labor and material. A very creditable result to be obtained from so small a community. And it is a fact which may be, noticed with surprise by some that the subscription of John Fricker -a Catholic-was one among the more considerable in amount, although it was for the establishment of a school from which his own children-if he had any-would be debarred on account of faith, and for the erection of a building which might be used as a church by any Protestant minister, but never by one of his own religion, and although only so recently as the previous month, he had been denied a recommendation for license, for the reason of "being a Roman Catholic," this denial being granted by the court, upon the prayer of petitioners, among whom were Nathaniel Vernon, and several others of those whom he was now assisting to build their exclusively Protestant school house.

 

A sufficient amount being subscribed in money and labor, the work was commenced forthwith, and the house was completed in 1775. It was a log structure, commodious for those days, and was, as indicated in the subscription agreement, intended to be used as a church as well as a school house. Its location was at the northeast corner of Sitgreaves street and Church Alley.

 

The settlers at Easton had, up to this time, no stated place where they could enjoy religious worship within the town. Outside the settlement, however, it was but a mile, on the Philadelphia road, to the old log meeting, house of the Lutherans;2 or, if they crossed the Delaware, they might see the rude log church, which the devout ones in Phillipsburg and vicinity, had erected some few years before. To be sure, these seemed convenient, enough, in point of distance, and the worshiper of that day would cheerfully make far longer journeys than these, to attend church service, for, to quote the words of a most charming authoress -Mrs. Ellet- "the practice of church going was so time-honored, that a journey of ten miles, on foot, to attend religious, service, was thought nothing of, and few, even of the most worldly-minded, ventured an omission."

 

To have a permanent church edifice, however, and stated worship within their own borders, was a matter of religious public spirit with the settlers at Easton, and it is supposable that the slow-going Lutheran, and the more fiery Presbyterian agreed, that if their town was to be the central point of trade and of political importance, so site ought, also, to be the religious centre of all the region round about the Lehigh and Delaware, and that this feeling culminated and found its satisfaction when the log school house-church was completed in 1755 -an edifice in which all might preach, and worship without let or hindrance, so long as that preaching and that worship breathed no odor of Catholicism.