06/22/2026
America 250: A meeting at Lehigh Valley farm played a big role in move toward US independence
by Evan Jones, The Morning Call Call June 19, 2026
A stone house built in 1741 and still used as a private residence is seen Tuesday, June 16, 2026, in South Whitehall Township. The property on which the home sits was once part of 1,000 acres owned by the Lorenz Guth family. It has since been split into residential properties and Covered Bridge Park. On May 27, 1776, about 900 members of the Second Battalion of Associates of Northampton County met there on how to move Pennsylvania toward favoring independence, which was being debated by the Second Continental Congress and the 12 other colonies. (Scott M. Nagy/Special to The Morning Call)
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By Evan Jones | [email protected] | The Morning Call
PUBLISHED: June 19, 2026 at 7:00 AM EDT | UPDATED: June 19, 2026 at 7:01 AM EDT
One of the more important events in the drive for American independence 250 years ago happened next to what is now Covered Bridge Park in South Whitehall Township.
The property was once the Lorenz Guth family’s 1,000-acre farm, though it has since been split into adjacent residential properties and the park that straddles Jordan Creek. The site is anchored by a stone house, built in 1741, that’s still a private residence.
On a recent sunny weekday afternoon, the area was tranquil with the exception of a squirrel dashing through the grass to escape a dog pulling his owner down the trail. The property holding the stone house is fenced off from the park, and soccer fields sit in the area where the historic event took place.
On May 27, 1776, the scene was quite different in what was then Whitehall Township, Northampton County. (South Whitehall was formed in 1810, Lehigh County in 1812.)
About 900 members of the Associators — officially the Second Battalion of Associates of Northampton County — were meeting to discuss how to move Pennsylvania toward favoring independence, which was being debated by the Second Continental Congress and the 12 other colonies.
“They were ultimately deciding whether or not they’re going to commit treason en masse,” said James Higgins, executive director of the Lehigh Valley Heritage Museum. “When historians say that these people are gathering together and weighing a decision that may cause their death, this isn’t hyperbole.”
The issue came up after voters elected anti-independence conservatives to Pennsylvania’s Colonial Assembly on May 1. One of them was James Allen, son of Allentown founder William Allen, who wanted to remain a subject of the United Kingdom despite having reservations about how the colonies were being treated by London.
‘Rude’ farmers
It also exposed ethnic tensions between the establishment and newcomers, something that the Lehigh Valley deals with to this day.
Higgins noted that most of the Associators were German-speaking farmers, considered to be “rude” — rough, poor and uneducated — by some, such as Benjamin Franklin, who criticized them for not speaking English.
“The people gathering in this area were predominantly Pennsylvania Dutch,” Higgins said. “Ben Franklin had previously expressed frustration during the French and Indian War that the area lacked English speakers and was populated by poor, rough settlers. Because these German settlers had no ancestral ties to Britain, it may have ultimately been easier for them to decide to break away.”
They were encouraged to meet by the Continental Congress, which voted May 15 for a resolution calling on each colony to create a government that would provide “for the happiness and safety of the people,” meaning one that would support independence.
The Associators gathered at the Guth farm to do just that. The members elected Maj. Philip Boehm, a radical, as their chair. Then they voted unanimously that the Colonial Assembly no longer represented the will of the people and that a convention be called to draft a new constitution.
With the exception of those actions, most of the proceedings were lost to history.
Higgins said there are no detailed, firsthand written accounts from the exact day of the meeting. At the time, paper was expensive, modern newspapers did not exist and the farmers likely didn’t realize the full historic nature of their actions.
On July 2, when the Continental Congress voted for the Declaration of Independence, there were two empty chairs in the Pennsylvania delegation. They belonged to the two conservative delegates who chose not to vote. In their absence, Pennsylvania joined the other colonies in offering a majority vote for independence.
The militia group itself, Higgins said, was more of a social organization by that time after being formed years before as a frontier-defense force against the French or Native Americans.
Afterward, most of the Associators went back to their farms, but hundreds joined the war effort. Many took part at the Battle of Long Island in present-day Brooklyn, a British victory, and spent time as prisoners of war. Others were able to fight all the way to the final victory at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781.
The course of history was changed in the field of a Pennsylvania Dutch farming family.
“It may have struck us with 21st-century eyes as unbelievably rough, almost comical, that this group of farmers were meeting to help decide the fate of the entire colony of Pennsylvania and, frankly, the British Empire,” Higgins said.
