It’s not often that an allegedly DUI-related car accident has a silver lining, but that’s exactly what Lower Saucon Township officials believe will be the case outside New Jerusalem Evangelical Lutheran Church on Apples Church Road.
The explanation for why that’s the case begins nearly 40 years ago, when the Wassergass Bushmen–a local fraternal organization–installed a plaque at the church to commemorate the infamous “Walking Purchase.”
The Walking Purchase was a 1737 land grab by white settlers from the Lenni Lenape tribes who then inhabited much of what is now eastern Pennsylvania.
Part of the Walking Purchase route was across Lower Saucon Township, which was why the Bushmen recreated a portion of the walk in conjunction with the U.S. Bicentennial celebration in 1976.
Two years ago, a member of the group contacted township manager Jack Cahalan to inform him that the brick monument on which the plaque was mounted was falling apart.
“Because their members were dwindling, they were no longer able to take care of it,” Cahalan explained.
He said he then went to the church to survey the condition of the marker, and found it in the center island of the church’s main driveway, where “it was showing some signs of wear and needed…repairs.”
Cahalan added that he tried to enlist the help of local historians and the township historical society to drum up support for a restoration effort, but without success.
The brick monument pictured above displayed a 1976 Walking Purchase plaque installed by the Wassergass Bushmen at New Jerusalem church in Lower Saucon Township until it was badly damaged in a November 2014 DUI-related accident.
It wasn’t until earlier this month, when he was driving down Apples Church Road, that Cahalan said he noticed the brick monument that held the plaque “was knocked down along with the lamppost from what looked like an accident.”
“I was concerned about the plaque and contacted the church office about it,” he said.
NJELC Church Council President Barbara Young explained that the damage occurred when an allegedly inebriated driver crashed into the island in early November, he said.
“(Young) said that insurance would pay for the full restoration of the monument, and that the plaque would be remounted again in the same (place),” Cahalan said. “So (there’s) a good ending and another beginning for the plaque.”
The full text of the plaque is as follows:
Indian Heritage Commemorative 1976 by the Lower Saucon Township Bicentennial Committee
This plaque is dedicated to the Lenni Lenape Indians whose native habitat was this region. In the “Walking Purchase” Edward Marshall and his associates traversed a well-beaten Indian path that crossed our township from what is now Leithsville to the Lehigh River. On Sept. 19, 1737, across this churchyard, then a wilderness, the walkers sped. Predating the Revolution a log schoolhouse stood on this tract, then called Apples, where now stands New Jerusalem church built in 1834. A dramatization of the Indian Walk was reenacted by the Wassergass Bushmen of Lower Saucon Township in June, 1976.
Plaque purchased by Wassergass Bushmen
This plaque commemorating the 1737 Walking Purchase which traversed part of Lower Saucon Township was installed on a brick monument outside New Jerusalem Evangelical Lutheran Church on Apples Church Road by the Wassergass Bushmen–a local fraternal organization–in 1976.
