Town crier and re-enactor Connor Duffy, dressed in Colonial era garb, recounted the Bachman family’s role in settling the Coopersburg area for a group of their descendants who gathered Saturday for Bachman Heritage Day. The day included a plaque dedication at Borough Hall.

Many people understandably associate the borough of Coopersburg with the Cooper family that played a significant role in its early development, but if you assumed that Coopersburg’s original settlers were Coopers, you’d be wrong.

In fact, the original settlers of what is today Coopersburg were the Bachmans; an industrious family from Switzerland who immigrated to America in 1717. Twenty years later, Johann Georg Bachman (1686-1753) and his wife Anna Maria Schnabelli Bachman (1698-1776) moved to what was then the remote frontier in Pennsylvania to settle on land purchased from Thomas Penn as part of the Walking Purchase. Bachman’s landholdings eventually grew to almost 1,000 acres; landholdings which were inherited by his wife and children upon his death in 1753. Years later, the land was sold to the Cooper family and a village was platted on part of it, which in 1879 became the borough of Coopersburg. But it was this early achievement that was commemorated by Bachman’s descendants Saturday with a plaque dedication and other special events.

Bachman Plaque — Descendants of Johann Georg Bachman unveil a plaque that will be displayed at Coopersburg Borough Hall in tribute to the role he and his family played in settling the area in the 18th century.

The dedication took place at Coopersburg Borough Hall, where about 30 people gathered after being summoned by town crier Connor Duffy.

“Our family helped pioneer this area, establishing a successful inn that welcomed stagecoach travelers and a Mennonite church that still exists today,” said Don Baughman, who spoke at the dedication, in a news release. “Our story has endured through hardship and perseverance—from one son’s imprisonment for refusing to bear arms in the Revolutionary War to another’s financial struggles that forced the sale of inherited land. Eleven generations later, we felt it was time to honor that heritage and return to the place where our American story began.”

“We are grateful for the warm welcome from Coopersburg Borough and the Coopersburg Historical Society, and for the society members’ support and participation,” he added.

Town crier and Colonial era re-enactor Connor Duffy leads Johann Georg Bachman’s descendants in a communal cheer of “hip hip hooray” in celebration of Bachman Heritage Day in Coopersburg.

Following the dedication, during which Coopersburg Historical Society President Anna Ellenberger and various Bachman family members addressed the group, they visited the historic Saucon Mennonite Meeting House Cemetery just on N. Main Street at the north end of town where Johann Georg Bachman, his wife and other family members are buried.

The Bachman Heritage Day reunion concluded at the Mennonite Heritage Center in Harleysville, Montgomery County, where descendants planned to view the Bachman Family Bible, which dates from the 1500s.