The Allaman Heritage, Durward B. Allaman / Richard J. Henry
All Rights Reserved, © 1997 Richard J. Henry

The immigrant Jacob Allemong and his wife, Anna Maria Balliet, met an unfortunate end. On August 8th, 1763, they were the innocent victims of a vicious attack by Indians of the area. These Indians torched and burned several homes, including the home of Jacob Allemong, where he died. His wife Anna Maria (Balliet) and a young child were killed and scalped on the road to Egypt Reformed church. The Indians had really intended to attack the Balliet home of Paulus Balliet, brother of Anna Maria Allemong, but they were afraid of the three ferocious dogs the Balliet’s owned. These dogs were wolves which had been taken from the mother at small age and trained for protection of humans.

"The relations of the early German settlers were peaceful and friendly with the Indians. The latter plaited baskets for their white neighbors and received in return the necessities of life, while the children of both played and grew up together. After the defeat of Braddock in 1758, the murderous instincts of the savages were aroused, and the settlers were constantly disturbed. It was a customary thing for the former, rifle in hand, to ascend some high point near his house before retiring, and look for blazing cottages. In 1758 peace was made and continued unbroken till 1763 when Indian fury again broke out.

"On the 8th of Oct-1763, a clear, delightful fall day, a band of Indians twelve in number crossed the Lehigh river at the spot where Whitehall now stands, fresh from an attack upon the whites in Allen Twp. Northampton county and proceeded along Mill Creek to the farm of John Jacob Mickley, three of his children they met in the woods gathering chestnuts, and immediately murdered two of them. They then proceeded to the house of Nicholas Marks and Hans Schneider, both of which they burned down after they killed Schneider, his wife and three children, and wounded two daughters, scalping one of them, and leaving both for dead. Marks and his family escaped. Another of Schneider’s children was taken captive and never returned. The daughters of Hans Schneider, who were wounded by the Indians and left for dead, one being scalped, recovered from their injuries. In 1765 the Assembly of the province passed a bill for their relief, as they were very poor. They never enjoyed sound health, and the one who had been scalped was a pitiable object with her head uncovered with hair."

"At the same time that the Schneider girls were massacred by the Indians in 1763, the Schneider girls were taken to Adam Deshler's and on the way they found Jacob Alleman’s wife and child lying in the road scalped."

"Five days after the attack at Stenton’s the following account of it was printed in the Pennsylvania Gazette, a paper published by Benjamin Franklin, who probably wrote this relation from details sent to the Governor by Horsfield:

"On Sunday night last an express arrived from Northampton County with the following melancholy account, -viz., that on Saturday morning the 8th inst., the house of John Stenton, about eight miles from Bethlehem, was attacked by Indians, as follows: Capt. Wetterholt, with a party belonging to Fort Allen, being at that house, and intending to set out early for the fort, ordered a servant to get his horse ready, who was immediately shot down by the enemy, upon which the captain, going to the door, was also fired at and mortally wounded; that then a sergeant attempted to pull in the captain and shut the door, but he was likewise dangerously wounded; that the lieutenant next advanced, when an Indian jumped upon the bodies of the two others and presented a pistol to his breast, which he put a little aside, and it went off over his shoulder, whereby he got the Indian out of the house and shut the door; that the Indians after this went round to a window, and as Stenton was getting out of bed shot him, but not dead, and he, breaking out of the house, ran about a mile, when he dropped and died; that his wife and two children ran down into the cellar, where they were shot at three times, but escaped; that Capt. Wetterholt, finding himself growing very weak, crawled to a window and shot an Indian dead, it was thought, as he was in the act of setting fire to the house with a match, and that upon this the other Indians carried him away with them and went off. Capt. Wetterholt died soon after.

"When the Indians had glutted their vengeance as far as lay prudently within their power at Stenton’s, they attacked the inmates of a number of other houses, and the hatchet and torch did terrible work. Turning toward the Lehigh, the first house they came to was that of James Allen. This they plundered of everything that they coveted, and then destroyed all that they could not conveniently carry away. Proceeding onward toward the river, they next came to Andrew Hazlett’s, not half a mile from Allen’s. Hazlett attempted to fire upon them, but his flint or powder was poor, and his gun would not go off. He was shot down by a number of the band, his wife seeing him fall and die. She fled with her two children, but was quickly overtaken by a couple of the fleet footed Indians, who sank their tomahawks in her children were treated in a similarly barbarous manner, and they were left for dead. The woman lived, however, for four days, and one of her children completely recovered. Another man beside Hazlett was in the house, and he too was killed. Then the house was fired, and as the logs crackled the murderous band went whooping and yelling on toward the next house, that of Philip Kratzer, where they found no victims for gun or knife or axe, the family doubtless having heard the shots at Hazlett’s and fled. The torch was applied ot the humble home, and they then passed on to the Lehigh, which they crossed at a place still called "the Indian Fall," just above Siegfreid’s, Bridge.

"It was subsequently believed that when the Indians crossed the river, they intended taking vengeance on a storekeeper in the neighborhood with whom they had quarreled, but they failed to find the way. When they crossed in true Indian file, they were seen by Ulrich Schowalter, who then lived on the place now owned by Peter Troxel. He was working at the time on the roof of a building which stood upon a considerable elevation of ground, and had a good opportunity to see and count the Indians, whom he found to number twelve. Probably he was the only person who saw the approach of the Indians, for it must be borne in mind that the greater portion of the country was at that time covered with forest.

"The fierce nature of the savages had been aroused but not sated by the butcheries they had already performed on this beautiful autumn morning, and they were ready to vent their wild passion on whomever they found. On reaching the farm of John Jacob Mickley, in Whitehall, they came upon three of his children, Peter, Henry, and Barbary, running about in a field and gathering the chestnuts that the frost had dropped from the trees. The eldest of these children was eleven years old, the second nine, the youngest seven. No doubt they were full of glee in their nut-gathering, but their innocent joy and mirth was suddenly changed to terror as the dark forms burst from the adjacent wood and rushed upon them. Little Barbary could run but a few steps when she was overtaken and knocked down with a tomahawk. Henry ran and reached the fence, but as he was climbing it an Indian threw a tomahawk at his back which it is supposed killed him instantly. Both of these children were scalped, but the little girl in an insensible state survived for twenty-four hours. The oldest boy, Peter, reached the woods safely, and concealed himself between two large trees which stood close together in a little thicket. There he remained without making any noise until, hearing screams at a neighboring house, he knew the Indians to be there and the way open for his escape. Leaping from his hiding-place, he ran with all his might by way of Adam Deshler’s to his brother, John Jacob Mickley to whom he conveyed the melancholy tidings. The members of the Mickley family who were at the house escaped attack, it is believed by reason of their owning a huge and ferocious dog which had a particular antipathy to Indians.

"Passing by Mickley’s house, the Indians came to that of Nicholas Marks, whose family seeing them coming had made their escape. The house was fired. At Hans Schneider’s nearby, the household was surprised, and father, mother, and three children ruthlessly slaughtered. Two daughters who had attempted to escape were overtaken and scalped, but subsequently recovered. Another daughter was carried away as a captive, and her fate was never known. It was the screams from the terrified people at the Schneider house which were heard by the boy, Peter Mickley, in his place of hiding.

"Their bloody work being done, the Indians left with all possible haste in the direction of the Blue Ridge."

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