September 8
I left early in the afternoon to walk to the county history museum. It’s here because Easton is the seat of Northumberland County.
This section of town is very colorful. The route brought me to a walking street, a bright alley that is part of Bank Street.
It’s right by the back entrance to the Crayola Experience.
There is a bike rack that looks like the Three Wise Monkeys. Farther down are walls covered with pictures, rough versions of things like a Van Gogh self-portrait and the Mona Lisa, along with mosaics of what may be local sights.
Most of them are outside a gift shop called Grandma’s Backporch. The picture of the day shows part of it.
The main streets were festooned with flags—the current U.S. flag alternating with another that has reversed the field and the stripes. The Union is at the upper mast side of the flag, but contains the red and white stripes. The body of the flag is blue with 12 white stars in a circle surrounding the 13th.
[Editor’s note: It took Harry almost a month to track down information on the reverse flag. It wasn’t from the Revolution, as he had originally surmised. It is known as the Easton Flag and was the company colors of a local militia unit during the War of 1812.]
The Sigal Museum is small, but like most local museums is interesting. Many of the objects on display are identified with specific local people, including a Lenape umbilical cord pouch, which had been donated by a descendant of the lady who made it.
It looks like yellow silk with beading. It’s probably from the late 19th or early 20 century. I learned that, even if you try, you can’t see whether it still holds the umbilical cord or not.
There is a lot about the Lenape, including a wigwam made of tree bark furnished with a rough bunk and tools that the people would have used.
Many of the worked stone tools in the exhibit cases were found along the Delaware and Lehigh Rivers. The area is a trove for arrowheads, spear points, and other Indian artifacts.
There is a wall devoted to the Walking Purchase. I had heard the term, but didn’t know much about it. It happened here.
It was a fraud perpetrated by William Penn’s heirs. After he died, his two sons because proprietors of the Pennsylvania Colony. They made a deal in 1737 with the Lenape to buy a tract of land to be determined by how far three men could walk in a day and a half.
The Penns brought in ringers, who didn’t walk at all but ran. Their claim was more than twice the size that the Lenape expected. It was a swindle.
William Penn is reputed to have dealt fairly with the Indians all his life. Maybe they expected his sons to be as honest.
The wall contains a panel with a video that runs from time to time.
The Walking Purchase was one of the many sore points that put the settlers and the displaced Indians at odds during the French and Indian Wars in the 1750s.
The colonial governors of Pennsylvania and New Jersey met leaders of various tribes, including the Lenape, the Six Nations of the Iroquois, and others, to discuss peace terms.
Pennsylvania agreed to the return of prisoners of war and to an additional payment for the Walking Treaty lands. With the payment, the natives had to leave for wilder territory near present-day Wilkes-Barre.
Other exhibits describe the waves of immigrant settlers, Dutch, Moravian missionaries, Scotch-Irish, and German.
There is a section on people from Easton and Northumberland County who have served in various wars. Much of it looks at the Civil War. Many of the artifacts, mainly swords and uniforms are identified with local residents.
Pennsylvania is very proud of its Civil War history. Small towns all over the state have built monuments to soldiers and sailors who fought for the Union. After all, it was Gettysburg, Pa., where the tide turned and the Confederacy’s inevitable decline began.
Easton’s Civil War monument is in the middle of the city center traffic circle. It has a bugler on top of a column. When I saw it the first time, there was a sparrow perched on the bugler’s cap.
One display at the museum is devoted to fraktur art, mostly display certificates suitable for framing. The documents were printed in old German fraktur letters and names were filled in by hand. Many of the ones on display recorded births.
One of my favorites was an area devoted to toys. A cabinet displays old cast iron miniatures and traditional board games. I remember playing with things like this.
A local lady had a hobby of furnishing dollhouses. She gave one to the museum. Besides the expected display of miniature furnishings and scaled-down wallpaper, this dollhouse is electrified and the walls have framed miniature portraits of the lady’s family.
Martin guitars have a section of their own. Martin is based in Nazareth, Pa., not far from Easton.
It seems that the company set a new standard for guitars. Originally it made instruments with 12 frets up the neck. A musician asked for a longer neck to allow more fingering of chords.
Martin came up with a 14-fret design that it called an Orchestra Model. It proved so popular that 14 frets became the standard for all the company’s guitars.
Museum hands were in the final stages of setting up an exhibit called “Cat’s Meow,” about the Roaring ’20s with a local emphasis. I didn’t get a close look at it, but it seems to focus on clothing and jewelry.
I took a short stroll among the mansions on North Third Street before I went back to the room for a breather.
Dinner was at Antonio’s a block up the street from the hotel. I went there for more craft beer.
Everything was bottled, and familiar to me, which is all right. But I made a small mistake. I started with Dogfish Head 60-Minute IPA. At 6 percent, it has less alcohol content than the 90-Minute, which was also available.
The problem is that they are both so fine that they are hard to follow.
My second beer was from a Philadelphia brewer, Yards. The brew was called Sons of Ben and billed as a “rowdy pale ale.” If I had taken it first, and by itself, it might have proved fine.
I ordered spaghetti with oil, garlic, and anchovies. There was no chance that it would be like the anchovy dishes Joanna and I had in Italy. But it seemed the salt would go well with strong beer.
The dish was OK, but I'm not sure that I’ll order it again.
The 60-Minute held up well with the anchovies, but they just wiped out the flavor of the Sons of Ben, rowdy or not. The ale wasn’t strong enough to hold up to the fish and sharp salt that almost burnt my tongue at times.
For dessert I had a Pennsylvania-brewed ale, Victory Golden Monkey. It’s described as a “Belgian-style tripel,” which gives it 9.5 percent alcohol, and is brewed with spices. It’s a U.S. attempt to copy Chimay. Like most Belgian spiced ales, one is enough.
All in all, a very good day.
So I’m back at the hotel and finishing this up.
Good night, everyone, and may you reserve your Dogfish Head for last.
Harry
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