Hubler history W. R. Hubler, Jr., M. D

The New World

Pennsylvania

When the New World (a misnomer made by egocentric Europeans; called the "Other World" by Columbus, a more accurate term) was "discovered,” it was teeming with 15 million human inhabitants. According to the current historical teaching, the Native Americans were descended from a few small bands of Paleolithic people who migrated across the land bridge (Beringia) between modern Alaska and Siberia in 15,000 BC. Over millennia, the people moved south and southeast following the herbivorous herds of mammoth and bison and populated North America from Mexico to Maine. When the large animals had been hunted almost to extinction, man adapted to a more sedentary life of farming. Some archeologists believe that some Native American groups arrived via many immigrations by ship from Asia or Europe during prehistoric times, but no concrete, corroborative evidence has been found. Either way, Native Americans shared genes from their ancestors but developed distinct languages and cultures in their new homes in America. The ethno-linguistic group of Native Americans who populated the entire Eastern Seaboard and Midwest when the "white" Europeans arrived was the Iroquois and Algonquins.

In 1638, a group of Swedes (in cooperation with the New Sweden Company) arrived in the territory that became Pennsylvania, and they purchased land (very cheaply) from the owners, the Native Americans. The Swedes became the first white settlers in Pennsylvania in 1643 and built the first log cabins in America. These hearty northern European settlers and their descendants became the nucleus of later colonies in Pennsylvania. The Dutch defeated the Swedes in 1655, and their land was annexed by the colony of New Netherlands; but in 1664, the English defeated the Dutch, and New Netherlands became New York. Then the "Sylvania" territory became part of New England.

William Penn, a prominent Quaker, wanted to design a colony based on religious and civil freedom. In 1681, King Charles II of England granted Penn a charter for a vast territory of middle New England that made Penn the governor and proprietor of the land. Penn's father had been an English admiral and was owed 16,000 pounds by the Crown of England; and so King Charles granted the charter in the New World to Penn in lieu of the money owed.⁹⁶

Penn gathered a few settlers and made his first trip to the colony in 1682. Penn made an extraordinary proposal to purchase all of the territory and the adjacent land from the Native Americans, and he made steps to become "friends" with the Native inhabitants. Penn had come to accept the belief of the Society of Friends (Quakers) that everyone had an "inner light" or Divine spark that guided their lives and planned to establish a "holy experiment" in his colony which would allow religious freedom under the democratic principals of the Quakers. It would have been counter-productive to begin his land of freedom by subjugating its natives and bilking the inhabitants. Penn established Philadelphia (which means "brotherly love") as the capital of Pennsylvania in 1682.

The Quakers were dissenters from the rigidity of the Church of England; but unlike the other major group of religious immigrants (the Puritans), their pacifism and democratic ways had subjected them to persecution in England. But while the Puritans shared ostracism from the Church of England, they had little in common with the Quakers. The Puritans had no tolerance to other splinter groups and demanded the strict following of religious law as interpreted by Puritan elders, while the Quakers were more likely to absorb other dissidents and beliefs and modify their own law. But both groups were anathema to the established Church of England.

To recoup his expenses and make his colony successful, Penn encouraged immigration of Europeans from England, Germany and Scandinavia. The colony became a Mecca and melting pot for diverse persecuted religious groups including the Quakers (England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales), Palatines (Rhine Valley), Anabaptists or Mennonites (Germany and Switzerland), Dunkards (Germany), Catholics (England), Moravians (Georgia) and more. As the colony became established, other groups seeking financial prosperity immigrated, including Scotch-Welch, Swiss and German (Pennsylvania Dutch) settlers. With thousands of work-ethic immigrants, a rich land, a diversity of ideals within a realm of freedom and tolerance and a peaceful coexistence with Native Americans, Pennsylvania prospered. (But Penn did not. Unable to collect feudal levies from the immigrants, Penn ended his life imprisoned for debt in England.)⁹⁷

Thirteen Quaker families from Germany founded Germantown (a 5,700 acre tract located six miles northwest of Philadelphia) in 1683. The Germans were linen weavers and merchants and by 1689, it was a thriving community of forty-four families. The population grew more diverse, and within fifty years, Mennonites, Brethren (Dunkards and German Baptists), Lutherans, German Reformed and Quakers rubbed shoulders. Weaving, tanning, shoemaking, coopering and wagon making, papermaking and printing were some crafts practiced in Germantown.

The successors of Penn amplified the friendship with the Iroquois of Pennsylvania with an alliance which spared the whites of Philadelphia from attacks by the French and their Amerindian allies who terrorized settlers in the north from their strongholds in Canada; but by 1750, the shield splintered as white settlements encroached on Indian Territory when British traders and settlers filled western Pennsylvania searching for furs and land. The French built a series of forts from the Great Lakes south to the Ohio Rivers and pressured their Indian allies for action against the British colonists. The result was the French and Indian War of 1754-1763. After Britain won the war, western Pennsylvania became peaceful. When William Penn first visited his new charter, Pennsylvania, in 1682, he divided the territory into six counties, including one that encompassed much of southeastern Pennsylvania, Bucks County.

When Jacob HUBLER (1710-1789) immigrated in 1737, he found in Philadelphia a major seaport, and in Pennsylvania a crucible of religious freedom and a colony of profitability bustling with thousands of immigrants divergent in origin, idealism and occupation. The crowded dirt streets of the main port of middle America must have been filled with a cacophony of sounds (as immigrants spoke German, English, Swedish and Dutch in various dialectics, animals squealed and wagons rattled) and a salmagundi of smells (as vendors sold foods and spices, dust filled the air and untreated sewage flowed in the streets). Jacob HUBLER (1710-1789) joined the masses in the New World.

After a few years in Philadelphia (probably 3-5 years while he completed the indenture service for his passage to America), in about 1740, Jacob HUBLER (1710-1789) hit the trail north into the unsettled areas of Pennsylvania. He did not have to go far to leave behind the cacophonous city and venture into the wild woods inhabited mostly by Native Americans. Jacob HUBLER (1710-1789) settled about 75 miles north of Philadelphia in northern Bucks County. There were few settlers there and no organized townships.

In 1752, Northampton County was formed, carved out of the northern section of Bucks County. The population of the area had steadily grown since Jacob HUBLER (1710-1789) had settled there 13 years earlier (only four families lived in the area in 1740); and in 1754, Jacob HUBLER (1710-1789) and a few others petitioned Pennsylvania for the establishment of Plainfield Township.

Plainfield Township is rather flat land at the foot of Blue Mountain and is traversed by Bushkill Creek that arises near Wind Gap and flows southeastward to empty into the Delaware River near present day Easton. Blue Mountain separates present-day Northampton County and Monroe County; and the 1,500-foot mountain is pierced in four locations, one of which is called Wind Gap. This natural break in the awesome mountain mass is abrupt and deep to the level of the lower countryside, making the notch an excellent passageway. There is no stream through the gap; Bushkill Creek arises just south of Windy Gap and the Delaware River flows through Blue Mountain thirteen miles east. Bushkill creek was a good, dependable source of water; and several villages sprouted near it, and a road (the Minnisink Road between Nazareth, Cherry Hill and Wind Gap) arose beside it.

In 1780, Jacob HUBLER (1710-1789) built the Jacobsburg Inn (the first inn, pub and general store in the area) on the land he owned beside Bushkill Creek, and JACOB HUBLER (1710-1789) started the village of Jacobsburg. In 1820, the population of Jacobsburg was 1,262; in 1830 it was 1,402 and 1840 was 1,716. In 1845, there were eight dwellings, the inn and store, a gristmill and a furnace. Northampton County possessed some of the richest agricultural land in eastern Pennsylvania; and in 1845 was known for its pristine, productive farms and hard working, successful German settlers. Almost all the township's population was German, and the countryside was dotted with fine farmhouses, barns, orchards, churches and grist, saw and fueling mills. ⁹⁸

Basically, the Native Americans of Pennsylvania lived peaceably with their white neighbors; and undoubtedly the feeling of mutuality began when Penn bought the land from the Natives (rather than take it) and encouraged close relationships. The French inflamed the Native Americans of Pennsylvania in the 1750’s, and there were several uprisings in the Plainfield Township area during the French and Indian War. The white residents fled from their homes to the more secure town of Nazareth.

Early Pennsylvania was a melting pot of many religions groups who sought (and found) tolerance and freedom. Much of Northumberland County held peoples of German ancestry whose major church was the German Reformed or Lutheran. Moravian communities also developed near Nazareth and Bethlehem. These groups of pacifists emigrated from central Europe to found settlements in Georgia and migrated into Northampton County about 1740 and established schools and churches despite intrusions of Native Americans. Jacob HUBLER (1710-1789) was probably most comfortable immersed in Germanic cultures. Although he was Swiss, he wrote in Germanic script; and Twann, his home in Switzerland, was mostly of German ancestry. However, the marriage and christening records of Jacob and Barbara HUBLER have not been found, and it is possible that they did not have access to religious services early in their marriage; or since Jacob HUBLER (1710-1789) left Twann in the throes of a religious controversy, it is also possible that he didn’t seek or feel comfortable with the available religions. Traveling missionaries ministered almost all ceremonies in rural Pennsylvania of the time.

Plainfield Township did not play an important role in the Revolutionary War. Jacob HUBLER (1710-1789) was too old for active duty; but he served in the local militia, and several of his sons were Revolutionary War soldiers. In 1779, a regiment of American soldiers billeted in Plainfield Township on they way through the area. Three soldiers in the company commanded by Col. Hubley were executed for murdering a resident of the town.

The sons and daughters of Jacob HUBLER (1710-1789) mostly stayed in Northampton County, although they developed their own spheres of influence in other townships.