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John Jacob Mickley (settler)

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John Jacob Mickley (1697–1769) (born Jean Jacques Michelet) was an early settler of Whitehall Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania.

John Jacob Mickley
The Mickley family memorial in Mickleys, Pennsylvania
Born
Jean Jacques Michelet

1697 (1697)
DiedAugust 18, 1769(1769-08-18) (aged 71–72)
Known forWhitehall Township settler

Early life and education

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Mickley was born Jean Jacques Michelet in 1697 in Zweibrücken, Germany. He was the eldest son of Louis Michelet (1675–1750) and Susanne Mangeot (1674–1710).[1] His parents were Protestants from Metz, who moved to Zweibrücken to get married. There, his father became pastor of a Huguenot congregation.[2]

Career

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On May 4, 1733, he boarded the ship Hope, sailing from Rotterdam and arriving in Philadelphia on August 28, 1733. His name became anglicized as John Jacob Mickley. He first lived with a relative in Berks County, Pennsylvania for several years.[2][3] In 1745, he acquired farmland in Egypt, Pennsylvania in Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, becoming one of the township's first settlers.

Personal life

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Mickley married Elizabeth Barbara Burkhalter (1719–1769).[3] They had four sons and three daughters.[4]

On October 8, 1763, several settlers, including two of his children, Henry and Barbara, were killed in an Indian attack. In 1913, a granite marker was erected by the Lehigh County Historical Society commemorating those killed in the attack.[5]

Three of Mickley's sons, John Jacob, John Martin, and John Peter, served in the American Revolutionary War. His eldest son, John Jacob Mickley (1737–1808), is known for transporting the Liberty Bell, then known as the Pennsylvania State Bell, from Philadelphia to Allentown in September, 1777, where it was hidden underneath floorboards inside the High German Evangelical Reformed Church in Center City Allentown for nine months until June 1778 to avoid the bell's capture by the British Army prior to the British occupation of Philadelphia. Today, the Liberty Bell Museum, located inside this Allentown church, commemorates the Liberty Bell's heroic and successful hiding there by Mickley and others.[6]

Mickley's great-grandson Jacob Mickley (1794–1888) was an elder on the building committee of the Whitehall German Reformed Church in Mickleys, Pennsylvania.[7]

Death

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Mickley died August 18, 1769, and was buried in the cemetery of the Egypt Church. In 1864, he was reinterred at Mickley's Cemetery, now known as St. John's Union Cemetery.[1][8]

Legacy

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The village of Mickleys is named after his family.[9]

On October 12, 1917, the Michelet Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Allentown, Pennsylvania dedicated the Revolutionary and Huguenot Memorial of the Michelet family at Mickley's Cemetery.[10][11]

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    Memorial gravestone side with his birth name, Jean Jacques Michelet
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    Memorial monument for his two children, Henry and Barbara

References

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  1. ^ a b Hughes, Thomas P. (1894). American Ancestry: Giving the Name and Descent, in the Male Line, of Americans whose Ancestors Settled in the United States Previous to the Declaration of Independence, A.D. 1776. Vol. IX. Albany, New York: Joel Munsell's Sons. p. 133. OL 16097348W.
  2. ^ a b Stapleton, Rev. A. (1901). Memorials of the Huguenots In America, With Special Reference to their Emigration to Pennsylvania. Carlisle, Pennsylvania: Huguenot Publishing Company. pp. 82–83. OL 161051W.
  3. ^ a b Mathews, Alfred; Hungerford, Austin N. (1884). "Whitehall Township, Settlement". History of the Counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Everts & Richards. pp. 482–483. OL 227379W.
  4. ^ Roberts, Charles Rhoads; Stoudt, Rev. John Baer; Krick, Rev. Thomas H.; Dietrich, William J. (1914). "Mickley Family". History of Lehigh County Pennsylvania and a Genealogical and Biographical Records of its Families. Vol. III. Lehigh Valley Publishing Company. pp. 891–894. OL 7568151W.
  5. ^ Roberts, Charles Rhoads; Stoudt, Rev. John Baer; Krick, Rev. Thomas H.; Dietrich, William J. (1914). "Indian Massacre". History of Lehigh County Pennsylvania and a Genealogical and Biographical Records of its Families. Vol. I. Lehigh Valley Publishing Company. pp. 844–845.
  6. ^ Curtin, Williard S. (1960). "Liberty Bell Shrine". Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 86th Congress, Second Session. Vol. 106 part 8. p. 9751.
  7. ^ Mathews & Hungerford (1884), pp. 500, 508.
  8. ^ "Mickley Family Memorial Unveiled With Fine Ceremony". The Morning Call. October 13, 1917. pp. 5, 13 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ Miller, Benjamin L. Toponymy (PDF). p. 74. named for the Michelet (Mickley) family. Jean Jacque [sic] Michelet (John Jacob Mickley) a Swiss immigrant, settled on Mill Creek in 1745.
  10. ^ "Michelet Chapter". Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine. LIII. National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution: 112. 1919.
  11. ^ "State D.A.R. Attend Memorial Unveiling. Beautiful Ceremony on Mickley's Cemetery At the Restored Tomb of John Jacob Mickley". The Allentown Leader. October 12, 1917. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
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