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Michael followed the trail later known as Sullivan Trail through the sparsely settled Easton area known later as College Hill to Chestnut Hill known for its chestnut trees. The view North to the Blue Mountain was rolling woodland, Penn's forest (sylvania), with a few cleared settlement Tracts in the foreground. Smoke rose up from some Tract clearings out into the forest. Michael followed a trail North a short distance then East viewing some of Forks available Tracts and made claim of #185 having a spring fed creek flowing through it. He then went home to New Jersey to tell his family of his purchase agreement.
[Michael Frace of family from the German Valley of the upper Raritan River farmland was born 1744 in Lebanon Twp., Hunterdon Co., N.J. and Gertraut (Gertrude) Dererburger born 1750 in Rocksbury Twp., Morris Co. N.J. were married and living in Lebanon Twp. Their first son Henry was born there in 1765.]
Returning to the Forks Twp. Tract with his wife, son, family members and friends bringing broad-axes they began clearing land. The noise of the chop and felling of trees brought neighboring setters to help in cutting and splitting logs for the CABIN. (With wild animals, fruits and nuts being numerous, they lived off the land. Gertrude and other women cooked venison on a spit over an open pit fire for the men, which they ate while drinking cider. The family slept in shelters of hemlock cuttings with sun-dried deerskins.) While some men collected stones and clay for building the fireplace and chimney, others put logs in place with mortises and pegs building the CABIN. When complete with roof it was a shell, ground floor, the stump of a large tree in the middle served as a table. A small platform two feet from the ground along one of the walls covered with hemlock boughs served as a bed. (In those days, a hard day's work made a soft bed.) The lighting and heating was a huge log or pine knot ablaze in the fireplace.
Michael purchased a horse from a neighbor and in Easton he bought a wagon. After weeks of clearing more land, removing stumps, roots, briars and hoeing the planted grains and vegetables, his farm soon had enough cleared acreage to produce a profitable crop of grain to sell. By the end of the following year 1767 Michael purchased enough boards from an Easton area mill to build a second floor in the CABIN for sleeping quarters. Over the next couple of years till 1770 a barn was being built and cows, pigs and fowl were procured. Michael also had been aiding other settlers getting established on their land.
Next he contracted to have built a stone house nearby for his expanding family. By 1774 as noted on the cellar wall it was completed and the family moved into it.
THE HISTORICAL WRITERS OF THE FOLLOWING PUBLICATIONS HAVE PROVIDED THE ABOVE FACTS AND WORD DESCRIPTIONS OF THE LIFE IN THE WILD OF EARLY SETTLERS FITTINGLY TO MICHAEL & GERTRUDE BUILDING A CABIN.
- First Settlers of the Forks of the Delaware by Rev. Henry Martyn Kieffer H929.3 K54.1 1902
- Fountains of Streams by Preston A. Laury H974.822 L387h.
- The Penn Patents of the Forks Of The Delaware by A.D. Chidsey Jr. H974.822 C533p.
- Findings of Frace family by Eleanor Batchelder - Hunterdon Co. Historical Society.
Lloyd F. Best Sr.
For more information on Forks Township Historical Society please click HERE.
For more information on The Spring House click HERE
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