In this second column, we are sharing Mr. Larry Oberly's research on Allen Township.

Larry, a very active citizen, is a supervisor in Allen Township and secretary of the Atlas Cement Company Memorial Museum.

In the last column, he wrote about a period of time when the villages of Siegfried, Newport and Stemton were part of Allen Township until 1902, when what is now Northampton became the Borough of Alliance.

He wrote, "After Siegfried, the second village was named Newport. In the 1820s, canals became a great way to move goods and people quickly and cheaply. Our own Lehigh Coal and Navigation Canal was constructed alongside the only privately held river in the United States, the Lehigh River. Ownership of the river was granted to the LCN Co. by the Pennsylvania General Assembly in order to get the canal built so coal could be moved to Philadelphia in 1829.

"To unload the coal or the northbound goods, a new port was created along the banks of the canal and the Lehigh River. The name of the village became Newport. It was a small village of less than 25 families for most of the 19th century until five cement plants would be built here. After 1895, thousands of immigrants from all over Eastern Europe came to work in the new plants.

"The third village to be created by a new transportation system was Stemton. It was created after the completion of the Lehigh & Susquehanna Railroad in 1867. It also ran alongside the Lehigh River on the east side of the canal.

"George and William Stem of Coplay moved across the river to construct the Lehigh Car Manufacturing Company, which made wooden cars for the new railroad line. This village was created along Main Street between 10th and Fifth streets in what is now Northampton.

"The brothers laid out a village for the workers and became prominent citizens of Allen Township. When the Central Railroad of New Jersey leased the Lehigh & Susquehanna, the Stem brothers were denied access to the tracks for their railroad cars by the term of the lease. Forced into making farm implements and wagons, the village survived but never achieved its full measure of development until the arrival of the Atlas Portland Cement Company in 1895.

"The Atlas was soon joined by the Lawrence Portland Cement Company and gave the township a population explosion by the census of 1900.

"If these three villages agreed to merge into one under Pennsylvania law, they could become a borough. That is exactly what they did in 1902. Together they became the Borough of Alliance, a fitting name, as the town was an alliance made up of a joining together of the three villages. This is why so many places and businesses have the name of Alliance attached to them.

"The name Alliance would be changed in 1909 to Northampton. Shortly after the borough was created, a weekly newspaper was started called the "Cement News." Generally, the paper was published each Friday and was approximately 5 to 6 pages per issue.

"The editions have been preserved to microfilm, but unfortunately it is a dying format of preservation and the machines to read them are hard to secure and maintain. Currently, we are converting the collection to computer files so that anyone wishing access to stories from September 1903 until December 1943 might search the record at the public library or the Atlas Cement Company Memorial Museum for further information."

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In two weeks, we will look at the cement contract that gave the Atlas fame and fortune.