Editor’s Note: At the Sept. 19 groundbreaking ceremony for East Allen Elementary School, retired Northampton Area High School teacher and former Northampton Area School District Board of Education director Robert Mentzell recounted the history of education in the East Allen Township, Allen Township and Bath Borough region. Here are Mentzell’s remarks:

First, I wish to acknowledge the help of Linda Kortz and Barbara Wiemann of Governor Wolf Historical Society for their invaluable historical help.

Today, we are at the confluence of education and history. East Allen Township’s roots hearken back to the very beginning of Northampton County and education in this county.

It starts with the Craig Settlement, named after James Craig, leader of the Scotch-Irish group that settled in what is now Weaversville, in 1728. That’s long before Northampton County was established and 13 years before the Moravians got here. The Moravians founded Nazareth in 1740 and Bethlehem in 1741.

These Presbyterians saw the need for schooling and built what is now known as the Wolf Academy outside of Bath in 1785. It is named, of course, after George Wolf, who was raised and educated in Allen Township, later to become East Allen Township. Wolf went on to become a U.S. congressman and governor of Pennsylvania from 1828 to 1836.

Wolf believed in free public education financed by taxes. Against some widespread opposition to such a radical idea, Gov. Wolf prevailed in having the Public School Act of 1834 passed. Only after passage did opponents realize the act allowed for the education of not just boys but also girls and Black students. Those provisions spelled defeat for Wolf in seeking re-election as governor. His name lives on in our elementary school named in his honor.

As mentioned, we are standing on what was the Craig Settlement. Less than one-fifth of a mile away is the Horner Cemetery, which served the Craig Settlement. It is the oldest cemetery in Northampton County. Buried there are most of the notables of that Scotch-Irish community.

1. Craig’s father and sons

2. Hugh Wilson: builder of the blockhouse, now on Laubach Avenue. Wilson was one of the first three judges in Northampton County Court.

3. James Ralston: builder of the fort that was located at Franks Corner and who laid out the town of Bath

4. Gen. Robert Brown: Revolutionary War hero and U.S. congressman. His friendship with George Washington yielded a gift of two horse chestnut saplings, which Brown planted at his home north of Franks Corner. This is the Friendship Tree, which later became the symbol of Bath.

When East Allen Elementary School is completed, that small network of roads around the buildings should be named in honor of these East Allen pioneers and heroes: James Craig, Hugh Wilson, James Ralston and Gen. Robert Brown.

Education started in East Allen Township proper in 1776, with a tuition school near St. Peter’s Church. Another was the Allen Township Academy in 1785, at Jacksonville. This was where George Wolf was a student and later teacher.

More notable was the Weaversville Academy, a four-story brick building. It was a tuition and boarding school, which opened in 1855 and offered up to an eighth-grade education. It closed in 1881 after declaring bankruptcy and operated only sporadically after that.

East Allen Township was created in 1845 after separating from Allen Township. Bath was carved out of East Allen Township in 1856 and established its own school district. As you may know, every township had its own school district. Incidentally, Northampton County had 39 school districts at one time.

The state urged that no students should have to walk more than 1-1/2 miles to school. In East Allen Township, its five schools were located generally in a ring out from the center of the township, and no child had to walk more than 2 miles.

From 1863 to 1866, the Northampton County superintendent of schools reported that four or five of these schools were unfit for use. This devastating evaluation prompted the East Allen Township School Board to build five new schools over the next 10 years. Staffing remained a problem for years since East Allen Township paid the lowest teacher salaries in the whole county.

These five schools were almost always built on the same site as the prior one. In many cases, the name of the school commemorated the family who sold or donated the school land.

They were:

Union School: corner of Route 248 and Stone Post Road, in use until 1947

Monocacy School: off Jacksonville Road. This was last used by NASD as an alternative class site until 1983.

Snyder’s School: on Valley View Road, next to St. Peter’s United Church of Christ

Steinmetz School: off Colony Drive, used until 1947

Reichard School: corner of Tanglewood Road and Nor-Bath Pike. It was replaced by the two-room Knauss School in 1929, which today houses the East Allen Township municipal offices.

In more modern times, East Allen students could always pay tuition to attend secondary classes at Northampton. In the 20th century, the educational and financial advantages of consolidation of smaller school districts gained traction. By 1938, there were active discussions of mergers. After World War II, state-mandated requirements, such as art, music and physical education hastened small districts to combine.

In 1951, all East Allen students in grades 7-12 attended Northampton junior and senior high schools. More and more elementary students were bused to the borough schools and Bath. Soon, Act 561 by the Pennsylvania legislature required school districts to attain a student population of 4,000. In 1961, only the Monocacy and Knauss schools were in use.

Finally, the East Allen Township school district joined the other six formerly separate districts to form the Northampton Area Joint School District June 1, 1962, closing the chapter on an independent school district.