Friedensville, Pennsylvania

Friedensville, Pennsylvania
Unincorporated community
Friedens Evangelical Lutheran Church in Friedensville
Friedensville
Location of Friedensville in Pennsylvania
Coordinates: 40°33′33″N 75°23′41″W / 40.55917°N 75.39472°W / 40.55917; -75.39472
Country United States
State Pennsylvania
CountyLehigh
TownshipUpper Saucon Township
Elevation
420 ft (130 m)
Population
 • Metro
865,310 (US: 68th)
Time zoneUTC-5 (Eastern (EST))
 • Summer (DST)UTC-4 (EDT)
ZIP Code
18017
GNIS feature ID1175250 [1]

Friedensville is an unincorporated community which is located in Upper Saucon Township in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. It is part of the Lehigh Valley, which had a population of 861,899 and was the 68th-most populous metropolitan area in the U.S. as of the 2020 census.

The community's name is derived from the German: Friedenskirche, "Church of peace".[2] Zinc mining was once a key industry in the area.

History

Friedensville Zinc Mines, founded in 1845, were an important operation in Friedensville.[3] Jacob Ueberroth (1786–1862), a local farmer, first discovered the zinc mineral, around 1830.[4] The zinc mines were active from 1853 to 1893.[5]

The zinc mines became famous around the world with the 1872 installation of "The President," then the world's largest pumping engine.[6] The machine could lift 17,500 gallons of water a minute.[7] The massive engine was scrapped in 1900.[8] After the engine was scrapped, one of the 22 boilers associated with it was sold to the Buehler furniture factory in Allentown, PA where it was utilized as a water tank. It was acquired by Lehigh University in is currently in storage, slated to be displayed at the former mine site, near the stone ruins of the engine house.[9]

In 1881, Franklin Osgood purchased the Lehigh Zinc Company’s mines and formed the Friedensville Zinc Company. He built a zinc oxide plant and zinc smelter in Friedensville.[10][11][12]

References

  1. ^ "Friedensville". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
  2. ^ Espenshade, A. Howry (1925). Pennsylvania Place Names. State College, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State College. p. 310.
  3. ^ "History". Upper Saucon Township, Pennsylvania.
  4. ^ Kaas, L. Michael (2016). "The History of Zinc Mining in Friedensville, Pennsylvania". The Mining History Journal. 23: 17–42.
  5. ^ Rocks and Minerals. Heldref Publications. 1926.
  6. ^ Donaldson, Francis (1912). Practical Shaft Sinking. McGraw-Hill.
  7. ^ Scientific Machinist: Devoted to the Scientific Construction and Operation of Machines for Generating and Utilizing Power, and for All Other Purposes. Scientific machinist Company. 1892.
  8. ^ "There's only one of these in the U.S. and it's in the Lehigh Valley: 'It's an important thing for the public to know'". The Morning Call. January 20, 2023. Retrieved March 11, 2026.
  9. ^ "Historic steam boiler recovered | Lehigh Valley Press". Retrieved March 11, 2026.
  10. ^ "Richard W. Pascoe, Mine Superintendent by L. Michael Kaas" (PDF). mininghistoryassociation.org. p. 42. Retrieved June 28, 2021.
  11. ^ "Friedensville". The Allentown Democrat. Allentown, Pennsylvania. May 25, 1881. p. 2. Retrieved June 8, 2021.
  12. ^ "Death of Franklin Osgood". Greensboro North State. Greensboro, North Carolina. January 26, 1888. p. 4. Retrieved June 28, 2021.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Friedensville, Pennsylvania.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.