LEASER LAKE VINEYARDS
In the Fall of 1997, Blue Mountain Vineyards purchased a parcel of land that carries with it a significant historical background dating back to pre-Revolutionary War. In fact, the land has been accepted in the National Register of Historical Places! In the Spring of 1998, Joe and Vickie planted 20 acres of mostly vinifera grapes with the addition of Syrah, Petite Sirah, and Riesling vines. In the Spring of 2007, they constructed a winemaking facility and warehouse at Leaser Lake and incorporated Leaser Lake Vineyards. This vineyard does not have a tasting room at this time. It is located about 10 minutes from the main winery in Kempton, PA.
Frederick and Catherine Leaser Farm, also known as Frederick Leaser Farm, is a historic home and farm located at Lynn Township, Lehigh County, PA.
It includes the original log cabin (c. 1750), Pennsylvania German vernacular farmhouse (1849), Pennsylvania bank barn (1888), outhouse (c. 1900), smokehouse (c. 1900), summer kitchen/baking house (c. 1850), wagon shed (c. 1906), poultry shed (c. 1875), two frame storage sheds, and a corn crib (c. 1910). Also on the property is the family burial ground and an archaeological site surveyed in 1981-1982. The farm was in the Leaser family from 1750 to 1998.
After Washington’s defeat at the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777, the revolutionary capital of Philadelphia was defenseless, and the city prepared for what was seen as an inevitable British attack on the city.
The Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ordered that eleven bells, including the State House bell and the bells from Christ Church and St. Peter’s Church, be taken down and removed from the city to prevent the British, who might melt the bells down to cast into cannons, from taking possession of them. A train of over 700 wagons guarded by 200 Calvary from North Carolina and Virginia, under the command of Colonel Thomas Polk of the 4th Regiment North Carolina Continental Line, left Philadelphia for Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley. Hidden in the manure and hay were the bells, and hidden in the wagon of Northampton County militia private John Jacob Mickley was the State House bell. On September 18, the entourage and armed escort arrived in Richland Township (present-day Quakertown, Pennsylvania).
On September 23, the bishop of the Moravian Church in Bethlehem reported that the wagons had arrived, and all bells except the State House bell was transferred to the wagon of Frederick Leaser and taken to the historic Zion’s Reformed Church in center city Allentown, where it was stored (along with the other bells), under the floorboards. You can still visit the church today. On September 26, British forces marched into Philadelphia, unopposed, and occupied the city. The bell was restored to Philadelphia in June 1778, after the end of the British occupation.
