John Jacob Mickley (settler)

John Jacob Mickley (1697–1769) (born Jean Jacques Michelet) was an early settler of Whitehall Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania.

John Jacob Mickley
John Jacob Mickley Family Memorial
Born
Jean Jacques Michelet

1697 (1697)
DiedAugust 18, 1769(1769-08-18) (aged 71–72)
Known forEarly Whitehall Township settler

Life and family

Born 1697 in Zweibrücken, Jean Jacques Michelet was the eldest son of Louis Michelet (1675–1750) and Susanne Mangeot (1674–1710).[1] His parents were Protestants from Metz, who moved to Zweibrücken to get married. There his father became pastor of a Huguenot congregation.[2]

On May 4, 1733, he boarded the Ship Hope sailing from Rotterdam and arrived on August 28 in Philadelphia. His name became anglicized as John Jacob Mickley. He first lived with a relative in Berks County for several years.[2][3] In 1745, he acquired farmland at Egypt in Whitehall Township, Lehigh County, one of its first settlers. He married Elizabeth Barbara Burkhalter (1719–1769).[3] They had four sons and three daughters.[4]

On August 8, 1763, several settlers, including two of his children, Henry and Barbara, were killed in an Indian attack. In 1913, a granite marker was erected by the Lehigh County Historical Society commemorating this event.[5]

Three of his sons, John Jacob, John Martin, and John Peter, served in the American Revolutionary War. His eldest son, John Jacob Mickley (1737–1808), is known for transporting the Liberty Bell from Philadelphia in September, 1777.[6]

His great-grandson, Jacob Mickley (1794–1888), was an elder and on the building committee of the Whitehall German Reformed Church at Mickleys.[7]

He died on August 18, 1769 and was buried in the cemetery of the Egypt Church. In 1864, he was reinterred at Mickley's Cemetery (St. John's Union Cemetery).[1][8]

Legacy

The village of Mickleys is named after his family.[9]

On October 12, 1917, the Michelet Chapter (Allentown) of the Daughters of the American Revolution dedicated the Revolutionary and Huguenot Memorial of the Michelet family at Mickley's Cemetery.[10][11]

  • Memorial gravestone side with his birth name, Jean Jacques Michelet
  • Memorial monument for his two children, Henry and Barbara

References
  1. Hughes, Thomas P. (1894). American Ancestry: Giving the Name and Descent, in the Male Line, of Americans whose Ancesters Settled in the United States Previous to the Declaration of Independence, A.D. 1776. IX. Albany, New York: Joel Munsell's Sons. p. 133. OL 16097348W.
  2. Stapleton, Rev. A. (1901). Memorials of the Huguenots In America, With Special Reference to their Emigration to Pennsylvania. Carlisle, Pennsylvania: Huguenot Publishing Company. pp. 82–83. OL 161051W.
  3. Mathews, Alfred; Hungerford, Austin N. (1884). "Whitehall Township, Settlement". History of the Counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Everts & Richards. pp. 482–483. OL 227379W.
  4. Roberts, Charles Rhoads; Stoudt, Rev. John Baer; Krick, Rev. Thomas H.; Dietrich, William J. (1914). "Mickley Family". History of Lehigh County Pennsylvania and a Genealogical and Biographical Records of its Families. III. Lehigh Valley Publishing Company. pp. 891–894. OL 7568151W.
  5. Roberts, Charles Rhoads; Stoudt, Rev. John Baer; Krick, Rev. Thomas H.; Dietrich, William J. (1914). "Indian Massacre". History of Lehigh County Pennsylvania and a Genealogical and Biographical Records of its Families. I. Lehigh Valley Publishing Company. pp. 844–845.
  6. Curtin, Williard S. (1960). "Liberty Bell Shrine". Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 86th Congress, Second Session. 106 part 8. p. 9751.
  7. Mathews & Hungerford (1884), pp. 500, 508.
  8. "Mickley Family Memorial Unveiled With Fine Ceremony". The Allentown Morning Call. October 13, 1917. pp. 5, 13 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. Miller, Benjamin L. Toponymy (PDF). p. 74. named for the Michelet (Mickley) family. Jean Jacque [sic] Michelet (John Jacob Mickley) a Swiss immigrant, settled on Mill Creek in 1745.
  10. "Michelet Chapter". Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine. National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. LIII: 112. 1919.
  11. "State D.A.R. Attend Memorial Unveiling. Beautiful Ceremony on Mickley's Cemetery At the Restored Tomb of John Jacob Mickley". The Allentown Leader. October 12, 1917. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
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