1

(Photo by Richard F. Hope)

Dr. Traill Green House (222 Spring Garden Street)

By Richard F. Hope, last updated 17 October 2018.

3-story brick “Italianate” style house,[1] with buttressed roof cornice, projecting window pediments, and a wrought-iron scroll stoop.

This is the western portion of original Town Lot Nos.59 and 61 as surveyed by William Parsons when Easton was established in 1752, which were acquired from the Penn Family by Easton town father Samuel Sitgreaves.[2] The property also includes a small strip of land from original Town Lot No.63, which was originally acquired from the Penn Family by County Sheriff Henry Spering.[3]

Easton town father Samuel Sitgreaves was a lawyer; a Federalist Congressman from Pennsylvania; and from 1798 a US Commissioner to Great Britain regarding British claims under the Jay Treaty. In addition, he was the first President of The Easton Bank, a leader of the campaign to build the Delaware River Bridge in 1806,[4] and made crucial donations to found Easton’s Library Hall[5] and the Easton Trinity Episcopal Church.[6] He died in 1827.[7]

In 1831, Samuel Sitgreaves’s estate sold the property (with substantially the same dimensions as today) to Michael Lehn. There is no specific mention of a building being included on the lot at that time.[8] Michael Lehn was the grandson of J. Adam Lehn (1759 – 1844),[9] and the great-grandson of Michael Lehn, who immigrated to America from what is now Germany in about 1754[10] and first settled and founded Lehn’s Court (located off the SE corner of Centre Square.[11] Michael Lehn (the younger) was born in Easton in 1809.[12] He was the oldest son[13] of a large family.[14] He learned the trade of a bricklayer from his father, John Lehn, and initially practiced it in Easton.[15]

Lehn’s purchase price for this Spring Garden Street property from the Sitgreaves estate was $800.[16] In 1841, he added a 4” strip purchased for $40 from his neighbor, the widow Fanny I. Brown.[17] He apparently built the house that now stands there, because in 1848 he sold the property for $4,675 (a large increase in price) to renowned physician and Lafayette Professor Dr. Traill Green.[18] Michael Lehn then left Easton to become a farmer in Greenwich, N.J. for the next 17 years.[19] He did return to Easton to retire in 1864, purchasing property on North 2nd Street.[20]

Dr. Traill Green used the property as his home and medical practice until his death in 1897.[21]

  • Before the mid-1870s, it was listed as 56 Spring Garden St. under the street numbering scheme then in effect.[22]

Dr. Green (1813-97) was a practicing physician, beginning his practice in Easton in 1836. In 1876, he was a founder and the first President of the American Academy of Medicine.[23] When he started his medical practice in Easton, Dr. Green also formed a class in chemistry in his office at night, and in 1837 was appointed a Professor of Chemistry at Lafayette College, where he taught for many years (with an interim at Marshall College from 1841-48). He also studied and taught geology, zoology and botany.[24] He was a long-time member of the Board of Trustees, and served as Acting President in 1890-91. He also donated money, anonymously (as was his habit), for the college Observatory (which has since been torn down).[25]

  • Although Lafayette College was restricted to men only at the time, Dr. Green supported education for women, allowing them to be guests in his Lafayette classes, and giving free private classes for girls. He married Harriet Moore, a student in one of his botany classes.[26]

Dr. Green’s paper on the need for a public cemetery in 1849 was largely responsible for the creation of the Easton Cemetery in that year. Dr. Green was President of the Board of Directors for more than 40 years.[27] Dr. Green’s lectures on public lighting “had much to do with the successful introduction of gas [lighting] in Easton.” He was also President of Easton’s Board of Control for eight years.[28] A leader of the temperance and anti-opium movements (he was President of the county Temperance Society[29]), he nevertheless did prescribe alcohol and opium to his patients in what he considered proper cases.[30]

  • Dr. Green was a descendant of early Easton settler Richard Green Jr., and (on his mother’s side) from Easton Revolutionary War politician Robert Traill,[31] who had been a member and clerk of the Committee of Safety from Northampton County (which essentially governed the County during the Revolution), and was later Northampton County Sheriff (1781-84), member of Pennsylvania’s Supreme Executive Council (1786-87), and Associate Judge of Northampton County (1790-92).[32]

After Dr. Traill Green’s death in 1897,[33] the property was inherited by his widow, Harriet,[34] who lived there with her daughter Ella and her husband, Dr. Charles McIntire.[35] Harriet Green died intestate leaving the property to her two children, Ella Green McIntire and Edgar M. Green.[36] In 1906, the McIntires sold their half interest to Ella’s brother, Dr. Edgar M. Green.,[37] who took up residence[38] after movingfrom 340 Spring Garden St.[39] He died in 1935; his widow, Mary B. Green, retained the property until she sold it to Trinity Episcopal Church (main building located across Sitgreaves Alley) in 1957.[40] Today, the mansion serves as the church offices.

Cudjo House: Southwards down Sitgreaves Street and across the private alley (Bennett Court) at the back of the Dr. Traill Green House, is the 2-1/2 story brick Cudjo House at 63 Sitgreaves St.[41] It is said to be the first brick house in Easton,[42] built in 1792.[43] This identification was recently supported when renovations to the building found, under the brickote façade covering, old brick work on part of the house using “ribbon joint” pointingthat had been popular in the 18th Century.[44]

The house was built on the estate of Samuel Sitgreaves “for his colored man Cudjoe” (also spelled “Cudjo”).[45] Sitgreaves was one of Easton’s most important and wealthiest citizens at the end of the 18th Century and into the 19th Century. He was a lawyer; a Federalist Congressman from Pennsylvania; and from 1798 a US Commissioner to Great Britain regarding British claims under the Jay Treaty. In addition, he was the first President of The Easton Bank, a leader of the campaign to build the Delaware River Bridge in 1806,[46] and made crucial donations to found Easton’s Library Hall[47] and the Easton Trinity Episcopal Church.[48] He also served as Chief Burgess of Easton in 1789-90 and 1791-99.[49]

In 1804, Samuel Sitgreaves purchased original Easton Lot No.63 (where he built the little brick house on what was later called Sitgreaves Street) for $450 from Henry Spering,[50]a local politician who at various times was the Sheriff, Prothonotary, Easton’s first Postmaster, and Chief Burgess.[51] Spering had acquired the property just two years before from the Penn Family.[52]

Samuel Sitgreaves’ will, probated in 1827, gave to Sitgreaves’ “old Negro Servant Cudjo” the right to occupy for life the “small Brick House in the Alley where he now lives, with a Lot of fifty feet in depth from the Alley”. Cudjo was required to keep the property in repair and to pay the taxes; he was forbidden to sublet it, or allow anyone else to live there “except his Wife and children while they shall continue to live with him and take care of him.”[53] Cudjo (also sometimes spelled “Cudjoe”) is said to have “had charge of Mr. Sitgreaves’ garden, which occupied the whole square upon which the [Spring Garden Apartments] now stands.”[54]

  • Because of the distinctive name and the proper time period, it seems likely that Cudjo was the same man who had been listed on 29 November 1782 as a Black slave, age 21, then belonging to Theophilus Shannon,[55] who at that time was then proprietor of the Bachmann Publick House.[56]

Sitgreaves’s estate sold the Cudjo property, then measuring 20’ X 110’ deep, in 1832 for $700 to grocer William H. Hensing.[57] The deed does not mention Cudjo, so perhaps he was no longer in residence. After ten years, Hensing sold the property for $750 to Adam Lehn,[58] who was otherwise the owner of Lehn’s Court running off from Centre Square,[59] as well as other land in town and on College Hill.

  • At this time Adam Lehn’s grandson, Michael Lehn,[60] was the owner of the property at the corner of Spring Garden and Sitgreaves Streets, that became the Dr. Traill Green Mansion at 222 Spring Garden Street.[61]

Upon his death, Adam Lehn’s will (probated in 1844) divided his lands between his son John and his daughter Mary(who had become Mrs. Ralph Tindall,[62] and was also called Maria). John Lehn sold his half interest in the Cudjo House to his sister and her husband in 1846.[63] In 1860, Mary Tindall’s estate sold the Cudjo House property to Abraham Bercaw.[64] Bercaw had been a resident (presumably as a lessee) prior to purchasing the property, then listed as 37 North Sitgreaves Alley. His occupation at that time was listed as a teamster[65] or carter.[66] Then, perhaps as early as 1861,[67] Bercaw joined a liquor firm eventually known as Welch & Co.,[68] a dealer in “Wines, Brandies, Gins, Champagne, Rum, all kinds of Whiskies, Scotch Ale, Porter, Bitters, &c.” located in Masonic Hall[69] at the NE corner of Ferry and South 3rd Streets.[70] The venture was successful, because by 1873 Bercaw moved to a larger house that is today numbered 118 North 2nd Street,[71] and leased the Cudjo House to Joseph Nixon, a teamster.[72] At the end of that year, the Cudjo House was assigned its modern address of 63 North Sitgeaves Street when the modern street numbering scheme was adopted.[73] Bercaw later became the sole named owner of the liquor business, and his son Charlie succeeded him as owner in the 1880s.[74]

Bercaw sold the Cudjo House in 1874 to W.W. Schuyler.[75] Judge William W. Schuyler (1829 – 1907) was not born or raised in Easton, but he attended Lafayette College for two years (before graduating from Williams College), and later returned to Easton to attend Judge McCartney’s law school. He was admitted to the bar in 1854; and was elected Northampton County district attorney in 1859 and 1861. He was first elected to the bench in 1881, and became President Judge of the Northampton County courts in 1885, where he remained until he retired in 1906 (thus serving as a Judge for a quarter of a century).[76] His residence was at 214 Spring Garden Street,[77] in a house that was replaced by the Howard Riegel Mansion after the Judge’s death.[78]

With Judge Schuyler’s purchase of Cudjo House in 1874, the lease to Joseph Nixon was apparently not renewed.[79] The identity of the Schuyler’s new tenants at that time is not currently known, butby 1900 the Cudjo House was leased to silk warper[80] Joseph C. Pursel (also spelled Pursell) and his wife, Hattie.[81] In 1910, Joseph Pursel was out of work. The City directory listed the Cudjo House in the name of his son, Jonas (age 15), who lived at home and had given up his schooling to work as an errand boy in a silk mill. The family also took on two boarders in the Cudjo House, including railroad brakeman Howard Tinsman.[82] Curiously, Hattie Pursel found the funds to buy the Cudjo House and half of the property from Judge Schuyler’s estate in 1912. This purchase reduced the land’s depth to the modern measurement of 55’.[83] Hattie’s husband, Joseph Pursel, died the following year (1913). Hattie apparently took up Red Cross service, and would later be remembered for receiving a Red Cross certificate and gold pin from President Woodrow Wilson.[84] After Joseph Pursel’s death, Hattie married Howard Tinsman,[85] herboarder. Shortly after this wedding her son, Jonas – who also married at this time – moved into his own quarters.[86] Howard Tinsman died in 1929.[87] A few years after Tinsman’s death, Hattie’s son, Jonas Pursel, returned to live with his mother in the Cudjo House,[88]and continued on there after her death in 1960[89] until his own death in 1964.[90] Jonas had a varied career as a chauffeur for the Simon silk mills,[91] clerk,[92] dairy products seller,[93]Constable of Easton’s Second Ward,[94] and deliveryman for Weaver’s Pharmacy[95] in Centre Square.[96] He was “active for many years in Democratic party politics”, and died of a heart attack while attending the annual banquet of the Magistrates and Constables Association of Northampton County, of which he was a life member.[97] After Jonas’s death, his widow (Mrs. Fannie F. Pursel) continued to live in the first floor of the Cudjo House, while renting out the second floor as an apartment.[98] She died in 1980;[99] her son sold the property in 1982.[100] Three subsequent sales are recorded since that time, the latest toDonald Robert Maher, Jr.,[101] a chorister and opera performer with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.[102]

(Photo by Richard F. Hope)

[1]City of Easton, Pennsylvania Historic Resource Survey Form, Attachment: Building Description Survey Area 1 Zone E (City Council Resolution approved 12 May 1982).

[2]Deed, John and Richard Penn to Samuel Sitgreaves, G2 86 (25 Jan. 1800)(Lot No.59; also included Lot Nos.80 and 240 for sale price of £75); Deed, John and Richard Penn to Samuel Sitgreaves, G2 516 (15 Dec. 1802)(Lot No.61); A.D. Chidsey, Jr., The Penn Patents in the Forks of the Delaware Plan of Easton, Map 2 (Vol. II of Publications of the Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society 1937). These two original Lots ran lengthwise along Spring Garden Street, with 60’ frontage on Sitgreaves Alley, for a total of 120’

For additional history of Samuel Sitgreaves, see separate entries for 109 North Third Street, and for Sitgreaves Folly (East) / Montague Building at 237-39 Northampton Street.

[3]Deed, Henry (Mary) Spering to Samuel Sitgreaves, H2 508 (11 July 1804)(Lot No.63). Henry Spering had previously acquired Lot No.63 from the Penn Family. Deed, Penn Family to Henry Spering, H2 417 (18 Aug. 1802); A.D. Chidsey, Jr., The Penn Patents in the Forks of the Delaware Plan of Easton, Map 2 (Vol. II of Publications of the Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society 1937).

For additional history of Henry Spering, see separate entry for the Detwiller House at 52 Centre Square.

[4]Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, “Samuel Sitgreaves”, searchable from bioguide.congress.gov/biosearch/biosearch.asp (accessed 3 Jan. 2005); David B. Stillman, Easton in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century, Paper presented to the Northampton County Historical Society 17 Jan. 1946, Historical Bulletin of the Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society, No. 3 (Sept. 1947) (avail. Marx Room, Easton Public Library), at 3, 6-7; Rev. Uzal W. Condit, The History of Easton, Penn’a 148-49 (George W. West 1885); Ethan Allen Weaver, “The Forks of the Delaware” Illustratedxxi, xxvi (Eschenbach Press, Easton, PA, 1900); Papers Read Before the Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society, The Old County Courthouse and other Northampton County History 18 (1964).

[5]See Easton Area Public Library Website, “Our History” (accessed 3 Jan. 2005); Dr. Elinor Warner, Easton, Pennsylvania Walking Tour, for Pennsylvania Art Education Association Conference 2000, (accessed 4 Jan. 2005).

[6]Warner, Easton Walking Tour, supra; Rev. Uzal W. Condit, The History of Easton, Penn’a 152 (George W. West 1885 / 1889).

[7]E.g., F.S. Bixler, “’Hon. Samuel Sitgreaves’, An Illustrious Citizen of Northampton County”, Speech read at meeting of Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society, 18 Feb. 1922.

[8]Deed, James Linton, Executor of Will of Samuel Sitgreaves, to Michael Lehn, B6 610 (23 May 1831)(sale price $800; no specific mention of a “messuage” or “tenement”, other than the usual boilerplate language at the end of the deed). This deed indicates that the plot contains part of three contiguous Lot Nos.59, 61 and 63. The measurements of the property at this time were 40’ (along Spring Garden Street) X 148’ (along Sitgreaves Alley, to a private alley in the rear). Today, the Northampton County Tax Records map, shows measurements of 40.17’ X 145.37’, to the same private alley.

[9]Michael Lehn’s father was John Lehn Sr. (6 Feb. 1788 – 10 Aug. 1860); his mother was Susana Gangewehr Lehn (married 26 June 1808 in Easton). See and compareDale E. Berger, The Family and Descendants of John Adam and Maria Magdelena (Meixell) Lehn of Easton, PA(Lehn Family File, Marx Room, Easton Area Public Library, May 2001); Obituary, “Aged Citizen Dead – Three of the Oldest People in Easton Claimed by Death”, Easton Express, Sat., 5 Mar. 1904, p.5, col.4 (parents were John and Susan Lehn); St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Congregation, Easton, PA, Parish Records of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Easton, PA from 1769 to the Consecration of the New Church, Jan.1, 1832 (Marx Room Code Letter “G”) at 82 (Easton, PA, no date)(Michael Lehn born 21 Feb. 1809 to John and Susana Lehn); Chesser Family Tree, available on Genealogy.com attrees.ancestry.com/pt/person.aspx?pid=-1503634066&tid=4879995 (accessed 13 Mar. 2009)(gives birth date as 1788).

  • John Lehn Sr. was born on John Lehn Sr.; born 6 Feb. 1788, and died 10 Aug. 1860 of dropsy, age 72, “one of the original founders of Christ Church”. Record Book of Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church of Easton, Pennsylvania (Marx Room Code Letter “B”), at 160 (copied in Easton Public Library May 1936); but seeDale E. Berger, The Family and Descendants of John Adam and Maria Magdelena (Meixell) Lehn of Easton, PA(Lehn Family File, Marx Room, Easton Area Public Library, May 2001)(gives John Lehn’s birth date as 24 Apr. 1786).
  • John Lehn Sr. married Susanna Gangewehr on 26 June 1808. St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Congregation, Easton, PA, Parish Records of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Easton, PA from 1769 to the Consecration of the New Church, Jan.1, 1832 (Marx Room Code Letter “G”) at 278 (Easton, PA, no date); Record Book of Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church of Easton, Pennsylvania (Marx Room Code Letter “B”), at 151 (copied in Easton Public Library May 1936).

Michael Lehn’s paternal grandfather (and John Lehn Sr.’s father) was John (Johann) Adam Lehn (1759 – 1844), and mother was Mary Magdalena Meixell/Mixsell (1760-1851), daughter of Philip Meixell. Compare Berger, The Family and Descendants of John Adam . . . Lehn, suprawithChesser Family Tree, available on Genealogy.com attrees.ancestry.com/pt/person.aspx?tid=4879995&pid=-1503640218 (accessed 13 Mar. 2009).

[10]SeeChesser Family Tree, available on Genealogy.com attrees.ancestry.com/pt/person.aspx?tid=4879995&pid=-1503601205, and The Generations Network, Genealogy.com at trees.ancestry.com/pt/Event.aspx?tid=4879995&pid=-1503595990&etype=birth&pg=0&se=1 (birth) and trees.ancestry.com/pt/Event.aspx?tid=4879995&pid=-1503595990&eid=608956654&pg=0&se=1 (immigration) (all accessed 13 Mar.2009).