Business and industry
Like any community with a long history, the Macungie area has changed a great deal over the years. By the end of the 1700s a number of small businesses and industries had started. Some, such as mills, tanneries, harness shops and blacksmiths, provided services primarily for farmers. Other businesses were established as they were needed by the growing community. Among these, in no particular order, were hotels and taverns, livery stables, wagon works, tinsmiths, butchers, brick yards, general stores, builders, and at least one foundry.
Inns were the earliest business, and mills were the earliest industry. In the mostly non-cash economy that existed when the first mills were built, and for many years after, a miller would often take payment by keeping a portion of the grain a farmer had brought him to grind. Mills here all used waterpower initially, with some converting to steam or diesel power in the late 1800s.
Dealers specializing in equipment for farming and for the iron-mining industry began in the mid-1800s. One lumber and coal yard along the railroad in East Macungie was started by William Gehman before 1876, and a similar business, Dries Do-It Center, still exists at the same location.
In the 1880s, when raising tobacco for cigars was a major industry in Pennsylvania, shops were set up in East Macungie. The village had two tobacco-curing houses, one cigar manufactory where women and girls rolled the cigars, and a cigar-box factory.
The variety of industries and the number of people going to work off the farm increased rapidly after iron production became the main industrial activity in Lehigh County. The population of Allentown more than doubled from 1850 to 1860, and almost all the food for the swelling population was produced locally, with one notable exception: Oysters. Trains carried shipments of hundreds of thousands of oysters into the Lehigh Valley from the late 1800s until the early 1900s, during a time when oysters were very cheap and plentiful. Piles of shells could be found at dump sites until recently.
Lower Macungie had iron furnaces producing iron “pigs” that were shipped elsewhere for rolling or forging. Smaller shops where entrepreneurs, inventors and skilled mechanics made equipment of various kinds were common. The village of Wescosville had a number of these.
Eight grist mills were built along the Little Lehigh Creek in Lower Macungie. Grist mills ground grains between stones. A seed mill cleaned clover seeds for planting; oil mills pressed flax seeds into linseed oil, which was used in paints and to preserve wood. Saw mills provided beams and boards for the growing building industry.
Smoyer’s Mill dates from the 1700s. The building in the circa 1905 photograph was built in 1877, the third mill at this location along Mill Creek Road. It was known as the East Texas Roller Mill and had a steam engine to supplement turbines that drew water from the Little Lehigh Creek. When eels got entangled in the turbine blades someone had to go down into the pit to remove the mess.
East Macungie Hotel
Just outside Macungie was an old inn dating to the 1700s that was used by travelers and by local men, who held political meetings here during 1798–1799 when they were protesting unpopular tax-related actions by President Adam’s administration. The photo was taken soon after the Lehigh Valley Transit trolley tracks were extended to Macungie from Emmaus.
Like any community with a long history, the Macungie area has changed a great deal over the years. By the end of the 1700s a number of small businesses and industries had started. Some, such as mills, tanneries, harness shops and blacksmiths, provided services primarily for farmers. Other businesses were established as they were needed by the growing community. Among these, in no particular order, were hotels and taverns, livery stables, wagon works, tinsmiths, butchers, brick yards, general stores, builders, and at least one foundry.
Inns were the earliest business, and mills were the earliest industry. In the mostly non-cash economy that existed when the first mills were built, and for many years after, a miller would often take payment by keeping a portion of the grain a farmer had brought him to grind. Mills here all used waterpower initially, with some converting to steam or diesel power in the late 1800s.
Dealers specializing in equipment for farming and for the iron-mining industry began in the mid-1800s. One lumber and coal yard along the railroad in East Macungie was started by William Gehman before 1876, and a similar business, Dries Do-It Center, still exists at the same location.
In the 1880s, when raising tobacco for cigars was a major industry in Pennsylvania, shops were set up in East Macungie. The village had two tobacco-curing houses, one cigar manufactory where women and girls rolled the cigars, and a cigar-box factory.
The variety of industries and the number of people going to work off the farm increased rapidly after iron production became the main industrial activity in Lehigh County. The population of Allentown more than doubled from 1850 to 1860, and almost all the food for the swelling population was produced locally, with one notable exception: Oysters. Trains carried shipments of hundreds of thousands of oysters into the Lehigh Valley from the late 1800s until the early 1900s, during a time when oysters were very cheap and plentiful. Piles of shells could be found at dump sites until recently.
Lower Macungie had iron furnaces producing iron “pigs” that were shipped elsewhere for rolling or forging. Smaller shops where entrepreneurs, inventors and skilled mechanics made equipment of various kinds were common. The village of Wescosville had a number of these.
Eight grist mills were built along the Little Lehigh Creek in Lower Macungie. Grist mills ground grains between stones. A seed mill cleaned clover seeds for planting; oil mills pressed flax seeds into linseed oil, which was used in paints and to preserve wood. Saw mills provided beams and boards for the growing building industry.
Smoyer’s Mill dates from the 1700s. The building in the circa 1905 photograph was built in 1877, the third mill at this location along Mill Creek Road. It was known as the East Texas Roller Mill and had a steam engine to supplement turbines that drew water from the Little Lehigh Creek. When eels got entangled in the turbine blades someone had to go down into the pit to remove the mess.
East Macungie Hotel
Just outside Macungie was an old inn dating to the 1700s that was used by travelers and by local men, who held political meetings here during 1798–1799 when they were protesting unpopular tax-related actions by President Adam’s administration. The photo was taken soon after the Lehigh Valley Transit trolley tracks were extended to Macungie from Emmaus.
