Der Lecha Caunty Patriot Archive

The Lecha Patriot (“Lehigh Patriot”), a family of newspapers based in Allentown in Lehigh County, existed for nearly half a century, serving the German-speaking population of the Lehigh Valley, the second largest concentration of Germans in 19^th century Pennsylvania.

Published weekly, the Lecha Patriot had a consistent editorial voice, first as Der Anti=Freimaurer, und Lecha Caunty Patriot (“The Anti-Free Mason, and Lehigh County Patriot”), an Anti-Masonic organ founded in 1827, and then later as a Whig and, finally, a Republican paper.  During its lifetime, the Patriot went through many editors and owners. Its founder was John D. Roney, a lawyer who came to Allentown from neighboring Bucks County and who passed the newspaper off to Alexander Miller after only about two years.

The revolving door of owners resulted in frequent changes in the newspaper’s nameplate. After the Anti-Masonic movement waned, the Patriot attempted to extend its reach to the entire Lehigh Valley by incorporating Northampton County into its name, calling itself Der Lecha Patriot und Northampton Caunty Wöchentlicher Anzeiger (“The Lehigh Patriot and Northampton County Weekly Gazette”).In 1839, the Anzeiger merged with the Northampton Democrat based in Easton, the seat of Northampton County, to form Der Lecha Patriot und Northampton Demokrat (“The Lehigh Patriot and Northampton Democrat”).  It should be noted that the “Democrat” of the latter title meant “democracy” in general and not the Democratic Party.

The paper’s owners during the 1830s and 1840s included G. Adolph Sage, Edwin Keiper, and Solomon Gross. On June 1, 1848, the Patriot’s offices located on the south side of Hamilton Street between Hall and Eighth Streets were burned out. When the newspaper was reconstituted a month later, it was under Der Lecha Patriot nameplate alone.  Its owner at that time was Reuben Guth, who continued as a partner with a parade of other owners through the 1850s and 1860s, including William S. Young, Charles Keck, John H. Helfrich, Benjamin J. Hagenbuch, and Tilghman V. Rhoads.

One of the paper’s more colorful editors was Benjamin F. Trexler, who had learned the printing trade at Allentown’s dominant German weekly, the Friedens-Bote. Trexlerlater served as editor for numerous publications in the area, including Der Lecha Patriot from 1849 to 1855. Trexler traveled extensively, visiting California, Florida, Canada, and many nations in Europe, and sent letters back to be printed in his newspapers.

The owners of the final nameplate, Der Lecha Caunty Patriot (“The Lehigh County Patriot”), established in 1858, were William H. Ainey, John L.Hoffman, and Edward Ruhe, who sold the newspaper in June 1872 to Robert Iredell Jr.  In December of that year, the Patriot merged with one of Allentown’s English-language weeklies, the Lehigh Register.