Paulus Balliet (1717-1777)
Early Life
Paulus Balliet was the first Balliet to come to the Lehigh Valley[1], arriving from Alsace, France to America on September 10, 1738[2]. Paulus Balliet left France to escape the religious persecution of French Protestants, Huguenots, which had begun following the repeal of the Edict of Nantes in 1685[3].
Family
Paulus Balliet married Maria Magdalena Wotring (1727-1802), a woman originally from Lorraine, France[4]. Together they had nine children, including five sons and four daughters (Jordan, Green, and Ettinger 1905: 48).
Both Paulus Balliet and his wife are buried in Whitehall, PA[5].
Business
On April 12, 1749 Paulus Balliet applied to purchase 97 acres 100 perches of land (officially deeded in 1761) that would become the “old Balliet farm”[6]. A warrant for the surveying of this land was granted to Paulus Balliet on October 9, 1759[7]. Between the years 1749 and 1774, Paulus Balliet purchased an additional 713 acres 131 perches[8]. On this land, Paulus Balliet built a log hotel that became known as the Whitehall Hotel on the old Mauch Chunk road[9]. The hotel was also the site of a post station for several years[10]. The hotel was eventually torn down by Stephen Balliet, Jr. in 1840[11]. The land owned by Paulus Balliet is now the village of Ballietsville[12].
Notes
- ↑ Mathews and Hungerford 1884: 511
- ↑ Mathews and Hungerford 1884: 538
- ↑ Mathews and Hungerford 1884: 538
- ↑ Mathews and Hungerford 1884: 538
- ↑ Mathews and Hungerford 1884: 538
- ↑ Mathews and Hungerford 1884: 511
- ↑ Mathews and Hungerford 1884: 511
- ↑ Mathew and Hungerford 1884: 511
- ↑ Mathews and Hungerford 1884: 525
- ↑ Mathews and Hungerford 1884: 525
- ↑ Mathews and Hungerford 1884: 525
- ↑ Mathews and Hungerford 1884, 538
References
- Mathews, Alfred, and Austin N Hungerford. 1884. History of the Counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Everts & Richards.