This place was called "Wantastiquet"[10] by the Abenaki people, which meant "lost river", "river that leads to the west", or "river of the lonely way".

In the early 1700s, the land now occupied by the city of Allentown and Lehigh County was a wilderness of scrub oak where neighboring tribes of Native Americans fished for trout and hunted for deer, grouse, and other game.

To Olivia L. Clemens
15 October 1871 • Bethlehem, Pa.
Bethlehem, Sunday

Livy darling, I got here at 4 oclock yesterday afternoon. It is now nearly noon, & still I don’t feel moved to begin studying my lecture1—so the wisdom of coming here so soon, is apparent. It is better that this feeling should be on me today than tomorrow. By tomorrow I shall be rested up & brisk.