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.

July 14, 1871 Friday – Sam wrote a short note from Elmira to James Redpath not to schedule him at Jamestown, New York, the scene of a poor lecture on Jan. 21, 1870. “I suppose all lecturers hate that place” [MTL 4: 435].

What is now Hornell was first settled in 1790 under the name "Upper Canisteo", to distinguish it from the community of Canisteo, then known as "Lower Canisteo". The family of Benjamin Crosby were the first settlers in what is now Hornell. The area was incorporated as a town in 1820, as "Hornellsville." The name comes from early settler George Hornell Jr, who built the first gristmill here.

The village is named after Dr. Jonas Baldwin,[3] who built a dam across the Seneca River to generate energy and a private canal to keep the integrity of the water highway. It incorporated in 1848 as the Village of Baldwinsville. Prior to this, the community was known by a number of other names, including McHarrie's Rifts.