Hockendauqua - PLAQUE
Allen Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
HOCKENDAUQUA INDIAN TOWN of the noted Chiefs LAPPAWINZO and TISHCOHAN who treated with the Penn proprietors of Pennsylvania, in the famous Walking Purchase, was located in the present Northampton upon the east bank of the Lehigh River three fourths of a mile to the northwest of this marker. The fleet-footed youth EDWARRD MARSHALL and his associates of the walk of a day and a half September 19-20, 1737 crossed Hokendauqua creek a half mile below this point on the stream and slept the first night in the woods a half mile from the Indian Town. The survey line of the purchase was run later in 1737 1 3/10 miles to the east.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
In the tangled early history of Penn's Woods, this ground sat beside an Lenape (Delaware) town near the Lehigh River, home to leaders the colonists knew as Lappawinzo and Tishcohan. Their names are bound to the notorious Walking Purchase of 1737, when Pennsylvania's proprietors used a decades-old, dubiously drawn deed to claim land measured by a day-and-a-half's walk. The colony hired fast, trained walkers like Edward Marshall, who strode far beyond what any ordinary traveler could cover, extending the boundary and stripping the Lenape of vast holdings.
Why it matters
The Walking Purchase became a byword for how treaty and paper could be turned against Native nations, poisoning relations that later flared into frontier war.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Lappawinzo
- · Tishcohan
- · Edward Marshall
Related events
- · Walking Purchase
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Walking Purchase
Allen Township, PA · est. 1947
In September 1737, colonial officials invoked a disputed deed to claim as much land as a man could walk in a day and a half, and the swift Edward Marshall and his companions covered a startling distance well beyond what the Lenape had expected. Their route carried them past this point, across Hokendauqua Creek, and near a Native town, seizing far more territory than the Lenape believed they had agreed to surrender. The so-called Walking Purchase became infamous as a symbol of colonial deception.
The Famous Indian Walk - PLAQUE
Allen Township, PA · est. 1925
This marker follows the route of the 1737 "Walking Purchase," the day-and-a-half walk from Wrightstown that Pennsylvania's proprietors used to lay claim to a vast swath of Lenape land. Edward Marshall and his fellow walkers pressed nearly to present Mauch Chunk, passing Hockendauqua Indian Town on the way; a formal survey line was run afterward by Surveyor General Benjamin Eastburn. The lands taken stretched far beyond anything the Delaware believed they had agreed to.
Walking Purchase
Allen Township, PA · est. 1948
In 1737 Pennsylvania's proprietors invoked a supposed 1686 deed that promised land stretching as far as a man could walk in a day and a half. Rather than an honest stroll, Thomas Penn hired trained runners and cleared paths to push the boundary to its farthest possible limit, seizing far more Lenape land than the tribe expected. In doing so he abandoned the fairer dealings of his father, William Penn, and poisoned relations between the colony and its Native neighbors.
Heckewelder House
Bethlehem, PA · est. 1953
This 1810 house recalls John Heckewelder, the Moravian missionary who spent decades among Native peoples on the frontier as a preacher, interpreter, and keen observer of their lives. His written works on American Indian languages and customs became important early sources, drawn on by scholars and even by novelists shaping the nation's image of the frontier. In an age of mounting conflict and displacement, Heckewelder tried to bridge two worlds through faith and the written word.