Then and Now: A Tour of Schnecksville, Pennsylvania with Paul Schneck

In May and June of 2022, Paul Schneck, age 91, and his daughter Darlene, age 65, took a drive and a walk through the village of Schnecksville. Paul and Darlene are seventh and eighth-generation Schnecks, descended from the immigrant Adam Schneck (1718-1794), who came to this area in 1757 and aquired 271 acres just north of the present-day village. Paul and Darlene stopped at the former Trexler Orchards, the historic Schneck House, an old mill, and downtown Schnecksville, where they shared stories of long ago. Paul lived in Schnecksville for most of his life and Darlene grew up there. Schnecksville is located in North Whitehall Township in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1840, or possibly earlier, by Daniel Schneck (1794-1860), a grandson of the immigrant Adam Schneck. Daniel owned a brickmaking factory for 20 years, supplying the brick for the early houses in Schnecksville. He laid out town lots and built a nucleus of around 10 brick houses. European settlement of this area originally began in the 1740s-1750s when Lutheran and Reformed German-speaking immigrants from southwest Germany, Alsace, and Switzerland arrived to claim land. Most were farmers, and they spoke a dialect commonly called Pennsylvania Dutch. (Old Order Mennonites and Amish people are the primary speakers of the dialect today.) This northern part of Lehigh County retained its rural character and its Pennsylvania Dutch identity up through the 1970s, with the dialect still in common use at that time among many older people. Today, some family farms remain, however, a significant portion of the landscape has been transitioned from agricultural use to housing, businesses, and stores. The Trexler Nature Preserve is located in Schnecksville and consists of 1,100 acres of pristine wilderness along the Jordan Creek. The 29-acre Lehigh Valley Zoo, home to 125 species of animals, is located in the Nature Preserve. Schnecksville is also the home of Lehigh Carbon Community College and Crystal Spring Farm, a fourth-generation dairy farm with a retail store.