Frederick Leaser

Frederick Leaser's transport of the Liberty Bell from Philadelphia to Zion Reformed Church in Allentown, Pennsylvania on September 24, 1777 during the American Revolution is depicted in this watercolor painting. The Liberty Bell was hidden beneath the Allentown church's floor boards for nine months, from September 1777 until June 1778, to avoid it being seized by the British Army

c. 1750, Frederick Leaser, age twelve, accompanied his father, Jacob Leaser, from Switzerland to Philadelphia.[1] At that time, his father acquired one hundred and fifteen acres in what was then Northampton County and is now Lynn Township in Lehigh County.[2]

c. 1757, Leaser served in the French and Indian War (part of the Seven Years' War fought from 1754 to 1763).[1]

After General George Washington's defeat at the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777, Philadelphia, then capital for the Second Continental Congress, faced imminent attack by the British Army under General Sir William Howe. On September 14, to prevent capture of the city's tower bells, which could be melted into cannonballs, the Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ordered that the bells be taken down and transported out of the city. The Liberty Bell from Independence Hall, also known as the State House Bell, was among the bells that was secured on the wagon of John Jacob Mickley and transported north.

The wagon broke down on September 23 in Bethlehem. The bell was then transferred to the wagon of Frederick Leaser, who delivered it on September 24 to the Zion Reformed Church in Allentown, where it was hidden under the church's floor boards for nine months until June 1778 when the British departed Philadelphia.[3]

He married Catherine Smith and they had three surviving children: Daniel, Anna Maria, and Maria Dorothea. Daniel Follweiler (1769–1847) married Maria Dorothea Leaser (1769–1828) and inherited the farm after Frederick's death in 1810.[1][2][4]

On November 19, 1908, the Liberty Bell Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution unveiled the Saving of the Liberty Bell Plaque, describing the efforts of Mickley and Leaser, at Zion Reformed Church in Allentown.[5] Leaser's contribution is recognized at the Liberty Bell Museum within the church.[6]

On November 29, 1928, the Pennsylvania Historical Commission and the Valley Forge Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution erected a memorial monument near his home.[7] Five direct descendants participated in the ceremony, which drew nearly a thousand people.[8] The site was where Leaser's grandson, Jesse Follweiler, on January 1, 1833 had erected a liberty pole for President Andrew Jackson, transporting the pole on the same wagon used for the Liberty Bell.[9] The monument is now on the shore of Leaser Lake at Jacksonville.[10]

Leaser's homestead, the Frederick and Catherine Leaser Farm, was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 14, 2004 for its significance in agriculture and architecture.[1][11]

• 
  Frederick Leaser Homestead, Lynn Township, c. 1914
• 
  The Saving of the Liberty Bell Plaque at Zion Reformed Church
• 
  Frederick Leaser Monument at Leaser Lake

• Liberty Bell Museum
• List of Pennsylvania state historical markers in Lehigh County
• Pennsylvania Dutch

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Frederick Leaser.

• Frederick Leaser at Find a Grave
• "The Saving of the Liberty Bell". The Historical Marker Database. The bell was then transferred to Frederick Leiser's [sic] wagon