Jacob Kunsman Homestead 1874
Located off present day Tumble Creek Road in Williams Township

I had this idea to overlay a present day satellite image over a 1874 property map. The idea first came to me when I was viewing the 1874 maps and it struck me that they looked amazingly accurate. I began to wonder how they made maps so accurately in 1874 with no ariel photos, no high tech survey equipment, and no GPS. Somehow I had convinced myself that our 19th century ancestors were making maps based on how far a man could throw a stone or some similar totally crude method. It wouldn't take me long to learn that as usual I totally under estimated the level of sophistication of our 19th century ancestors. They had some astonishingly accurate equipment at their disposal some of which is pictured below. Scroll down a little farther and you'll see the 1874 property map with a 1999 satellite image overlaying it. I had to make the satellite image translucent, re-scale it to match the 1874 map, and rotate it slightly to get a near exact match, all of which was easily handled by Photoshop. One other alteration I made was to color the roads red on the satellite image.

Above left to right are early to late 1800's surveyor's tools. The first piece is called a Transit followed by a 1876 surveyor's compass. The right photo is a close up view of the compass where you can see some unexpected detail and precision from that era.

1874 - Map Showing the Jacob Kunsman Homestead
Overlayed with a 1999 satellite photo

The red lines within the Satellite image are the Williams Township roads as they existed in 1999. The 1874 map indicates roads by the parallel black lines. If you should see the 1874 roads within the satellite overlay and no red lines it means that road no longer exist today. Mile Road, which is near the top of the image and had a School House on it, is today no longer passable. When I was a boy it was a dirt road but passable with a car. I used to ride my bike on it. Here are a few additional observations:

  • The road on the 1874 map that follows the Lehigh river and the RR tracks mostly no longer exists. Today it is part of Island Park Road from just north of the D.E. Richards property continuing north east to Glendon terminating at Berger Road. Near the D.E. Richards property it connects to present day Island Park Road indicated in red and beginning at the edge of the satellite image and continues south west veering away from the river and railroad.
  • The double white bands running diagonal through the north west quadrant of the map is I-78. Construction began around the mid 1980's. It was all farm land and wilderness when I was a boy.
  • I hiked and hunted in the woods in the north east corner of the satellite image. I've seen what remains of the Iron Mines (Iron M's), which then, as today, are just giant depressions in the ground. Most of them are filled with water. As kids we used to play a dangerous game of walking across them during the winter freeze. We even ice skated on them a time or two.
  • I grew up in a house that occupies the 1874 location of the A. Dennis property just right of center. The A. Dennis home was demolished in the first half of the 1900's. The S. King farm just above the Dennis property was at one time owned by my step-father and today is owned by his brother. As a child I played in the King farm barns and as a teen helped tear most of them down. Today only the main barn stands.
  • I also hunted the land shown as the Jacob Kunsman (J. Kunsman) homestead left center of the map. I was not aware at that time that the land was once owned by my great-great grandfather. Jacob and his wife are buried at the St. John's church, where they were members, just off the right center edge of the satellite image and an easy buggy ride from the homestead.They may have even walked at times as it would only be about 30 minutes.
  • Just to the left of St. John's, running directly under the name F. Unangst in red, is present day Cider Press Road. As you can see in the 1874 map this road took a very different path ending near the Zeiner homestead just to the south west. As a boy I hunted these woods and walked along this road which by then was only passable with an off road vehicle.

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