Frederick Leaser
Frederick Leaser (1738–1810) was a Pennsylvanian German farmer, patriot and soldier from Lynn Township in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. He is best known for transporting the Liberty Bell to the Zion Reformed Church in Allentown, Pennsylvania during the American Revolutionary War. Early life and family. , Frederick Leaser, age twelve, accompanied his father, Jacob Leaser, from Switzerland to Philadelphia. At that time, his father acquired one hundred and fifteen acres in what was then Northampton County, but is now Lynn Township in Lehigh County. , Leaser served in the French and Indian War (part of the Seven Years' War fought from  1754 to 1763). 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. Liberty Bell transport. After General George Washington's defeat at the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777, Philadelphia, then capital for the Second Continental Congress, was under 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 these bells be taken down and transported out of the city. The Liberty Bell, also known as the State House Bell, from Independence Hall was among these bells and was secured on the wagon of John Jacob Mickley. However, his 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 until June, 1778. Legacy. 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. Leaser's contribution was now recognized. 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. Five direct descendants participated in the ceremony, which drew nearly a thousand people. 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. The monument is now on the shore of Leaser Lake at Jacksonville. His 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.