John was born c.1749. He and his family moved from Bucks County to the northern part of Northampton County in the 1790's. The area where he settled became known as Ackermanville. His burial place is unmarked but he's probably buried with his children in the old Mennonite burying ground at Bangor.
ACKERMANVILLE - THE MORNING CALL, Nov. 13, 1994
Eighty-six-year-old Laura Nasatka treasures her well-thumbed book filled with yellowed newspaper clippings and a nest of notes that sprout from its dog-eared pages.
"This thing," she says, "is as precious to me as my Bible."
Nasatka, sitting in her cozy paneled living room decorated with dozens of family portraits, is a seventh generation Ackerman. So, some consider her a local authority on the history of Ackermanville, a small spread of homes and businesses that first began to take form in Washington Township during the 1790s.
"Oh, you must talk to Laura," insists Janet Brodt, herself an Ackerman descendent and a relative of Nasatka. "She lives up the road."
Up the road means Ackermanville Road, a once-quiet path where cars now zip along from Martins Creek past Nasatka's house on the way to intersecting Route 191, just about two miles south of Bangor.
Nasatka's precious book, a 1950 compilation of the Ackermans and their Northampton County settlement, is apparently one of few around, she says. Ackermanville, she points out, began when John Ackerman moved his family here from Bucks County in the late 1700s and bought a large farm from Henry Miller.
When Ackerman's sons started their own farms, the six adjoining tracts of land were referred to as Ackermanville. More houses were built, along with a gristmill, store, sawmill and hotel.
In 1990 Ackerman descendents celebrated the 70th anniversary of their annual family picnics. Nasatka remembers going to the picnics as a child. She points herself out in a blown-up copy of a photograph taken when she was a teenager at one of the earliest gatherings. She grew up on a farm and later married Frank Nasatka whom, she says, her parents referred to as "a foreigner, a Polish man from Pen Argyl."
The Ackermanville Hotel, set on a triangular tract on Route 191, was a popular tavern, she says. The upstairs rooms were occupied by travelers from the time the hotel was a stagecoach stop. The hotel closed when she was about 16, Nasatka recalls.
Over at the Ackermanville General Store, where you can gas up your car, buy extra-lean hamburger for $2.29 a pound, pick up your mail or poke through penny candy, owner Bud Freeman rattles off a scad of historical tidbits.
"For years, this was the only drop-off station" in the postal system, says Freeman, referring to the small boxes where residents fetch their mail. "Now, of course, there are many others, but for a while this was the only one."
Freeman, who grew up and still lives in Meyer's Crossing, the next town north on Route 191, bought the general store in 1973 and runs it with the help of his family. For now.
The state Department of Transportation is studying options to build a new road to replace the dangerous curve which sets in front of Freeman's store. Under the plan, the store could be demolished.
According to Freeman, the old Hay Line Co. trolley, which ran from Bangor to Nazareth, used to stop in front of the store, which first opened in the early 1940s. The site was originally a coal yard. At one time, area farmers brought their heads of cattle to gather in an adjoining meadow to the east.
Brodt, who is a Speer by birth, was born here just as her husband Leon was. Her family moved to nearby Flicksville when she was 12, but she later returned.
Brodt remembers when the general store was owned by Fred Speer, the original owner back in the 1940s. The shop was much smaller then, she says, pointing out a small section where the original floor space was set.
Her husband, who worked at the store before it was expanded, spent his life farming, tilling many of the fields which surround the southern end of Ackermanville. This is the first year he didn't plant anything, so this harvest season will be a change, she says.
Brodt, like other lifers in Ackermanville, has watched an influx of new people to the area. Generally, though, everyone knows their neighbors. The downside of growth, she says, is an increase in crime.
"Up until three, four years ago, I never locked my doors," she says. "There were no problems. Now, we've had burglaries, break-ins. So, now I lock my doors."
But they'll stay here anyway, she says.
Does she feel the village is a part of Bangor?
"Oh no. That's another place. This is Ackermanville."
ACKERMANVILLE - THE MORNING CALL, Nov. 13, 1994
Eighty-six-year-old Laura Nasatka treasures her well-thumbed book filled with yellowed newspaper clippings and a nest of notes that sprout from its dog-eared pages.
"This thing," she says, "is as precious to me as my Bible."
Nasatka, sitting in her cozy paneled living room decorated with dozens of family portraits, is a seventh generation Ackerman. So, some consider her a local authority on the history of Ackermanville, a small spread of homes and businesses that first began to take form in Washington Township during the 1790s.
"Oh, you must talk to Laura," insists Janet Brodt, herself an Ackerman descendent and a relative of Nasatka. "She lives up the road."
Up the road means Ackermanville Road, a once-quiet path where cars now zip along from Martins Creek past Nasatka's house on the way to intersecting Route 191, just about two miles south of Bangor.
Nasatka's precious book, a 1950 compilation of the Ackermans and their Northampton County settlement, is apparently one of few around, she says. Ackermanville, she points out, began when John Ackerman moved his family here from Bucks County in the late 1700s and bought a large farm from Henry Miller.
When Ackerman's sons started their own farms, the six adjoining tracts of land were referred to as Ackermanville. More houses were built, along with a gristmill, store, sawmill and hotel.
In 1990 Ackerman descendents celebrated the 70th anniversary of their annual family picnics. Nasatka remembers going to the picnics as a child. She points herself out in a blown-up copy of a photograph taken when she was a teenager at one of the earliest gatherings. She grew up on a farm and later married Frank Nasatka whom, she says, her parents referred to as "a foreigner, a Polish man from Pen Argyl."
The Ackermanville Hotel, set on a triangular tract on Route 191, was a popular tavern, she says. The upstairs rooms were occupied by travelers from the time the hotel was a stagecoach stop. The hotel closed when she was about 16, Nasatka recalls.
Over at the Ackermanville General Store, where you can gas up your car, buy extra-lean hamburger for $2.29 a pound, pick up your mail or poke through penny candy, owner Bud Freeman rattles off a scad of historical tidbits.
"For years, this was the only drop-off station" in the postal system, says Freeman, referring to the small boxes where residents fetch their mail. "Now, of course, there are many others, but for a while this was the only one."
Freeman, who grew up and still lives in Meyer's Crossing, the next town north on Route 191, bought the general store in 1973 and runs it with the help of his family. For now.
The state Department of Transportation is studying options to build a new road to replace the dangerous curve which sets in front of Freeman's store. Under the plan, the store could be demolished.
According to Freeman, the old Hay Line Co. trolley, which ran from Bangor to Nazareth, used to stop in front of the store, which first opened in the early 1940s. The site was originally a coal yard. At one time, area farmers brought their heads of cattle to gather in an adjoining meadow to the east.
Brodt, who is a Speer by birth, was born here just as her husband Leon was. Her family moved to nearby Flicksville when she was 12, but she later returned.
Brodt remembers when the general store was owned by Fred Speer, the original owner back in the 1940s. The shop was much smaller then, she says, pointing out a small section where the original floor space was set.
Her husband, who worked at the store before it was expanded, spent his life farming, tilling many of the fields which surround the southern end of Ackermanville. This is the first year he didn't plant anything, so this harvest season will be a change, she says.
Brodt, like other lifers in Ackermanville, has watched an influx of new people to the area. Generally, though, everyone knows their neighbors. The downside of growth, she says, is an increase in crime.
"Up until three, four years ago, I never locked my doors," she says. "There were no problems. Now, we've had burglaries, break-ins. So, now I lock my doors."
But they'll stay here anyway, she says.
Does she feel the village is a part of Bangor?
"Oh no. That's another place. This is Ackermanville."
John was born c.1749. He and his family moved from Bucks County to the northern part of Northampton County in the 1790's. The area where he settled became known as Ackermanville. His burial place is unmarked but he's probably buried with his children in the old Mennonite burying ground at Bangor.
ACKERMANVILLE - THE MORNING CALL, Nov. 13, 1994
Eighty-six-year-old Laura Nasatka treasures her well-thumbed book filled with yellowed newspaper clippings and a nest of notes that sprout from its dog-eared pages.
"This thing," she says, "is as precious to me as my Bible."
Nasatka, sitting in her cozy paneled living room decorated with dozens of family portraits, is a seventh generation Ackerman. So, some consider her a local authority on the history of Ackermanville, a small spread of homes and businesses that first began to take form in Washington Township during the 1790s.
"Oh, you must talk to Laura," insists Janet Brodt, herself an Ackerman descendent and a relative of Nasatka. "She lives up the road."
Up the road means Ackermanville Road, a once-quiet path where cars now zip along from Martins Creek past Nasatka's house on the way to intersecting Route 191, just about two miles south of Bangor.
Nasatka's precious book, a 1950 compilation of the Ackermans and their Northampton County settlement, is apparently one of few around, she says. Ackermanville, she points out, began when John Ackerman moved his family here from Bucks County in the late 1700s and bought a large farm from Henry Miller.
When Ackerman's sons started their own farms, the six adjoining tracts of land were referred to as Ackermanville. More houses were built, along with a gristmill, store, sawmill and hotel.
In 1990 Ackerman descendents celebrated the 70th anniversary of their annual family picnics. Nasatka remembers going to the picnics as a child. She points herself out in a blown-up copy of a photograph taken when she was a teenager at one of the earliest gatherings. She grew up on a farm and later married Frank Nasatka whom, she says, her parents referred to as "a foreigner, a Polish man from Pen Argyl."
The Ackermanville Hotel, set on a triangular tract on Route 191, was a popular tavern, she says. The upstairs rooms were occupied by travelers from the time the hotel was a stagecoach stop. The hotel closed when she was about 16, Nasatka recalls.
Over at the Ackermanville General Store, where you can gas up your car, buy extra-lean hamburger for $2.29 a pound, pick up your mail or poke through penny candy, owner Bud Freeman rattles off a scad of historical tidbits.
"For years, this was the only drop-off station" in the postal system, says Freeman, referring to the small boxes where residents fetch their mail. "Now, of course, there are many others, but for a while this was the only one."
Freeman, who grew up and still lives in Meyer's Crossing, the next town north on Route 191, bought the general store in 1973 and runs it with the help of his family. For now.
The state Department of Transportation is studying options to build a new road to replace the dangerous curve which sets in front of Freeman's store. Under the plan, the store could be demolished.
According to Freeman, the old Hay Line Co. trolley, which ran from Bangor to Nazareth, used to stop in front of the store, which first opened in the early 1940s. The site was originally a coal yard. At one time, area farmers brought their heads of cattle to gather in an adjoining meadow to the east.
Brodt, who is a Speer by birth, was born here just as her husband Leon was. Her family moved to nearby Flicksville when she was 12, but she later returned.
Brodt remembers when the general store was owned by Fred Speer, the original owner back in the 1940s. The shop was much smaller then, she says, pointing out a small section where the original floor space was set.
Her husband, who worked at the store before it was expanded, spent his life farming, tilling many of the fields which surround the southern end of Ackermanville. This is the first year he didn't plant anything, so this harvest season will be a change, she says.
Brodt, like other lifers in Ackermanville, has watched an influx of new people to the area. Generally, though, everyone knows their neighbors. The downside of growth, she says, is an increase in crime.
"Up until three, four years ago, I never locked my doors," she says. "There were no problems. Now, we've had burglaries, break-ins. So, now I lock my doors."
But they'll stay here anyway, she says.
Does she feel the village is a part of Bangor?
"Oh no. That's another place. This is Ackermanville."
ACKERMANVILLE - THE MORNING CALL, Nov. 13, 1994
Eighty-six-year-old Laura Nasatka treasures her well-thumbed book filled with yellowed newspaper clippings and a nest of notes that sprout from its dog-eared pages.
"This thing," she says, "is as precious to me as my Bible."
Nasatka, sitting in her cozy paneled living room decorated with dozens of family portraits, is a seventh generation Ackerman. So, some consider her a local authority on the history of Ackermanville, a small spread of homes and businesses that first began to take form in Washington Township during the 1790s.
"Oh, you must talk to Laura," insists Janet Brodt, herself an Ackerman descendent and a relative of Nasatka. "She lives up the road."
Up the road means Ackermanville Road, a once-quiet path where cars now zip along from Martins Creek past Nasatka's house on the way to intersecting Route 191, just about two miles south of Bangor.
Nasatka's precious book, a 1950 compilation of the Ackermans and their Northampton County settlement, is apparently one of few around, she says. Ackermanville, she points out, began when John Ackerman moved his family here from Bucks County in the late 1700s and bought a large farm from Henry Miller.
When Ackerman's sons started their own farms, the six adjoining tracts of land were referred to as Ackermanville. More houses were built, along with a gristmill, store, sawmill and hotel.
In 1990 Ackerman descendents celebrated the 70th anniversary of their annual family picnics. Nasatka remembers going to the picnics as a child. She points herself out in a blown-up copy of a photograph taken when she was a teenager at one of the earliest gatherings. She grew up on a farm and later married Frank Nasatka whom, she says, her parents referred to as "a foreigner, a Polish man from Pen Argyl."
The Ackermanville Hotel, set on a triangular tract on Route 191, was a popular tavern, she says. The upstairs rooms were occupied by travelers from the time the hotel was a stagecoach stop. The hotel closed when she was about 16, Nasatka recalls.
Over at the Ackermanville General Store, where you can gas up your car, buy extra-lean hamburger for $2.29 a pound, pick up your mail or poke through penny candy, owner Bud Freeman rattles off a scad of historical tidbits.
"For years, this was the only drop-off station" in the postal system, says Freeman, referring to the small boxes where residents fetch their mail. "Now, of course, there are many others, but for a while this was the only one."
Freeman, who grew up and still lives in Meyer's Crossing, the next town north on Route 191, bought the general store in 1973 and runs it with the help of his family. For now.
The state Department of Transportation is studying options to build a new road to replace the dangerous curve which sets in front of Freeman's store. Under the plan, the store could be demolished.
According to Freeman, the old Hay Line Co. trolley, which ran from Bangor to Nazareth, used to stop in front of the store, which first opened in the early 1940s. The site was originally a coal yard. At one time, area farmers brought their heads of cattle to gather in an adjoining meadow to the east.
Brodt, who is a Speer by birth, was born here just as her husband Leon was. Her family moved to nearby Flicksville when she was 12, but she later returned.
Brodt remembers when the general store was owned by Fred Speer, the original owner back in the 1940s. The shop was much smaller then, she says, pointing out a small section where the original floor space was set.
Her husband, who worked at the store before it was expanded, spent his life farming, tilling many of the fields which surround the southern end of Ackermanville. This is the first year he didn't plant anything, so this harvest season will be a change, she says.
Brodt, like other lifers in Ackermanville, has watched an influx of new people to the area. Generally, though, everyone knows their neighbors. The downside of growth, she says, is an increase in crime.
"Up until three, four years ago, I never locked my doors," she says. "There were no problems. Now, we've had burglaries, break-ins. So, now I lock my doors."
But they'll stay here anyway, she says.
Does she feel the village is a part of Bangor?
"Oh no. That's another place. This is Ackermanville."
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