In September 1777, John Jacob Mickley of Whitehall Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, a Commissary of Issues and member of the General Committee, saved the Liberty Bell from the British by hauling it under cover of darkness with his farm team from Independence Hall in Philadelphia through the British lines to Bethlehem, where the wagon broke down on September 23, 1777. The bell was then transferred to Frederick Leiser's wagon and brought to Allentown on September 24, 1777. It was placed beneath the floor of Zion's Reformed Church, where it remained secreted for nearly a year.
