The old safe was locked for decades. Combination lost. Contents a mystery.
Members of the Hugh De Payens Commandery No. 19, a Masonic organization in Easton, PA, had nearly given up on trying to open the roughly 6-feet-high by 3-feet-deep vault. A locksmith said he would pick it open, but couldn't. Drilling would be expensive and void the safe's fire warranty.
Then, members of the group known as the Knights Templar found some old documents, including one with what appeared to be a combination. They tried it on the safe, and when the door swung open they found petitions and meeting minutes from the 1800s.
But there was something else that caught their eye. A document printed on parchment, thin material made from animal skin.
"We figured it was very old," Knights Templar member Lou Starniri said, "But we had no idea what it was."
The document turned out to be a Penn Patent, a deed signed by William Penn's sons granting the lot where the lodge now stands to Northampton County. The Knights Templar on Thursday night donated the document to the Easton Public Library.
Freed from the safe, the document will be housed in the library's Marx Room among local history treasures such as the flag Northampton County soldiers carried during the War of 1812 and the edition of The American Eagle, a weekly Easton newspaper, that announced George Washington's death.
"When they told us that they were going to donate it to the library, we were ecstatic," said Barbara Wiemann, Marx Room coordinator. "Having somebody willing to entrust us with this document is an honor for us."
Penn Patents were issued for almost every plot in Easton when the city was originally subdivided, but the library has never had one in its collection, Wiemann said.
The Sigal Museum in Easton does have several original patents, said Andria Zaia, the museum's curator, and patents and documents with signatures of the Penn family are fairly common across the state, according to the Pennsylvania Historical Society.
A settlement of estate signed by William Penn in 1707 was auctioned for $4,000 in 2008 at a New Hampshire auction house. The Penn Patent, signed by sons Thomas and Richard, would likely generate substantially less if sold, said Bobby Livingston, vice president of sales and marketing at RR Auction.
But beyond monetary value, the patent has notable local significance, Zaia said.
The patent found by the Knights Templar is for the land at 22 S. Third Street, the site of Northampton County's first jail, which held prisoners during the Revolutionary War. Under the terms of the patent, the county was to present a red rose each year to the Penns or their designee -- a precursor to deals today in which land is sold for a dollar.
When the jail was moved to its current location in 1871, the land was used for various commercial purposes until it was purchased by the Knights Templar in 1884. The group had kept the patent ever since, even though its members were oblivious.
Keeping the document would have been difficult because exposure to light would harm the ink, Starniri said. The darkness of the safe helped preserve it for so long and the group thinks the library will be the best home for it. His worst fear was future generations of Knights Templar getting rid of the document without knowing what it is.
"We wanted to give it someplace where it could be preserved and where people could see it," Starniri said. "It would be a lot more beneficial to everybody."
The library plans to restore the patent and keep it covered, taking it out only when visitors come to see it.
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PENN PATENT
--A Penn Patent is an official deed signed by William Penn or his family, which conveyed clear title and all rights of land to a private owner. Penn Patents were issued for almost every plot in Easton when the city was originally subdivided.
Copyright 2012 - The Morning Call, Allentown, Pa.