Martins Creek is a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

in Lower Mount Bethel Township, Pennsylvania located along Martins Creek. Its population was 664 as of the 2020 U.S. census. Martins Creek is part of the

Lehigh Valley The Lehigh Valley () is a geography, geographic and urban area, metropolitan region formed by the Lehigh River in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh and Northampton County, Pennsylvania, Northampton counties in eastern Pennsylvania. It is a co ...

metropolitan area, which had a population of 861,899 and was the 68th-most populous

metropolitan area A metropolitan area or metro is a region consisting of a densely populated urban area, urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories which share Industry (economics), industries, commercial areas, Transport infrastructure, transport network ...

in the U.S. as of the 2020 census. The Zip Code is 18063.

History

In approximately 1730, a number of Scotch-Irish settled in a part of the town called Hunter's Settlement. Martin's Creek was first settled by Robert Lyle in 1741, with James Martin arriving around 1747. Martin operated a

grist mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

, and later served as a

colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...

in the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

. In 1744, missionary

David Brainerd David Brainerd (April 20, 1718October 9, 1747) was an American Presbyterian minister and missionary to the Native Americans among the Delaware Indians of New Jersey. Missionaries such as William Carey and Jim Elliot, and Brainerd's cousin, the ...

began his work here with the Clistowackin band of

Lenape The Lenape (, , ; ), also called the Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. The Lenape's historica ...

Indians. By the 1800s, the area had developed the name of Flatfield because of its level terrain. By the time of the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

, it was known as Martinsville, and later changed to Martin's Creek. In 1939, exiled

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n prime minister

Alexander Kerensky Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky ( – 11 June 1970) was a Russian lawyer and revolutionary who led the Russian Provisional Government and the short-lived Russian Republic for three months from late July to early November 1917 ( N.S.). After th ...

married Australian journalist Lydia Ellen Tritton in Martins Creek. In 1942, an explosion at the Lehigh Portland Cement Co. plant in nearby Sandts Eddy killed 31 people. The Hunter-Martin Settlement Museum commemorates the early history of the area. The major industry in the area was as the Alpha Portland Cement Company, which closed in 1964.

Notable people

, former president of the

Russian Republic The Russian Republic,. referred to as the Russian Democratic Federative Republic in the 1918 Constitution, was a short-lived state which controlled, ''de jure'', the territory of the former Russian Empire after its proclamation by the Rus ...

in 1917 *

Larry Fink Laurence Douglas Fink (born November 2, 1952) is an American billionaire businessman. He is a co-founder, chairman and CEO of BlackRock, an American multinational investment management corporation. BlackRock is the largest money-management firm ...

, photographer

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Northampton County, Pennsylvania Unincorporated communities in Pennsylvania