Joseph Stopp, the youngest son of Jacob Stopp, was born in Whitehall Township in 1815. After receiving the meager education of that day, he learned the trade of carpenter and undertaker and as a young man went to New Jersey, where he lived about fifteen years. He became a member of the Greenwich Presbyterian Church, not very far from Phillipsburg. He later engaged in business at Nazareth and Bethlehem and in 1843 moved to Allentown, where his family has since resided. In Warren County, New Jersey, he met and married Margaret Ann Hamlin of old English stock and the granddaughter of Thomas Hamlin a soldier from New Jersey in the Revolutionary War. Mr. Stopp was intensely patriotic in the days of the Civil War and went over the battlefield of Gettysburg on July 4, 1863. His wife, and he were among the early members of he Presbyterian Church in Allentown. He died in 1866, leaving his widow his children. Mr. Stopp was one of the most active citizens and successful merchants of old Allentown and his name was synonymous with integrity and fair dealing.