The Father of Rock and Roll

William John Clifton (Bill) Haley was a most substantial influence on Rock ‘n’ Roll–its development, its popularity and its very existence. Elvis is the King of Rock and Roll, but Haley is the Father of Rock and Roll. For a period of time in the mid-fifties, he was the most popular entertainer on the planet. He sold millions of records. He caused riots. Haley today is seldom mentioned for his influence on rock and roll and his impressive list of firsts:

    • First band leader to form a Rock 'n' Roll group. (the Comets-1952). 

    • First Rock 'n' Roll star to write his own songs (e.g., Rock a Beatin’ Boogie, Crazy Man Crazy).

    • First Rock 'n' Roll star to reach the national charts with music he wrote and recorded (Crazy Man Crazy), 

    • First Rock 'n' Roll star to sell a million records. (Shake Rattle and Roll - 1954)

    • First Rock 'n' Roll star to chart No. 1. ((We’re Gonna) Rock Around the Clock)

    • First Rock 'n' Roll star to go on a world tour. (1957–England and Germany)

    • First Rock 'n' Roll star to sell a million records in England. (Rock Around the Clock)

    • First Rock 'n' Roll star to star in a full-length motion picture. (Rock Around the Clock – 1956)

    • First Rock 'n' Roll star to appear on a network television show. (May 31, 1955, Milton Berle Show)

    • First Rock ‘n’ Roll star to have a song appear on a national television show. (Omnibus Theater, October 4, 1953 – Flower in the Glory, Crazy Man Crazy)

Born on July 6, 1925 in Highland Park, Michigan, Haley was living in Pennsylvania by age 7. Bill after age 15 was a guitarist, singer and entertainer with several local semi-professional country and western bands, including the Range Drifters. He gained great useful experience, sang and yodeled with any band that would have him, and also worked with a traveling medicine show.  

The Range Drifters L to R-Brother Wayne, Bill Haley, Bob Mason and Lloyd Cornell

Beginnings

In 1945 he joined his first truly professional band, The Downhomers based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, already on tour in Hartford CT. This was not a successful venture for Bill.  Haley returned to Pennsylvania in September of 1946. He was ill, disillusioned and broke. 

Bill began to work with a new version of the Range Drifters, as another "drug store" cowboy band, such as the Downhomers. Again, this was another unsuccessful venture for him. 

Bill then shifted his focus to radio. He spent the next few years as a disc jockey at WSNJ in Bridgeton, NJ and then as musical director for radio station WPWA in Chester, PA.  He had not completely given up his musical dreams and still found time to play in and start local country and western bands, capitalizing on his new-found radio popularity in Pennsylvania and surrounding states by forming another band, the Four Aces of Western Swing.

The new band was regionally successful and even recorded a few singles in 1948 and 1949, on “Cowboy Records”. The first Bill Haley recordings were Too Many Parties and Too Many Pals/Four Leaf Clover Blues (Cowboy CR1201) August 1948 and Tennessee Border/Candy Kisses (Cowboy CR1202) March 1949.  The band also performed under another name - Johnny Clifton and His String Band, which also released a record, Loveless Blues and Stand Up and Be Counted.

Moreover, at this time Bill had been a Yodeling Champion (State of Indiana) and also released singles highlighting this genre–Yodel Your Blues Away and A Yodeler’s Lullaby, while continuing to release other more traditional country swing and ballads. Many other songs were recorded but they all were the country and cowboy genre.  

But by 1949, the “Four Aces” disbanded and Haley formed a new band, “The Saddlemen” which was still a country/cowboy band but in turn was ultimately to become the very first rock and roll band in history, evolving into the “Comets”.

The Four Aces of Western Swing, L to R Al Constantine, Tex King, Bill Haley, and Bashful Barney

Transition

By the summer of 1950, Bill Haley and His Saddlemen cut their first records. They were on the Keystone label, a small Philadelphia independent publisher. The songs were still standard western swing tunes such a, "Deal Me A Hand", "Ten Gallon Stetson" and "I'm Not To Blame".

But Haley, still working on radio, was able to indulge his growing appreciation of "race music" or R&B, when the station owner began a daring policy of mixing genres—playing country, pop, and R&B during the course of any given day. Preceding Haley’s country and western DJ show on WPWA, was one of a handful of R&B shows in the east. “Judge Rhythm’s Court”, presented by a white man in his forties named Jim Reeves (not the singer of the same name) under the name of “Shorty the Bailiff”. Reeves’ theme was “Rock the Joint” by Philadelphia's Jimmy Preston and the Prestonians. Haley liked the music that Reeves was playing - in particular, he became a big fan of Big Joe Turner and Ruth Brown - and he started adding some of these R&B songs to the Saddlemen’s setlists. He noticed they went down especially well with the younger audiences. 

The Saddlemen, Back row, Billy Williamson and Johnny Grande, front row, Al Rex and Bill Haley

The Saddlemen were also able to promote their act while Bill was working at WPWA. Like many acts in those days, it was the work on the station that enabled them to reach the listening audiences to help augment their salaries with personal appearances in the listening area. 

One of their frequent venues for performances was a place called the Twin Bar in Gloucester, NJ.  The Twin Bar became an important venue of Haley’s career. “Bill called the Twin Bar the birthplace of rock ’n’ roll,” said John von Hoelle, co-author of Sound and Glory, a 1990 biography of Haley.
During an 18-month engagement at the Twin Bars in the early 1950s, Haley used the bar as a musical laboratory, a place to experiment with his sound. He introduced a loud, amplified beat that he called “cowboy jive” on the rhythm and blues tune “Rock The Joint” that was enthusiastically received by the Twin Bar patrons.
But Haley and the Saddlemen were not recording this new sound yet.

That changed in 1951 when Haley was signed to Philadelphia-based Holiday Records and began to move toward “rock", recording a cover of the Delta Cats R&B “Rocket 88." Holiday and its sister label Essex, which also released Saddlemen records, were owned by Dave Miller, who owned the pressing plant that had made Haley’s earlier records for the Cowboy label. Miller wanted to have hits, and in particular he wanted to find ways to get both the white and black markets with the same records, and here he had an ally in Haley with whom he devised a formula which would be independently re-invented a couple of years later by Sam Phillips for Elvis Presley–putting out singles with a country song on one side and an R&B song on the other, to try to appeal to both white and black markets. 

To that end, Dave Miller heard and thought that it might suit Haley’s band to cover “Rocket 88”. This seemingly was an odd decision–“Rocket 88” was a horn-driven R&B song, while the Saddlemen at this point consisted of Haley on acoustic guitar, a double-bass player, a steel guitar, and an accordion/piano. This doesn’t sound like a propitious lineup for an R&B song, but along with ace session guitarist Danny Cedrone they actually managed to come up with something rather impressive, translating R&B into western swing had ended up with something a little different to a hillbilly boogie one might expect. This recording sold in the 75,000-100,000 range in the Pennsylvania-New England region and Miller and Haley figured they were on to something. They kept trying to come up with something that would work in that style. They put out a few singles that were almost, but not quite, what they were after-"Greentree Boogie", "Rockin’ Chair on the Moon", and "Sundown Boogie", as well as Ruth Brown's "Teardrops From My Eyes." 

1952 ad for the "Rock the Joint" Saddlemen performing at the Twin Bar in Gloucester, NJ

Also in 1951, Haley crossed paths with R&B's The Treniers while playing in Wildwood, NJ. Late in 1952, inspired by his now adopted theme song Rock The Joint, Haley would write a quintessential rock song, "Rock A Beating' Boogie" which would be recorded by Danny Cedrone and his group the Esquire Boys. 

"Rock a Beatin' Boogie," (Haley was latching on to the slang language the Treniers were using on the Jersey shore) to also be recorded by The Treniers themselves in 1953. The fact that a white (mostly country) artist was inspiring an African-American band with an R&B song to record was highly unusual, if not completely unique situation anywhere in the US at that time. The Treniers version of “Rock-A-Beatin’ Boogie” did not sell well, but it did find its way into the hands of Alan Freed. Freed used the Treniers “Rock-A-Beatin’ Boogie” as theme music for a period in 1953.

Also in 1952 “Rock The Joint,” was released, becoming another one of those records that came incredibly close to R&R. Haleys “Rock The Joint” cover was a remarkable record. As Haley’s version had a drive and a throbbing rhythm that was totally unique for a white act at the time and rock’s first true electric guitar solo by Danny Cedrone (copied from the Esquire Boys' "Rock a Bea=tin' Boogie"). It was a hyper-fast solo that succeeded in the difficult task of replicating the excitement of the original sax solo and was the template for generations of white kids playing rock guitar.  Moreover, this 12-bar solo, was featured almost note for note, two years later in “Rock Around The Clock.” “Rock the Joint” also sold in the 75,000-100,000 range as had “Rocket 88’.”

With their new, exciting sound and adoption of “hep” sharp-looking outfits the name "Saddlemen" no longer seemed appropriate. Bob Johnson, Program Director at WPWA suggested the name "Haley's Comets" for a new handle. "Ya 'know, with a name like Haley, you guys should call your group the Comets!" Bill had been told many times his music was "far out" and the idea of a blazing comet searing across the skies appealed to him.  So just before the Thanksgiving holidays in 1952, the world's first true Rock'n'Roll band changed their name and their image. Off came the cowboy boots and the Stetsons. With some regret and more than a little apprehension, four veteran musicians, turned away from country/western music and faced an unknown future as "Bill Haley and his Comets".

After 1952, it was clear that Haley, Caucasian, was connected to white listeners who were already discovering and becoming interested in black R&B in the mid-1950’s and in appearing when he did, it gave that generation of white kids the belief that R&R was their music too.

Bob Willoughby's photo of R&B’s Big Jay McNeely lying on his back, honking his saxophone on the stage of Los Angeles’ Olympic Auditorium in 1951 - the front of the stage is lined with white kids, pounding their fists on the stage, expressions of frenzy on their faces. Bill Haley and the Saddlemen saw it coming and then made it happen.

The Rock'n'Roll Comets

Early Success

The band signed with Essex Records, which released (in 1952) Real Rock Drive/Stop Beatin’ Around the Mulberry Bush in 1952. It was a nice sounding record but with weak song crafting. Haley copied a country record called “Tennessee Jive” and replaced “Real Rock Drive” for “Tennessee Jive” throughout the record.  Haley had previously plagiarized using this technique, rewriting “Rockin’ Chair Boogie,” the flip of “Tennessee Jive,” as “Rockin’ Chair On The Moon.” Haley had a game-changing musical concept in mind, but was thin on original song ideas. However, Haley introduced an echo chamber vocal early on this record in the chorus and Danny Cedrone provided a real rock solo slightly subdued (to fit the slower tempo) from “Rock the Joint”.

In early 1953 Haley began further developing the formula for what was ultimately to become Rock 'n' Roll. He added drums to the line-up (never seen in a country band), and the transformation from Western Swing band was almost complete. Only one last ingredient remained to be added in the form of saxophones.

 

Saddlemen become the Comets. 1952, Clockwise from the bottom: Bill Haley, bassist Marshall Lytle, Steel guitarist Billy Williamson and accordionist Johnny Grande. 

The band also took a risky approach to reaching the youth market and played over 180 high school assemblies (mostly for free). When the kids shoulders started moving, their feet tapping and their hands clapping, they knew that particular tune or style was worth keeping.

In the spring of 1953, “Crazy, Man, Crazy” was released. In one of these school forays, Comets’ bass player Marshall Lytle recalled: 

“We had just finished a gig at Eddystone High School and we were loading our instruments in the car. We asked the kids how they liked our music. One kid answered ‘like crazy, man, crazy!’ Bill quickly wrote down the teenage expression. We were always looking for catchy words or phrases to write songs with. We left and went directly to Bill’s … Bill started strumming his guitar with several tunes, playing around with the crazy, man, crazy idea. I joined in and we began throwing tunes and lyrics together. After several hours we worked out our first song to hit the national charts.” 

“Crazy, Man, Crazy” was released in the spring of 1953 and charted at Number 12 in Billboard (and crossed over in the R&B charts at Number 66). It was also in retrospect, said to be the first R&R recording to be played on national television in the United States (in an episode of Omnibus (American TV program) in 1953).

This was the first rock ‘n’ roll song to chart nationally.  The band was now pioneering a new genre of popular music that had finally been given a name…rock ‘n’ roll…by Alan Freed, a Cleveland DJ. Bill Haley and the Comets were now a real R&R band whatever that meant in 1953.  “Crazy, Man, Crazy” was another great sounding record, and its appearance near the top of the national charts attracted the attention of Decca Records and producer Milt Gabler in New York City.

By 1954, Haley and his Comets were picked up by Decca Records–a major record label. At their first session for Decca in 1954, they cut “Rock Around the Clock” (which had originally been recorded in 1952 by Sunny Dae and His Knights – although it had been written originally for the Comets).  The song was recorded at the end of a three-hour recording session for a completely different song. “Thirteen Women (And I’m the Only Man in Town),” which was chosen to be the A-side of their record by Decca. And so “Rock Around the Clock” (which was recorded hastily in only the last 40 minutes of the session) ended up on the B-side. Despite that Haley and his band had been playing it for months to enthusiastic crowds at their live shows, the label didn’t appear to feel it was strong enough to release as a single. Regardless, the band got the song down in two takes. All of the musicians were live on a single track.  The A-side of the record didn’t exactly create a furor. Although the single did sell a modest 75,000 copies, it was on its way to being forgotten and sliding into obscurity, if not for a very fortunate occurrence to take place a year later in Hollywood.

Meanwhile, later in 1954, Haley did enjoy two million-sellers with "Shake, Rattle & Roll" and then "Dim Dim The Lights".  Haley was a now bona fide rock star.  In the summer of 1954, the battle of two bands between competing versions of the seminal rocker - Shake Rattle and Roll - showed Rock and Roll had indeed arrived. Haley’s cover reached number 7 on the Billboard chart and stayed for 27 weeks. It was the first rock & roll record to sell a million copies. Big Joe Turner’s original crossed over and reached number 22.

Comparing the two versions illustrates the differences between R&B and rock 'n' roll. A simple, stark instrumental backing is heard on the Turner version. Whereas Turner's version uses a walking bass line, the Comets' version features a slap bass. A subdued horn arrangement in the Turner recording can be contrasted with a honking sax riff that answers each line of verse in Haley's version, and the entire band shouts "Go!" as part of the vocal backing.

Although musical revisionists and American media tried to paint Turner as a victim of the music industry racism due to Haley's covering of the song, in fact Haley's success helped Turner immensely although Turner was a well-established performer long before "Shake Rattle and Roll". Listeners who heard Haley's version sought out Turner's and thus the crossover success.

Rock Around the Clock

Despite a lack of commercial success upon its initial release, “(We’re Gonna) Rock Around the Clock” would go on to reach critical mass a year later after being featured in the 1955 film Blackboard Jungle, a movie about unruly students and teenage rebellion. Peter Ford (then the teenaged son of the star of the film – Glenn Ford) is credited with getting the song into the movie. His father and director Richard Brooks wanted a modern, up-tempo tune to open the film and raided young Peter’s record collection for ideas.

“I was listening to blues music at the time,” Ford recalls. “You had (pop records like) Eddie Fisher singing O Mein Papa, but I was listening to Work with Me, Annie!” Ford says they borrowed three discs: Rock Around the Clock, Big Joe Turner’s original version of Shake, Rattle and Roll, and Joe Houston’s All Night Long. He didn’t know which one was used till he saw the movie.

The single is commonly used as a convenient line of demarcation between the "rock era" and the music industry that preceded it. Billboard later separated its statistical tabulations into 1890–1954 and 1955–present. After the record rose to number one, Haley was quickly given the title "Father of Rock and Roll" by the media, and by teenagers who had come to embrace the new style of music. With the song's success, the age of rock music began “overnight” (although it had truly started after the War, ten years earlier) and ended the dominance of the jazz and pop standards performed by Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Bing Crosby, and others.

On July 9, 1955 "Rock Around the Clock" became the first rock and roll recording to hit number 1 of Billboard's Pop charts, a feat it repeated on charts around the world. The song stayed at this place for eight weeks. The record remained number 1 for seven weeks on the Cashbox pop singles chart. The record also hit number three on the R&B charts. Billboard ranked it as the No. 2 song for 1955, behind Perez Prado's "Cherry Pink (and Apple Blossom White)". 

With sales of more than 25 million copies worldwide, “(We’re Gonna) Rock Around The Clock” is one of the best-selling records in history and Rolling Stone has named it #159 on their first list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. 

The success of "Rock Around the Clock" took place while Elvis Presley had yet to chart a record nationally; at a point when Chuck Berry's very first single for Chess had barely been recorded; and when Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly weren't even close to auditioning for recording contracts. The reality was Bill Haley & His Comets were the only established white rock & roll band, and the only white rock & roll stars in the world. The Comets were one of the best rock & roll bands of their era, with a mostly sax-driven sound ornamented lead guitar solos (courtesy of Danny Cedrone’s work) with heavy rhythm guitar from Haley, a slap-bass, and drumming with lots of rim-shots; they had the "blackest" sound of any white band working in 1952-1955.

Denouement

Haley and the Comets continued to chart for several years. The next big Haley hit came with "See You Later Alligator". "Alligator" shot to the #6 spot on the Billboard chart in early 1956, selling a million copies within a month after its release. A song called "R-O-C-K" followed and rose to #16.  During 1955 and 1956, Haley and his band had at least 12 US Top 40 records.

April 1956, Hershey, Pennsylvania. Look magazine photographer Ed Feingersh captures the excitement of rock and roll with Bill Haley.

The next big project on the horizon was the band's feature film, Don't Knock The Rock.  As well as performing the title track, Bill and the band performed an excellent version of "Rip It Up" (a number 25), a song that they would feature in their live shows for the next twenty years. The hits continued with "Rudy's Rock" which climbed to #34 in late 1956.

Comets in 1955, L to R counter-clockwise from top, Bill Haley guitar, saxophonist Rudy Pompilli, Bill Williamson, bassist Al Rex, accordianist Johnny Grande, drummer Ralph Jones and guitarist Fran Beecher 

By 1957, Haley decided to tour Britain as his popularity began fading at home. When the first American Rock 'n' Roll star came to Britain, he was met with large and enthusiastic crowds, but the British soon found out what American teenagers already knew. The 30-year-old Haley was old in their eyes, overweight, and rather mechanical when compared to the new rock royalty-Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Gene Vincent, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Buddy Holly, who were younger and whose music was more exciting. Bill Haley And His Comets were the first, but now they were now rapidly becoming part of yesterday.

However, 1958 saw the band reach #22 in the U.S. with "Skinny Minnie" and #35 with "Week End". After that, they recorded a few minor hits and many more that didn't make the charts. The stay at the top was relatively short for Haley and the Comets. 

Haley found steady work again when Sixties rock fans began discovering the music’s roots at events such as the highly successful “Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival” concerts, first staged by promoter Richard Nader in 1969. Haley’s career got more big lifts in the early Seventies. He re-recorded “Rock Around the Clock” in 1973, and it was this version that played over the opening credits for the popular TV show Happy Days. The original recording also appeared on the 1974 soundtrack for American Graffiti and became a hit in the U.S. for the second time that year.

Haley died on February 9, 1981 at the age of 55 at his home in Harlingen, TX. The “Father of Rock’n’Roll” had passed on.

Epilogue - Danny Cedrone

Bill Haley and the Saddlemen (later the Comets) did not initially have a lead guitarist. That role was fulfilled by Danny Cedrone (June 20, 1920 - June 17, 1954).  He made a name for himself and supplemented his income by doing (recording) session work. Bill Haley used him initially on Rocket 88’ in 1951. Due to a lack of documentation, Cedrone's involvement in recordings from 1951–52 is not confirmed but is supported by anecdotal evidence from surviving musicians, as well as by books such as the Haley biographies Sound and Glory by John Haley and John von Hoelle and Bill Haley by John Swenson. (Additional source: Chris Gardner's Bill Haley Database at Bill Haley Central.com). 

In addition to The Saddlemens’ country swing, he played on the aforementioned “Rock the Joint” and followed up with performing on the later R&R styled "Rockin' Chair On the Moon", "Stop Beatin' Around the Mulberry Bush" (another early rock guitar solo) and "Real Rock Drive". In 1953, during Haley’s sessions the lead guitar player was Art Ryerson. Meantime Cedrone organized his own new group “The Esquire Boys”. The Esquire Boys and this is believed to be one of the reasons he never joined Haley's group as a full-time member.

Cedrone's involvement with the Esquire Boys kept him off of Haley's recording schedule for most of 1952 and 1953. During this time, Cedrone made a number of recordings with the Esquires, most notably the Bill Haley composition, "Rock-A-Beatin' Boogie" (reached #27 on the charts in a second version, 1954), several years before Haley would record it himself. Cedrone works more lead guitar solo magic into this song reprising a modified version of solo in “Rock the Joint”. They also recorded versions of “Guitar Boogie Shuffle” (losing the boogie-woogie and making it rock, even to the extent of a chorus, “we’re gonna rock this joint tonight”) and “Caravan” (which reached #27 on the US charts).

Cedrone returned to work with Haley's group in 1954. He played a key role in the band's first recording session for Decca Records on April 12, 1954 when they recorded "Rock Around the Clock" in New York City. According to the book Rock Around the Clock by Jim Dawson, Cedrone had been unable to attend the session rehearsal and was uncertain what to play for the first instrumental break in the song. One of the Comets suggested Cedrone repeat the solo he'd played on "Rock the Joint". Although Danny's wife daughter recall an informal rehearsal at their home in South Philadelphia after dinner where the two men ran through a few solos, and the Rock The Joint break was one of them.

Cedrone was paid only $21 ($239 today) for his work on the session, as at that time Haley still chose not to hire a full-time guitarist for his group. Cedrone would also play on the June 7, 1954 recording session for Haley's version of "Shake, Rattle and Roll" although he was not presented the opportunity for another notable guitar solo. 

On June 17, ten days after this session, Cedrone died of a broken neck after falling down a staircase at The 819 Bar in South Philly. His place as session musician in the Comets was then taken by Franny Beecher, who would later graduate to a full-time Comets’ member. 

Danny Cedrone

Danny Cedrone was the likely the very first lead guitarist of rock. He was the first to bring a structured solo into the recording studio and basically take over a song with a fiery guitar lead. But he died well before he knew it!

Part 4 - One Son's Father: The Battles of Gorizia and Doberdò (6th Battle of the Isonzo River) - August 1916

On August 6, 1916 the Italians launched an offensive against Gorizia. The offensive was concentrated in two zones: 1) the hilly area west of the Soča (Isonzo) river near Gorizia and 2) the westernmost edge of the Karst Plateau near Doberdò del Lago (south of Gorizia). On August 8, Gorizia fell and a bridgehead was finally established across the Soča (Isonzo) River. 

Role of the 121st Infantry

The Brigata Macerata participated in the battle first at the southern Gorizia limits and near Doberdò. The command of the troops was now under the 19th Division (XIII Army Corps). On August 10 as part of the southern area of assault, after realizing the pressure from the enemy had slowed down, troops moved to occupy the trenches “Marcottini.” Then the advance continued albeit under heavy fire from the Austrians into present day Slovenia towards Oppacchiasella (Opatje Selo) - Nova Vas and then it was to proceed towards Castagnevizza - Hudi Log - Lukatic – Hrbci.  On the August 11, the advance continued, still under constant enemy fire, until advance scouts reach the western edge of the town of Oppacchiasella, which remained under Austrian control. The objective was to take the main road between Duino, on the road to Gorizia from Trieste securing the advance to Gorizia from the south and opening a route to Trieste.

Diagram of Marcottini Crossroads (NW to Gorizia)

The Marcottini Trench today

At dawn on August 12, two battalions from the 121st Regiment (my father's regiment) reached Oppacchiasella and its reinforced (Austrian) trenches.  Meanwhile the 122nd Regiment advanced into the Mikoli valley and occupied the high ground to the southwest of the town clinging to the western slopes of Nova Vas. The Austrians mounted a counterattack and stopped the advance of the Macerata. 

Italian troops near Oppacchiasella (where the 121st Regiment battled)

By August 15, 1916, the 121th Infantry Brigade, Macerata was deployed with all three battalions in line south of Opatje Selo - Opacchiasella near the town, where together with the Brigade Ivrea they occupied the area up to Nova Vas - Nova Villa.

Abandoned Austrian position at Nova Vas

The regiment was constantly targeted by the enemy with gunfire, machine guns and artillery, which also reached the second lines.  At 9 o'clock a large caliber project hits the 121th Infantry Command Post directly; there are 20 killed and numerous wounded, including all the staff of the Regiment Command and the 1st Major Adjutant.

At 11 o'clock the order to advance in cooperation with the troops on the flanks is given - where cooperation with the lateral (flanking) troops advancing will have to be maximized, towards the left of the road Opacchiasella-Castagnevizza; close connection of the troops in the advance; with gradual use of reinforcements. The battalions of the first line, in the breaks of shooting of their artillery and bombardments, will have to provide, a search of break-through points and the appropriate movements of troops in the vicinity of them.

The advance starts good enough but soon hampered by the enemy fire in close contact, with the Ferrara Brigade, which after suffering serious losses is forced to fall back into the initial positions. Likewise, the troops of the 121st cannot follow the advance and following the retreating movement of the Ferrara Brigade, they stop in the previous positions. During the night exploration patrols are sent and the battalions are relieved.

Positions of the opposing armies, including the 121st Regiment on August 15, 1916, near the end of the battle

The Opacchiasella offensive is vigorously resumed on August 16 but is stopped again by the Austrian defenses. But on August 16 and 17 the advance continues after a strong artillery attack on the Austrians, however, progress is slow and the losses are greater than the advance warrants.  At this point the Macerata is relieved by the Marche Brigade and they return to the rear (between Campolongo and Aiello) to recuperate under the command of the 31st Division. The Italian Command content with having established the bridgehead and capturing Gorizia early, ended the offensive on August 17.

Aftermath

The attack on Gorizia was the most successful Italian offensive along the Isonzo lines and greatly boosted Italian morale - especially since Gorizia had been promoted as a desirable objective, unattainable in earlier battles. In the wake of the battle Italy finally declared war against Germany, on 28 August. However, the optimism was tempered. The Italian generals, in an attempt to make up for their equipment disadvantage, committed the Italian soldiers to frontal assaults, resulting in massive casualties.  The Italian losses in the battle of Gorizia from August 6 to 17 were 51,232 men, of which 1,759 were officers; the Austrians lost slightly less; 41,835 men out of action, of which 807 were officers.

The battle of Gorizia also convinced Romania, on August 27, to go to war with the Entente, against the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary) creating another front for Austria. This led the Italian Command to order the resumption of the fighting, this time to open the road to another symbolic city: Trieste.

The loss of Gorizia also convinced the Austrian command to reinforce the Italian front.  Apparently unknown to the Italian command, by mid-September the Imperial forces reached an unprecedented strength of fourteen divisions with over 165 battalions and much needed equipment and the front was established east of the Vallone – a small valley dividing the Karst Plateau.

Tamaqua, Pennsylvania - Anatomy of a Name

One way to unravel the meaning of the name Tamaqua is to review the historical documents. The area in which Tamaqua is located officially became part of the colony of Pennsylvania in 1749. The lands between the "Mahonoy" (River), on the east side of the Susquehanna, and the Delaware (River) north of the Blue Mountains, were obtained in the Purchase of 1749, which would extend the northern extremity of the Pennsylvania Colony from the Kittatinny or Blue Mountain to a line beginning at the western extremity of Mahanoy Mountain (twelve miles below the forks of the Susquehanna River) and running North 60 degrees East (about one hundred and ten miles) to the confluence of Lackawaxon Creek and the Delaware River. This land added to the colonial land of existing Lancaster (already created from Chester County), Bucks and Philadelphia counties. 

Pennsylvania shortly after created four new counties. In 1749 York County was created from western Lancaster County.  In 1750 Cumberland County was created from lands west and north of new York County (acquired in the Treaties of 1736).  Then in 1752 Berks was created from north and west Philadelphia and north and east Lancaster counties.  In that same year Northampton County was created from Upper Bucks County. The land where Tamaqua would eventually be located was then part Northampton County.

First Historical References

So what are valid historical documents? From the first Portuguese expeditions down the West African coast and Columbus's voyage, the European nations considered cartographic information to be critical to establishment, the maintenance and expansion of their empires. In their early maps of the Americas, the Spanish, French, British and other Europeans also relied on native American maps and knowledge of the interior, but as the Europeans explored more extensively, the Indian information and place names gradually disappeared from American maps. [See Cartography in the Colonial Americas.] So we begin here with maps. 

The 1759 Scull Map shows a very good depiction of what was then called the Tamaguay Creek (now the Little Schuylkill River), shown named for probably the first time, although an earlier map (1756) by Thomas Kitchin, showed the river without a name.  This first large-scale map of Pennsylvania and an important eighteenth-century map was engraved in what is now the United States (by Streeter). The mapmaker, Nicholas Scull (1700-1762), was Surveyor General of Pennsylvania from 1748 to 1761, and was the first member of a North American family to engage in mapmaking as a business. 

1759 Scull Map showing the Tamaguay Creek

Unrest in the colonies during the French and Indian War and afterwards during the colonists' disputes with the British government and the eventual independence of the United Staes of America, persisted. These conditions slowed migration above the Blue Mountain.  Mapmakers, however, (particularly Scull's successor William Scull – his grandson) continued to produce quality maps of these isolated areas:

• Scull map of the province of Pennsylvania showing the Tamaguay Creek, 1770, published by James Nevil in Philadelphia, PA
• Scull’s 1775 map showing the Tamaguay Creek published by Robert Sayer and John Bennett in London
• A map (creator unknown) depicting Berks County in 1776.  The stream is now identified using both names – Little Schuylkill and Tamaquon (Tamaguan), different from the previous but recognizable as the Tamaguay.
• A map by Sauthier published in 1776 showing the "Tamauguay" Creek, from a Map of The Provinces of New-York and New-Jersey, with a part of Pennsylvania and the Province of Quebec, published in Germany in 1777.

Claude Joseph Sauthier was the official surveyor of the province of New York from 1773 to 1776, a period that witnessed numerous boundary disputes both within the colony and with neighboring Quebec, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. These disputes fostered a wealth of new survey information and encouraged a careful re-examination of older survey work. 

Note Sauthier's accurate depiction of the Tamauguay Creek. Ft Allen is present day Weissport. Sauthier or his survey crews predated Burkhardt Moser by 25 years in walking in the Tamaqua area.

The earliest explorers/cartographers in the present-day Tamaqua area, clearly knew the area as "Tamaqua" or one of the Anglicized variations of that name - Tamaguay, Tamauguay or Tamaquon/Tamaguan, and all because of the river. These people relied on native American knowledge of the interior and as they explored more extensively, the Indian information and place names were used and published.

So Which Indians Provided the Information and What Does "Tamaqua" Mean

Immediately before the appearance of the Europeans, eastern Pennsylvania was inhabited principally by native groups belonging linguistically to Algonquian speakers. An important tribe within this group was the Lenni-Lenape (now known as the Delaware). However, the Delaware were not the sole inhabitants of the area. When the Europeans (Dutch) arrived (1609), the Iroquois tribes (of southern New York) were in the midst of exercising hegemony over the various tribes located in Pennsylvania. These Five Nation Iroquois had defeated and practically eliminated the Susquehannock tribe (who were also Iroquoian speakers, linguistically) who lived near the Susquehanna River and were familiar with the Schuylkill area ay there eastern borders. The Five Nation Iroquois (under the stewardship of the Seneca tribe) also controlled the Delaware tribes and claimed responsibility for the administrative control of the land upon which the Delaware lived (although it is important to know that the upper Schuylkill Valley contained no permanent Indian settlements but was an area used for hunting and fishing). Even though the Iroquois controlled the Delaware, it was the Delaware who utilized this land as their homelands.

Drawing of a Lenni Lenape family near the colony of New Sweden) near Pennsylvanis, from a Swedish artist published in a book in 1703

Pennsylvania is filled of water bodies and places named with Native American origin, or they are places with a Native American connection historically. As noted above, during the early European historic period, predominantly Algonquian speaking tribes inhabited eastern Pennsylvania. Credit for originally documenting and recording Algonquian place names goes to three Moravian missionaries who lived among the Delaware during the 18th and early 19th Centuries - John Gottlieb Ernst Heckewelder, David Zeisberger, and Count Nickolaus Ludwig Graf von Zinzendorf. 

 

Heckewelder who interacted extensively with the Delaware, as depicted (age 63) in an 1807 sketch by Henry Howe

One thing stands out from the above cartographic and native history.  The early name of the Little Schuylkill River was the Tamaguay (or Tamauguay) or Tamaqua Creek (or river). In 1822, Heckewelder (and Ponceau [see Heckewelder, John, and Peter S. Du Ponceau. “Names Which the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians, Who Once Inhabited This Country, Had Given to Rivers, Streams, Places, &c. &c. within the Now States of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia: And Also Names of Chieftains and Distinguished Men of That Nation; With the Significations of Those Names, and Biographical Sketches of Some of Those Men. By the Late Rev. John Heckewelder, of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Communicated to the American Philosophical Society April 5, 1822, and Now Published by Their Order; Revised and Prepared for the Press by Peter S. Du Ponceau.” Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 4, 1834, pp. 351–396]) published a list of names which the Delaware Indians used. Because of Tamaqua’s potential vast mineral deposits its name was included in the list, as follows:

Tamaquon 

Tamaquehanne or (short) Tamakhanne, the Indian name, as it stands on record, of Little Schuylkill. The word signifies beaver stream, a stream on which the beavers were numerous, where they built dams and mud houses to dwell in. [Emphasis added]

In this same book it is instructive to see what Little Beaver Creek is called:

Little Beaver Creek. . . Tankamochque and Tankamockh'anne. Both these names are proper, and signify the small beaver stream or creek. 

It is unknown why the name of the place was not simply Tamaqua or even Tamauguay but this is likely as Heckewelder himself notes that, “These facts have not always been attended to in the English spelling of those names. Most of the faults which exist in the common spelling of Indian names are owing to the want of an Indian ear. I have in the spelling of Indian names (where I do not copy them from books, maps or records) adopted the German orthography, conceiving that the powers of the German alphabet are better calculated than those of the English to convey the true sounds of a foreign idiom.”  

In fact, the Lenape/Delaware language itself has the word, “tëmakwe”, which means beaver. Lenape is an eastern Algonquian language originally spoken in eastern Pennsylvania, southeastern New York, all of New Jersey, and northern Delaware in three various dialects. The dominant modern version of the Southern Unami dialect called "Lenape" is being taught by the Delaware Tribe of Indians, headquartered in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, under the Lenape Language Preservation Project. So the Delaware Indian word - tëmakwe - became the name of the creek or river. AND "tëmakwe" means, without further context, the animal, beaver.

From the Delaware Tribe online language dictionary

To gain further context, from the Ohio Journal of Science (59:6), November 1959, PRACTICAL REASONS  FOR  ALGONKIAN INDIAN STREAM  AND PLACE NAMES, comes this finding from August C. Mahr, a professor of German at Ohio State University, who expanded Heckewelder's understanding of Delaware Indian place names:

Whether on the march or at home, the Delaware Indians, men, women, and children, mainly subsisted on meat. Plentiful hunting, therefore, was not a luxury but a constant necessity. Hence, it was an advantage to the tribe to be familiar with names for localities where the   Thus, it happened that in the entire Delaware terrain, from the Atlantic into Ohio, there exist, less in the original Indian than in English adaptations, innumerable rivers, creeks, runs, etc., named after bear, beaver, deer, fawn, elk, and other game animals: 'hunters' hints,' if there ever were any. Very much the same is true for the former hunting grounds of other Indians, especially Algonkians such as the Shawnee, Miami, Ottawa, Chippewa, Menominee, etc., both in the United States and Canada.

It appears that in Pennsylvania, that is, in the eastern portion of the Delaware Indian domain, such 'hunters' hints' have better persisted in their original Delaware versions or, at least, semblances of such, than west of Pennsylvania. On modern maps, for example, there occurs Moshannon as the name of a southern tributary to the Susquehanna's West Branch, in Clearfield Co., Pennsylvania; an older version, Moshannock, is mentioned by the Moravian missionary Rev. John Ettwein, who in 1772, when leading a migration of Delaware and Mohican mission converts westward, made camp at that river (Jordan, 1901: 213; Mahr, 1953: 263). Moshannock exactly reflects Del. moos/hdnlk, a compound from moos- 'an elk,' and -hanxk (-hana, -hane) 'a stream (in compounds),' meaning 'Elk Creek.' Farther toward the SE, in Berks Co., on U. S. Rd. 222 between Reading and Allentown, we find a place name, Maxatawny, and not far from it, on Pa. St. Rd. 100, Macungie. Roughly fifty miles NW of it, in Schuylkill Co., on the Tamaqua river, there occurs another place name, Tamaqua. All three names indicate that, formerly, they had been Delaware 'hunters' hints.' …

Heckewelder likewise listed the true Delaware name form for present Tamaque (Heckewelder, 1834: 361). He wrote Tamaquon and stated that its correct Delaware version was Tamaquehanne "or (short) Tamakhanne, the Indian name, as it stands on record, for Little Schuylkill." His interpretation is "beaver stream." The Delaware term is a compound of t*machkw} -  (also amochk, Zeisberger 1887: 20)  'a beaver,' and -hane  (-han]k, -hana) 'stream, creek, river  (in compounds)'; comp.,  Zeisberger,  (1887: 160).

Thus the Delaware word tëmakwe means not only beaver (the animal) but is a hunter's hint that "hunters were most likely to find enough game animals [in this case beavers] to supply the common need."  Marh confirms Heckewalder's conclusion that, "The word signifies beaver stream, ... on which the beavers were numerous, where they built dams and mud houses to dwell in." 

For the avoidance of doubt, "beaver" in the Iroquoian language of the Seneca is "nagarriaki", a word bearing no resemblance to “tëmakwe”. Clearly, Tamaqua derives from a Delaware word.

After the Revolutionary War 

Settlement really opened up above the Blue Mountain after the Revolution. Examining the Warrant Register for Northampton County, several properties are identified as located in the location of the "Tamaqua [or Tamoqua] Creek". This further supports the derivation of the Tamaqua name for the creek and the evrntual settlement.

Moreover, several Commonwealth Legislative Reports indicate the investigation of the Tamauguay Creek or River in 1790.  Further evidence of the historic “Tamauguay” Creek or river name comes from The Journal of the Twenty-sixth House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, December 5, 1815:

1. Report of the Commissioners appointed to view and explore the river Schuylkill & c. by John Adlum and Benjamin Rittenhouse to Thomas Mifflin, President of the Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (Appendix II), pp. 6-7 of Appendices, 1790 – “We further observe that … the Legislature to declare them public highways, if not already done; more particularly that branch called the Tamauguay, as we are credibly informed it opens a communication, with a very short distance of land carriage to the Nescopeck Creek which empties into the north-east branch of the Susquehannah river.”
2. Report of the Commissioners appointed to view and explore the head-waters of the rivers Delaware, Lehigh and Schuylkill and the north-east branch of Susquehanna by Reading Howell, W. Dean and Frederick Antes to Thomas Mifflin, President of the Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (Appendix IV), p. 25 of Appendices, November 27, 1790 – “[W]e … proceeded by road to over the Broad mountain into Quacake valley, and up the same to Little Schuylkill or Tamauguay creek, at a place where a horse road crosses it leading from the settled parts of the Schuylkill below into Quacake valley thence leading to Berwick, &c.”

Thus all the early historical evidence shows that the Little Schuylkill River was called the Tamaqua (or some variation thereof) by the native-Americans and the early mapmakers or residents who relied initially on the identification of the original dwellers of the land for the description. That being said, by the dawn of the 19th century, the name of the Tamaqua Creek was losing its usage and becoming instead the Little Schuylkill River, as shown in the below analysis of the name usage by mapmakers (in the 80-year period between the first acquisition of the land from the Delaware until the incorporation of the town):

Year	Tamaqua (or Variation)	Little Schuylkill
1759	Yes
1770	Yes
1775	Yes
1776	Yes	Yes
1777	Yes
1790	Yes	Yes
1792		Yes
1830	Yes	Yes
1838		Yes

The area of the town was initially settled in 1799 when Burkhardt Moser and others arrived and built a saw mill near the junction of the Panther Creek and the Little Schuylkill River (Tamauguay/Tamaqua).  What was to become the town lay in original West Penn Township, then Rush Township by 1807. The village grew slowly because it was limited to the sawmill and lumbering business.  Moser himself did not appear to live permanently there. In the 1800, 1810 and 1820 censuses Moser’s address was still Lynn Township, below the Blue Mountain.

The fact that changed the course of history for Tamaqua was the discovery by Moser and others of large deposits of coal around the small hamlet. In 1817 developers became interested in the town and soon an expanded town and regional center for coal mining and support industries was planned for development by the Little Schuylkill Navigation Railroad and Coal Company chartered in 1826.  By 1829, the Little Schuylkill Railroad had secured large tracts of land, and the community of Tamaqua was laid out with individual lots being sold or prescribed for. A c. 1830 lithograph, "Plan of the Town of Tamaqua," shows Tamaqua lots, rivers and planned rail lines as well as regional coal communities, rail roads, proposed railroads [See original nomination document for Tamaqua Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.]

Tamaqua Becomes a Regional Center for Coal and Railroads and Tamaqua Loses its True Meaning, Getting Lost in Improper Translation

An 1830 map of Schuylkill County shows the Little Schuylkill River (still also) called Tamaqua River. In 1838, Thomas G. Bradford created and published a map of Pennsylvania. For the first time (or one of the first times) in a large scale Pennsylvania map, the settlement of Tamaqua is shown. 

In 1874, Sarah Ann McCool, who wrote Historical Gleanings for the Shenandoah Weekly Herald from February 7, 1874 to November 27, 1875, penned this:

Tamaqua was laid out in the year 1829, by Mr. Edward Smith, the first superintendent and engineer employed by the Little Schuylkill Navigation Company. It is located in a narrow dell between Sharp mountain in the south and Locust mountain, a branch of Broad mountain, on the north, on both banks of the Little Schuylkill River. This stream was called Tamaqua creek by the Aborigines, and from the circumstance the town derives its name…

According to Munsell’s History [HISTORY OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY, PA, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers, New York: W. W. Munsell & Co., 36 Vesey Street, 1881, Press of George Macnamara, 36 Vesey Street, N.Y.], published in 1881 the name began losing its actual true meaning:  

For the space of twenty-five years from the first settlement in 1799 but few dwellings were erected.  The town was laid out from parts of West Penn and Schuylkill townships in 1829, at which time the population was about 150.  As the waters of the Tamaqua, rechristened Wabash, the west branch of the Little Schuylkill, passed through the tract, it was decided to name the infant with the name of the creek, Tamaqua, which is Indian for running water. In 1832 the town was incorporated.

According to this document, the town name was adopted from the River running through it (although the editor confuses the River naming the Wabash, being a separate, third river within the Tamaqua limits) BUT the true meaning if the Delaware word "tëmakwe" was incorrectly translated and stated. This was not unsurprising since in 1881 practically all remnants of the native Americans was a distant eight-decade memory. Furthermore, in the Delaware language the phrase for running water is pempehelak (flowing water). In Iroquoian the water for water is ochnecanos (in Onandaga), so it would be some variation of that.  In Tuscaroran the word for water is À:we. Thus none of the explanations of running water are based upon a word in any of the subject native languages.

Another twist was added in the early 20th century. In 1907, another Schuylkill County history was published, History of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania ... including a genealogical and biographical record of many families and persons in the county; edited by Adolf W. Schalck and D. C. Henning, where at p. 299 the following is noted:

Under the provisions of a law passed in 1851 [probably meaning 1831] a charter was granted creating the borough of Tamaqua. The name of the town is of Indian derivation, meaning "running water." There was also an Indian chief named "Tamaquay" who signed many of the early deeds to Indian lands.

This was a wholly new hypothesis for the name, but presented over 100 years after its original founding, and with no documented support. Although research reveals there is no Tamaquay on any early or later Pennsylvania deeds (but see below for New Jersey). One Delaware chief who did sign treaties with Penn was Tamanend.  The name is similar and may have caused confusion to Schalck and the Pottsville Republican reporter (below) who presented these origins of the name Tamaqua.

In 1916 the Pottsville Republican newspaper of June 20, featured a story describing Tamaqua’s history, taking a cue from the Schalck History:

The word “Tamaqua” is of Indian derivation and means “running water” one of the many Indian chiefs was named “Tamaquay” and he signed many of the early deeds for lands owned by the Indians.

However, another historical document A History of the Indian Villages and Place Names in Pennsylvania by George P. Donehoo (1929) goes back to the Heckewelder explanation in 1822:

The name is derived from that of the stream Tamaqua, or Little Schuylkill. Tamaque or Tamaqua is a corruption of Tankamochk, “little beaver,” and with the suffix hanna, meaning “little beaver stream.”  The stream is referred to in 1790 as “Tamagaay or little Schuylkill” (Archives XI. 678). …

Tamagaay – Lloyd (1790), Archives XI. 678. Tamaqua. - Morris, map, 1848, also Little Schuylkill.  Tamauguay. - Scull, map, 1770 (large map), little Schuylkill. – Howells, map 1792

From the 1933 history of Pennsylvania by Frederic A. Godchales, Pennsylvania: Political, Governmental, Military, and Civil. Complete in Five Volumes, including Military Volume, Political and Civil History Volume, Physical, Economic, and Social Volume, Governmental Volume, and an Additional Biographical Volume:

TAMAQUA — Incorporated from Rahn Township in 1832, and named for Tamaqua Creek ...

However, note that Rahn Township from West Penn, was not erected until 1860.

In the 1970s, the Environmental Protection Agency, records collection noted the following:

Tamaqua, roughly translated from the Iroquois as “land wherein the dwells the animal that lives in the water” or beaver …

There is no word “Tamaqua” or similar in the Iroquoian language.  Moreover, no Iroquois groups lived in or hunted in the Upper Schuylkill Valley, although many traveled on the Indian paths which run through Schuylkill and Carbon Counties.

In the Allentown Morning Call of August 22, 1999:

The area was named Tamaqua by local American Indian tribes. Loosely translated, the name means "land where the beaver dwells in the water."

From NATIVE  AMERICAN  WATERBODY AND  PLACE  NAMES  WITHIN  THE SUSQUEHANNA  RIVER  BASIN AND  SURROUNDING  SUBBASINS by Stephen A. Runkle in 2003 a totally new and unrelated origin for the name as follows:

Tamaqua                      

"Little beaver" - town in Schuylkill County, Pa., named for the famous Delaware Turkey Clan (Unalachtigo) chief, King Beaver.

King Tamaqua (Beaver) was an actual historical figure who died in Western Pennsylvania in 1769.  His origins were from the lower Schuylkill Valley near Reading (Tulpehocken).  Before the French and Indian Wars began, he and his family (Pisquetomen and Shingas) and most of the tribe had moved to western Pennsylvania as their homelands were sold to the Pennsylvania proprietors. This chief Tamaqua had no interactions with settlers in eastern Pennsylvania. And while he lived in Reading he was not a "chief", which was actually his uncle - Sassoonan or Allumapees. There is no evidence that this distant mid-18th century person would have anything but a passing connection with the Tamaqua area in the mid-19th century when the town was incorporated.

On June 27, 2013, nearly 100 years later than the newspaper's story above, the Pottsville Republican again printed a story on Tamaqua.  In this story the origin of the name was completely different from its 1916 version and combining two theories:

…the Tuscarora which had a saying, “Tah-mah-mochk-hanna”, meaning “land where the beaver dwells in the water.”  From that and the Indian chief “Tankamochk” or “Tam-a-kwah,” a new town earned its name.  

Now a different Indian tribe is invoked. The Tuscarora were a transient Indian tribe that spent several decades traveling through the Schuylkill area. They are also Iroquoian speakers who would not be "saying" the word tëmakwe or something like for "beaver", which would be closer to nagarriaki in their dialect.

From 2014, BEYOND MANHATTAN: A GAZETTEER OF DELAWARE INDIAN HISTORY REFLECTED IN MODERN-DAY PLACE NAMES by Robert S. Grumet, Munsee and Northern Unami Interpretations by Ray Whitenour, New York State Museum Record 5:

TAMAQUES (Union County). Nora Thompson Dean (in Kraft and Kraft 1985:45) thought that Tamaque sounded much like a Southern Unami word, tëmakwe, “beaver.” Today, the 106-acre Tamaques Park and its focal point, Tamaques Pond, are located on land acquired during the early 1960s by Westfield Township. The name first appeared in the area as Tamaques, the Indian name of the place “called by the English the Great Swamp,” in a deed to land in the area signed on September 14, 1677 (New Jersey Archives, Liber 1:251[88]-250[89] on verso).  

An Indian man variously identified as Tamack and Tamage signed deeds to lands at and around the Great Swamp between 1668 and 1677 (New Jersey Archives, Liber 1:42-43, 121-122; Liber A:328). 

Places bearing the name of the eighteenth-century Delaware Indian sachem Tamaqua, also known as Beaver or the Beaver King (McConnell 1995), are located farther west in Pennsylvania (see Beaver in Pennsylvania West and Tamaqua in Pennsylvania Central in Part 2)

TAMAQUA (Monroe and Schuylkill counties). Similar in appearance and meaning to Tamaques (see in New Jersey North above), Tamaque Lake in the Monroe County Township of Tobyhanna and the Borough of Tamaqua in Schuylkill County commemorate the memory of eighteenth-century Ohio Valley Delaware leader King Beaver (see Beaver in Pennsylvania West in Part 2 below).

Again there is no research in this book that links the distant and 18th century King Beaver with 19th century Tamaqua. It does support the " beaver" (tëmakwe) animal connection.

However, this book does establish an Indian with a name similar to Tamaqua - Tamack or Tamage signing a treaty more than two centuries before the village of Tamaqua was established (and 250 years until it was named). This is a very unlikely scenario again given the distance and the time between events. [NOTE: Another Indian signer of treaty in New Jersey was Tantaqua whose mark appears on three deeds - 1668, 1671 and 1686. See PERSONAL NAMES OF INDIANS OF NEW JERSEY..., by WILLIAM NELSON, THE PATERSON HISTORY CLUB, PATERSON, NJ, 1904. The lands were near a creek was called "Tantaqua" (Overpeck) and was the site of a Hackensack village.]

Conclusion

The overwhelming evidence from historical documents is that name of the town of Tamaqua comes from the river that flows through it, now known as the Little Schuylkill before the late 18th century as the Tamaguay or one of many variations of that form.

Tamaqua is a variation or Anglicization of the Delaware Indian word tëmakwe, meaning beaver but more than just the animal, it is a hunter's hint that in context means place where the beavers live and can be found in great quantity or alternatively a "beaver stream". 

Little Schuylkill River, formerly the Tamaguay, near Tamaqua

The name shares nothing with "running or flowing water" and in fact connotes an opposite meaning, hindered in flowing by the profusion of beaver dams.

The name is not related to any other native language - Iroquoian, whether Susquehannock, Tuscaroran or of the Five Nation confederation in New York.

The name has nothing to do with Chief Tamaqua a Delaware leader in western Pennsylvania or Ohio, other than his name means "beaver". The differences in distance and time are too great.

The name has nothing to do w ith signers of early Indian treaties and land sales, such as Tamanend. Tamack or Tamage. Again the differences in time and place are even greater.

Mahr puts ir best stating, "in Schuylkill Co., on the Tamaqua river, there occurs another place name, Tamaqua. [A]...Delaware 'hunters' hints.' … Heckewelder likewise listed the true Delaware name form for present Tamaque (Heckewelder, 1834: 361). He wrote Tamaquon and stated that its correct Delaware version was Tamaquehanne "or (short) Tamdkhanne, the Indian name, as it stands on record, for Little Schuylkill." His interpretation is "beaver stream." The Delaware term is a compound of t*machkw} -  (also amochk, Zeisberger 1887: 20)  'a beaver,' and -hane  (-han]k, -hana) 'stream, creek, river  (in compounds)'; comp.,  Zeisberger,  (1887: 160)."