USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > Gwynedd > Historical collections relating to Gwynedd, a township of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, settled, 1696, by immigrants from Wales, with some data referring to the adjoining township, of Montgomery, also settled by Welsh > Part 1
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GENEALOGY COLLECTION
J
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
L 3 1833 02231 9252
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2009 with funding from Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
http://www.archive.org/details/historicalcollec1897jenk
HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS RELATING TO
GWYNEDD
A TOWNSHIP OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, SETTLED, 1698, BY IMMIGRANTS FROM WALES,
WITH SOME DATA REFERRING TO THE ADJOINING TOWNSHIP OF MONTGOMERY, ALSO SETTLED BY WELSH
By HOWARD M. JENKINS, OF GWYNEDD,
AUTHOR OF VOLUME ONE, MEMORIAL HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA
SECOND EDITION
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA : PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR
1897
FIRST EDITION, 1884. SECOND EDITION, 1897.
Goodspeed-$20,00
1206107
LIST OF CONTENTS.
I. The Place : The Scope of Its History, I
II. Remarks upon the Geology of the Township, . II
III. Traces of the Indians, 1 5
IV. The Arrival of the Welsh Settlers, 21
V. Edward Foulke's Narrative of his Removal, 33
VI. The Origin of the Township's Name, . 40
VII. Number of the First Settlers : Growth of Popu- lation, . 50
VIII.
The First Settlers' Homes : Personal Details, .
55
IX. Establishment of the Friends' Meeting, 73
X. Details Concerning the Early Friends, 83
XI. Narrative of John Humphrey, of Merion, .
94
XII. Early Monthly Meeting Records of Marriages ; Other Lists of Marriages and Deaths, . · 108
XIII. Evans Family Genealogy, 147
XIV. Roberts Family Genealogy,
196
XV. Foulke Family Genealogy,
233
XVI. The Early Roads, . . 282
XVII.
Early Settlers in Montgomery, .
298
XVIII.
Affairs Before the Revolution,
304
.
iv
LIST OF CONTENTS.
XIX. Gwynedd in the Midst of the Revolution : Sally Wister's Journal, 312 ·
XX. Revolutionary Details, · 349
XXI. Taxables in Gryncdd in 1776, · 358
XXII. The Boones, Lincolns, and Hanks, 369
XXIII. St. Peter's Church, 375
XXIV. Social Conditions Among the Early Settlers, 383
XXV. Agriculture, Slaves, Schools, Hotels, Stores, ctc., . 392
XXVI. Genealogical Details Concerning Early Families, . 410
XXVII. Biographical Notices, · 427
XXVIII. Additional Chapter-1897, · 445
ILLUSTRATIONS. Facing Page
HOUSE ON THE SITE OF EDWARD FOULKE'S ORIGINAL DWELL-
ING AT PENLLYN. Etching by Blanche Dillaye, 33
PLAN, SHOWING LOCATION OF FIRST SETTLERS' TRACTS, 58
WILLIAM JOHN'S HOUSE, 1712. From a Photograph, 1897, by Arthur Hugh Jenkins, . 67
THE OLD HOUSE OF OWEN EVANS (LATER THE RESIDENCE OF CALEB FOULKE, AND DR. MEREDITH). Etching by
Blanche Dillaye, . 71
THE MEADOW-BANK AT ROBERT EVANS'S.
Etching by Blanche
Dillaye, . 76
FRIENDS' MEETING HOUSE AT GWYNEDD, BUILT 1823. From a Sketch by Miss E. F. Bonsall, 82 /
CHARLES ROBERTS, OF PHILADELPHIA. Copy of Phototype by
F. Gutekunst & Co., from a Painting, . 203
HOWARD M. JENKINS. From a Photograph by F. Gutekunst & Co., 418
PREFACE.
(TO EDITION OF 1884.)
T HIS volume is by no means a History of Gwynedd. I have not attempted to make it that. I have simply gathered materials of a historical and biographical nature relating to Gwynedd, and have ar- ranged them as nearly as practicable in the order of time. The careful reader who may observe that many things are not dealt with which it would be the duty of a history to include will find an explanation of the fact in the plan itself.
So far as the materials which the volume does contain may be con- sidered, I believe them very trustworthy. My effort especially has been to achieve that degree of accuracy where the percentage of error does no harm. Of errors there are some, no doubt : no such collection of facts, made up largely of specific statements, with names and dates, has ever, with the extremest care of author and printer, been able to avoid some mistakes. Those which have been noticed as the work was passing through the press are stated below.
The size of the work has disappointed me. I have reached the limit assigned it without exhausting the materials I had collected for it, and many subjects which I had intended to treat fully have been of necessity treated briefly.
It should be explained that the dates used have respect always to "Old " and "New Style." In 1752 the English Parliament passed an act by which the new year subsequently began on January Ist, and Janu- ary became, therefore, the "First Month," as now. Previously, March had been the " First Month." This fact should be carefully kept in mind. In all dates in the book, preceding 1753, the months' numbers correspond
vi
PREFACE TO EDITION OF 1884.
with the old rule : beginning with that year they correspond with our present system.
With respect to the spelling of names, both of families and of in- dividuals, considerable variation will be remarked. The simple expla- nation of this is that in the documents and printed matter which furnish my authorities, these spellings vary continually. The same person is often differently called-e. g., William John is sometimes William Jones ; the female name Ellen is spelled also Ellin, and again Eleanor,-even when referring to one and the same individual. My plan has therefore been to use names as I found them, unless the spelling was plainly an error.
Acknowledgment should be especially made, here, for the assistance I have had in the collection of materials. To Rev. George D. Foust, for his article on St. Peter's Church, to William J. Buck, for aid and sug- gestions, to S. B. Helffenstein, for notes concerning his grandfather's family ; my thanks are due. Charles Roberts, of Philadelphia, who is collecting the data for an elaborate and complete genealogical record of his family, has aided me with unwearied interest. Mrs. William Parker Foulke, whose death, some months before the completion of the work, deprived me of a most valuable coadjutor, made an important contribu- tion to it, by preparing a full record of her husband's branch of his family. And in conclusion it must be due to Edward Mathews to say that no one has made more faithful, patient, or valuable original research into the Township's early history. His papers I have carefully consulted, and in certain parts of the book freely drawn upon.
NOTE TO SECOND EDITION.
T HE volume having gone " out of print," within a year or two of its issue from the press, at the beginning of 1885, I have now reprinted it. The original text has been left without change, except where additional or more exact information made it improper to let it pass uncorrected. There are, in this way, a number of minor variations from the first edition. I have added a chapter, in order to give some additional notes which seemed of interest.
In the three main genealogical chapters, there have been important additions furnished me by members of the Evans and Foulke families, and the Roberts chapter has been carefully revised, and has passed under the inspection of my friend Charles Roberts, who has given long-continued attention to the collection of his family data.
I have endeavored, in reprinting, to correct the errors noted under this heading, in the First Edition. No doubt some new ones have been made in the present one.
Page 95, lines 16 and 18 from top, Llwyn Grwill should be Llwyn Gwril (Loo-in Goo-ril) ; and line 24, Llwundu should be Llwyndu (Loo- in-du).
Page 127, 8th line from top, Rebecca Moore should be Elizabeth.
Page 424, 12th line from top, Conrad S. Castner died Fifth month 18, 1897, in his 59th year.
A record of the resurveys of the lands in Gwynedd appears in the Minutes of the Board of Property, at their meeting, 25th and 26th of Eleventh month (January), 1702, (printed in Penna. Archives, Second Series, Vol. xix., pp. 355-6). It does not differ in essential particulars from the facts herein given (p. 56 et seq.).
Avalon, Gwynedd, Pennsylvania,
Sixth month 1, 1897.
.
I.
The Place : The Scope of its History.
F ROM Independence Hall, in Philadelphia, a line drawn west of north and extended eighteen miles will end in the Township of Gwynedd. Approaching the place on such a line, the surface of the country rises, and at last attains an elevation of four hundred feet above the sea, where it forms the water-shed that divides the drainage of the Delaware and the Schuylkill rivers. Upon the western slopes of this water- shed the lands of the township chiefly lie, and the greater part of their rain-fall, feeding affluents of the Wissahickon, that rise in springs within the township, pass by them, or by the main stream, - which traverses Gwynedd from north to south, having risen just over the line, in Montgomery,-down to the Schuylkill. From the northwestern part of the township, how- ever, the drainage goes west by north through the Towamensing and other tributaries of the Skippack, into the Perkiomen, and thus reaches the Schuylkill far above the Wissahickon ; while the rain-fall upon a few hundred acres in the extreme eastern corner of the township passes south and east to the Neshaminy, and through it to the Delaware.
The township is a parallelogram, containing nearly seventeen square miles, and occupied by over three thousand people.1
[] The reference here is to the census of 1880, and covers not only the two townships, Upper and Lower Gwynedd, into which the old township was divided in 1891, but also the Gwynedd part of the population of the boroughs of Lansdale and Ambler, and the whole of the borough of North Wales .- Note, 1896].
2
HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF GWYNEDD.
Fairly to be called a hill country, if compared with levels beside the sea, or valleys along the great rivers, it yet is no more than a moderately elevated part of that remarkable agricultural region which, occupying all south-eastern Pennsylvania, reaches north- ward and westward to the Blue Mountains and the river Susquehanna. Covered with woods when the white settlers came, at the end of the seventeenth century, then cleared, and since continuously tilled, this is a township, simply, of farming land ; its surface rolling, but not rough ; its soil moderately fertile, but demanding patient and careful cultivation. Natural wealth, except that of the soil, it has done ; if minerals lie beneath the surface, they are at such a depth as would baffle the miner.
Such history as may be presented concerning this township and its people is necessarily limited in scope. Beginning less than two centuries ago, when its occupancy by European settlers began, we resign to the mists of the unknown all the life it may have had in the ages preceding. And even within the period of our knowledge, its movements and experiences have been void of extraordinary features. During two hundred years, the upland farmers, leveling their woods, plowing, planting, harvesting, threshing, seeking the markets of the city with their surplus, have typified the rural industry of their country. Neither sea nor river was at hand to disturb their occupation of tillage ; the great highways of travel lay upon other routes; the coal, the iron, the oil, that elsewhere have attracted new people, changed ownerships, built towns and cities, and altered alike the face of the country and the composition of society, have been here unknown. The echoes of the Revolutionary cannon reached the place, but other than this all its knowledge of wars has been brought from far beyond its borders. No Indians molested the early settlers ; wild beasts did not prey upon them ; pestilence did not destroy, nor famine starve them.
3
THIE PLACE: SCOPE OF ITS HISTORY.
What history, then, belongs to the place? Such only as a quiet community of plain people, sharing the general interests of their country, concerned for its welfare, agitated by its dangers, rejoiced by its successes, may have had ; such as the condition of a simple and orderly existence may present ; such as comes from those features of human experience which are common to man everywhere,-his birth, his struggle for existence, his defeats and triumphs, despairs and rejoicings, sickness and health, death and burial ; the character he presents in life, the name he leaves behind him. With such materials the present volume must be content chiefly to deal, making its pages justify them- selves, if possible, by merits of sincerity and precision,- con- tributing thus to the great records of the time a leaf of small dimensions, but careful and trustworthy so far as it extends. To that historical method which begins by the patient accumu- lation of facts, and which draws no conclusion until the facts are faithfully studied, the highest respect is due, and it therefore is fair to suppose that the glimpse which we obtain of a people's life by the study of the experiences of a single community has a substantial value in history. To cut down through the strata at a single place may disclose the formation underlying a wide district.
Analyzing the township's history, it might be said that in a large way, and having reference partly to its exterior relations, it has had these five periods :
I. That of the Settlement : 1698-1720.
2. That of Growth : 1720-1775.
3. That of the Revolutionary War : 1775-1783.
4. That of the Changes, social, industrial, and political, which followed the Revolution : 1783-1820.
5. That of development and culture since 1820.
But an outline, less general, and more distinctly drawn from
4
HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF GWYNEDD.
the place, may be presented. The township's own experiences, it may be said, have been these :
I. That of the first settlement, its conditions new and strange to the Welsh husbandmen ; the marked characteristics of the little colony ; its distinctly Welsh features ; the unity of nearly every member in a single family, by ties of blood or marriage, the friendly habit of mutual help, the simplicity of manners, the fervor of religious expression. In this time the Quaker element was predominant, the headship of Penn commanded an almost filial respect, and the movement of the community was centered in the Friends' meeting, whose spiritual and temporal affairs were the great objects of its attention.
II. Following this there came a time of removals and changes. Of the original company some were dead. There were de- partures to Richland, to Perkiomen, to Providence, to the Oley settlement on the upper Schuylkill. Thomas Evans, re-married in his old age, removed to Goshen, and Cadwallader Foulke, quitting farm life for city life, went to Philadelphia. Later the tide of migration to Virginia and the Carolinas, which took the Boones, Hanks, Lincolns, and others, from Berks county, shook the settlement of Gwynedd and Montgomery, in which the departing pioneers had many kinsmen. But in this period, too, there were new comers. The German element began to appear. The Schwenkfelders came in a body. The Welsh homogeneity began to break up, and the township became, as the Pennsyl- vania colony did, and as the State to-day is, one of varied popu- lation and characteristics.
III. To this succeeded the time when in this community, as in every one from Boston to Savannah, the earlier colonial influ- ences declined, and the new springs of energy, which in the wider field were to manifest themselves in the effort for Inde- pendence, began to show themselves. There were some changes
5
THE PLACE: SCOPE OF ITS HISTORY.
in agriculture. The earlier methods had to be improved. Pasture and hay lands spread from the meadows into the upland fields, by the sowing of timothy-seed, and later by the sowing of clover-seed, and the use of land plaster. Grazing therefore in- creased, and a rotation of crops began to be followed ; hedges were planted, tillage became more thorough, and presently the plow with the iron mould-board appeared.
This period included the time of the Revolution, but from that great convulsion there sprang new conditions that must be separately mentioned.
IV. The struggle for Independence, its successful result, and the formation of the national constitution, profoundly agitating the country at large, stirred to the depths the life of each com- munity, however remote and rural. These events brought hot political contention. Parties arose, and their lines were sharply drawn. The simple social conditions of the earlier time were modified, and while there were complaints of a decline in religious warmth, it was said, too, that morals were more lax, and intemperance more common. But there appeared then a development of a material nature. Turnpikes began to be made, the almost universal habit of riding on horseback was modified by the appearance of " pleasure carriages," the streams were bridged, common roads increased and received more care in their construction. At the same time, stimulated by the party excite- ments, county newspapers began to be established, and the rise of a taste for reading caused the formation of the small, but yet useful, local libraries.
To this period may be assigned all the years from the close of the Revolution up to and including the War of 1812-15.
V. From the close of the second war with Great Britain, a period of twenty-five years, ending in 1840, was marked by many new and interesting features. The financial depression of
.
6
HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF GWYNEDD.
1817, following the collapse of the depreciated paper money of the war, and of the industries which had sprung up during non- intercourse with England, tended strongly to develop and increase the removals to the Western country,- chiefly Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois,-which then continued for many years. Between 1820 and 1840 was the great period of the State's "internal improvements," the multiplication of turnpikes, the digging of canals, the beginning of railroads. This, it is true, had but a re- flected influence in Gwynedd, yet it, like every other part of the State, felt the stimulus of the general activity and enterprise. In this period the public-school system was definitely established in the township, and the general tendency toward more education and culture was strongly shown. The county newspapers had reached a position of enlarged importance, and political discussion, though it was now partially relieved of the bitterness and heat which had accompanied the earlier party contests, was conducted earnestly and vigorously during the campaign in which John Quincy Adams once, and then General Jackson twice, won the Presidency. The political activity of the people, and their move- ment by local leadership,-indicating the wider distribution of intelligence and political interest,-is quite observable during this time. In it, too, the postal service was increased, the mails were more frequently carried, and new post-offices were established ; and it is notable that the influence of the proximity and growth of Philadelphia began to be more felt.
VI. Since 1840, one general and two special conditions have marked the life of the township. The one is that unexampled and wonderful advance toward greater luxury and culture which has been everywhere the experience of the American people, and in which this community shared. The others have been the revolution in agricultural operations effected by the invention of better implements and machines ; and the changes in the town-
7
THE PLACE: SCOPE OF ITS HISTORY.
ship's population, order of life, occupation, and interests, which followed the construction of the railroad. All these were part of a large movement; they occurred within the same period ; and it is not entirely practicable to distinguish the precise influences which each exerted ; yet they may be to some degree separately described. The change in agriculture had already given some signs of its presence in 1840, but it has chiefly been effected since. The flail gave way to the thresher, the sickle to the cradle, and it to the reaping machine, the scythe to the mower, the rude " fans" or "windmills " to improved and elaborate cleaners. The horse-rake has been two or three times developed, the hay-tedder and manure-spreader have come into occasional use, and while the grain-drill has almost completely superseded the picturesque marching man who scattered his seeds broadcast, the self-binding machine has partly taken the place of the " hands" who entered the harvest field to rake and bind. In fine, the whole system of farming is changed ; in the busiest season one man does at least the old work of three, and operations that were once necessarily tedious and small of proportion have risen to extensive methods and great possi- bilities.
The building of the railroad gave the township a new life. Enlarged knowledge of and communication with the outer world, the enormous increase of actual locomotion, the influx of new people, the rise in the price of lands, the building of villages and ultimately of considerable towns at the railroad stations, the creation of a new market system, the changes in the form of the produce sent to the city for sale, were in part the results of the new influence. But besides these, there came from the city many more visitors and boarders, many more purchasers of land. The social structure as it had existed was first dissolved and then made over, and it became greatly less homogeneous and unified.
8
HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF GWYNEDD.
When the railway trains began to run, the old life of the township ended, and a new age was reached.
The general changes that have taken place in the country, and which are to be seen in Gwynedd, included, as I have already said, those which came directly from the railroad, and if it had not been constructed at all they would still have occurred, much the same in character, though not so marked in their ex- tent. With the schools established, the county newspapers in- creased in influence, the little libraries slowly increasing, and all the great outer world thundering so near by, the township could not fail to rouse and stir. Mails that had come once or twice a week now came on every working day, and daily newspapers from the great cities were found a necessity to those who would keep abreast with the course of affairs. The movement in all ways became more quick. The pressure of occupation upon
time became more urgent. Before this period the fast horse had been a runner to be ridden; now he became a trotter to be driven. From the interest in Lady Suffolk and Tacony and Flora Temple came their swift successors whose speed made " two-forty " seem slow. The old " gigs" and " chairs," with their round springs, disappeared, and the family driving to church or meeting, or setting out on some distant visit, called for a com- fortable carriage instead of the old and plain " dearborn " wagon. The harness began to have silver mountings, the driver covered his knees, not with a quilt or " coverlid" from the housewife's stock, but with a robe of buffalo-skin. The young man going out on errands of gallantry had his " falling-top," the successor of the " tilbury," and no longer was content to own a horse and saddle. Dress grew more costly and elegant, the country tailors were crowded outside by the influx of " ready-made " clothing from the cities, and the country stores that had been able to satisfy their female customers with calico or delaine, saw them go to the
9
CHRONOLOGICAL SKETCH.
great city bazaars for more costly and elegant fabrics. Organs and even pianos found their places in the farmers' homes,- an innovation and a step in luxury that a decade or two before would have been thought monstrous,-while the young women, as they glanced at their music-books, the farmer as he read his newspaper, or footed up his market account, the wife as she sewed, or mended, or darned, had the aid, not of the old candle, nor even of the later " camphene " and " fluid," but of " coal oil," warranted to stand the "fire test," and equaling in the quality of its light the best which could be commanded by luxurious dwellers in cities.
Altogether, these and many other changes by which they were accompanied, amounted to a revolution of social conditions. The extent of the progress had been wonderful, but in no par- ticular more so than by comparison. If we shall divide the history of Gwynedd since its settlement into one period of a century and a half, and another of less than half a century, and compare the changes of the two, we shall see the former appear a monotonous and stagnant level, while in the later and briefer one, Enterprise, Ingenuity, and Culture have gone forward by leaps rather than by steps.
Chronological Sketch.
1698, March, the Township purchased for the Welsh Company. April, the Welsh Company sail from Liverpool.
July, they reach Philadelphia.
November (?), the settlers occupy their lands.
1700, The first Meeting-House built. 1700-01 (?), William Penn visits Gwynedd.
1701-02, Re-surveys and Commissioners' patents for the lands. 1712, The second Meeting-House built.
1714, the Friends' Monthly Meeting established.
[1718, death of William Penn.]
IO
HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF GWYNEDD.
1719, Montgomery Baptist Church organized.
1731, Baptist Church of stone, at Montgomery.
1734, Arrival of the Schwenkfelders.
1740, Boehm's Church (German Reformed, Whitpain), built.
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