USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > The history of Bucks County, Pennsylvania : from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time > Part 1
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GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02219 7120
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MAP OF BUCKS COUNTY PENNSYLVANIA.
NORTHAMPTON Co.
LEHIGH CO
.TRUMPTOWERSVILLE
SPRINGFIELD
ne!
LFORD
QUAKERTOWN
APPLED CKVILLE
XINTERS VILLE
--
· BUCKS VILLE
MONTGOMERY
------ +
ROCK HILL
HAGERSVILLE
ERWINNA .
BERMISTER
TINACUM
BEYHLENEM
PIPERS VILD LE
ATOWN
DUBLIN
PLUMSTEAD
CA
LINE
BRITAIN
NORTH BRANCH OF NA HA MINY
PT. PLEASANT
COUNTY
NEW
DOYLESTOWN
BUCKIN
CENTREVILLE
SOLEBURY
CENTRE RRIDGE
HONG
EASTON
WRIGH
PENNSVAI
NESHAMINY
NEWTOWN
NEWTOWN
TAYLORSVILLE
SOUTHAMPTON
MIDDLEN
ACURRENT BRIDGE
BROWNVILLE
BENSALEM
DELAWARE
BRISTOL
BRISTOL
FALLS
SCALE 7 MILES TO ANINCH
-
2
3
4
6
8
9
NEW HOPE
AR
+
TAM SONS
MARWICK
ASPINEVILLE
-
---
HATS VILLE
NORTHAMPTON
HISTOWN
MOMS VILLE
LOWER WAKE FIELD
VARPLEYVILLE
PHILADELPHIA COUNTY
TRENTON
SIMUSIA
NMOLATTA
MORRISVILLE
CAMPENSAMBUY R.R.
-
DOYLE STOWN
NACHAMINY
WARRINGTON WAR MINSTER RAVIS
NEW BRITIAN
LEXINGTON
RUAA
NOCK AMIX OFN
- SELLERSVILLE
BETHICHSEN ROD ---
FSPRING TOWN
DURHAM
MIL
CHILIAND
HA AYCOCK
RBVILLE
AREK
LUMBERVILLE
LANGHAM
UPPER MAKE FIELD
À
THE
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY
PENNSYLVANIA,
FROM THE DISCOVERY OF THE DELAWARE TO THE PRESENT TIME.
BY
W. W. H. DAVIS, A. M.,
MEMBER OF THE "HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA," THE "NEW YORK GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY," AND THE "WESTERN RESERVE HISTORICAL SOCIETY;" AUTHOR OF "EL GRINGO, OR NEW MEXICO AND HER PEOPLE;" HISTORY OF THE ONE HUNDRED AND FORTH PENNSYLVANIA REGIMENT ;" HISTORY OF THE HART FAMILY;" "LIFE OF GENERAL JOHN LACEY," AND THE "SPANISH CONQUEST OF NEW MEXICO."
DOYLESTOWN, PA .:
DEMOCRAT BOOK AND JOB OFFICE PRINT.
1876.
Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1876, by W. W. H. DAVIS, In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
LETTER-PRESS OF GRANT, FAIRES & RODGERS, PHILADELPHIA, PA.
Co-40.00
1164661
ARHIS ROLUME
IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED TO THE
HONORABLE HENRY CHAPMAN, A DESCENDANT OF JOHN CHAPMAN, THE FIRST SETTLER NORTH OF NEWTOWN, BY THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
-
THE writing of the History of Bucks county has been more a "labor of love," than of gain, to the author. It was undertaken from a desire to preserve interesting facts, connected with its settle- ment and history, that in a few years would have been lost forever; and no reasonable compensation would reward us for the seven years' labor bestowed upon it. We labored under many difficulties. Its story had never been written, and the material, in a great measure, had to be first gathered in isolated facts and then woven into the thread of history. This was the most difficult part of our task. In most cases individuals and families gave up their papers for ex- amination, which proved of great assistance. With the lapse of years the material grew upon our hands beyond our anticipations, and we could have written a larger work, but are content to give the result of our labors in a volume not too large for convenient use. Our greatest difficulty was in collecting matter relating to the set- tlement and early history of the German townships, because they were less in the habit of preserving family and personal records. We consulted the most reliable records and authorities to be reached, and are satisfied it contains as few errors as could reason- ably be expected in a work of the kind. As a rule we have given the original spelling of the names of both persons and places, which in many cases will be found to differ from the present spelling; and
vi
PREFACE.
in some instances the same name is spelled in two ways. This was unavoidable. We acknowledge our obligations to many gentlemen, not only for the encouraging interest they took in our labors, but also for information furnished, often unsolicited. We also acknowl- edge the assistance derived from the small work on the county, published twenty years ago, by Mr. William J. Buck, one of our earliest and most laborious local historians. The maps and engrav- ings are a proper accompaniment of the work, and we doubt not will interest the reader. The catalogues of the Flora, Birds and Mam- mals of the county were prepared, expressly for our work, by Doctors I. S. Moyer and Joseph Thomas, of Quakertown, and are the result of years of careful and laborious research. The information touching the variation of the needle was furnished, at the author's request, by Carlile. P. Patterson, Esq., superintendent of the United States coast survey. The variation of the compass needle, as shown by the United States coast survey report for the year 1855, pages 312- 313, has been determined more frequently at two stations in this neighborhood than anywhere else within the limits of the United States. Early observations were rough, but being repeated at in- tervals and merged in due time as first parts in a series ending with several accurate determinations, the law of variation during the last two centuries has been deduced for the vicinity of Philadelphia. As applicable also to Bucks county, and referable to early periods in the settlement, the value of the article on variation in this history will be apparent.
W. W. H. DAVIS. DOYLESTOWN, PA, September 1st, 1876.
CONTENTS.
Page.
DEDICATION
iii
PREFACE V
ILLUSTRATIONS xiii
ERRATA XV.
CHAPTER I.
FROM THE DISCOVERY OF THE DELAWARE TO THE ARRIVAL OF ENGLISH IMMIGRANTS. 17
CHAPTER II.
ENGLISH IMMIGRANTS CONTINUE TO ARRIVE ON THE DELAWARE. 35
CHAPTER III.
WILLIAM PENN BECOMES . PROPRIETOR OF THE COUNTRY WEST OF THE DELA-
WARE ... 51
CHAPTER IV.
WILLIAM PENN SAILS FOR PENNSYLVANIA.
..
64
CHAPTER V.
SOME ACCOUNT OF THE EARLY IMMIGRANTS .. 79
CHAPTER VI.
SOME ACCOUNT OF PENNSBURY ........ ...... 89
CHAPTER VII.
THE ORGANIZATION OF TOWNSHIPS-FALLS
....... ...
100
viii
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VIII.
MAKEFIELD
Page 118
CHAPTER IX.
BRISTOL
129
CHAPTER X.
BENSALEM
141
CHAPTER XI.
MIDDLETOWN
161
CHAPTER XII.
WILLIAM PENN RETURNS TO PENNSYLVANIA AND LIVES IN BUCKS COUNTY .... 179
CHAPTER XIII.
SOUTHAMPTON.
196
CHAPTER XIV.
WARMINSTER
... 213 ..
CHAPTER XV.
NEWTOWN
229
................. .
CHAPTER XVI.
WRIGHTSTOWN
.... 251
CHAPTER XVII.
BUCKINGHAM.
267
CHAPTER XVIII.
SOLEBURY.
294
CONTENTS.
ix
CHAPTER XIX.
Page.
HISTORICAL CHURCHES
319
CHAPTER XX.
BRISTOL BOROUGH
..... 339
CHAPTER XXI.
NORTHAMPTON
354
CHAPTER XXII.
HILLTOWN
366
CHAPTER XXIII.
NEW BRITAIN.
380
CHAPTER XXIV.
PLUMSTEAD
398
CHAPTER XXV.
WARWICK
415
CHAPTER XXVI.
WARRINGTON
428
CHAPTER XXVII.
MILFORD
... ......... 441
CHAPTER XXVIII.
... .
456;
RICHLAND
CHAPTER XXIX.
UPPER MAKEFIELD.
47.11
CONTENTS. X
CHAPTER XXX.
THE WALKING PURCHASE ..
Page. 484
CHAPTER XXXI.
TINICUM
499
CHAPTER XXXII.
UPPER MILFORD; SAUCON ; MACUNGIE; SALISBURY; WHITEHALL .... 514
CHAPTER XXXIII.
ROCKHILL
529
CHAPTER XXXIV.
NOCKAMIXON
537
CHAPTER XXXV.
BEDMINSTER
548
CHAPTER XXXVI.
SPRINGFIELD.
565
CHAPTER XXXVII.
SMITHFIELD ; ALLEN ; MOUNT BETHEL; MOORE; EASTON .. ... 580
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
BETHLEHEM; NAZARETH ; CARBON COUNTY.
594
CHAPTER XXXIX.
HAYCOCK
610
CHAPTER XL.
BUCKS COUNTY IN THE REVOLUTION. 621
CONTENTS. xi
CHAPTER XLI.
DURHAM
Page. 640
CHAPTER XLII.
MORRISVILLE
657
CHAPTER XLIII.
DOYLESTOWN.
.... 664
CHAPTER XLIV.
NEW HOPE
........... 676
CHAPTER XLV.
DOYLESTOWN BOROUGH
689
......
CHAPTER XLVI.
CLEARING LAND ; FARMING; DRESS ; MODE OF LIVING, ETC. 711
CHAPTER XLVII.
OUR COURTS ; COUNTY-SEATS ; DIVISION OF COUNTY ; BUILDING OF ALMS- ... 721
HOUSE ..
CHAPTER XLVIII.
ROADS.
738
CHAPTER XLIX.
OUR POETS AND THEIR POETRY ...
753
CHAPTER L.
MANORS AND LARGE LAND GRANTS.
785
CHAPTER LI.
NEGRO SLAVERY IN BUCKS COUNTY
793
xii ::
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER LII.
NEWSPAPERS IN BUCKS COUNTY.
Page. 804
CHAPTER LIII.
OLD TAVERNS.
832
CHAPTER LIV.
VOLUNTEERS ; BIBLE SOCIETIES ; AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES; VISIT OF LA- FAYETTE; POISONING OF DOCTOR CHAPMAN 843
CHAPTER LV.
RELIGIOUS EXCITEMENT ; MERINO SHEEP AND MULTICAULIS; NAVIGATION OF THE DELAWARE; SHAD ; ELECTIONS AND TAXES. 860
APPENDIX.
FLORA 3
BIRDS.
28
MAMMALS.
35
COMPASS
37
INDEX
39
ILLUSTRATIONS.
-
Page.
Map of Bucks county
Frontispiece.
1. Autographs of William Tom and Walter Wharton
26
2. Autograph of Ephraim Herman
30
3. Autographs of Tamany
73
4. Earmarks of Cattle
76-77
5. Original Map of Bucks county
82-83
6. Penn's Brew-house
91
7. Andalusia, Residence of the late Nicholas Biddle
152
8. The Jenks Coat-of-Arms
166
9. Autograph of Jeremiah Langhorne
169
10. Mansion of Jeremiah Langhorne 170
213
12. Autograph of John Fitch
219
13. Fitch's First Steamboat
222
14. Map of Newtown, 1703 233
15. Oldest House in Bucks county 264
267
17. The Fell Crest
279
18. Kugler's Miil, Lumberton
308
19. Map of New Hope, 1798
317
20. Sarah Lukens Keene Home, Bristol
350
21. Map of Richland township, 1754
459
22. Autograph of Morris Morris
459
23. Autograph of Edward Roberts
460
24. Autograph of Hugh Foulke
462
25. Map of Manor of Highlands
471
26. Map of Walking Purchase, 1737
. 486-487
27. Mennonite Church, Bedminster
557
28. Map of Upper End of Bucks county, 1750
563
29. Birthplace of A. R. Horne
568
30. Map of Lottery Lands, 1735 571
596
32. Durham Iron Works .
645
33. Map of Durham Lands, 1773 654-655
34. Map of Doylestown and Vicinity, 1775 699
35. Autograph of William Doyle
575
36. Wilkinson Coat-of-Arms
678
37. The Parry Mansion, New Hope 681
38. Lenape Building, Doylestown 708
39. The County Seal, 1738
726
31. First House at Bethlehem
11. Map of Southampton, Warminster and Warrington
16. Map of Buckingham and Solebury, 1703
ERRATA.
" William Bills," on page 65, eighteenth line from the top, should read William Biles.
"Boston," on page 85, should read Bolton.
" John C., (Martindale) on page 231, seventeenth line from the top, should read Joseph C.
"Grouer," on page 442, eighth line from the top, should read Gruver.
"Benjamin Foulke," on page 459, fourth line from the top, should read Benjamin G. Foulke.
" Honey Hill," on page 727, thirteenth line from the top, should read Money hill ; and "Robank, in Yorkshire," on the same page, fifteenth and sixteenth lines from the top, should read Powbank, in Westmoreland.
" Edward Draufton," on page 739, fifteenth line from the bottom, should read Ed- mund Draufton.
" Dankers," on page 786, seventh line from the bottom, should read Danker.
CHAPTER I.
FROM THE DISCOVERY OF THE DELAWARE TO THE ARRIVAL OF ENGLISH IMMIGRANTS.
1609 TO 1678.
Bucks an original county .- Size and situation .- Hudson's discoveries .- County first traversed by Europeans .- Holland plants settlements .- First settlers .- New Al- bion .- The Swedes arrive .- The English appear .- Van DerDonk .- Lindstrom .- Dutch drive out Swedes .- The English seize the Delaware .- Government estab- lished .- William Tom .- Overland communication .- Richard Gorsuch .- Gover- nor Lovelace visits Delaware .- George Fox .- Sir Edmund Andros .- William Edmonson .- Wampum .- Settlers arrive .- First grand jury .- Lands surveyed .- Population .- Burlington island.
BUCKS COUNTY, one of the three original counties of Pennsylvania, is bounded on the northeast and southeast by the Delaware, south- west by Philadelphia, and Montgomery county, and on the north by Lehigh and Northampton counties. The surface is uneven and rolling, and the soil fertile. It is watered by several tributaries of' the Delaware, the principal of which are the Neshaminy, Penny- pack, Poquessing, Tohickon, and a branch of the Perkiomen which empties into the Schuylkill. Limestone in large quantities is found in the central region of the county, and valuable deposits of iron ore in that section and in the northeast. The inhabitants are almost ex- clusively employed in agricultural pursuits. In 1790 the population was 25,401 ; 1800, 27,496 ; 1810, 32,371; 1820, 37,842; 1830, . 45,745 ; 1840, 43,107, and 64,336 in 1870. The length is forty
2
18
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
miles and average breadth fifteen, giving it an area of 600 square miles, equivalent to about 380,000 acres.
This volume will contain the history of Bucks county from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time.
Henry Hudson, an Englishman in the service of the Dutch East- India company, discovered Delaware bay the 28th of August, 1609, but he made no attempt to ascend the river.1 Captain Cornelius Jacobson May ascended the river some distance in 1614, and two years afterwards Captain Hendrickson discovered the Schuylkill. For a number of years the history of the country watered by the Delaware is but a relation of the feeble struggles of Holland, Swe- den and England for empire on its banks, which will engage but little of our attention. It was about this period that Bucks county was first traversed by Europeans. In 1616 three Dutch traders, set- ting out from Fort Nassau, now Albany, to explore the interior, struck across to the headwaters of the Delaware, down which they traveled to the Schuylkill. Here they were made prisoners by the Minquas, but were rescued by Captain Hendrickson at the mouth of that river. He was sent round from Manhattan in the Restless, and landing on the west bank of the Delaware, above the mouth of the Schuylkill, he ransomed the Dutchmen by giving in exchange for them "kettles, beads and other merchandise." As the interior of the country was wholly unexplored, it is not probable that these wanderers would leave the banks of a great river and trust their steps to an unknown wilderness.
We have but a brief record of the success of the Hollanders planting settlements on the Delaware. They and the French carried on a profitable trade with the Indians as early as 1621, and no doubt now and then one of them pushed his way into what is now Bucks county to trap and trade. In 16232 the Dutch West- India company erected a fort where Gloucester, New Jersey, now stands ; but affairs were so unpromising on the Delaware that it was abandoned in 1630.
1 The Delaware has had a multiplicity of names. The Indians called it Marisqueton, Mackeriskitton and Makerishkiskon, Lenape, Wihittuck, or the stream of the Lenape. By the Dutch it was called Zuydt, or South river; Nassau, Prince Hendrick's, and Charles river. The Swedes called it New Swedeland stream ; while to the English it was generally known as the Delaware, after Lord de-la-War, the supposed discoverer. The Dutch, less frequently, called it New river, and the Indians called it Pautaxat. Heylin, in his Cosmography, calls the Delaware, Noos-apa.
« Sir Dudley Carleton, English Ambassador at the Hague.
19
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
About 1624-25 the West-India company established a trading house on a small island, called "Vurhulsten island," after William Vurhulst, director of New Netherland, near the west shore of the Delaware, just below Trenton falls, and located upon it three or four families of French Walloons. The post was broken up about 1627, and the Walloons returned to New York, but a small vessel was retained in the river to keep up the fur trade. This island, op- posite Morrisville, is undoubtedly the same which Gabriel Thomas called "Stacies' island " sixty years later, now known as "Fair- view," and is only a sand bar, containing about seventy-five acres, with a fishery upon it. Twenty-five years ago it was used as pas- ture ground. The settlement on this, island was undoubtedly the earliest in this county and state. There is no doubt hanging over its location. In March, 1685, Peter Lawrensen stated in a depo- sition before Governor Dongan, of New York, that he came into that province a servant of the West-India company in 1628; that in 1631, he, with seven others, was sent into the Delaware, where the company had a trading house, with ten or twelve servants at- tached to it; that he saw them settled there. That he also saw the place on the island, near the falls, and near the west bank, where the company had a trading house three or four years before ; that three or four families of Walloons were settled there, but had then left.3 A considerable body of Waldenses and Huguenots were sent to the Delaware in 1656-16634, but it is not known what became of them.
If the story of New Albion is other than an historical myth, the English were among the earliest adventurers and settlers on the Delaware. Between 1623 and 1634-for several dates are men- tioned-Charles I. granted an extensive territory to Sir Edmund Plowden which embraced Long Island, all of New Jersey, Delaware, and parts of Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania, who formed a company of noblemen and gentlemen under the title of "The Albion Knights." The Delaware was the chosen ground to settle, and the company pledged itself to introduce 3,000 trained men into the colony. Colonists were actually introduced and made their homes on the Delaware, but neither the number nor exact location can be told. Plowden was Lord Proprietor and Captain General. while one Beauchamp Plantagenet was made agent of this company of knightly settlers. The Earl and Plantagenet were here seven years,
3 Gabriel Thomas. + Van DerDonk.
20
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
and became well acquainted with the country and Indian tribes. A government was framed, and the machinery of civil administration put in operation, but its duration is unknown. A history of the colony was published in 1648, which contained the letter of one " Master Robert Evelin " addressed to Lady Plowden, after his re- turn to England. He was four years on the Delaware, and in his letter he states that "Captain Claybourn, fourteen years there tra- ding," sustains what he says of the country. Evelin evidently sailed up the river to the falls, for he mentions the streams which empty into it; names the tribes which live along it and their strength, with some description of the country and the productions. Six leagues below the falls he speaks of " two fair, woody islands, very pleasant and fit for parks, one of 1,000 acres, the other of 1,400 or thereabouts." These were probably Burlington and Newbold's islands. Near the falls he says "is an isle fit for a city ; all the materials there to build; and above, the river fair and navigable, as the Indians informed me, for I went but ten miles higher." The " isle fit for a city" refers, doubtless, to Moon's island, or the one abreast of Morrisville. It is barely possible that he fell into the popular error of some explorers of the period, that the Dela- ware branched at the falls, and that the two branches formed a large island above. He says that a ship of 140 tons can ascend to the falls, and that "ten leagues higher are lead mines, in stony hills." At the falls he locates the Indian town of Kildorpy, with "clear fields to plant and sow, and near it are sweet, large meads of clover or honeysuckle." The letter speaks of the abundant store of fish in the river ; of water fowl that swim upon its surface, and the game, fruit and nuts to be found in the woods that line its banks, and of the magnificent forest trees. Evelin must have traveled well into the interior and through portions of Bucks county. He speaks of the new town of the Susquehannocks as a "rare, healthy and rich place, and with a crystal, broad river." This must refer to the Susquehanna river and the tribe from which it takes its name.
What became of Plowden's colony would be an interesting in- quiry, if we had the leisure to pursue it or the data necessary to solve it. The late William Rawle, of Philadelphia, who gave the subject a careful and intelligent investigation, believed that some of those who welcomed Penn to the shores of the Delaware were the survivors of the Albion Knights. History offers no Œdipus to un- ravel the mystery.
21
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
Down to 1638 the Dutch held undisputed sway on the Delaware, but for the next seventeen years, and until the English displaced them both, they were to enjoy a joint occupancy with the Swedes. In April, Peter Minuit planted a Swedish colony near where Wil- mington stands, and named the creek Christina, after the youthful Queen of Sweden. They were reinforced in 1640, and again in 1642, under Lieutenant John Printz who came with full powers to put the machinery of government in operation, and fixed his capital on Tinicum island, just below Philadelphia. The Dutch had failed to make a permanent settlement on the west bank of the Delaware, nor had they purchased a foot of ground except a small tract nearly opposite Gloucester, New Jersey, about the mouth of the Schuyl- kill. Shortly after his arrival, Minuit purchased of the Lenni Lenape Indians all the land on the west bank of the Delaware from Cape Henlopen to Trenton falls, and extending inland to the Sus- quehanna, and stakes and other marks were set up to designate the boundaries. This was the first purchase by Europeans of the Indians in the limits of Bucks county. The Dutch called this pur- chase in question, but it was as valid as any of that period. The time and place of birth of John Printz, the first to administer justice on the west bank of the Delaware, are not known. He was en- obled July 20, 1640; attained the rank of colonel in the Thirty- two Years' war ; was arrested, tried and dismissed the service for surrendering his post without authority. He was appointed gor- ernor of New Sweden in 1642; returning home in 1653, he was appointed colonel and governor of the Jonksping, and died in 1663, without male issue. He built the first flour mill in Pennsyl- vania at " Karakung," near the Blue Bell tavern, in Delaware county. It is described as a "fine mill, which ground both coarse and fine flour."
The English, destined to be the governing race on the Delaware from its mouth to its source, did not make their appearance until 1640. In 1639 some parties from New Haven purchased enough land of the Dutch and Swedes for several farms,s and colonists were sent out the following year ; but both nations threw every possible obstacle in their way. Several additional families came out the following year. These attempts were not successful, and failed to give the English a foothold on the river. In 1646, Andreas Hudde. a Dutch commissioner on a mission to search for minerals, as-
5 Letters from court at New Haven to the Swedes on the Delaware.
22
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
cended the Delaware to the falls, but the Indians would not allow him to go higher up. Nevertheless he put up a stake with the Dutch coat-of-arms upon it, and claimed the country for Holland. At this time there was not a white settler above the Schuylkill, and prior to 1643 there was not a white female west of the Delaware.6 Adrian Van DerDonk, a Dutch traveler, visited the Delaware in 1642, and on his return to Holland published a book about the country. The favorable opinion he entertained of New Netherland brought it into notice, and induced many to immigrate. He says: " Above the falls the river divides into two large boatable streams, which run far inland to places unknown to us." On examining his map we find how little this early explorer knew of the stream he wrote about. The river is made to divide a few miles above Morris- ville. The left, or Delaware branch proper, trends to the west in about its natural course, then inclines to the east and unites with the Hudson in what Van DerDonk calls "Groote Esopus river ;" the other branch, which never had an existence except in the im- agination of the author, runs in a more direct course and unites with the main branch near Esopus-the two branches forming a large lake. Campanius, a Swede, who came to this country in 1642, wrote an interesting account of the Delaware. About the falls he found walnuts, chestnuts, peaches, mulberries, a variety of plum trees and grape vines, hemp and hops. The calabash was here first met with, and the rattlesnake, "a large and horrible serpent."
In 1654, Peter Lindstrom, a Swedish engineer, surveyed and mapped the Delaware from its mouth to the falls. In his treatise, which accompanied the map, he speaks of the products of the coun- try. He says : "Maize or Indian corn grows of various colors- white, red, blue, brown, yellow and pied. It is planted in hillocks and squares, as the Swedes do hops. In each hillock they sow six or seven grains of corn, which grow so high as to rise an ell above a man's head. Each stalk has six or seven ears, with long, slender and pointed leaves, which are of the same color with the corn. Each ear is one and a half quarter, but mostly half an ell long. In some parts they are as thick as the thickest man's arm, in others smaller. They have ten, twelve, nay, fourteen rows of grains from the bottom to the top, which, with God's blessing, make a thousand fold increase. When these are just ripe, and they are broiled on hot coals, they are delightful to eat. Out of the white
6 Hudde's report.
23
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
and yellow maize they make bread, but the blue, brown, black and pied are brewed into beer, which is very strong, but not remark- ably clear." Tobacco grew wild in great quantities, and was also cultivated. The map, while not entirely correct, proves that the Swedes were familiar with the river, and the country on both sides a few miles inland. The names of the streams, which appear to be a mixture of Indian, French, and probably Swedish, cannot all be mnade out. The Poquessing is called Ponetquessingh ; the Penne- pack, Penickpacka ; the falls at Morrisville, La Cateract d' Asin- pink; the channel between the mainland and an island just below the falls, La Rivier de Schamats, and the island itself, Kentkateck. The next island below is Menahakonck, and the channel on this side La Rivier de Sanckhickon. What was afterward Welcome creek, on whose bank William Penn built his manor house, is La Rivier of Sipaessingz-Kyl, and Burlington island, opposite Bristol, Me- chansio Eyland. The Neshaminy is called the river of Inckus. This map enables us to fix the falls at Morrisville as identical with Alummengh.7 In September, 1655, in the absence of Gov- ernor Printz, the Dutch governor of New York sent a fleet of seven vessels and seven hundred men into the Delaware, which reduced the forts and took possession of the settlements. This put an end forever to Swedish empire on the river. Although it was a bloodless conquest, the captured Swedes were treated with severity. The Dutch authorities divided the western bank of the river into two jurisdictions-the West-India company, and the City of Am- sterdam-the latter extending from about Wilmington to the falls, at Trenton. While the Dutch retained control immigration was encouraged, and an occasional vessel arrived from Amsterdam with settlers. At the time of the conquest the population on the river was about four hundred, mostly Swedes.8 The home government sent out horses and cattle in considerable numbers, on condition that the settlers were to return them in four years with one-half the increase.
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