USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > Bristol > A history of Bristol borough in the county of Bucks, state of Pennsylvania, anciently known as "Buckingham"; being the third oldest town and second chartered borough in Pennsylvania, from its earliest times to the present year 1911 > Part 19
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"The day on which he left Philadelphia, the writer, with several of the citizens of Bristol, among whom were John Dorrance, Sr., and Robert Tyler, went to the city. Shortly after the boat left, some of the passengers for the purpose of drawing from Tyler his sentiments on what he thought would be the results of the war between the North and South, asked him if he believed the South- ern people would sustain their leaders in trying to destroy the Government. He said he believed from what he knew of Southern character, that unless Congress passed a stringent law to protect them in their rights to hold their slaves and recover them when they fled to the
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North, unmolested, their leaders would be sustained, and he thought if a war took place it would be a long and bloody one, the consequences of which no man could cal- culate. Mr. Dorrance replied and said if a war was begun he didn't believe it would last ninety days. Tyler, some- what excited, said: "Why John, if a battle between the Northern and Southern troops was to take place on your farm the blood would run to the bits of the horses' bridles." The conversation was kept up with bitterness until the arrival of the boat at the city, when it was learned that a meeting of the citizens to sustain the Government would be held at Independence Square, on that day. At the meeting, one of the speakers stated that it was reported Robert Tyler was in sympathy with the South, and was in the habit of speaking in their defense. The excitement was great. Some one said he ought to be lynched. It appeared that an attempt would be made to arrest him. One of his friends, who was present, fearing for his safety, hurried to his office and informed him of what was said about him at the meeting, and advised him to leave the city immediately. Fearing to be seen in the street he hired a carriage and was driven to Frank- ford, where he took the cars to Bristol. In the mean- time parties were searching for him in the city with a view of arresting him for treason. News had reached Bristol that a mob in Philadelphia were in search of Robert Tyler. Had they arrested him he would have been locked up and deprived of his liberty. There was to be a meeting and parade in Bristol on the night of his arrival. His friends, believing him to be a loyal man, fearing an attempt might be made to molest him, and for the high estimation they had for his family, called on Mr. Lee, who was to have charge of the parade, and requested him not to march his men in the neighborhood of Mr. Tyler's house. He assured them that no demonstration should be made that would give any cause of alarm to Mr. Tyler or his family. About the time the procession got into line it commenced to rain; when they reached Dorrance Street, the rain increasing, Lee marched his men up to Wood, down to Mill, and they were dismissed, no demonstration having been made against Mr. Tyler.
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Colonel Montgomery and other citizens called on the family and assured them that they would not be dis- turbed. They were in great fear and excitement, and the next morning Mr. Tyler left for New York.
"A few days after, the writer (Wm. Kinsey), being in New York, passing up Courtlandt Street, met Mr. Tyler and his wife on their way to the depot. They both ap- peared glad to meet me and Mr. Tyler commenced to talk about his exit from Philadelphia. He inquired particu- larly about the state of feeling of the people in relation to the charges made against him, and said he had been maligned and misrepresented by persons who had led him into conversation on the questions of the times for the purpose of misrepresenting him in his attitude to the Government through malice and political jealousy. He had no interest in the South personally or pecuniarily ; his wife and children were born in the North, and here was his home and friends. He was for peace and not for war. In the course of our conversation he asked if I thought he would meet with personal interference if he returned to Philadelphia. He said he had no fears of any one molesting him in Bristol. I advised him not to return to the city until the excitement against him had died out, and recommended that he write to the Mayor of Philadelphia stating fully and clearly his feelings and attitude toward the Government, and ask him in case he returned to Philadelphia, if he thought he would be molested, and if he were, whether he could protect him from violence. He thanked me for my advice and we parted.
"After the close of the war I was at the Merchants' House in Philadelphia, and there I met Mr. Tyler ; he had arrived the night before. He said he was pleased to meet an old citizen of Bristol, and in course of conversation referred to our last meeting in New York. I said to him : "You should not have left the North; it was a mistake; you had better remained, as the excitement against you would have soon died out." He replied: "I took your advice and wrote to the Mayor of Philadelphia; he promptly answered my letter and said he thought my re- turn to Philadelphia would be attended with serious.
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consequences; that the excitement against me was so great that he could not promise me protection from per- sonal assault. Finding myself, as it were, an outlaw, I had no other alternative but to leave the North and take a position that was repugnant to my feelings and against my best interests."
After Mr. Tyler cast his lot with the confederacy, his property was confiscated by the Government and his household goods sold at public sale. A clock belonging to Mr. Tyler was purchased by the late John Worrell, and years afterwards, while Mr. Worrell was in the em- ploy of our fellow-townsman, Mr. Joseph R. Grundy, he presented the clock to his employer. Mr. Grundy still holds it in his possession, a "timely" reminder of a prom- ising young man, who started in life with every pros- pect of becoming eminently successful in the line of his chosen profession, but who, by his allegiance to an unholy cause, fell short of his highest ambition.
A Whale in the Delaware at Bristol .- "Our citizens were treated to a free exhibition and some of the more hazardous, to novel and lively sport, by the appearance of a black whale (grampus) in the Delaware, on Monday last (April 22, 1861). His whaleship passed up and down the river, between Burlington, and for a short distance above Bristol, several times, and was repeatedly seen at different times, spouting a stream of water several feet high. Our sportsmen with the oar succeeded in nearly shoaling him several times, and once had him for a time fast with a harpoon, from which both it and they more luckily escaped, being taken. It was eventually captured on Tuesday near the site of 'the treaty elm,' Kensington. It was said to be about forty-six feet long." (Bache's Index.)
Death of Dr. John Phillips .- Dr. Phillips, one of the most beloved physicians who ever practised in Bristol, died tranquilly, surrounded by his family, in his home, on Tuesday evening, December 31, 1861. He was re- garded by his professional brethren with great respect for his fine talents, large experience, and unusual skill as
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a practitioner. Indeed, while his modesty forbade him to make the least assumption of superior powers, he was unquestionably admitted by all who were brought in con- tact with him, to be one of the most able and successful physicians in this state. In addition to his professional attainments, his courtly manners and generous qualities recommended him to the favor of all. He was borne to his last resting place on the Saturday afternoon following his death amid the lamentations of the whole town. A constant tide of people moving sad and slow, passed into the house of the deceased to take a last look at their venerable friend. It was not idle curiosity that led them there-many came in humble apparel and went away weeping. The poorest as well as the richest felt that they had lost a friend. The memory of kind words, patient watching in sickness, little delicacies carried to the sufferer's bedside by his own generous hand-aye, and bread for the starving-the recollection of these things brought many humble mourners to his coffin. His remains were taken to the Episcopal Church (St. James'), where appropriate services were read. Rev. Mr. Pierson, the pastor of the church, in a short dis- course, spoke of the many conversations he had with the deceased during his sickness and said that the doctor requested him to bear testimony to his friends, that he had an abiding faith in Christ his Saviour, and that if he was permitted to recover he would consecrate the re- mainder of his days to religion. Dr. Phillips was in his seventy-first year. He had practiced medicine in Bristol and the surrounding neighborhood, for upwards of fifty years. His manner in the sick room was always tender and sympathizing, and in cases of serious illness, no sac- rifice or attention was considered too great on his part, where he could thereby benefit the patient.
Bristol Woolen Mill Company .- The Bristol Woolen Mill Company was organized in 1864 with a capital of $60,000, which was afterward increased to $75,000, and a large two-story building was erected for the manufac- ture of fancy knit goods of wool, at that time very popu- lar for ladies' wear. This enterprise enjoyed a brief
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period of fair success, but fashions changed and after a season of unprofitable business, it shared the fate of its unfortunate predecessors and was closed with consider- able loss. The property passed into other hands and was converted into a hosiery mill, being run by Lewis Jones, of Germantown, under the management of Thomas Hughes, of this place. It had an aggregate of about 25,000 square feet of floor surface, and was fully equipped with cards, spindles, and knitting machines, adapted to the manufacture of plain and fancy cotton and merino hosiery. After the retirement of Lewis Jones and the death of Thomas Hughes, the business was continued for a period by Miss Mattie Hughes. For the last few years the building has been unoccupied.
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EPOCH VIII.
BRISTOL A MANUFACTURING TOWN.
From 1865, the Close of the Civil War, to 1911, the Present Year.
Introduction .- Mention has previously been made of the lethargy into which the town subsided, following the destruction of the coal trade, by the construction of the outlet lock at New Hope and the shipping of coal from Philadelphia by the Reading Railroad Company. This lethargy continued for several years, extening down through the period of the Civil War. Then the factories came. Employment was given to many. The town be- gan to grow. The hum of the spindles was heard, the click of the loom became music to the ear of many will- ing workers who had no opportunity before, the carpen- ter and mason became busy, and an air of general pros- perity again prevailed. Since 1868 many mills and fac- tories have been erected, the invested capital of which amounts to several million dollars.
Industrial Progress .- Interesting paper read by Jos- eph R. Grundy, Bristol's leading manufacturer, at the spring meeting of the Bucks County Historical Society, held in the Friends' Meeting House, Bristol (1910) :
"The west bank of the Delaware River, we are told, was first settled in the neighborhood of Chester, by a body of Swedes about 1677, and shortly following that settlement, the ancestors of some of us found their way farther east and established for themselves a home within what is now the County of Bucks. So numerous had this settlement become that at the end of twenty years we find the provincial government petitioned for the estab-
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lishment of a market town at what is now the site of Bristol, and four years later, or in 1701, Samuel Carpen- ter, described as a wealthy merchant of Philadelphia, attracted by the water power, furnished a mill property for the grinding of grain and the sawing of timber. This enterprise heralded a beginning of considerable activity, as it afforded the settlers a medium of profitably clearing their lands and also of grinding the grain which they were then beginning to grow upon the lands that had been already gotten under cultivation.
"This industry undoubtedly was responsible for the fact that there followed the establishment of shipbuilding upon Mill Creek, the timber for which the local mill aided in preparing, and further aided in providing cargoes for the ships when built to carry, and thus it was for prac- tically a century the industry of our neighborhood con- sisted in the building of ships, the sawing of timber and the grinding of grain, which was freely exported to various parts of the world.
"In 1815 we are told that a woolen mill was established along the banks of Mill Creek, but its existence was of short duration, a quarrel having occurred in the firm which resulted in the removal of the machinery to Groveville, N. J.
"The year 1827 saw the beginning of the construction by the state of the Delaware Division of the Lehigh Canal which was completed three years later, and fur- nished thereby an outlet from the anthracite coal regions of the north to tidewater. This development brought much activity in shipping lines and much labor found employment in handling the cargoes of coal which found their way to the sea by way of this new development.
"In 1853 a body of capitalists gathered together the sum of $12,000, and in the neighborhood of the junction of Beaver Dam Road and the northwestern side of the canal established what was known as the Bristol Forge, for the purpose of making wrought iron.
"About this time; however, the borough met with a severe setback; the extension of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad from Bethlehem to Philadelphia, by which route thereafter they shipped the coal to their
JOSEPH R. GRUNDY, Bristol's Leading Manufacturer.
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yards in Port Richmond on the Delaware; thus taking from our town the employment and business which had for a quarter of a century played an important part in its growth and prosperity.
"The period of time from 1855 to 1860 is recorded as one of great depression due largely to this cause. It will be noted that up to this period substantially all the activity and business development had been created by the handling of raw products either of the mines or of the soil, and exporting same. The requirements of our people in all other than food products being imported from abroad.
"The year 1860 found our country in a condition of great turmoil and alarm. A man had been elected Presi- dent of the United States who was not in sympathy with Southern traditions, and the South, which for many years had been in charge of the Government, was upon the verge of secession. With the control of the Government thus far in their hands and with secession in their minds, it was but natural that ships, arms and munitions of war should have been transferred by those in charge, to points south of Mason and Dixon's line, in anticipation of the coming struggle. Thus when Abraham Lincoln subscribed to the oath of office as President of the United States, he found the Government of our country con- fronted not only with secession and civil war, but also stripped of means to enforce by force of arms, the laws of our country and cope with the rebellion which was then before him. In order to provide and equip the armies and navies of the United States, large expendi- tures confronted the Government; as the treasury was as depleted as were the arsenals, large sums of money had to be borrowed on the faith of the Government, and to provide for the interest and principal of these obliga- tions every method of taxation was, in the course of the struggle, resorted to, including heavy import duties upon all kinds of manufactured products into our country.
"The import duties on manufacturers from abroad, high as they were, was not the only drawback to procur- ing goods from foreign lands. Many enterprises of a privateering character were entered into by men taking
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advantage of the condition in which the Government of our country found itself and harassed in the name of the Confederacy the shipping trade of Northern states, and so our foreign trade relations were not only made diffi- cult by high tariff duties, but hazardous by the fear of capture by those engaged in preying on our commerce.
"The effect of the Government being a very large pur- chaser of all commodities, such as clothing, boots and shoes, arms and armament, to say nothing of the general equipment necessary to maintain large armies in the field, coupled with the requirements of our people, also the great abundance of money due to the large expenditures on the part of the Government for war purposes; created great opportunity for domestic manufacture of all classes of merchandise. Under this stimulance domestic indus- tries to meet these requirements sprang up and flourished on every side, and the industrial strides made by the North during the Civil War, reflects their most prosper- ous period in American history.
"The close of the Civil War, in 1865, brought many problems to those in charge of our Government, but none that they approached with more serious consideration than that of restoring the revenues of the Government to a peace basis and yet not disturb the splendid industrial development which had been created by the conditions before described. To prepare for this the Congress of the United States appointed a Revenue Commission con- sisting of David A. Wells, of Connecticut ; S. S. Hayes, of Massachusetts, and Stephen A. Colwell, of Pennsylvania. The work of this commission covered a period of two years and proved to be a masterly review of the revenue laws of the land. In the latter part of 1866, this commis- sion made its report to the then Secretary of the Trea- sury the Hon. Hugh McCollough, who after approving same and certifying to it, laid it before the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Hon. Schuyler S. Colfax. who in turn approved and certified the report to the Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee of Congress, the Hon. Justin S. Morrell, who made this report the basis of what has since been known in history as the Morrell Tariff Act of 1867. The passage of this
JOSHUA PEIRCE. Bristol's Industrial Pioneer.
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law brought continued confidence and encouragement to our industrial development as a country and formed the basis upon which every protective tariff bill has since been constructed.
"In the industrial uplift following 1860, Bristol shared.
"The Bristol Forge, located on Buckley Street, became the scene of great activity. Its original capital of $12,000 was raised to $125,000, and its products found a ready market both for Government and domestic uses. The prosperity of this company led to the erecting of a similar concern known as the Keystone Forge Company. In 1864 the Bristol Woolen Mills were established on Buck- ley Street for the manufacture of knit fabrics. This prop- erty passed through several hands and afforded, up until recent years, the employment of many hundreds of people.
"The year 1868 is notable in Bristol's industrial history as marking the return of Joshua Peirce to Bristol after several years' residence in the western part of Pennsyl- vania. Impressed by the favorable location of Bristol for industrial development and the opportunities which the Morrell Tariff Act created; he established the Living- :stone Mills for the manufacture from wool of felt products. He actively and enthusiastically entered into the industrial development of Bristol, and in 1871 was instrumental in establishing the Bristol Foundry, since operated by ex-Burgess Thomas B. Harkins. The sash and planing mills now operated by Messrs. Peirce & Williams were located in Bristol in 1873, and in 1875, likewise through Mr. Peirce's activities, the Bristol Roll- ing Mills were built by Messrs. Nevegold & Scheide.
In 1876 Mr. Peirce organized for the further industrial development of Bristol the Bristol Improvement Com- pany, and the same year this company erected the worsted mills, which were leased to the then firm of Grundy Brothers and Campion. In 1877 the Bristol Im- provement Company erected for L. M. Harned & Co., the mill known as the Keystone Mill for the manufacture of fringe and braids. In 1880 the same company erected the Star Mills for a firm engaged in the manufacture of knit goods, and in 1882 the Wall Paper Mills, which have
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since been operated under various management were also erected by this company. About this time Samuel Apple- ton erected the mill located on Buckley Street near Beaver Dam Road, now operated by Henderson & Co., as a carpet mill, and in 1887 the Improvement Company erected the fine property of the Bristol Carpet Mills for the then firm of Thomas L. Leedom & Co.
"In 1889 the leather factory, now known as the Corona Leather Works, was established by Boston capitalists, and in 1906 the Patent Leather Company engaged in a similar line of work to that of the Corona Leather Works, was established by its enterprising president, our towns- man, Mr. C. L. Anderson.
"The year following, the Standard Cast Iron Pipe and. Foundry Company erected the large works in the town- ship just east of the borough line. This last mentioned mill property about completes the industrial enterprises now in existence in our district. It is interesting to note some of the deductions which are drawn from Bristol's industrial development.
"The first is that from the settlement of our neighbor- ยท hood in 1677 to 1860, a period of 183 years, the population had but grown to about 2,500 people, and in assessed valuation the borough reached a property valuation of slightly under $500,000. During the past fifty years the industrial conditions which had led to the development of Bristol up to 1860 have entirely passed away. The busi- ness of the canal for the most part was diverted else- where, the grist mill has long since passed out of active operation, and with it the saw mill, and in their place industrial activity was found in the manufacture of iron, of carpets, of hosiery, of leather products, mill work, and yarn and cloths for the clothing of our people.
"In the 183 years since the settlement, to 1860, our population had grown to 2,500. Fifty years later we approximate 10,000 souls. The assessed valuation, which in 183 years had reached nearly $500,000 in 1860, since has grown to $3,000,000, and the number of people em- ployed in the mills in 1910 approximate 3,300; the wages annually paid to these operatives total $1,750,000, while
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the value of the manufactured product amounts to sub- stantially $12,000,000 annually.
"The past decade, in Bristol especially, has been one of marked prosperity in its industrial development; its population has increased 40 per cent. over that of 1900, and never in the history of the borough has there been a year when expenditures for development and advance- ment of the community will be as great as that of the year 1910.
"As stated before, in the 183 years of the life of our neighborhood up to 1860, the assessed valuation of our town was less than $500,000. Yet this year do we find one enterprise under way, that of changing of the lines of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which will involve an ex- penditure of more than $1,000,000. Also we find in the development and extension of mill operations already located within our neighborhood contracts made for the expenditure in new buildings and equipment approximat- ing $750,000. In building operations for homes for our people, probably not less than $50,000 additional will be expended, while many more homes would find ready rental if constructed, all directly reflecting a condition of business activity and industrial development much to be desired and encouraged.
"Those of us who have been identified with Bristol's growth during the past generation, naturally take much pride in what has been accomplished. But however grati- fying the past may have been we feel that should there be no change in the fiscal policy of the Government which has made possible our development in the past, the future of our neighborhood is very bright. We.believe the work now under way by the Pennsylvania Railroad will be a great factor in this direction, as it will open up some three miles of lands for development along their new lines which heretofore has been inaccessible, owing to physical difficulties: The removal of passenger tracks at grade crossings from the heart of our town, thus afford- ing free access and communication to all sections, is something greatly to be desired, and the development which naturally will follow in trolley service will bear an important part in our growth and added convenience.
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