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 24
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299
EARLY SETTLERS IN MONTGOMERY.
Griffith. 3 This tract included the Gordon or Rynear property, on the Horsham road.
Theophilus Williams, who married Grace Foulke, Edward's daughter, was also an early settler, and the place where he lived, at the upper end of the township, adjoining the Hatfield line, is shown1 by the description of the road laid out from there, down- ward, through the township.
James Shattuck, who may or may not have been an actual resident, received in 1708 a patent for 250 acres, it being sur- veyed to him in right of Richard Pierce. This he sold in 171 I to William Morgan, who in 1723 sold part of it to Joseph Ambler. The latter was the first of the name in Montgomery, and the ancestor of a large family. His tract included the farm, recently the estate of Edward Ambler, fronting on the Horsham road, above the State road.
John Bartholomew, whose name frequently appears in the road records (chap. XVI.), bought, in 1716, 150 acres of Mar- garet Pugh, situated where the hamlet of Montgomery Square now is. John is said to have been a weaver, as well as a farmer, and he established, it is believed, the first hotel at that place,-proba- bly near the close of his life. He was the son of George Bar- tholomew, who at one time owned the famous Blue Anchor tavern in Philadelphia, and who is said to have been a descendant of the Barthelémi family, of France. From a deed recorded in Philadelphia, it appears that John moved to Montgomery from Bucks county. He owned two farms, a house and lot in the city, and a number of slaves. Among his grandchildren were Col. Edward Bartholomew, of Philadelphia county, and Capt. Benja- min Bartholomew, of Chester county, both of whom were mem- bers of the Constitutional Convention of 1776, and bore a dis-
1 See preceding chapter, p. 289.
300
HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF GWYNEDD.
tinguished part in the Revolutionary War. He died October 30, 1756, at an advanced age (71), leaving a widow, Mary, and eleven children. Seward, in his Journal, mentions that the cele- brated preacher George Whitefield spent one night at the house of John Bartholomew, of Montgomery, after preaching in the neighborhood, and was kindly entertained by his family.
Jenkin Evans, an early settler in Montgomery, who came from Wales, purchased 108 acres of Thomas Shute, in December, 1717. This tract lay in the north corner of the township, adjoin- ing the Hatfield line, and between the road to Perkasie (now the Bethlehem turnpike) and the county line. He may have been a brother to David Evans, who bought a large tract of land in Hatfield about the same time, and who was (through his daughter Rachel, his only child, who married Peter Evans), the ancestor of a numerous family in Hatfield and Montgomery. Jenkin Evans conveyed to the Baptist congregation, in 1731, an acre off the corner of his farm for their church and burying ground. His son, or grandson, Jenkin Evans, jun., removed into New Britain, bought the Butler grist mill on Neshaminy (where the village of Chalfont now is), and was some time a member of the Legislature from Bucks county.
Among the very earliest settlers in Montgomery was Thomas Lewis, a native of Wales, who in 1701 bought 484 acres in the south corner of the township from Thomas Fairman. He was, no doubt, a Friend. He died in the summer of 1723, leaving 280 acres of his farm to his son George, 150 acres to his son Richard, and 50 to a grandson, Thomas. George Lewis married, in 1708, Jane Roberts, and was a prominent member of Gwynedd meeting. The memorial of him by the monthly meeting says " he was a native of Wales, of a peaceable and inoffensive life and conversation. He was an elder thirty years, even to his death,
301
EARLY SETTLERS IN MONTGOMERY.
which was on the 9th of 12th month, 1752, in the 72d year of his age." He left but one child, Elizabeth, who married, in 1728, Isaac Jones, of whom some details will be given below.
Richard Lewis appears to have had, besides his son Thomas who got the 50 acres of land, other children, including Edward and Mary. Thomas married, in 1734, Hannah Morgan, daughter of Edward, jun.
Isaac Jones came to Montgomery while quite a young man. He was the son of David and Katherine Jones, who came from Wales in 1699, and settled at Merion. Isaac was born 7th mo. 5, 1708, and married, 1728, Elizabeth Lewis, daughter of George, she being eighteen and he twenty. Notwithstanding this early marriage, they " lived happily together " for seventy years. Old George Lewis, it is said, made an agreement with them a few years before his death, by which he gave them a life right in his real estate, in return for food and clothes, a room in his house, the use of a riding-horse, and two barrels of cider a year. He reserved the right to cook for himself, if he preferred, in which case they were to pay him £12 a year, in lieu of the " diet."
Isaac Jones had purchased, in 1746, some land of Thomas Lewis, jr. On this he built, in 1765, a large brick house, which stood for more than a century. In it, in 1798, he died, past the age of ninety, and his wife, surviving two years, attained an equal age. Their son Isaac married Gainor Ambler,' and this couple also died in the old house, after a married life of nearly seventy years,-Isaac, in 1840, aged 93, and Gainor, June 20, 1847, in her 92d year. Isaac's sister, Ruth, who had lived there all her life, died in the same house, at the age of 88 ; and Mary Roberts, daughter of Eldad, who made her home with the Joneses, died there also, in 1859, aged nearly 93. This house,
1 Gainor was the daughter of John and Ann (Foulke) Ambler. See Foulke Genealogy.
302
HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF GWYNEDD.
which was pulled down some years ago, stood in the extreme south corner of the township, on a cross road from the turnpike to the Horsham road.
Of John Jones, carpenter, who settled in Montgomery about 1710, taking up about 300 acres, part of which must have been Alexander Edwards's purchase, adjoining Gwynedd, some special genealogical details will be given later. He was an active and useful citizen, prominent for many years in the business affairs of the township.
A return was made, in 1734, to Governor Thomas Penn, of the names of the freeholders in the several townships of Phila- delphia, " with the quantity of land they respectively hold there- in, according to the uncertain returns of the constables." This list for Montgomery township shows twenty-nine names, as follows :
Acres.
Acres.
Joseph Naylor, . . 189
Garret Peters, 150
Robert Thomas,
. 200
Moses Peters,
. 150
John Starky,
200
Rowland Roberts, . 100
Joseph Ambler
90
Francis Dawes, . . 100
John Bartholomew,
300
Thomas Williams, . .
100
Joseph Eaton,
150
William Story,
. 100
William Williams, .
200
Richard Lewis, 150
William Morgan, . 100
Isaac Jones, 100
Samuel Thomas, 100
John Robert, 200
John Williams, . 100
James David,
100
Joseph Bate, . 200
David Evans, 100
Thos. Bartholomew,
30
Isaac James, 200
Griffith Hugh, 100
Jenkin Evans,
50
John Jones, carp'r, . 300
Jenkin Jones,
John Roberts, 90
Isaac James, who is named as holding 200 acres of land, was one of an important and numerous family, who settled early in Montgomery and New Britain. John James, his father, came
303
EARLY SETTLERS IN MONTGOMERY.
from Pembrokeshire, Wales, in 171 I, and bought land in Mont- gomery. When the Baptist congregation was organized, in 1719, he, his wife, Sarah, and their three sons, William, Thomas, and Josiah, were five of the ten constituent members. John and his two elder sons bought 1,000 acres of "the Hudson tract," in New Britain, in 1720, and probably removed there at that time.
XVIII. Affairs Before the Revolution.
F EW other than Welsh settlers made their appearance in either Gwynedd or Montgomery, before 1734; a small number from England were the only exceptions. The greater part of them were, or soon became, Friends ; a minority, chiefly settlers in Montgomery, were Baptists. But as they were all originally members of the Established Church of England, they were the objects of concern from Rev. Evan Evans, the Welsh missionary preacher sent out by the Bishop of London, in 1700. He wrote to the bishop, in 1707, describing the Welsh settlers at Radnor and Merion, and added :
There is another Welsh settlement called Montgomery, in the county of Philadelphia, twenty miles distant from the city, where there are con- siderable numbers of Welsh people, formerly in their native country of the communion of the Church of England ; but about the year 1698, two years before my arrival in that country, most of them joined with the Quakers, but by God's blessing some of them were induced to return, and I have baptized their children and preached often to them. I visited them since, and prevailed upon them to meet every Lord's-day, about forty in number, where one that can understand the language well, and is a sober, discreet man, reads the prayers of the church, the proper psalms and lessons, omit- ting the absolution, etc., what properly belongs to the priest's office, and then reads some portion in a book of devotion to the people.
By " Montgomery " he evidently means the whole settlement, including Gwynedd. But it is difficult to see where a congrega- tion of forty could have been collected from among the settlers,
305
AFFAIRS BEFORE THIE REVOLUTION.
between 1700 and 1707, for the Established Church. Such a gathering certainly was not long maintained. Some members of St. Thomas's church, at Whitemarsh, may, at so carly a day, have belonged in Gwynedd or Montgomery, but they must have been very few, and there was no other Episcopal church within their reach for many years.
The Baptist meeting in Montgomery, the oldest of the de- nomination in Montgomery county, and the fourth oldest in Pennsylvania,1 owed its humble beginning to the zeal of a hand- ful of the Welsh settlers. June 20, 1719, ten persons formed the society,-John Evans, and Sarah, his wife ; John James, Elizabeth, his wife, and their three sons, William, Thomas, and Josiah ; James Lewis, David Williams, and James Davis. John Evans, who heads this list of the organizers, came into the town- ship, it is said, in 1710, and was from Carmarthenshire, Wales. He and his wife " had been members of a Baptist church there, of which James James was pastor." In 1711 John and Elizabeth James arrived. They had been " members of the Rhydwillym church in Pembrokeshire, of which John Jenkins was pastor." A log church was built in 1720, on an acre of ground conveyed later (1731) by Jenkin Evans. This lot has since been, at differ- ent times, much enlarged. In 1731 a stone church was built, 42 by 24 feet, with a gallery. It had in 1770, "a stove and two fire-places" ; a school-house also stood on the lot. In 1816 this building was taken down and a new one erected, 55 by 50 feet, " with a gallery all around." In 1883 this was enlarged, "the walls being raised, the length increased 15 feet, and a basement story provided."
Since 1720 thirteen pastors have served the church : (1) Ben- jamin Griffith, the zealous though uneducated pastor of the first
1 Its predecessors were Cold Spring (Bucks Co.), 1684; Pennepack, 1687 ; Phila- delphia, 1695.
306
HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF GWYNEDD.
flock, who served from 1720 to 1767, when he died, aged 84 ; (2) John Thomas, who had been assistant minister for many years, and who had sole charge from 1768 until 1781 ; (3) David Loofborough, under whose pastorate, in 1783, the church was regularly chartered by the Legislature, and who remained from 1782 to 1787 ; 1 (4) Joshua Jones, who was pastor from 1795 to 1802, when he died on the day after Christmas, aged 82; (5) Silas Hough, M. D., an earnest and able man, who acted as pas- tor from 1804 until 1822, and at the same time practiced as a physician through the country 'round. He died May 14, 1823 ; (6) Samuel Smith, who was pastor four years, from 1822 to 1826 ; (7) James B. Bowen, who was pastor from 1830 to 1831; (8) Thomas T. Robinson, who closed his service of seven years by his death, May 27, 1838 ; (9) William A. Matthews, who con- tinued ten years from 1840 to 1850; (10) George Higgins, who took charge May I, 1850, and continued until his death, March 9, 1869 ; (II) Norman B. Baldwin, from November, 1869, to July, 1887 ; (12) Joseph L. Plush, from April, 1888, to July, 1893 ; (13) Charles Henry Pinchbeck, who assumed charge January 1, 1894.
The Montgomery Baptist Church was the parent of the church at New Britain, 1744, and of that at Hilltown, about 1781. All three were formed largely of families of Welsh descent. Theophilus Cornell, some of whose progenitors are buried in the graveyard at Montgomery, has recently left to the trustees of the church about $12,000, the income of which (ex- cepting $25) is applicable to the maintenance of the church. A
1 " This was the period of the greatest religious declension the Church had seen. The Church had but a handful of members, being reduced to twenty- eight." (Edward Mathews.)
307
AFFAIRS BEFORE THE REVOLUTION.
new parsonage has been built out of the accumulations of this fund.1
Towamencin? township, which had been unorganized, and re- garded as a part " adjacent Gwynedd," was created in 1728. At the March session of the Court, in Philadelphia, a petition was presented, which is thus minuted on the record :
Upon the petition of divers Inhabitants between the townships of Gwyneth and Skippack Creek, on the north-easterly side of Providence, setting forth that a great many families are settled upon a large tract of land containing about 5, 500 acres, whereof a Draught is to the said peti- tion annexed, praying this Court would erect the same into a Township, the Court taking the said Petition into consideration do erect the said Portion of land into a township as the same is laid out and described in the Draught and that the same be called by the name of Towamensing.
The petition above mentioned bears this memorandum : " The desire of the subscribers is that the township may be called Towa- mensen [that] being the Indian name of the creek yt springs and runs through the same." The signers to the petition are twenty-eight in uumber. Several of their signatures are unde- cipherable, the remainder being as follows :
Jacob Hill, Joseph Lucken,
Gaetschalck Gaetschalck,
Cadwalader Evans,
Abraham Lucken,
William Evan,
Daniel Morgan,
Lorenz Hendrich,
John Edwards,
Daniel Williams,
John Morgan,
Lennert Hendrich,
P. Wench,
Edward Morgan,
Hugh Evan,
henry Frey, henry hendrich,
Jan Gaetschalcks,
Peter Tagen,
herman Gaetschalck,
Christian Wever.
1 A good historical sketch of Montgomery Baptist Church, by .Rev. N. B. Baldwin. then pastor, was embodied in the Proceedings of the Philadelphia Baptist Association, 1884, and since then Edward Mathews has written and A. K. Thomas has published (Ambler, Pa., 1895) a substantial pamphlet, giving the church records, lists of members, and historical notes of much value. My own references to this church in the first edi- tion of " Gwynedd " I have now [1896] considerably enlarged, and have corrected in several particulars.
2 The name of the township is here given as usually printed. I am of opinion that Towamensing is a better spelling. The name, as the settlers say in their petition, is Indian.
308
HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF GWYNEDD.
The Schwenckfelders, forming a compact body of German settlers, came into Pennsylvania, in 1734, and while most of them secured lands in the adjoining townships on the north-west, espe- cially Towamencin, some came into Gwynedd, either in 1734, or within a few years afterward. Their settlement in the western corner of the township, adjoining their meeting-house in Towa- mencin, has since grown to cover a dozen or more farms, and to include about that number of families. Their religious views, especially their opposition to war, made them, like the Menno- nites and Dunkers, congenial settlers in Penn's province, and friendly neighbors with the Quakers in Gwynedd. The Schwenk- felders, one of the most interesting of the German Protestant bodies, were early dissenters from the Roman church, followers of Caspar von Schwenkfeld of Silesia, born in 1490, died in 1561. They had been bitterly persecuted for almost two cen- turies. They were sheltered, 1726, on his estate at Berthelsdorf, in Saxony, by Count Zinzendorf, the Moravian father, and in April, 1733, a party of nineteen set off from there for Pennsyl- vania, arriving in Philadelphia September 18' of that year. The next year a larger party, the main body, came in the ship Saint Andrew, John Stedman master, reaching Philadelphia Septem- ber 12, O. S. There were in this party eighty-nine males above sixteen years old, and forty-one under, with 133 women and female children, making 261 altogether. Among them were sev- eral of those whose family names have since been common in Gwynedd, including George and Melchior Hübner, George and Melchior Kribel, George Anders, Balthazar and George Hoff-
1 This date Old Style. One of the nineteen died on the way, and six were added to the party. The diary of the long and arduous journey, kept, it is supposed, by David Scholtze, is printed (in English) in Penna. Magazine, Vol. 10, p. 167. They went to Altona, (until 1867, part of Denmark), and sailed from Rotterdam for Philadelphia, on the Pennsylvania Merchant, John Stedman master.
309
AFFAIRS BEFORE THE REVOLUTION.
man, Christopher and Melchior Scholtze (Schultz), and others.' Their arrival is still piously celebrated, cach year, by their descendants, at the meeting-house in Towamencin, as “ Gedächt- niss Tag."
I have not made careful studies as to the precise time when the Schwenkfelder families came into the township, but the Heebners, Kriebles, and others doubtless came early. Melchior Krieble is said to have come 1735. Christopher Neuman, or Neiman, a Schwenckfelder, who came to Philadelphia in the immigration of 1734, was in Gwynedd before 1751, for in that year he bought 225 acres in the western corner of the township (afterward, in 1768, purchased by Philip Hoot, ancestor of the family of that name), from the executors of Edward Williams, and he is described in the deed as " of Gwynedth." Neuman's wife was Susanna Muehmer ; their daughter Rosina married Heinrich Schneider,-changed, later, to Henry Snyder,-and had a large family : Rosina, George, Christopher, Henry, Chris- tian, Abraham, Isaac, Susanna, John, and Regina. The father was a Lutheran, when he courted Rosina (and ran away with her, at night, after she descended from her window upon a ladder, Mr. Mathews says), but he and his family became Schwenck- felders subsequently.
Previous to 1734 there were substantially no German settlers in Gwynedd. The list of freeholders furnished in that year to Governor Thomas Penn, " according to the uncertain returns of the constables," shows forty-nine names of Gwynedd landholders, and of these only one, Leonard Hartling, is apparently a Ger-
] Tobias Hartranft was one of this party of emigrants, and the ancestor (great- great-great-grandfather) of Gen. John F. Hartranft, Governor of Pennsylvania, 1873-79. A careful historical study of the Schwenkfelders has been undertaken by Prof. Chester D. Hartranft, of Hartford, Conn., another of the descendants of Tobias. A Historical Sketch, by Judge Christopher Heydrick, Franklin, Pa., is included in a volume of Genealogical Records of the Schwenkfelders, published 1879.
310
HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF GWYNEDD.
man. Five, John Wood, Peter Wells, John Chilcott, John Parker, and Thomas Wyat, were probably English. The other names are unmistakably Welsh. The whole list is as follows :
Evan Griffith,
William Roberts,
Robert Parry,
John Griffith,
Evan Roberts,
Jenkin Morris,
Hugh Griffith,
Edward Roberts,
John Chileott,
John Jones, penman,
Robert Roberts,
Leonard Hartling,
John Jones, weaver,
Edward Foulke,
Peter Wells,
John Jones, son of Robert,
Evan Foulke,
John Harris,
Cadwallader Jones,
Thomas Foulke,
Elizabeth Roberts,
Hugh Jones, tanner,
John David,
John Parker,
Robert Hugh,
Thomas David,
Catherine Williams,
Rowland Hugh,
Lewis Williams,
Thomas Evans, jun.,
Owen Evans,
William Williams,
Cadwallader Evans,
Evan Evans,
Robert Humphrey,
Robert Evan, ap Rhiderth,
Thomas Evans,
John Humphrey,
Gaynor Jones,
Hugh Evans,
John Wood,
Rees Nanny,
Robert Evans,
Theodore Ellis,
Hugh Jones,
Morris Roberts,
Rees Harry,
Thomas Wyat.
Appended to this list, in the original document, is the fol- lowing memorandum, explaining why the numbers of their respective acres did not accompany their names :
The Townsp : of Gwinedeth have hitherto refused to give the Con- stables an Account of their land, for which reason it is not known what they hold.
Others of the early German settlers will be here named. John Frey, son of Henry Frey, of Towamencin, whose name is on the petition for the erection of that township, bought a hun- dred acres from Jane Jones, William John's widow, in 1735, its location being about a mile southeast of Lansdale. (Most of the tract, in recent time, in the ownership of Abraham Krieble.) Frey sold the place in 1742 to Paul Brunner, another German, from Salford, whose widow subsequently married (about 1757) George Gossinger, a German "redemptioner," who had learned the trade of a tanner, and so passed the place into his control.
3II
AFFAIRS BEFORE THE REVOLUTION.
Philip Hoot, who had been living in New Hanover, came into Gwynedd in 1768, and bought the Neuman farm, 225 acres, alluded to above, of David Neuman. (Philip died 1798, aged 68 years and 4 months, and was buried at Wentz's church, in Worcester. He left his homestead to his son Peter, who mar- ricd, 1792, Barbara Kriger.)
Abraham Danehower, ancestor of the family of that name, bought 136 acres, in 1762, of David and Sarah Cumming. This was the present [1884] homestead of George W. Danehower, oc- cupied by Frank Myers, and the original residence of William John.1 Abraham was born in Germany, September 27, 1772, came to Pennsylvania between 1740 and 1755, and died May 9, 1789, and was buried at St. John's, Whitpain. Beside him rests his wife, named Catherine (b. 1724, d. 1798). Their children included George, who died in 1793, in his 45th year; Abraham, jr., who bought a farm on the Bethlehem road, just above the Spring- House, of Samuel Evans ; Henry, John, Catherine, who married Jacob Snyder ; Elizabeth, who married Philip Hurst ; and Sarah, who married Philip Fetterman.
In the summer of 1745 a fatal disease, the exact nature of which we can now only conjecture, visited Gwynedd. The meet- ing records show that from the 4th to the 3 Ist of July, 24 mem- bers died, and from the 4th to the 24th of August, 15 died. On one day, the 4th of August, three deaths are recorded. This, in a population of at most but a few hundreds, was a heavy death- rate. Most of the victims were children, but a number were from among the elders of the community, and few families es- caped. Among those who died at this time were Evan Foulke, the immigrant (son of Edward), and three of his children ; the father, first, on July 25th, one child on the 29th, and two others on August 4th and 5th.
1 See p. 65, including the foot-note.
XIX. Gwynedd in the Midst of the Revolution : Sally Wister's Journal.
DA ANIEL WISTER, who married Lowry Jones, daughter of Owen Jones, sen., of Wynnewood, Lower Merion, and who was therefore connected with Caleb and Amos Foulke (whose wives, Jane and Hannah, were also daughters of Owen Jones), was a merchant in Philadelphia, and, a fortnight after the battle of Brandywine, removed his family to Gwynedd, in antici- pation of the British occupancy of the city. On the 25th of September, 1777, the day on which Howe and Cornwallis reached Germantown, Miss Sally Wister, the eldest daughter of Daniel, a bright girl of fifteen years, began to keep a journal of her ob- servations and experiences in the retreat at Gwynedd, which she continued, with some interruptions, until, in the following June, the British army left Philadelphia, and her family returned to their city home.
This journal was addressed by its author to her friend Deb- orah Norris, but it is remarkable that the apprehension intimated in its opening lest it should never reach the eye for which it was intended, came near to being realized : it was not until years after Miss Wister's death that it was given by Mr. Charles J. Wister, her brother, to her old friend, who had then become Mrs. Logan, of Stenton.'
1 Deborah Norris was the dau. of Charles and Mary Norris, born in 1761, and died 1839. Her father lived on Chestnut street, Philadelphia, where the Drexel Building now is, in 1776, and she heard the public reading of the Declaration of Independence,
313
SALLY WISTER'S JOURNAL.
Some extracts from the journal, but a small part only of its piquant and graphic details, are given by Watson in his Annals ; it has been once published in full, in the rare edition of American Historical and Literary Curiosities, compiled by the late venerable John Jay Smith.' Its descriptions, however, of persons and events, and especially the view it gives us of social conditions in the very midst of some of the most important military operations of the revolutionary struggle, make it an extremely interesting historical document, aside from its charm as a naive and perfectly frank narrative of personal experiences.
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