USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > Historical sketches : a collection of papers prepared for the Historical Society of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Volume I > Part 3
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Bartle Bartleson, died February 17, 1777, aged 80 years.
Elizabeth Bartleson, died March 24, 1769, aged 60 years.
Cephas Bartleson, died September 15, 1783, in his 56th year.
Elizabeth Bartleson, died August 13, 1783, aged 43 years. Susanna Bartleson, aged I year, 3 months.
George Bartleson, aged 9 months.
Margaret Heinch, died November 11, 1763 or 5.
Nicholas Knight, died November 7, 1787, aged 69 years.
J. K. (probably Knight), died 1758.
Elizabeth Coleman, died August 29, 1746, aged 68 years. Catharine Coleman, died April 11, 1746, aged 3 years.
Elizabeth Coleman, died April 26, 1746, aged 19 months. Christopher Mason, died December 3, 1780, aged 46 years. Ann Mason, died May 6, 1802, in her 75th year.
Peter Mason, died October 30, 1804, aged 38 years. Charles Bilger, died August 9, 1821, aged 6 years.
The above list comprises the graves that are marked with head-stones. There are quite a large number of unmarked graves, which can not now be known. I very well remember that about forty-three or four years ago, a German living in the lower part of Flourtown committed suicide by taking poi- son, and was buried close in the north corner of the yard. The name of the man I have forgotten. It is well known that persons of the name of Kline and a Geo. Heydrick are buried here. This was a burial place at least twenty-five years before any deed was executed for that purpose. I have the original deed of trust in my possession, wherein Samuel Farmar, son of Edward Farmar, conveys to Henry Bartleson, Peter Knight and James Stroud in company for 1/2 acre of land for a burying ground and place of worship. This deed is dated September 2, 1746, the consideration money being 5 pounds Pennsylvania currency. Patrick Menan, the eminent surveyor, scrivener and schoolmaster, wrote the deed and was one of the witnesses. Peter Knight, being the last surviving trustee, continued the trust to George Hocker, Nicholas Kline, Patrick Menan, Peter Bartleson and Bartle Bartleson, for the same object as contained
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in the former deed. This declaration of trust is dated August 2, 1786.
Patrick Menan was an Irish gentleman of culture, and taught a classical school in the township; he is buried in the grave-yard hereinbefore mentioned, but the place where he taught is not known to the writer. Judge Porter, in his life of his grandfather, Gen. Andrew Porter, mentions that the Gen- eral and Dr. Rittenhouse attended this school when boys, and walked all the way from Norriton, a distance of about 10 miles, to attend it, where the higher branches of education were taught. The Judge tells me that all he knows about Menan is what he describes in his grandfather's life. Our valued citizen, the venerable Alan W. Corson, could give us the his- tory of this eminent surveyor and teacher, I am told, but at the age of 95 years this has become impossible. John Nicholas Knight, whose grave is marked with a curiously wrought stone, with lettering in quite old style both in spelling and form, lies in this yard. The stone is quite large and deeply paneled, and indicates a gentleman of wealth. His death oc- curred December 29, 1722, at the age of 40 years and 10 months, thus recording one of the oldest marked graves in the county, with few exceptions. The Bartlesons were of White- marsh, and probably resided on the place now occupied by C. A. Yeakle. The ground was purchased for a grave-yard and church, but the latter was never erected, probably on account of the church at Barren Hill having been built in the meantime.
Buck, I think, mentions that none of the name of Farmar now lives in the township. This is true; but many of his de- scendants of the names of Mitchell, Peirce, Robeson, Shoe- maker and others live in Whitemarsh and adjacent townships. Robeson married a daughter of Edward Farmar, whose history will be given later.
By the year 1713 the country northward of Whitemarsh, extending to Worcester and Perkiomen, became filled with settlers to such an extent that they petitioned for an outlet to Philadelphia from Bebber township or Bebberstown to "Wide Marsh" or Farmar's Mill, originating the present Skippack
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road. Bebber township embraced the country about the Skip- pack creek, in the direction of Skippackville. See S. W. Penny- packer's account of the settlement of Germantown, in the fifth volume of the Pennsylvania Magazine of History. The peti- tion to the Quarter Sessions, in Philadelphia, June 2, 1713, is as follows :
"To the Court of Quarter Sessions, held in Philadelphia, June 2, 1713 :
"The petition of the inhabitants of Skippack and several adjacent plantations in said county, Humbly showeth, that whereas in the aforesaid township and neighborhood thereof, pretty many families are already settled, and probably not a few more to settle in and about the same, And as yet no road be- ing laid out and established to accommodate your petitioners ; but what paths have hitherto used are only upon suffrance, and liable to be fenced up-therefore your petitioners, both for the public good and their convenience, humbly desire an order for the laying out and establishing a road or cartway, from the upper end of the said township, down to the "wide marsh," or Farmar's Mill, which will greatly tend to the satisfaction of your petitioners, who shall thankfully acknowledge the favor, etc.
Dork Rosenberry,
Lorentz Sweitzer,
Henry Frey,
Matthias Tyson,
Peter Wentz,
Jacob Kolb,
Abraham Le Fevre,
William Renberry,
Gerard Dehaven,
Thomas Kentworthy,
Claus Janson,
Herman Kuster,
John Kreg,
Martin Kolb,
Gerard Clements,
Johannes Sholl,
James Been,
Henry Kolb,
Peter Bow,
Jacob Op de Graff,
Andrew Schrager,
Peter Sellen,
Henry Pannebecker,
Daniel Dismant,
Johannes Umstead,
Herman Indehoven,
Johannes Kolb,
John Newberry."
Jacob Gaetschalk,
The only names written in English were those of Matthias Tyson, Jacob Kolb and John Newberry; all the others were in German. The road was laid out upon this petition, but not giving satisfaction, another jury was appointed to review the same. Whereupon Edward Farmar, Nicholas Scull, James
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Shadreck, John Roadley, Robert Jones and Heinrick Sellen were appointed, and confirmed the former view; this was signed February 26, 1714, accompanied with a draft, as follows:
"That this is the true return of the road from Skippack creek, in Bebber township, by Edward Farmar's mill, into the North Wales road; bearing in course from the Skippack creek 380 perches, varying from southeast seven degrees easterly, thence due southeast 2,820 perches except two small varia- tions. Signed MATHEW ZIMMERMAN."
The draft of the Skippack road is in the possession of my friend, the Hon. Jones Detwiler, of Whitpain, whose industry in hunting up old matters relating to the local history of our county will be of great use in the future to the historian who may want material in writing the history of the olden time. His critical investigations in matters of this kind can be relied upon, as the subject of his researches are authentic and ma- turely considered; just what is necessary in an historian, who never draws upon his imagination, but dots down facts as they come in his way.
The Free Society of Traders of Pennsylvania, owned land in Whitemarsh on the east side of the Skippack road; this appears from an act of Assembly, passed March 25th, 1724. By this same act the trustees, Charles Read, Job Goodson, Evan Owen, George Fitzwater and Joseph Pidgeon, were ap- pointed to sell the lands of the society; and in fulfilling the trust, did sell to John Jones, Sr., of Philadelphia, Boulter, six hundred acres of land lying on the east side of the Skippack road. This plot of the society's lands contained 20,000 acres, and was un-located at the time of the passage of the act of Assembly, when the trustees directed Jacob Taylor, the Sur- veyor General of the province, to locate and lay off the six hundred acres to the above mentioned John Jones, Sr. The deed to Jones was executed April 4, 1724. Jones, by his will. dated 14th day of 5th month, 1742, demised to his son, John the younger, 310 acres of this tract, lying on the east side of the Wissahickon creek, who on the 2d day of May, 1760, sold 2034 acres to Abraham Houser for thirty-nine pounds and
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five shillings. This last transfer is still in the possession of one of his descendants, Abram H. Carn, and located in the village of Fort Washington, on the North Pennsylvania Rail- road. While the British occupied this part of Pennsylvania, Houser, for the better safety of his deed, buried it in his cow stable, and by this means it became so much defaced and the writing obliterated to such an extent that the heirs of Jones executed a release for the purpose of making his title good and intelligible. How much of the society's land was located in Whitemarsh, I am unable to say at this time, but it could scarcely reach 2,000 acres, as all on the west side of the Skip- pack and Church roads was granted to Major Farmar, as previously stated.
I committed an error by saying that the Scull burying- ground was located in Upper Dublin, close to the Whitemarsh line; it should say close to the Springfield line in Whitemarsh on Camp Hill.
The history of Whitemarsh would be incomplete without that of Plymouth Meeting in part, as half of the members of the meeting were residents in this township. The line sepa- rating the two townships passes through the grounds of the yard front of the venerable old pile, leaving the building and grave-yard in Plymouth. All the country around, both in Whitemarsh and Plymouth, was settled by Friends or Quakers, and in a measure to the exclusion of other denominations. This meeting was settled at a very early day, probably earlier than any within the limits of the present county of Montgom- ery, with the exception of the Welsh settlements in Merion.
Smith, the historian of the Friends, in writing of the anti- quity of the place, says: "Plymouth meeting-house was built a considerable time before this (Gwynedd in 1698), and a meet- ing for worship held here as at this day. The said meeting was in being the 4th of Ist month, 1688 (March, 1689, N. S.), and how long before is not certain."
There is a slight discrepancy between Smith and the minute-book quoted below, which latter is unquestionably correct.
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In the minutes of the Gwynedd Monthly Meeting, of which Plymouth Preparative formed a part, I find an entry of a minute in the commencement giving an account of the early settlement and origin of this meeting, and the reasons therefor. These minutes, which are in the care of Isaac Roberts, of Spring Mill, I have examined. They are as follows:
"About the year 1685 the township of Plymouth was originally purchased and settled by James Fox, Richard Gove, Francis Rawle, John Chelson, and some other Friends that came from Old England, who dwelt here for some space of time, and keep meetings for worship at the house of the said James Fox, but being most of them tradesmen and citizens and not used to country life, removed to Philadelphia, by which means the place became vacant for a time. But it was again purchased, chiefly by Friends, viz: David Merecith, Edmund Cartledge, Thomas Owen, Isaac Price, Ellis Pugh, Hugh Jones, and divers others; also several adjacent settlers in Whitemarsh, viz .: John Rhoads, Abraham Daws and David Williams, and several more Friends. These, in the year 1703, by the approbation of Havorford Monthly Meeting unto which they then joined themselves, kept their meetings for worship at the house aforesaid, being then in possession of Hugh Jones, where it continued for some years, and then by consent was removed to John Cartledge's house, where it also remained for some years. But settlements continuing and young people coming up, it was agreed to build a meeting house for the better accommodation of Friends belonging thereunto, as also ye conveniency of a public place of worship near the burying place which was perfect some time before in Plymouth afore- said, and several deceased Friends being there interred before the meeting-house was built. And in the year - the meet- ing-house was erected, and on the thirteenth day of the - - month, the first meeting was kept therein; and our number increasing, and not having the conveniency of a monthly meet- ing among ourselves, we joined with Gwynedd Friends to apply to Havorford Monthly Meeting for their approbation to hold a monthly meeting of business. The whole, together with the concurrence of the Quarterly Meeting of Philadelphia, was obtained." 1687328
The first monthly meeting of Gwynedd, of which Ply- mouth Preparative formed a part, was held at Gwynedd on the 22d of Twelfth-month, 1714-5, and from the minutes of this
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meeting it is stated that Plymouth Friends produced a record of their Preparative to be inserted in the minute book, and, among other matters, they mention that they have built a meeting-house for public worship. Thus it appears that the house was built not later than the date given in the old minute book.
The minutes are interspersed with numerous presentations of the transgressions of its members, and the settlement of the difficulties which are common to the frailties of human nature, which required the care of the overseers, and were dealt with according to the discipline of the society. In none were they more watchful than in the question of human slavery. While the Quarterly Meeting of Philadelphia bore strong testimony against the institution in the early part of the last century, there were those still who would violate the wholesome rule, and would incur the displeasure of those who had the morals and good order under their charge. I find that Thomas Lan- caster, the elder, a large land owner in Whitemarsh, for pur- chasing a negro slave, was presented to the Monthly Meeting by Plymouth Friends, on the 31st of Seventh-month, 1759. He answered by saying that he was not aware that he was acting contrary to the discipline, and after some considerable delay he gave satisfaction that he became convinced that he had committed an error, and gave the assurance that he would never purchase a slave again, which finally ended the affair. William Trotter, an eminent preacher among the Quakers, was an early resident of Whitemarsh, and died in the latter part of 1757. 'Squire Boone, and Mary, his wife, passed this Monthly Meeting, 28th of Fourth-Month, 1720. This was the father of Col. Daniel Boone, the great explorer and trapper of Ken- tucky, Missouri, etc.
Before leaving the minutes, we will notice an item or two in relation to the internal government of the society. In the year 1775, a committee was appointed to ascertain the exact number of slaves then belonging to the members of Plymouth Meeting.
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The following report was presented :
"To the meeting to be held at Gwynedd, 25th of Seventh- month, 1775:
"We, the committee appointed by the meeting to visit such of our members as are possessors of slaves and detaining them in bondage, contrary to the good and wholesome rule of our Yearly Meeting, agreeably to our appointment we pro- ceeded on ye service and visited such of our members that are under that circumstance that we know of, which are eight in number, who are possessors of sixteen negroes and one mulatto."
The committee then go on and say that one justified the holding of slaves in bondage, whilst others intended to set them free in a short time; some when they arrived at eighteen or twenty-one years of age and after teaching them to read and write, and one, a negro girl, seventeen years old, whom her mistress said she intended to do her best by. The testi- mony of the Friends against slavery dates from the quite early days of the colony. As early as the 18th of Second-month, 1688, the German Quakers of Germantown entered their sol- emn protest against the system of slavery to the Monthly Meeting of Germantown, being the first protest against the institution of human bondage that was ever uttered on our continent. This was more than fifty years before Rev. George Whitefield, the great revivalist, was shaking the foundations of the established order of things in the English colonies, and who advocated the righteousness of enslaving the African race for the purpose of christianizing them; and long before Benja- min Lay, the cynic christian philosopher, bore earnest testi- mony against its inhumanity.
The late S. M. Corson, a resident of Whitemarsh, in the Norristown Herald of recent date, says of the trial of the Quakers in the Revolution: "The war of the Revolution was a sore trial to the Friends, and we find the record of disown- ment of several who took up arms in defence of their country ; but, contrary to their fundamental doctrine of peace, obedience to their testimony against war and fighting caused many Friends to be classed with the Tories."
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HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
The village of Plymouth has a very early existence. Wil- liam Penn, as early as the 14th of Fourth-month, 1691, among other matters to Thomas Lloyd, writes: "Salute me to the Welsh Friends, and the Plymouth Friends; indeed, to all of them." Thus at this day the settlement was numerous enough to receive the attention of the founder of Pennsylvania. Three- fourths of the village is located within Whitemarsh township. As already noticed, the old Germantown and Perkiomen turn- pike was located upon the "cart road." It will be remembered that the cart road was laid out upon petition to councils of James Fox, Second-month, 1687. On Holmes' Map of origi- nal surveys the township line is marked as a public road ex- tending the entire length on its northwestern border, forming cross-roads at the meeting-house by the opening of this cart way.
It appears that no deed was ever given for the ground on which the meeting-house stands; but one was granted after 1701 to the Friends from the Dickinson property on the Ply- mouth side for four acres, upon which the grave-yard is located and the Orthodox meeting-house is built immediately adjoin- ing on the west side. The southwestern end of this ancient house was built in 1714-15; the other, or northeastern end, was built in 1780, and at first used for school purposes, but shortly afterwards for worship, as the room became necessary. This building was burned in 1868, but immediately rebuilt in the same plain and substantial manner as before the fire.
The year 1690 marks the earliest dates of births and deaths in the old minute-books of the Monthly Meeting, the first birth recorded being that of a Dickinson.
The late S. M. Corson, in a paper read before the His- torical Society of Montgomery County, says:
"The Swedes who had settled along the Delaware in accordance with the plan of the great Gustavus, had pushed up along the Schuylkill. At what is now the village of Ply- mouth they had enclosed a grave-yard in the forest. This be- ing the only place of interment for the dead of that vicinity, it was so used by the Friends."
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In the old minute-book, previously quoted, it is stated that prior to the meeting-house the burial place had been per- fected. This, in a measure, may confirm what Mr. Corson says of the Swedes' occupation. E. M., in the North Wales Record, asserts the same thing. It is supposed that John Cartledge's house, where meetings were held, was the same afterwards owned by a Mr. Dull, and next by Daniel O. Hitner, on the west side of the cart road. In the old portion of the grave- yard is a stone to the memory of Matthew Colly, who died March 3, 1722, aged 55 years, thus proving by this head-stone that the original burial place was not commenced by Friends, but by those of other denominations interred in that part of the yard.
The name of Colly occurs among the records of St. Thomas' parish. The celebrated John Fothergill, an English Friend, preached upon two different occasions at this place when he visited America-the first time "on 15th of the 12th month, 1721, and the second time on the 27th day of 10th month, 1736." See Life of Fothergill, in Friends' Library, Vol. III, page 381, etc.
This old place of worship bears evidence of substantial ease and comfort for all who worship within its walls. Its large and roomy grounds, stables, and great trees, together with the plain but comfortable seating room, puts every one at his ease who frequents the place, which so distinctly char- acterizes their places of meeting.
As matter of curiosity, and to show how the old surveyors in primitive times designated lines, I will quote from an old deed granting 5327 acres, containing all of Plymouth town- ship, to David Meredith, Edmund Cartledge, Thomas Owen. Isaac Price, Ellis Pugh, Hugh Jones, and others. It follows :
"Whereas, there is a certain tract of land called Plymouth township; beginning at a birch tree, marked, standing by the river Schuylkill, being a corner dividing it from the land first laid out to Jaspar Farmar; thence by an old line of marked trees, northeast, 1296 perches (four miles), to a marked white oak, standing in Whitpain township; thence by an old line of marked trees, northwest, 643 perches," etc.
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The white oak here mentioned was cut down recently. How few who passed this tree knew its history, and that it wa's marked for a corner between Plymouth and Whitpain and for the northwestern line of Whitemarsh, and at the same time stood probably two perches from the latter' line. The road passing from Chestnut Hill to Gwynedd Meeting, through Lancasterville, was known in the olden , time as the Welsh road. It was at the intersection of this road and the Plymouth and Broad Axe turnpike where this tree stood. How many of the inhabitants living north and west, in passing this tree on their way to or from Philadelphia for nearly the past two hun- dred years, knew of the important position it held in local history.
From deeds in possession of Dr. Leedom, of Plymouth, we find that John Maulsby in 1699 bought up all the land in the east corner diagonally across from the meeting-house, ex- tending to the village of Cold Point, embracing what now are the properties of the late George Corson and David Marple, of the late Elias Hicks Corson, and all the small properties from there to Cold Point, and probably some other small properties adjoining on the south side of these.
Extensive lime operations have been conducted upon this property from the earliest times. Since the opening of the Plymouth railroad through this section, the business has increased very extensively, and gives employment to quite a number of operatives. Great quantities of lime are sold in the Philadelphia markets, while much of it is used in the country northward from this place for agricultural purposes.
The Lancasters were large land-owners in Whitemarsh as early as the middle of the last century, in and around Lan- casterville. 'They were Friends. Thomas Lancaster, the elder, was the first one of the name who settled in the town- ship. The farms of Peter Cambel, Robert Maguire, J. Wilson Jones, George B. Cambel, Isaac E. Shallcross, and the inter- vening small properties and the property of the late Wilson family, were owned by the Lancasters. The village of Lan- casterville took its name from this family. This is an old
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place, noted for its activity in the manufacture of lime in former times. The large quarries and numerous old and abandoned kilns attest its former industry, but since the build- ing of the Plymouth railroad immediately below the village, the lime operations have all been moved in close proximity to the railroad for better facilities for shipping.
Among the largest operators in lime burning in White- marsh fifty or sixty years age was John Cox, Sr., who lived upon and owned the property of Robert Maguire, and died at this place probably forty-five years ago. I have frequently heard it said of him that when he commenced the business the store-keepers would not trust him to a pound of tobacco. He began with a cart and one horse, and by great perseverance and industry soon established such a credit that they were quite willing to trust him. In course of time he accumulated quite a large property in and around this village. Beside the Maguire place, he owned Peter Campel's place, above the gap on Militia hill. In connection with the farm, a hotel had been kept many years in the past, and only a few years ago Mr. Cambel removed the sign post and the hotel was abandoned. Mr. Cox raised a family of seventeen children, none of whom live in the township, and only one grandson, Charles A. Cox, who still remains, and is extensively engaged in manufacturing lime on the Plymouth railroad.
Lancasterville, in its palmiest days, was known by the name of " Wrangletown," from the frequent quarrels and fight- ings which would take place at elections, sales, or after pay days. Frequent pugilistic encounters, produced by the too frequent use of liquor, would take place at such times among the operatives in the quarries. But in this respect the village of "Wrangletown " is changed in morals as well as in its name.
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