USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania: From the Discovery of the Delaware to the Present Time (Volume 1 and 2) > Part 11
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John Mann, the grandfather of the late Colonel Joseph Mann, of Haycock, was an early settler in Springfield. He was born in the Palatinate, June 24, 1730, and settled, when a young man, near Pleasant Hill where he died April 14, 1815, and was buried at Springfield church, of which himself and wife were members. She died April 28, 1813.
The Barclays were in Springfield early, but what time the family settled there is not known.' On August 15, 1789, John Barclay was appointed president judge of the county courts to succeed Henry Wynkoop, who had been elected a member of the first congress under the Federal Constitution. He was commis- sioned February 27, 1790, and held the office until the courts were reorganized under the State Constitution of 1790. He was afterward second Associate Judge under Judge James Biddle, commissioned August 17, 1791. While on the bench judge of the county courts to succeed Henry Wynkoop, who had been elected a ably died there. This he purchased after his appointment.
Jacob and Elizabeth Ritter came to America when young, and bound them- selves as servants to pay for their passage. He served three years and she four, and, when free, they married and settled in Springfield, where they spent their lives. We know of but one son, Jacob, born in 1757. He enlisted as a soldier in the Revolutionary army, and was taken prisoner at Brandywine. In 1778 he married Dorothy Smith and moved to Philadelphia. At her death. in 1794, he came with his children to Springfield and in 1802 he married Ann Williams,
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of Buckingham. In 1812 he removed to Plymouth township, Montgomery county, where he resided to his death, 1841. He was a minister among Friends for fifty years.
The Apple family was long an influential one in the township. It is de- scended from John Apple, born in Deutschland (Germany), May 18, 1726, came to America when a young man and purchased two hundred and fifty acres in Lower Saucon, near what is now Apple's church. He afterward bought two large tracts in Springfield, one in Pleasant Valley, the other partly in Haycock and died September 1, 1805, in his eightieth year. He had one son, Paul, born September 13, 1759, who died November 25, 1827, in his sixty-ninth year. At his father's death he came into possession of the Pleasant Valley farm, on which he built a mill and where he lived and died. He was elected to the Legislature in 1800 and served four years. Paul Apple had six children : Maria, born May 14, 1781, died July 29, 1854 ; Jacob, born May 8, 1784, died August 17, 1832, was a miller, and lived and died in Pleasant Valley; John, born August 10, 1786, and died March 26, 1869. He was a member of the Legislature during the finan- cial panic, 1837, and, when an attempt was made to influence his vote in favor of the issue of "Relief notes," he replied there was not money enough in Harris- burg to buy him. He also lived and died at the ancestral homestead. Elizabeth, was born in 1794, married Samuel Ott, and died in Hilltown, and Hannah, the youngest daughter, married a Mr. Goundie. Andrew Apple, late associate judge of the county, was the youngest son of Paul Apple. He held several places of public trust whose duties he discharged with fidelity. In 1814 he served a tour of duty at Marcus Hook as lieutenant in command of a company of militia, and after the war commanded a volunteer company for several years. He was in succession elected to the offices of county commissioner, treasurer, director of poor, and twice associate judge. He lived several years in retire- ment at the old homestead, Pleasant Valley, but toward the close of his life, went to live with his son-in-law at Leithsville, Northampton county, where he died the 20th of November, 1875, at the age of eighty-four. The youngest son of Judge Apple, Benjamin Franklin, is a minister of the gospel. He has served several Lutheran congregations in Northampton county, and was sub- sequently pastor of a church at Stroudsburg.
Stephen Twining, grandson of the Stephen Twining who purchased five hundred acres near Springtown, 1738, of Casper Wister, and at whose house in Springfield he was brought up, after tending the mill of John Thompson on the Neshaminy and Joseph Wilkinson's at Coryell's ferry, removed to Brodhead's creek, seven miles above Stroudsburg, prior to the Revolution. In June, 1779, himself and family were captured by Indians and carried to Canada. After an absence of over two years he was set free, and returned to his father's house, Upper Makefield. In Canada he was sold to the highest bidder, falling into the hands of a veteran officer who had been an aid to General Wolf, with whom he lived for more than a year, and took charge of his mill. What happened to his family, captured at the time, we are not informed, but his wife never recovered from her treatment. One little boy, who made a good deal of noise at the capture, was killed and scalped near the house. Stephen Twining died at the Great Bend of the Susquehanna April 15, 1826, in his eighty-fifth year.
Abraham Reazer was an carly settler in Springfield, but the date of his arrival, and whether he came single or married, we are not informed. The first we know of his presence in the township was on May 1, 1750, when Joseph Unthank conveyed to him part of a one hundred and thirty-two acre tract he had patented February 14, 1743. Reazer had evidently come to stay and with
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an intent to increase his acres, for we find that the Penns, in 1760, patented to him one hundred and fifty acres additional in the township. There were a number of new arrivals in Springfield at this period, among them John Fry, who, in June, 1755, purchased thirty-three acres on both sides of "Kimble's meadow run," having on his four sides Charles and James Dennis, Stephen Acreman and Pieter Fry, possibly a brother of John. Simon Frankenfelt, now Frankenfield, ancestor of the family of this name in Bucks, a native of the valley of the Rhine, landed in Philadelphia October 25, 1748, and settled in Springfield. Just what time he came into the township is not known, but we first meet with his name in 1760 when it appears attached to a petition for a road. He was the father of eight children: Philip; Henry; Adam; Anna ; Dorothy married Conrad Hess; Maria Dorothy married David Gary; Mary married Andrew Overbeck ; and Leonard. His son Henry took the oath of allegiance June 8, 1778. The Frankenfields are numerous in Upper and Middle Bucks, and of local prominence, some having held county offices.
The first grist mill in Springfield was built by Stephen Twining, 1730, on the five hundred acre tract he purchased of Casper Wister on the site of Funk's mill, Springtown. In 1763 Twining sold the mill and land to Abraham Funk, ancestor of the present owner, and since then it has passed from father to son. A new mill was built, 1782, and 1869 one of the completest country mills in the state was erected on its site, at a cost of $20,000. This was burned down shortly after it was finished, but immediately rebuilt, with sawmill and handle works, which were added, 1863. About the middle of the eighteenth century the Ziegenfuss family3 built a grist mill on the south side of Cook's creek, near the Durham line. Not answering the purpose a stone mill was built in a few years a short distance below, which fell into the Houpt family and was enlarged. About this time a second Ziegenfuss built a mill on the north side of the creek nearly opposite, but a dispute arising about the use of the water, and the ques- tion being decided in favor of the mill on the south side, the other mill fell into disuse. About the close of the century the Houpts built a stone saw and grist-mill a few rods west of the second mill, and remains in the family. The foundations of the first and third mills can be traced, while the second, enlarged by the Houpts, was standing unused a few years ago. These mills were built on the tract surveyed to John Hughes, 1737, and thence from William Bryan to Ziegenfuss and to Houpt." Besides these mills, Richard Davis owned a mill in Springfield, 1747, Felty Clymer, 1749. One Beidleman had a mill there 1759, whose location we do not know.
The public school system went into operation in Springfield, 1861, the first examination for teachers, seventeen, being held at Fairmount. There are eleven schools in the township : 'East Springfield, lot the gift of Henry Funk and wife, 1807; Salem in the Rocks, gift of Joseph Sleifer, 1847; Amity, lot bought of Levi Kulp, 1851, price $5.95. This is the oldest school house standing and an addition to the lot was given, 1864. In it the Rev. B. F. Apple, Stroudsburg.
3 Andrew Ziegenfuss, an early settler in Springfield, was born in the Palatinate 1723, and came to America with his father, John Jacob Ziegenfus, in the ship Thistle, landing at Philadelphia Oct. 28, 1738, was naturalized, 1767, and was enrolled in the Spring- field Associators, 1775. His brother located in Nockamixon and was the ancestor of the family in that township. The members of the family are noted for their fine physique and great strength.
4 John Henry Sebastian Houpt was born in the Palatinate, Germany, and came to America in the ship Glasgow, probably landing at Philadelphia Sept. 9, 1738.
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first taught school, and flogged the boys for using his high hat for a spittoon ; West Springtown, 1853, lot purchased of Jacob Pearson for $25; the Keystone, 1857, lot the gift of David Landes ; Rice school, 1858, deed from Thomas Rice, Jacob Sterner and Samuel Algard, consideration $2.00: Fairmount, 1860; Pleas- ant Valley, 1862; Zion Hill, 1865, lot cost $145 ; the Franklin, 1763, deed from Jacob Barror, $50, the first building on this lot was an eight square; Stony Point, 1873; West Springfield, 1881, lot from David S. Gehman, price $100; and the Washington school, 1892, for which the lot was given." The remains of an old log school house are still to be seen near the Northampton line. It had two rooms, one for school and the teacher lived in the other. There is no record when it was built or the name of the teacher, but undoubtedly was erected at a very early day.
The Springfield church, known as Trinity, Reformed and Lutheran, is one. of the oldest in the northern tier of townships. There is no record of its organ- ization, but it was prior to 1745.6 The first house was built of logs, paved with brick or tiles, and answered for both church and school house, in which the two congregations worshiped several years. On the 12th of March, 1763, Chris- tian Schuck and wife conveyed one acre and fifty-six perches to trustees for the use of the two congregations, and the same year a stone church was erected upon it. This was rebuilt, 1816, and a handsome new building erected in 1872. The corner-stone was laid the 20th of May, and the church dedicated June I the fol- lowing year. It is possible this was not a union church when first organized, as there is no record of Lutheran pastors before 1763, while the Reformed pas- tors go back nearly twenty years earlier.
In 1747 Rev. J. C. Wirtz was the Reformed pastor, who preached there and for several neighboring congregations. Schlatter, who visited the church that year, mentions in his journal that he thought the congregations of Saccony (Saucon), Forks of Delaware, Springfield and Lehigh would be able to contrib- ute thirty-three pounds for the support of a minister. Wirtz removed to Rocka- way, New Jersey, in 1751, and accepted a call to York, Pennsylvania, 1761, where he died, 1763. He was succeeded by one Lohrspach, an adventurer, who soon tired of his work and enlisted in the army for the French and Indian war. In 1756 the pastor was probably the Rev. John Egidius Hecker, the ancestor of the family of that name in Northampton and Lehigh. He was a native of Nassau-Dillenburg, where his father was equerry to the reigning Grand Duke. He preached at Springfield and for the neighboring congregations, and died during the Revolutionary war. He was a man of remarkable wit and humor. Rev. J. Daniel Gross, D. D., author of a work on moral philosophy, was pastor 1770-72, and the founder of the church at Allentown: He removed to New York, where he was pastor of the Reformed church, and also professor in Col- umbia college until his death, 1812 .. From 1794 to 1806, Rev. John Henry Hoff- meyer, and from 1811 to 1843 Rev. Samuel Stahr, a native of Springfield, to his death. The present pastor pastor is Rev. Henry Hess. The Lutheran pastors, from 1763, have been Revs. John Michael Enderlein, Augustus Herman Schmidt, - Samuel Peter Ahl from 1789 to 1797, John Conrad Yeager. 1797 to 1801,- Kramer to 1803, John Nicholas Mensch to 1823, Henry S. Miller to 1838, C. F. Welden to 1842, C. P. Miller to 1865, and Rev. W. S. Emery to.
5 From a paper on "Springfield Schools," read before the Buckwampum Historical Society June 15, 1895, by Miss Myra Prodt.
6 The present pastors, with the date their pastorates began, are : Rev. O. H. Melchor, Lutheran, 1879, and Rev. A. R. Horne, Reformed, 1892.
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1880, O. H. Melchor since 1880, Springtown and Durham for same period, and Nockamixon until 1896. Since then the Rev. S. S. Diehl, who also offi- ciates at Upper Tinicum. Rev. J. J. Eyermann was officiating there in 1771, but we do not know for which congregation.
The present church building is a handsome structure, well finished with a good pipe-organ and tall steeple. The earliest entry in the church book is 1755, to note the death of a young Houpt. The regular records open August 24, 1760, when William Bauer and wife brought their son John William to be bap- tised. In 1761-2 we find in the records the names, among others, of Deiter, Gross, Berger, Schmell, Kohl, Oberbeck, Zeigler, Haman, Koch, Alshouse, Diel, Reis, Mann, Mensch, Yost, Bachman, Butz and Ziegenfuss. The church stands in an ample graveyard filled with several generations of those who have wor- shiped there. The oldest stone bears the name of John Henry Althenheis, who died in 1764. Then we have John Beidleman,7 born March 19, 1749, died De- cember 9, 1770, probably the son of Elias Beitleman, born September 27, 1707, died October 25, 1781, and his wife, Anna Maria, who died, 1790, at the age of eighty. Then came in order Catharine Heitleman, born May 4, 1751, died September 30, 1771, at the interesting age of twenty; Maria Sarah Oberbeck, born January 8, 1720, in Switzerland, died May 16, 1777, and her husband, Philip Jacob, born November 25, 1725, in Darmstadt, died December 18, 1781. They were probably among the oldest settlers, and Isaac Weirback, born April, 1730, died March, 1805, etc., etc. The earliest stones are without inscription, and tell no story of the first settlers. The weather vane of the Springfield church has a history. On building the church, 1763, a wrought iron weather cock was placed on it, and remained until 1816, when it was taken down. Joseph Affler- bach, who furnished the iron, now claimed the cock and put it on one of his out buildings. In 1838 he took it off and presented it to William J. Buck, his grand- son. The latter transferred it to one of his farm buildings at Federalsburg, Maryland, and in 1894, at the request of both congregations, Mr. Buck restored it to the church handsomely painted. This took place December 4, and was made the occasion of memorial exercises in the presence of a large audience. Mr. Buck making the presentation address, to which there was a response. The vane was placed on the east end of the building where it was put thirty-one years before.
Among the first ministers of the Mennonite congregation in Springfield. we find the names of Moyer, Sleiffer, Gehman and Funk. Some, or all, of them came from Switzerland and settled in the township. The earliest services were held in private houses, and probably had connection with the congregation in Saucon, where some of the first members lived. The first meeting-house was built in 1780, and re-built in 1824. Since 1847 the congregation is divided into two, belonging to the Old and New denominations, both worshiping in the same house.74 The former has some fifty members, the latter about one hundred. The pastors in rotation from the formation of the church down to 1876, were Peter Moyer, Jacob Gehman, Jacob Moyer, Abraham Geisinger, John Geisin-
7 The Beidlemans, Elias, Dietrich and Valentine, came from the Palatinate in the ship Thistle, landing at Philadelphia Aug. 29, 1730. Elias was naturalized, 1747, and Isaac Wireback, originally Weyerbacker, landed in Philadelphia from the Edinburg, Sept. 16, 1751, and served in the militia of Springfield, 1775. The brothers, John and John Nicholas, who came at the same time, settled elsewhere.
714 They may have united in recent years.
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ger, Samuel Moyer, and Jacob S. Moyer. The meeting house is situated in a delightful grove to the right of the road from Springtown to Quakertown.
There is a second union church at Zion Hill, in the western end of the town- ship near the Milford line, erected by the two congregations in 1840. The first Lutheran minister was Rev. William B. Kemmerer, followed by the Revs. A. R. Horne, L. Groh, R. B. Kistler, and J. Hillpot, who was called in 1872. We have not learned the name of the subsequent pastor or pastors. The first Re- formed pastor was Rev. J. Stahr, followed by the Revs. Messrs Gross, Bassler, and J. F. Mohr, who was installed January 1, 1872. In 1743 the Richland meet- ing authorized the Friends settled in Springfield to hold meetings for worship at the houses of Joseph Unthank. and John Dennis, month about. Whether a meeting house was ever built we know not, but the meeting was discontinued, 1759, and, we believe, never resumed. .
A school house formerly stood in a piece of timber where the Quakertown road is intersected by a private road opposite the Bryan homestead, known as. the Airy Grove school house, torn down, 1855. In it the Rev. A. R. Horne re- ceived part of his education, and commenced the profession of an instructor of youth.
We know but little of the roads in Springfield. Both the Old and New. Bethlehem roads pass through it, the former cutting it about the middle, and the latter in its western part. A road was laid out from Thomas Morris's through. Springfield about 1733, but not opened until 1742, and confirmed, on petition of the inhabitants, 1745, but we do not know the location of it. A road was laid out from Houpt's mill to the line of Durham, 1788, and from the same point to. the Northampton county line, 1803. In 1795 a road was opened from Strawn's tavern, Springfield, to Fretz's grist-mill. On June 13, 1757, George Taylor,. then employed at the Durham iron works, and afterward a signer of the Declara- tion of Independence, was one of the jurors to view and lay out a road through Springfield, but we do not know its location.
Although Springtown is the only place in the township deserving the name. of "village," there are other localities with village names, but get their import- ance from being the seat of a store, tavern or postoffice, one or all of them. There are Bursonville, Stony Point, Zion Hill and Pleasant Valley. Spring- town, a thriving place in the northeast part of the township, is on the main road' up the valley of Durham creek, with a newspaper, two churches. tavern, store, flour and other mills, and forty dwellings. Its site was included in the grant of five hundred acres to Stephen Twining, 1738, for £187, of which he sold three hundred acres to Abraham Funk, Springfield, 1763, who built the first mill erected there. The churches are Salem and Christ church, the former built, 1842, and rebuilt, 1872, belongs to the "Evangelical Association." Christ church was built, 1872, and belongs to the Lutheran and Reformed. At the present time the Presbyterians have no organized congregation, and there is what is known as the United Mennonite congregation, Old and New school. These denominations have occasional preaching in other churches. The Rev. J. H. Mertz officiates for the Reformed, and Rev. O. H. Melchor, Lutheran, the latter since 1882. There are Sunday schools connected with both churches. A postoffice was opened here, 1806, and David Conrad appointed postmaster. There are several trout ponds about Springtown.7% The country around Spring-
712 It is thought the "Indian Walk," of 1737, lay through Springtown. At that time, according to Gordon's Gazetteer, the village contained six or eight dwellings, a tavern and a store. The author has some pleasant recollections of Springtown back about the close.
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town is charming. The Quakertown & Easton railroad was opened to Spring- town August 1, 1896, a distance of ten miles. Here it strikes the Durham creek down which it runs to Riegelsville, the latter section being completed in the fall of 1900. The road runs through a beautiful and highly cultivated country, and opens up a district heretofore deprived of railroad facilities. It brings Durham twenty-two miles nearer Philadelphia. On its completion Durham furnace was blown in after lying idle several years.7%
Bursonville, on the road from Stony Point to Springtown, in the southeast corner of the township, was named after Isaac Burson, an English Friend, who came up from Abington, and was an early settler at that point. He built the first tavern. It was for the Friends settled about Bursonville that a meeting for worship was allowed by Richland monthly meeting in 1743. The last of the name is said to have left the locality twenty-five years ago. A postoffice was established here in 1823, Joseph Afflerbach, postmaster. A daughter of the Burson family married Charles Stroud, of Stroudsburg. A tavern was kept at Stony Point as early as 1758, and known as the "Three Tons," and in 1784, Samuel Breckenridge77/s was the landlord. In 1830 it was owned by Jacob Keichline, of Pipersville, who sold it to Jacob E. Buck, of Nockamixon, at which time a post with three kegs fastened on it with an iron rod, stood on the west side of the road opposite the tavern house. He opened a store there the following'year, and continued it to 1836. In 1833 Mr. Buck had a new tavern sign painted with "Stony Point" upon it, the name it has borne from that day to this. At the "Walking Purchase," 1737, the walkers left the Bethlehem road at this place on the top of Gallows hill, and followed the Indian path through the woods on the line of the present road leading to Bursonville, Springtown and Bethlehem. Pleasant Valley, in the centre of the township, on what is known as the Old Durham road, consists of a tavern, store, postoffice, estab- lished in 1828, with Lewis Ott, postmaster, and a few dwellings. A postoffice was established at Zion Hill, in the extreme west end of the township, 1871, with Reuben Eckert postmaster. The tavern at Pleasant Valley, now a private dwelling, was probably built between 1763 and 1770. It passed into the hands of Henry Eckel during the Revolution, of whom it was said, he cut down his sign post and poured the liquors into the gutter because of his temperance principles. He established a tannery and made saddlery and harness for the army while the war lasted. It was at this house General Lafayette is said to have stopped over night, on his way to Bethlehem, after being wounded at the battle of the Brandywine, and we think there is no doubt about it. The next morning he proceeded to his destination and was nursed back to health by the Moravian Sisters.
Among the comers into Springfield during the century just closed, were the Wittes. Christopher Henry Witte, and wife, Elizabeth Wagner, arrived
of the thirties, when a boy. He occasionally accompanied his father there, on political tours, who accepted the hospitalities of Dr. Bodder, whose wife had a beautiful flower garden, not so common then as now, which charmed the country lad.
734 It is tradition that the first house in the township was built where Frederick Warner lived, on the hills opposite Springtown, and the present building is the second on the site.
. 778 In 1789 Samuel Baskenridge, or Breckinridge, of Springfield, petitioned the court for license, one of his strongest points being that he "had married the widow of Jacob Booker, who, in his lifetime, kept a noted tavern in said township." The widow, doubt- less, "understood the ropes."
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in America December 11, 1811, and settled in New Jersey near the Delaware Water Gap. In 1826 he removed with his family to Springfield township, and being an enterprising man, opened stores at Springtown, Stony Point and Dur- ham, trading with New York, hauling produce and goods to and from that city. He was twice married, but we do not know the name of the second wife. By the first wife he had two children, a son William H. Witte, born October 4, 1817, and a daughter, still living. At what time the father died we do not know. In 1833, at the age of sixteen, the son was given charge of the business and conducted it successfully until 1838, at the age of twenty-one, when he opened a store at Hellertown. Two years later he went to Philadelphia and began business in Third street, making that city his future home. About this time he married Mary Ann Houpt, Springfield, and died in Philadelphia November 26, 1878, at the age of fifty-eight. William H. Witte became a prominent man in politics, being a fluent public speaker and having a commanding presence. He was a man of great natural ability, and what he lacked in classical culture made up by close reading and study and persuasive eloquence. He was elected to the Congress of the United States, about 1850, and served one term. He aspired to the Governor's chair of Pennsylvania and was a candidate for nomination. Mr. Witte is survived by one son, William F., born in Philadelphia, 1844, and lives on the Houpt homestead, Springfield. He was educated at the Polytechnic College, Philadelphia, and was subsequently a professor there, and several years in the American merchant service, leaving it with the grade of chief engineer.
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