USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania: From the Discovery of the Delaware to the Present Time (Volume 1 and 2) > Part 16
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6. Heinrich Keller, son of William and Gertraut Keller, was born in Weierbach, Baden, January 9, 1708, and married there, October 20, 1728, Julianna Kleindinst, born 1711, and with her and four of their children came to America in the ship "Glasgow," arriving in Philadelphia September 9, 1738. He was the ancestor of the family that gave the name to "Kellers" church. His son, John Keller, was a member of the state con- vention that formed the first constitution of Pennsylvania, 1776, and served in the assembly, 1776-1779, and was also a colonel of militia during the Revolution and saw active service.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
sessions, 1763. Haycock was doubtless named after the little mountain in it, and so called from its resemblance to a cock of hay, the name given it many years before the township was organized. Haycock is mentioned in a deed as early as 1737, and the creek winding along the base of the mountain is called Haycock run in the boundary of Nockamixon, 1742. The mountain and run received their names from the earliest settlers in the township.
Simon Lampen, the first of the family in America, fought with the New Hampshire militia in the Revolution, and the latter part of 1778 removed to Bucks county, . settling in Haycock, where the son, Michael, was born, 1779. He mastered Greek and Latin so as to be able to converse as fluently in these languages as in German or English. He had equal love for scientific pursuits, but, despite his learning, selected the trade of a weaver to make a living at. In 1827 Michael Lampen married Maria Byers, a widow who came from Switz- erland with her two brothers, and they had three children : Rebecca, born July 18, 1828, married Henry Clemers, and died May 21, 1882, leaving one son and two daughters; Michael, born April 10, 1831, and John, born March 14, 1834. The lives of Michael and Maria Lampen, notwithstanding their disparity in age, blended beautifully, and their home, surrounded by books, they lived a model life of happiness. The wife died, 1861,-the husband, 1863, and both were buried at the Brick church.
Of the children of Michael and Maria Lampen, Michael studied medicine and graduated at the old Philadelphia Medical College, paying his way by manual labor, married Rachel Ann Vandegrift, Newportville, Bensalem town- ship, 1858, served through the Civil war as assistant surgeon in the Union army, and at its close settled in practice at Philadelphia. He soon acquired an enviable reputation as a specialist in heart and lung troubles, and continued in practice to his death, June 18, 1890, survived by his wife, three sons and two daughters. John, the younger son of Michael Lampen, Sr., married Elizabeth Thomas, had four daughters and one son, all living and married. He died at Frenchtown, New Jersey, June 14, 1895. He was a miller. Of the five chil- dren who survived Dr. Michael Lampen, Louis Peale followed his father's profession ; Howard entered business ; Minnie Roe married Rev. William Allen, Jr., Pennington, New Jersey, and has two children : Garret Harlow, an educator, a specialist and lecturer on American History ; and a daughter unmarried.
On the road leading from Applebachville to Quakertown, half a mile west of the former place on the farm of Isaac Weirback, is the old Bryan graveyard, belonging to the Baptist congregation organized at the settlement of the town- ship. In it are six graves of the Bryan family, including the final resting-place of its Bucks county founder, William, born 1708, died May 17, 1784, his wife, Rebekah, born 1718, died July 22, 1796, and son William, born February 6, 1739, died February 10, 1819, whose wife Alivia, died in 1822, in her eightieth year. The oldest marked grave is that of Eleanor Morgan, wife of James Morgan, who died December 12, 1764. The earliest burial was in 1747, but the name cut on the rough stone cannot be deciphered. The last person buried there was named Crassly about fifty years ago. In the yard are a number of rude stones, with inscriptions, that mark the graves of 'the earliest dead of the neighborhood. On the same road, a mile east of the Richland line, there stood an Evangelical Methodist church, erected about 1856 by Abel Strawn and Henry Diehl. the former of Haycock, the latter of Richland, to commemorate their re- markable deliverance from death on the occasion of a tree blowing down and falling across their wagon between them. without injuring either. as they. with others, were driving along the road. The building was taken down in the
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summer of 1872 and re-erected at Quakertown. But two bodies had been buried in the graveyard and they were removed to the new place of burial.
The Applebachs of this county are descended from a family of that name, but originally Afflerbach, of Shermadu, in the burg Wittgenstein. Germany, where they were celebrated as manufacturers of iron. Prior to the Revolution Daniel and Ludwig, brothers, and Henry, probably a cousin, came to America and settled in the upper end of the county, Daniel bought a farm in Haycock, where he spent his life as a cultivator of the soil and died about 1825; Ludwig settled in Durham and engaged in teaming between Philadelphia and Pittsburg, and by frugality, became the owner of four farms in Durham and Nockamixon, and died January 28, 1832. Jacob Sumstone is a grandchild. Henry Applebach. the cousin of Danie and Ludwig, settled in Springfield, followed blacksmithing, and his son Daniel, for many years a justice of the peace in that township, was the father of the late General Paul Applebach. In 1789 Joseph Applebach, nephew of Daniel and Ludwig, settled near Bursonville, Springfield, and, 1800, married a daughter of George Stoneback, of Haycock, and died, 1845, aged up- ward of seventy-five years leaving numerous descendants. The late Paul Apple- bach, of Haycock, was an enterprising citizen and wielded large influence throughout the upper districts of the county. He was active in politics and among the volunteers, and was a candidate for the State Senate, but defeated, 1846. He was major-general in the militia.
John Dean was an early resident of Haycock, but we know neither his place of birth nor his time of coming, but is thought to have settled there about 1740. Samuel Dean, probably his son, who was residing on the Bethlehem road as early as 1758. reached considerable prominence. He was a patriot during the Revolutionary period, and served the colonies in the field. On the first call for troops, 1775, he enlisted in Captain Miller's company. Northampton county. one of the earliest to enter the Continental service. It belonged to Colonel William Thompson's regiment of Riflemen, and took part in the siege of Boston. After the evacuation by the British he returned to Bucks county. He re-entered the service the summer of 1776, as lieutenant in Captain Valen- tine Opp's company, Colonel Joseph Hart's battalion, which formed part of the "Flying Camp" in the Amboy expedition. April 9. 1777. he was commissioned captain in the Eleventh Regiment, Pennsylvania line, and took part in the battle of Brandywine : but the Eleventh regiment being consolidated with the Tenth. July. 1778. Captain Dean became a supernumerary, was honorably discharged and retired to private life. After the close of the war he was elected sheriff. and subsequently represented the county in the Assembly. Captain Dean died in 1818.
Michael Hartman arrived at Philadelphia September 8. 1748. in the ship Edinburg. James Rupell, master, and Francis and Matthias Hartman arrived the following year. Michael took up twenty-five acres in Haycock and settled there. His son Michael was a soldier in Captain Henry Newell's company, Philadelphia County Militia, in the Revolution. He sold his farm of eighty acres in Montgomery township. 1808. and was living in Armstrong county, 1835. Matthias Hartman, also a patriot in the Revolution, was appointed. June 10. 1776. by the Bucks county Committee of Safety, collector of arms from those who refused to subscribe the oath of allegiance. Francis Hartman settled in
7 Ludwig Afferbach is said to have been born April 11. 1758, arrived at Phila- delphia. Sept. 30. 1773. and settled in Nockamixon. If the two brothers and cousin came together, they doubtless landed at the same time and place.
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Upper Salford and died there, 1768. Francis Hartman, of Richland, who was elected county treasurer, 1866, was a member of this family.
Haycock was originally settled, in part, by German and Irish Catholics, and the denomination made its first lodgment in the county in this township. It will be remembered that the first Catholic in the county, Lyonel Brittain, set- tled in the bend of the river in Falls, and, half a century later, we find a little colony of the same communion settled in the woods of Haycock. The Saint John's Catholic church is probably one of the very oldest of this faith in the State, outside of Philadelphia. Among the early Catholic settlers hereabout we find the names of Thomas Garden, John Dorm, Patrick McCarty, Charles Pulton and Sanders. The date of the organization of the congregation is not known, but probably extends back to the earliest records. 1743. Nor do we know when the first church was erected. but suppose an humble log building sheltered the first worshippers as was the case with other denominations in our Bucks county wilderness. About 1798 a more pretentious church of stone was built, and soon after,an organ was put into it, probably the first in the county excepting that in Tohickon church. The old church was torn down about fifty years ago and a handsome modern edifice, with stained glass windows, erected on the site. In 1757 there were but 2,000 Catholics in the Province, of which 949 were Germans. In the county, at that time, there were only fourteen? males and twelve females of this faith, and no doubt the greater part of them. were in Haycock. These figures are based on such as received the communion' from the age of twelve years and upward. Before 1850, there was no priest: stationed at this church, but it was served by supplies from Easton, Trenton and; elsewhere.
The Rev. Theodore Schneider was probably the first priest who officiated in the Haycock parish, at least he is the first we have any account of. He occa- sionally visited the settlers to administer the rites of the church. The 20th of May, 1743, he baptised Anna, daughter of John and Catharine L. Dorm, at the house of Thomas Garden. Haycock, and the day before baptised Charles Pul- ton, son of Charles and Ruth Pulton, near Durham road. The oldest marriage recorded is that of Patrick McCarty and Catharine Ann Sanders, the 14th of February. 1743, and the oldest recorded burial is that of Catharine. wife of Ed- ward McCarty, over seventy years of age who died "of a contagious fever." Haycock was an outlying picket of the church and priests visited it periodically. After Mr. Schneider came Rev. J. B. De Ritter, who visited the church down to. 1787, followed by Revs. Paul Ernsten and Boniface Corvin, to 1830. the Rev. Henry Stommel. subsequently at Doylestown, being pastor for several years, and. the Rev. Martin Walsh, 1876.
After a priest was regularly stationed at Haycock. it became the centre of missionary work in the surrounding country. About fifty years ago a mission established at Durham led to the erection of a church (Saint Lawrence), in 1872, which was the work of Father Stommel. the pastor at Haycock. The. same year he established a mission, known as Marienstein, in the swamp of Nockamixon, between the Durham and River roads, and 1873. one at Piusfield in honor of Pope Pius. in Tinicum, nearly opposite Frenchtown. The corner- stone of Marienstein was laid the 11th of August, the first services held in it- the 8th of the following December, and it and the church at Durham were. dedicated by Bishop Tobbe, of Covington, Kentucky, the 21st of September, 1873. The church is a handsome stone edifice with a cupola and bell. The corner-stone at Piusfield was laid the 5th of October, and the first service held the 28th of December. These churches were all erected by the energy of
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Father Stommel, pastor at Haycock, a hard-working, zealous priest. During his pastorate he also built an addition to the parish residence and organized a . parochial school under the direction of three Sisters of St. Francis. A convent was built in the parish, and a flourishing female boarding school was kept for several years. The corner stone was laid, 1861, and the building finished, 1862, of stone, 42x32, three stories high, with twenty-four rooms and three halls. The school opened with thirty boarders, in charge of the Blue Sisters of the Immaculate Heart. The pupils increased to seventy while in charge of the Sis- ters of St. Francis. During Father Stommel's charge of the Haycock parish he organized a mission at Quakertown, mass being celebrated at the house of James Cox. The Mission of St. Agnes, Sellersville, fourteen miles from Hay- cock, and had been in existence several years, was erected into a parish in 1872, receiving as its first pastor the Rev. Hugh Mclaughlin. Father Stommel was transferred to Doylestown in 1875.
Of the Haycock parish it may be well to say that the priest's home, built In 1847-8, was projected by Father Thomas Reardon, a supply at that time. Father Leitel was to have been the priest, but did not remain long enough to see the house finished. He was succeeded by Father Hesperlein. Father George, who followed him, remained until 1855, when he was changed to Doylestown, having completed the Haycock church meanwhile. Father Wachtan. who built the convent in 1861. and from that time the parish has not been without a regular priest. Koppernagal, who built the church at Sellersville, Loughran, 1869; Martersteck, 1870-71 ; Stommel, who was transferred to Doylestown, 1875 ; Istoran Walsh, 1876, and from that time Fathers Girard and Henry Krake. The latter died in January, 1900, and was buried in the adjoining cemetery. There was a large attendance at the funeral, including twenty-six priests, and the services were impressive. Father Krake was born in Borken, Diocese of Muenster, Germany, March 21, 1849, and took charge at Haycock in 1876. He was succeeded by Father Assman.
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Few men of the past generation are remembered more affectionately in the upper end of the county than the late Rev. Samuel Stahr, who was born in Haycock, 1785, and died the 29th of September, 1843, at the age of fifty-eight. He read theology with the late Rev. Dr. Baker, Baltimore, and, at the close of his studies, was called to preside over the Reformed congregations of Tinicum. Nockamixon, Durham and Springfield, where he continued to labor to the end of his days, and was an efficient and successful pastor and an able German preacher. He left a family of five sons™4/2 and four daughters, three of whom have followed him to the grave. One of his sons is living in Philadelphia, an- other in Canada and a third in this county, while his three daughters were living in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Haycock contains two natural features of interest, the curiously-shaped mountain which bears its name and Stony garden. Haycock mountain, situated in the eastern part of the township, was named by the early settlers from its resemblance to a cock of hay. Its height has never been ascertained, but the elevation is considerable, with a gradual slope to the top from which there is a prospect of unsurpassed beauty over a wide scope of country. About a mile to the north-east of the mountain there was a deer lick when the country was settled. Thomas McCarty found rattlesnakes on the mountain as late as 1819, and Jacob E. Buck says he shot a large red-headed woodpecker on it in 18.18.
722 . One of the sons of the Rev. Samuel Stahr has been many years president of Franklin-Marshall College, Lancaster, Pa., and has done much to build up that institution.
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a bird that disappeared from that section many years ago. Stony garden, on the road from Applebachville to Stony Point, two and a half miles from the former place, is a locality of curious interest. Leaving the road at a rude hamlet, called Danielsville, and going through a wood a few hundred yards, over a surface covered with the boulder drift, you come to a spot about an acre in .extent covered with trap rock. The stones are of many and curious shapes and sizes, and must have been emptied down in the forest in the wildest con- fusion. Earth has never been found beneath the rocks, and they are entirely void of vegetation except a little moss and a few parasitic plants that have at- tached themselves to the hard stones. The rocks are of igneous origin, the same as at Fingal's cave, Ireland, and at the Pallisades on the Hudson. This place is on the line of the rock drift that extends from Chester county through Montgomery and Bucks to the Delaware and trap rock is found no- where else in this section of country. Some of the rocks have grooves in them, as if worn during their transportation hither. The "garden" is a wild spot in the lonely woods.
A bridge was built across the Tohickon, in 1768, probably where the Bethlehem road crosses that stream and the first in the township. We know next to nothing about the early township roads. The Bethlehem road runs across its western part, and early gave the inhabitants an outlet toward Philadelphia, and this main artery of travel was intersected by lateral roads as they were required to accommodate the wants of the inhabitants. In June, 1765, Aaron Fretz, who owned a "water grist-mill" on the Tohickon, in Hay- ·cock, petitioned the court to open a road for him to get out from it. It was run down through Bedminster past Jacobs Niece's smithshop to meet a road from the Durham road to Perkasie.8 In 1774 Jacob Strawhen, Martin Sheive, William Bryan, John Keller, George Amey and eighteen others, re- monstrated against a road to be opened in Haycock, and asked that it be reviewed, on the ground that it would be impossible for wagons to travel it on account of its being so rough and rocky. This road must have passed across the region known as the "Rocks," the drift belt crossing the township from east to west where, for the distance of a mile or more, the earth is covered with well-worn boulders from the size of a bushel basket to a small house. Considerable of this region cannot be cultivated.
Haycock has but one village deserving the name, Applebachville on the Old Bethlehem road in the north-west part of the township. It contains about thirty dwellings, several of them brick, built on both sides of the road with shade trees in front. Among the buildings, other than dwellings, are a public schoolhouse with a graded school, a union church, Lutheran, Reformed and Mennonite, founded in 1855, built of brick, a brick hotel and a store. The Rev. J. F. Ohl was the Lutheran pastor from 1874 to 1889, G. C. Gardner, 1890-97, and Warren Nickel from 1897 to the present time. Keller's church belongs to the same parish. Adjoining the village lived many years, and died, in 1872, General Paul Applebach, after whom it was named. He was its founder and did much to advance its prosperity. Down to within fifty years there was but one dwelling there, a centennarian, still standing by the roadside, the first new house being built, in 1848, by General A. It is the seat of a physician who practices in the neighborhood. The country around the village is fertile and picturesque, but, lying on the border of the rock drift many loose boulders,
8 John Fretz owned a mill in the township before 1764, and Henry Nicholas in 1790.
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that fell out of ranks, lie upon the surface and make cultivation somewhat difficult.
There is considerable broken and rocky land in Haycock, but the soil is naturally fertile, and where there is nothing to prevent cultivation good crops are sure to follow. It is well-watered by numerous branches of the Tohickon and Haycock creeks-these two streams forming about two-thirds of its boundary. The summit of Haycock mountain is probably the highest point of land in the county.
At the enumeration of population in 1784 Haycock was found to contain 614 inhabitants and 113 dwellings; in 1810, 836; 1820, 926; 1830, 1,047, and 221 taxables ; 1840, 1,021 ; 1850, 1,135; 1860, 1,357, and in 1870, 1,250, of whom 45 were colored; 1880, 1,332; 1890, 1,218; 1900, 967.
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CHAPTER X.
BUCKS COUNTY IN THE REVOLUTION.
1774 TO 1783.
The story of the Revolution .- The county faithful to the colonies .- The first steps taken .- Committee of safety .- Men enter the army .- Campaign of 1776 .- Washington crosses the Delaware .- Boats collected .- Troops distributed .- James Monroe .- Death of Captain Moore .- Sullivan joins the army .- Quarters of Washington, Green and Knox. -Headquarters .- Attack on Trenton .- Return of army with prisoners .- Oath of allegiance .- Militia of Bucks turn out .- Continental army crosses Bucks county .- Lafayette .- British occupancy of Philadelphia .- Depredations .- Lacey's command .- Battle of Crooked Billet .- Bucks county riflemen .- The Doanes .- The disloyal .- Confiscation .- Hardships of the war .- Revolutionary data.
The story of the American Revolution cannot be too often told. The wisdom and patriotism of the men who led the revolt against the British crown, and the courage and endurance of those who fought the battles of the colonies, have never been surpassed, and Bucks county is surrounded by localities made memorable by the struggle. A journey of a few hours will take one to the Hall of Independence, where political liberty had its birth ; to the battlefields of Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown, Red Bank and Monmouth, and the bleak hills of Valley Forge. On four occasions, the Continental army, with Washington at its head, crossed Bucks county to meet the enemy on his- toric fields, and in the trying winter of 1776, sought shelter on Bucks county soil behind the friendly waters of the Delaware. Three signers of the Declara- tion of Independence, Taylor, Clymer and Morris, made their homes in Bucks county, two of them, at different times living in the same dwelling, and one was buried here. While our county was faithful to the cause of Independence, a considerable minority of the population were loyal to the crown. When war became inevitable, Bucks was one of the first counties to prepare for the con- flict. At a public meeting, held at Newtown, on the 9th of July, 1774, with Gilbert Hicks, chairman, and William Walton, clerk, after a brief address by the chairman, Joseph Hart, of Warminster, John Kidd, Joseph Kirkbride, James Wallace, Henry Wynkoop, Samuel Foulke and John Wilkinson, were appointed a committee to represent the county at a meeting to be held at Phila- . delphia, July 15, where Mr. Hart was chairman of the committee that reported in favor of a "Congress of deputies from all the Colonies." On December 15, at a meeting at Newtown, Joseph Galloway, John Kidd, Christian Minnick,
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
John Bessonett, Joseph Kirkbride, Thomas Harvey, Thomas Jenks, Henry Krewson, Joseph Hart, James Wallace, Richard Walker, John Wilkinson,. Joshua Anderson, John Chapman, Jonathan, Ingham, Joseph Watson, Ben- jamin Fell, John Kelley, David Waggoner, Abraham Stout, Thomas Foulke, John Jamison, Jacob Strahan, James Chapman, Henry Wynkoop, Jacob Beidle- man, .Thomas Darrach, Robert Patterson and David Twining, were appointed a "Committee of Observation" for the county.
This committee met at Newtown and organized January 16, 1775, Joseph Hart being chosen chairman, and John Chapman, clerk. It was known as the "Committee of Safety." In it was reposed, for the time being, the Legislative and executive authority of the county. During the winter the committee collected £252, 19s. 18d, for the relief and support of the "poor inhabitants of the town of Boston."
The Society of Friends were against the war from the beginning, because strife and bloodshed were opposed to their religious tenets, but the authority of the fathers could not restrain the sons. A number of their young men gave open sympathy to the cause of the colonies, and some entered the military service. Among the latter we find the well-known names of Janney, Brown, Linton, Shaw, Milnor, Hutchinson, Bunting, Stackhouse, Canby Lacey and others .. The meeting "dealt with" all who forsook the faith, and the elders of Rich- land were visited with ecclesiastical wrath for turning their backs upon King George. We must do the Society justice, however, to say that it was consistent. in its action, and that the same censure was launched against the martial Quaker, whether he entered the ranks of the king or the colonies. Neverthe- less, the society did not forget the needs of charity and down to April, 1776,. they had already distributed £3,900, principally in New England, and Falls monthly meeting authorized subscriptions for the suffering inhabitants of Philadelphia.
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