USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania: From the Discovery of the Delaware to the Present Time (Volume 1 and 2) > Part 20
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On March 4, 1727, these twelve persons conveyed .these interests to Griffith Owen and Samuel Powell in trust, the interest being divided in sixteen shares and the trust to continue for fifty-one years. The partners held as tenants in common. At the end of the term the property was to be sold for the benefit of the owners. The first election for officers was held March 25th, the company proceeding immediately to the erection of a furnace and other improvements. The first blast was blown in the spring of 1728,91/2 but, after running about one hundred tons of metal, was obliged to blow out. The second blast was late- the following fall on a stock of five hundred tons. In November, 1728, James Logan shipped three tons of pig-iron to England as a sample, but iron was then very low. This was before a forge had been erected at Durham, and the company had their metal wrought into bars elsewhere. The old datestone, bearing the figures "1727," has been preserved and now occupies a conspicuous place in the office. It was used for many years in Abraham Houpt's smith-shop to crack nuts on, but fortunately rescued and put to a better use. The first furnace, built about the middle of the tract, as shown on the accompanying plan, where the hamlet of Durham and postoffice are located, two miles from the
91/2 Letter of James Logan, November 6, 1728.
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river, and near the ore beds, was thirty by forty feet and twenty feet high. It was torn down, 1819, and Long's grist-mill, later Backman & Lerch's, built -on its site, and when digging the foundation for the mill, several old cannon balls were found. When the old tunnel was opened, 1849, after having been closed fifty-six years, some of the heavy white oak timbers in the mines, from eight to twelve inches in diameter, were bent by the weight above them, but were sound, and a crowbar and two axes were found. The stamping mill was about sixteen hundred feet west of the furnace. There were three forges on the creek, the first a third of the way to the river, the second a quarter of a mile from the mouth of the creek, and the third near the mouth of the creek, where the present furnace stands. A reference to the map will give the location of the furnace, stamping mill and the forges, as well as the location of the furnace dams. Some of the old timbers where the forges were located, can still be seen. The Mansion House, as it was styled, owned in 1898 by Mrs. Abra- ham Boyer, who inherited the property from her father, McKeen Long, prob- ably the residence of the superintendent, stands at the corner of the Durham and Springtown roads, near Bachman's mill, where a tavern was kept from 1798 to 1871, and there the elections were held, for many years, after 1812. James Backhouse was the first landlord and Joseph Rensimer, the last. The dam, across Durham creek, was a few hundred yards below the Springfield line, on the farm of William Laubach. The company owned an oil well on Frey's run near Laubach's sawmill, but torn down many years ago.
The company had great difficulty getting laborers the first few years, and wages were necessarily high. These facts were stated in a petition to the Legislature, 1737, and permission was asked to import negroes free of duty to labor at the iron-works. There is no evidence consent was given, though negroes were employed at the furnace almost from its erection to the close of the century. Twelve slaves were at work there in 1780, five making their escape to the British at New York.1º In the early days of the furnace, the company hired a school teacher at a fixed salary and William Satterthwait, the eccentric poet, was employed many years. The product of the furnace was hauled in wagons to the river, and there loaded into "Durham" boats and taken to Philadelphia. These boats carried the greater part of the freight between Philadelphia and the upper Delaware before the days of canals and railroads. Iron was sent to England from Durham, 1731, and met with great favor. The testimony of Abraham Houpt says the first Durham boat was built on the river bank near the mouth of the cave, by one Robert Durham, the manager and engineer of the furnace; the boat was almost in the shape of an Indian canoe and the works were possibly named after the builder of the boat. This was before 1750.11 As early as 1758, Durham boats were used to transport flour
10 Among the negroes employed at the furnace at this period, was a slave, Joseph alias Boston. He was born in Africa, 1715, brought at the age of twelve with a cargo of slaves to Charleston, S. C., and bought by an English sea captain. In 1732 he was sold to a planter of the island of Montserrat, British West Indies, and from there found his way to Durham. He worked here several years and in 1743 was hired to Nathaniel Irish. He became the property of the Moravians and died there September II, 1781. Negro slavery was abolished in Pennsylvania, by act of March 1, 1780.
II In a letter from James Logan, to John Penn in England, about 1727, he writes that iron works had been erected at Durham, and wants Penn to contribute money toward improving the navigation of the Delaware, so that boats may carry more freight and with greater safety,
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from John Van Campen's mill at Minisink to Philadelphia. The Durhams were in this county as early as 1723, and on June 12th, E. N. Durham was. one of the viewers to lay out a road from Green Swamp, Bristol township, to. Bristol Borough.
The statement that Robert Durham built the first boat that bore this name has been questioned, but not successfully. It rests mainly on the tradition of families living in the immediate vicinity for several generations and had. more or less interest in the furnace. Sebastian Houpt settled within a half mile of the furnace, 1738,12 his son John was born there, 1767, and Abraham, second son of John, 1791. Sebastian was employed about the furnace until he - erected a mill some distance up Durham creek, about 1770. The Houpts, always more or less interested in the history of the Durham iron works, asserted that Durham built the first boat named after him. Dr. Johnson, whose grandfather and father were storekeepers at Greenwich forge, N. J., says Robert Dur- ham's name, as builder of the Durham boat, has been current in the family since - that time. B. F. Fackenthall, Esq., the attorney, has left a written memorandum among his papers, stating that he was told by his grandfather, Michael Facken- thall, Sr., that Robert Durham, a boat builder by trade, built the first Durham boat on the river bank near Durham cave, and that the story has been current among the Fackenthalls to the present time. The testimony has been confirmed by the Laubachs, who have lived in the vicinity since 1738, John Dickson and his ancestors, the Tinsman family, settlers in Durham, Thomas Pursell and, father, who were employed on the Durham boats between Durham and Phila- delphia, and others we might name. The latter says the first boat was built on. the bank of the Delaware near Durham cave, "devil's hole." There is no par- ticular date for the building of the first boats, but the general tendency points . to 1738-48, while George Taylor was operating the furnace under lease. The families cited as witnesses are as reputable as any in the county. A. H. Haring . thinks the boat was named after Durham, England, but no connection is shown between the town and the boat. The boat was sharp at both ends and flat-bot- tomed because of the shallowness of the stream, sixty-six feet long, six feet beam, three feet deep and fifteen tons burden : was propelled by setting poles shod with iron or steel ferrules, one end placed on the bottom of the river. the other against the boatman's shoulder as he walked from stem to stern of the running board. Oars were sometimes used, and occasionally a jury sail was rigged. The crew consisted of six able-bodied men. At one time there was a fleet of several hundred Durham boats on the Delaware, giving employment to two thousand or three thousand men. It was a romantic and picturesque . means of transportation, but gradually fell into disuse after the canal was finished, 1832. It is said that Isaac Norman, about 1860, propelled the last Dur -. ham boat on the Delaware. The boat and the boat horn gave inspiration to Dr. John Watson's "Ode to Spring."13
Charles Reed, brother-in-law of James Logan, was the first of the original
12 B. F. Fackenthall believes this date to be incorrect. He says that John Henry . Sebastian Houpt, the ancestor of the Houpts of Springfield, is buried in Durham ceme- tery, and if the inscription on his tombstone be correct, he was born May 21, 1744, and died January 1, 1809. Sebastian Houpt, who arrived September 9. 1738, settled in Philadelphia county, probably in that part now called Montgomery. He was naturalized, 1750, and does not seem to be the ancestor of the Bucks county Houpts, as has been claimed. ,
13 See chapter on. "Our Poets and their Poetry," Vol. 2 ...
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owners of the furnace to die, in 1736, when his interest was bought by Israel Pemberton, who transferred it to William Logan, son of James Logan. During the existence of the co-partnership there were many changes in the share- owners by death, purchase and otherwise, and at its termination there was not an original proprietor left. In 1763, Lawrence Growden bought a sixth of the whole, of William Logan, and subsequently Joseph Galloway became a share- holder in right of his wife, Grace Growden. Elizabeth Growden, who mar- ried Thomas Nickleson, of England, became likewise interested in the furnace.14 June 19, 1772, Joseph Morris conveyed part of his interest to James Morgan for £375, and, at the subsequent partition Morgan was allotted plat number twenty- six, containing one hundred and ninety-one acres and one hundred and twenty- one perches. General Daniel Morgan, of the Revolution, was born on plat numbered thirty. The 25th of March, 1773, the share-holders voted to dissolve the co-partnership, probably in view of the approaching conflict with the mother country, after continuing forty-six years with varying fortunes. The deed was executed December 14th, by Samuel Powell, son and heir at law of Samuel Powell, who survived Griffith Owen, trustee of the Durham com- pany, to Joseph Galloway and Grace, his wife, James Hamilton, Cornelia Smith, who was the daughter of Andrew Bradford, and James Morgan and Sarah his wife. In the partition, Joseph Galloway in right of his wife Grace, was allotted tracts number 1, 2, 3, 4, 7 and 33, on both sides of Durham creek, comprising about one thousand five hundred acres in all. The first four tracts, comprising about one thousand acres, contained the mines, iron works and other improvements, since known as the "Durham Furnace Tract." It was sub- divided into tracts of from one hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty acres each, and most of it was sold at public sale, 1847.
On March 6, 1778, the Legislature passed an act of attainder against Joseph Galloway, and his interest was sold and bought by Richard Backhouse, who carried on the work for several years. On February 6, 1782, Galloway's widow died in Philadelphia, leaving her interest in the furnace, which she inherited from her father, Lawrence Growden, to her daughter Elizabeth. At the close of the war the latter recovered the property from Backhouse, by which he was bankrupted. He was ousted from the premises before 1791, and died in 1793. In 1808 the Legislature appropriated $415 to the heirs of Back- house to cover expenses incurred in defending the suit against the Galloways. His widow, Mary Backhouse, died in Plumstead, 1815, at the age of sixty- five, and his son John at Doylestown, February 20, 1820, aged thirty-four. The late Judge John Ross taught school at the furnace while owned by Back- house.15
14 Lawrence Growden, from time to time, bought out several different interests in the property until he became the largest individual owner. On his death, he devised his estate to his two daughters, Grace and Elizabeth. Elizabeth and Thomas Nicholson, her husband, and Grace and Joseph Galloway, her husband, who in their own right owned one twenty-fourth of the patent, executed a deed of partition, allotting the Durham tract to Joseph Galloway and his heirs.
15 But little is really known of Richard Backhouse. He married Mary Williams, November 2, 1769. On January 14, 1777, he was appointed paymaster of Col. Geiger's battalion, Northampton militia. The Durham tract was confirmed to him by the council. September 13, 1779, for £12,800 (Col. Rec. Vol. xii p. 104.) He was appointed one of the judges of Bucks county, 1774. Backhouse was paid £620. 5s. 6d. on October 19, 1780, for shot and shell, furnished the Continental authorities from August 14th. Tradi-
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The old furnace appears to have fallen into disuse after Backhouse was deposed, and abandoned for several years, the land being rented by the English heirs. On its sale, 1847, it was bought by Joseph Whitaker and company, the deed bearing date March 16, 1848. There were eight hundred and ninety-four acres divided into six farms and the price paid $50,000. Whitaker sold the property to Edward Cooper and Abraham S. Hewitt, New York, for $150,000, and they to Lewis & Lewis C. Lillie, of Troy, N. J., 1865. The latter improved the works and added the manufacture of safes, employing five hundred men. Failing for want of capital, the property again came into possession of Cooper & Hewitt. For several years they made $500,000 worth of pig iron and cast- ings annually. During 1874-75 the old works were torn down, rebuilt and re- modeled, and are among the most complete in the country. The Durham mines supplied all the ore used in the 1727 charcoal furnace, and the greater part of that required for the two anthracite furnaces, built 1848-49, but at present produce but one-fourth of that required for the larger furnace built, 1876, which has a capacity of nine hundred tons of pig iron per week. The works had been idle several years until recently, when operations were resumed on com- pletion of the Quakertown and Easton railroad.
Among the employes at the Durham furnace, in early times, was George Taylor, Signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was the son of Nathaniel Taylor, born in Ireland, 1716, came to America about 1730, and settled in Allen township, then Bucks, but now Northampton county, and re- moved to Easton, 1764. He held many places of public trust ; was a justice of the peace several times, five years in the Assembly, a member of the provincial As- sembly. 1774, of the Continental Congress, 1776, and, as such, signed the Declar- ation. He died at Easton, February 25, 1781, was buried in the Lutheran grave- yard. His wife had previously died, 1768. He left two children. He was a man of ability and of refined tastes and habits. Young Taylor bound himself to Mr. Savage, who then managed the furnace works, and was employed to throw coal into the furnace when in blast; but it being discovered he was fit for something better was made clerk, and engaged there several years. At the death of Mr. Savage, Taylor married his widow at the age of twenty- three and operated the furnace to 1755, and again from 1774 to 1779, leasing it from Galloway for five years; retaining an interest in it and the three forges in Durham, and in the Chelsea and Greenwich forges to his death.
George Taylor1512 deserves more than a passing notice, from the honor- able part he took in public affairs during the Revolution, and his name will
tion says several cannon were cast at the furnace during 1774 and 1776, while George Taylor and James Morgan had control. In the minute book of the Pennsylvania Com- mittee of Safety. June 9, 1776, is the following entry : "Captain Hazelwood is to inquire George Taylor is charged £549. 19s. 7d. for cannon balls and shells. This payment whether Taylor has sent down his four pounder from his furnace." December, 1776, exceeded £1,000. Many interesting Revolutionary incidents are connected with the furnace.
151/2 In addition to the house, in which George Taylor died, we made an effort to get his likeness to illustrate this chapter, but found none that could be vouched for. A few years ago one was published in the Pennsylvania Archives, but all effort to trace its origin was fruitless. Taylor's portrait is not among the collection of the Signers in Independence Hall, but if the engraving in the "Archives," had been considered authentic, it would have been reproduced in oil and added to them. It was better not to have Taylor's likeness here than one that could be called in question.
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live with the immortal Declaration he signed. He was intended for the medical profession, but left home and came to America as a redemptioner. He became prominent before entering the Continental Congress. While a member of the Colonial Assembly, 1765-70, he was on the committee to draw an address to the King. He was an active member of Congress, serving on important committees, and although he did not take his seat until after the Declaration had been passed, August 2, 1776, he signed it without hesitation. There is some difference of opinion as to the family he left at his death, one account saying a widow and five children, another two children. It is cause of regret that so much uncertainty hangs on portions of the life of this distinguished man. We understand recent information from Taylor's descend- ants, has thrown new light on the family, but do not know its character. A.
HOUSE IN WHICH GEORGE TAYLOR, THE SIGNER. DIED. EASTON.
reliable likeness of Taylor is not known to exist, and although some are said to be, nobody will vouch for them. The building in which Taylor died, in Easton, and which illustrates this chapter. still standing at the corner of Fourth and Ferry streets, is from a photograph of about 1870.
Among others employed as clerk at the furnace was the late Thomas McKean. Easton. 1780. The works were several times leased by various indi- viduals. In 1768 a fire broke out which destroyed the bridge-house, casting- house, and bellows. During the war the furnace was engaged in the patriotic work of casting shot and shell for the Continental army, one of the latter be- ing preserved as a memento. They were generally sent down the river in Durham boats consigned to Colonel Isaac Sidman, Philadelphia. Among others. Adam Frankenfield receipts for a load of shot and shell to be delivered at Philadelphia. From August 12 to 17. 1782, the furnace shipped to Phila- delphia twelve thousand three hundred and fifty-seven solid shot, ranging from one ounce to nine pounds in weight, and we find that in 1780-81 David and Daniel Stover. John Lerch, and Joseph Frey hauled four, six and nine- pounder balls from the furnace to Philadelphia. Hazzard's Register contains
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an account of the opening of a grave at Durham furnace in which was found a skeleton covered with cannon balls. In 1779 a collier was paid £120 per month in Continental money, and corn was selling for four shillings per bushel, turnips nine pence and onions four pence. In 1785 the furnace paid Philip Fenstermacher four hundred Continental dollars in part for eighty bushels of rye. In 1763 there were shipped from Philadelphia to England, of the product of the furnace, two thousand five hundred and ninety-two tons of bar iron and four thousand six hundred and twenty-four tons of pig. James Morgan was superintendent, 1760. At one time the works were leased to a Captain Flowers, but nothing seems to be known of him.
In the first edition of the "History of Bucks County," the Durham furnace was credited with forging one of the chains that was stretched across the Hud- son, in the Revolution, to prevent the British ascending above West Point. We did this on the faith of its general acceptance without contradiction, but sub- sequent research satisfies us both chains were made elsewhere.
The attention of the military authorities was called to the necessity of obstructing the navigation of the Hudson river in 1776, and was carried out in 1776-77 and 1778, the first chain being laid across at Fort Montgomery, the second opposite West Point, the stronger position of the two. A portion of the Fort Montgomery chain was brought from Lake Champlain, having been designed to obstruct the river Sorel, the other part being made at Poughkeepsie of iron furnished from the Livingston Manor. This chain was first laid in October, 1776, but being broken by the action of an accumulation of water, was taken up, repaired, new floats added, and firmly placed in position in March, 1777. It remained there until removed by the British at the capture of Fort Montgomery .* Increased attention was given the subject in May, 1777. and on the 17th, Generals McDougall. Knox, Greene, Clinton and Wayne wrote to Washington. . On November 24, General Clinton wrote General Gates that he knew of no other way of obstructing the passage of the Hudson, but by chevaux-de-friese, chains and booms, defended by heavy artillery and strong works on the shore." On December 2. 1777. General Putnam wrote General Clinton and the French engineer. Lieut. Col. Radiere, about the erection of "such obstruction as may be necessary," and in January. 1778. the subject was brought to the attention of the Provincial convention of New York. then in session. It was laid before a committee, which reported in its favor, January 14th, saying. "the chain must be laid across the river so that it will receive the whole force of the ships coming with all the strength of tide and wind," the committee concluding with "the most proper place to obstruct the navigation of the river is at West Point."
Following this report and by direction of General Putnam, Deputy Quarter- master, General Hugh Hughes, of the Continental army, visited the Stirling Iron Works of Noble, Townsend & Co., Orange county, N. Y., with whom he made a written contract. February 2. 1778, to make an iron chain to be delivered on or before the first day of April. next. of the following dimensions : length five hundred yards, each link about two feet long. made of the best Stirling iron two and a half inches square. with a swirl to every one hundred feet. and a clevis to every one thousand feet. "in the same manner as those of the former chains." ** The company was also to deliver twelve tons of anchors of the same kind of
* See Captain Boynton's History of West Point, who quotes the American Archives. V. III.
** See Mimsell's History. Serics No. 5, 68.
10 -. 3
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DURHAM
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iron. The cost was to be at the rate of £440 (probably Continental money) for every ton weight of chain and anchors. When the links of the chain were done, they were taken from the Stirling Iron Works to Captain Machin's forge at New Windsor, where they were joined together and properly fastened to the logs, which formed the support of the chain when completed. We learn from a letter of General Putnam to Washington, dated February 13, 1778, that "parts of the boom, intended to have been used at Fort Montgomery, suf- ficient for this place are remaining. Some of the iron is exceedingly bad ; this I hope to have replaced with good iron soon." The boom, consisting of logs united to each other by an iron band around each end, and two links of chain of nearly two inch bar iron, extended the whole width of the river. Two of these logs were found in the river at West Point, in the summer of 1855. The bill for the boom was £5,945,3.1 ; that for the chain has never been found. The chain, when completed, was taken down to West Point, April 16th, and stretched across the river the 30th. It was taken up for the winter, in 1780, and laid down again and properly fixed April 10 and 11, 1781, about two hundred and eighty men being ordered on this duty. None of the authorities make these links heavier than two hundred and fifty pounds.
We noticed, in a previous chapter, the prevalence of Asiatic cholera, at the Bucks County Alms House, July, 1849. It prevailed with equal fatality at the Durham furnace. Whitaker & Co. were then building a new furnace and employed many hands. It was brought there by a man sick with it on a canal boat. The attention of the lock tender, Huff or Hough, was called to him. He looked in at him and then went away, but was taken sick in a few days and died. His family escaped. Samuel F. Hartman sat up. with Hough ; he also escaped, but his son, a child of nineteen months, took it and died. The next victims were Terrence Riley and James Stevens, and after them, it spread until about thirty died. In one instance a whole family died with the exception of two children. Religious services for the dead were omitted and the bodies buried in trenches in the Haycock Catholic cemetery, at night. James Stevens, the only Protestant who died, was buried by the superintendent in the woods, in the rear of the present mansion. The greater part of them died in a log barn, whither they were taken. The people of the neighborhood were so badly alarmed they would not go near the works to sell the necessaries of life. The Irish immigrants, just arriving to work at the furnace, were the earliest vic- tims. The wives of the workmen, a noble set of women, braved death in nurs- ing the sick and preparing the dead for burial. Among them were Mrs. Bryan Riley, Mrs. Caffrey, Mrs. Reaney, Mrs. Demster, Mrs. Terrence Riley, Mrs. Hartman and Mrs. Young, and among the men, conspicuous for their services during this trying period, were Edward Keelon, John Young, Thomas and Farrel Riley and Samuel F. Hartman. The widows and orphans of the cholera victims, were cared for by the neighbors. Edward Keelon, who lived until 1899, attended every funeral at Durham until his death.
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