USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania: From the Discovery of the Delaware to the Present Time (Volume 1 and 2) > Part 21
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In 1873 there were fifty-eight furnace buildings on the premises includ- ing dwellings to accommodate one hundred and twenty-five families, two for superintendents, a stone farm house and large stone barn, three smaller barns, foundry building one hundred and sixty by sixty feet, machine shop three hundred by fifty feet, run by water from Durham creek, giving one hun- dred horse power at the dryest time, two anthracite iron furnaces with the necessary engines and machinery. pattern shop, case-maker's shop, smith, wheel- wright and saddler's shop, stock houses, cart-houses, store, postoffice and church.
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The superintendent and officers were ten in number with two hundred and fifty other employes. The following persons have been the owners of the furnace since the partition, 1773, to the present time : Joseph Galloway and wife, 1773-78, Richard Backhouse, 1779-93, Elizabeth Roberts and Ann Grace Burton, 1793- 1837, Adolphus William Desert Burton, 1837-48, Whittaker & Co., 1848-64, Cooper & Hewitt, 1864-65, Lillie & Son, 1865-70, and Cooper & Hewitt from 1870.16
There is nothing of greater interest connected with the Durham furnace than the manufacture of iron stove plates and their artistic embellishments. Our information on this subject has been obtained from the records and corre- spondence employed at the furnace at its historic period and can be relied on. From the most authentic source, the manufacture of iron stoves, for heating of buildings, was begun at the furnace about 1741, when controlled by George Taylor, James Logan and James Morgan, father of General Daniel Morgan, iron master. These were called the "Adam and Eve" stoves from the figures. cast on them. They were box shape, two feet square without side or oven doors. There was a door to put in wood and a hole in the top for the smoke to escape. The date, 1741, was in raised figures, surrounded by scroll work above the illustration representing Adam and Eve, the serpent, with an apple in its mouth, and fruit trees and animals in the background. They made a highly artistic grouping for a rude period in the wilderness.
In 1745, the furnace began casting the famous "Franklin Stove," or fire- place, and continued until it blew out, 1793. They were favorably received and with minor improvements, extensively manufactured. It was the first stove made that could be utilized for baking and cooking, having an extra door above the fuel door, a plate the whole length of the stove and a descending flue the same as the Prince Rupert stove, 1678, cast in England. It was improved, 1754, by a door on one side. This was known as the Philadelphia pattern, though smaller in size. The Franklin sold at £4. 6s, each at the furnace, and at Phila- delphia f18 per ton, the price varying with the metal. About 1775, a stove pattern, artistically decorated with a bony skeleton inscribed on the center of the side plates, grasping a bone in one hand in the act of striking a man, near the end of the plate, while another figure on rear end of plate is standing in a frightened attitude looking on the unequal battle. Beneath the figures is the following inscription :
HIR. FEIT. MIT. MIR. DER. BITER. TOTER. BRINCT. MICH. INTOTS. NO.
A free translation of this Swedish-German is "Here (man) presumes to fight with me, bitter death, but he cannot overcome death."
In 1756, when Captain Flower and James Morgan had leased the furnace
16 In 1883 photos were published of eleven employes of the Durham furnace, giv- ing name. when they began working, and when they quit : Henry Martin. Robert Barnet. John Arthur, Edward Keelon, Peter Tompkins, John Young. Samuel Nicholas, Michact McNenny. William Mills, John M. Reilly. The earliest to begin was 1848, latest. 1855. eight of them, Adams, Martin, Barnet, Kcelon, Young, McNenny. Mills, Reilly, work- ing continuously. Tompkins quit in 1877, on account of age, being eighty-six. Arthur lost his eyes, 1851. while blasting. This is an honorable record, quite as much so as a soldier on the field. There is no friction here, between capital and labor, and their long continued employment emphasizes the poet's saying. that "work is worship."
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from George Taylor, a new design for a stove was invented, the side plate be- ing embellished with the following inscription :
DIS. IS. DAD. YAR. DER. WELD. 1756.
Translated, "This is the date of the world," 1756.
In 1764 a highly embellished "tulip pattern" was made at Durham and the Warwick furnace, the latter on French creek below Reading. The exchange of stove patterns between the pioneer furnaces was frequent and salutary in satisfying our forefather's tastes. The 1764 pattern was embellished with tulip, the date and following inscription :
LAS. VOW. BE. SEN. UND. THUE. CUTS.
Translation, "Free from evil, and do, or choose, the good." Below the above motto, in an inscribed space, is the following :
IAHN. POT. AND. WARCK. FUR. NEC.
Translation. "John Pot. Warwick Furnace, his pattern."
In 1774. when George Taylor, Samuel Williams and James Morgan, were operating the Durham furnaces and forges and neighboring New Jersey forges, a new stove pattern was brought out with the inscriptions "Durham Furnace, 1774." surrounded by a wreath of fine scroll work. This was the first clean- looking stove pattern with clear and distinct lines traced on it. In 1779, a new and greatly improved pattern was made, and stoves manufactured that gave universal satisfaction, as smoke was not admitted into the room, the stove having a good draught, with pipe to the chimney. Heretofore stoves were used with short pipes and some none at all, there being more or less smoke in the room.
In 1789 the Valentine Eckert stove pattern was manufactured at Dur- ham, the Sally Ann furnace, near Reading and at Allentown. This was of large size, with heavy plates, had side or oven doors with chimney attach- ment for opening and shutting, which must have annoyed the cook on baking ·days.
On the stove was the inscription, "Valentine Eckert, Sally Ann Furnace," with fine scroll work with the American Eagle holding in its beak the motto, "E Pluribus Unum." In 1791. Mr. Pettibone, Philadelphia, patented a stove for heating large buildings, but as the Durham furnace blew out, 1793, very few of this pattern were cast there. The stoves, cast at the 1727 furnace, were delivered in teams employed for the purpose, and there is no record of any shipped by Durham boats that plied on the Delaware, the latter, probably, being wholly occupied in transporting other products of the furnace and forges, grains and other merchandise.
In response to our question as to the authors of the designs on the Dur- ham stove plates. Charles Laubach says the German artificers, who planned and executed their valuable historic craft at Durham, Oxford furnace, N. J., Warwick and Sally Ann furnaces, near Reading. from 1741 to 1793, left us a record in legendary and symbolic lore, designed to cultivate historic research and stimulate historic investigators to renewed efforts in snatching from oblivion some of these beautiful and instructive mementoes of pioneer art, characteristic
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of. our German ancestors. Although many of the designs and legends may be termed rude, they yield a mine of historic and legendary lore to the active and observing in their field; telling us of the loyalty of the sturdy German race to their country and religious training : they tell us they not only cleared away the forests to open a new country unsurpassed in resources and beauty ; but, at the same time, taught by the legends and symbols in- scribed on the stove plates, valuable and suggestive history, enabling their successors to trace symbolic art to its fountain, so eloquently set forth by these pioneers de- signers. During the years embellished stove plates were cast at the colonial furnace, the patterns were all of mahogany or cherry- wood and well cared for in their transporta- tion. from furnace to furnace. The ex- change of these patterns among the iron STOVE PLATE: CAIN SLAYING ABEL. men was constantly going on, so the vary- ing tastes in every community might be readily supplied. Reading then the record of the legendary and sym- bolic admonitions on the stoves, we find them in most instances, "German text," while the letters, as a rule are English with Scandinavian spelling.
The Long family have been in the township a century and a quarter, Thomas Long, an immigrant from Ireland, being the ancestor. He was born 1740, married Rachel Morgan, of English birth, 1766, settled in Wil- liams township, Northampton county, Pa., about 1775, then removed to the Jacob Uhler farm above Riegelsville and afterward to what is known as the "Long homestead," near the middle of the township. still owned by his de- scendants. They had ten children, the eldest, William, born October 27. 1775, died March 21, 1843; Morgan, born 1780, died March IT, 1864. The latter was the father of seven children: Thomas S., born October 3, 1807, died in Illinois, November 23, 1885 ; Rachel, born October 3, 1807, died Decem
. ber 16, 1810; James W. born February 4. 1815; William Stokes, born August 29, 1818, lived and died on the homestead, February 7, 1885; Rachel, born March 8, 1821. died June 30, 1891. She married Dr. Charles C. Jennings. Easton, and was the mother of three children: Edward O., Charles C., and Eleanor : Elizabeth McKeen, born June 9. 1823. died September 8, 1830; Eleanor S., born September 10, 1825. married Samuel Boileau, prominent as a merchant, bank president and business man at Easton and director in several corporations. The Longs have always been prominent in their community. men of strong character and devoted Presbyterians. William, the eldest son of Thomas Long, was an Associate Judge of Bucks county, and a charter trustee of Lafayette College; Morgan Long, second son of Thomas, was an elder in the Durham Presbyterian church, postmaster, school director and active in every movement for the good of the community ; James S. Long. third son of Morgan Long, born 1815, represented Bucks county in the Legislature, 1847- 1849, and afterward an active business man at Easton, trustee of Lafayette College and president of Easton National Bank. He was held in high esteem by all.
The Laubachs were among the early settlers in Durham township, the first to arrive being Reinhart, aged seventy, and his son Christian with two children,
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all born at Strassburg, near the Rhine, Germany. They embarked at Rotterdam, landed at Philadelphia and qualified as a citizens September 16, 1738. In a few days they set out for Durham, accompanied by Anthony and Peter Lerch, aged thirteen and eighteen, and settled on a branch of Durham creek, two and a half miles northwest of the present furnace. This has been the home of the family to the present time. Christian, who had been a soldier in Germany, com- manded the Saucon Rangers, 1755-60, during the Indian troubles on the fron- tier. The Laubachs were numerous in the Palatinate and Switzerland, and worked in iron, a taste that has clung to them in America. Reinhart Laubach soon died, but the son, Christian, survived and reared a family of six children : John, George. Elizabeth, Peter, Conrad, Frederick and Reinhart. the first being born in Germany, Nov. 11, 1729, the last in Durham, 1748. They all married and reared families, John George, the eldest son of Capt. Christian, being the great- grandfather of the Durham Laubachs, whose descendants are numerous, and Anthony, third son of John George, was the father. Of the present generation, the sons are business men and farmers, Charles, the third son, devoting his leisure time to letters and scientific research, embracing phrenology, ethnology, local history, archaeology and paleontology. Captain Laubach, the soldier of the family, bore a prominent part in the frontier troubles after Braddock's defeat, and was frequently called out to protect the fleeing inhabitants. After the troubles were over he returned to his farm and mill on Saucon creek, where he died from injury and exposure, 1768. His son, John George, a member of his father's company, accompanied him in his frontier service, died, 1780, at fifty-three.
The Deemers of this county, of German descent and probably from the Palatinate, were early settlers in Durham, and. from there, went into the ad- joining township of Nockamixon. The date of their arrival is not definitely known but Michael Deemer was living on the Durham tract in 1775. and one of the twelve signers to the petition for the organization of that township. It bears the date of June 13, same year. He must have been there some time prior to this but we can only conjecture how long in the absence of testimony. In the first edition of the History of Bucks county. it is stated the Deemers were "among the old German families of Nockamixon," and undoubtedly they were, and descendants of Michael Deemer. of Durham. He married Elizabeth Trittenback, but whether before or after his arrival is not known. They were the parents of thirteen children, eight sons and five daughters : John, who died, 1797. the same year as his father. Jacob, Henry, Solomon, Michael, died 1850, Frederick, Barnet, died 1827. Merelles, Catharine, Model- ina, died 1868, Sarah and Margaret. We give the children as they are men- tioned in the will, and probably according to their birth. The will of Michael Deemer, the first settler was executed August 11. 1795, and admitted to probate March 30. 1797, his death taking place sometime the latter year. The execu- tors were his son Henry and Solomon Mills, Haycock, and the witnesses Thomas McKeen and Elizabeth McKeen. The testators mention only seven sons in enumerating his children, but, when naming his executors, he specifies his "son Henry" for one of them, who had not been previously named, a singu- lar oversight. By provision of the will the farm was to be divided into thirteen equal parts, each child to receive one share and the property to be sold when the youngest child "comes of age." There were minute particulars in the will as to what the widow was to receive, showing a thoughtful care for her wel- fare.
Michael Desmer, the second, who died March 21. 1850, son of Michael
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the elder, died in Nockamixon and his brothers, George and Frederick, sons · of Michael, died in the same township. They had evidently settled there. In addition to the above, the following descendants of Michael the elder, are given in the public records at Doylestown as having died in Nockamixon, and doubt- less lived there : Charles F. Deemer. 1840, Michael Deemer, a son, 1850, Sam- uel Deemer. 1874. John Deemer, 1885, John G. Deemer, died in Durham, 1888, Ellen Deemer, same township, 1896, Dorotha Deemer, East Rockhill, 1896, and Edward Deemer, Durham, 1899. The name of Deemer appears but twice on the index to the wills in the Register's office, Doylestown, Michael Deemer, the elder, will book, No. 6, page 9, and Lavina Deemer, book No. 28, page 212. The will of the latter was executed November 16, 1896, probated, March 5, 1898, executors, Oliver James Deemer and Charles F. Deemer. The absence of the family name from the record of wills is evidence their estates were settled by administration, if they left any. The estate of John Deemer, son of Michael, the elder, who died, 1797, was settled by administration, the ad- ministrators being Jacob and Solomon Deemer, his brothers and George Piper, who entered into bond of five thousand dollars. The inventory was filed but settlement never made. It was a feature of the members of the Deemer family in the past to live to a ripe old age, Jacob, the son of Michael, the elder, dying at ninety ; his brother John at eighty, and the five daughters of the elder Mich- ael all surviving to between seventy and eighty-five. One of the Michael Deemers, probably the elder, was killed by the kick of a favorite horse while in a playful mood.
John Deemer, the younger, had two sons, Edward and Elias, and three daughters, the latter marrying and removing from the county many years ago. Of the two sons, Edward, who lived in Durham, was keeper of the county prison under Sheriff Nicholas; returned to his home and died there. Elias Deemer, youngest son of John, is the most prominent member of the family. He was born in Nockamixon, educated at the public schools of the township and received a mercantile training at the country stores. When the Civil war broke out, he enlisted in the 104th Pennsylvania regiment, and went with it to the front, but was discharged for disability. 1862. On returning home he resumed his old employment for a time, but, in 1863, settled at Williamsport, Lycoming county, and entered into the lumber business, and success crowned his efforts. He was elected to Congress, 1900, and took his seat, December, 1901. The Deemers were large landowners in the past and generally farmers.
One of the most distinguished men of Bucks county, was John Pringle Jones, son of William and Elizabeth Hasell ( Pringle) Jones, born near the Durham furnace in the house at present, or lately, owned by Stokes Long, 1812. At what time the family came into the township we are not informed. He was an only child, and, at the death of his father, his mother removed to Philadelphia, where her family, English, and of high respectability, lived in Colonial times. The son spent some time with an aunt at Newtown. In 1825 young Jones entered Captain Partridge's Military Academy at Middletown. Connecticut, and graduated, 1828. He subsequently entered the university of Pennsylvania, remaining until the beginning of the senior year. when he entered the college of New Jersey, and graduated, A. B., 1831. He read law with Charles Chauncey. Philadelphia, and was admitted to the bar, 1834. He be- came distinguished in his profession and held several positions of honor, but never a political office. In 1860 Judge Jones received the honorary degree of I.L. D., from Franklin and Marshall College, Pennsylvania. He held the office .
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of district attorney of Berks County, 1839-47 : was president judge of the Berks Lehigh and Northampton district : afterward of the Berks, and then of the Lehigh and Northampton districts. He was a man of great legal learning, possessed many accomplishments and extensive reading; was handsome in person, of courtly address, of fine social qualities, warm in his friend- ship and public spirited. Among his labors in the line of his profession was the publication of two volumes of Pennsylvania State Reports. Judge Jones was twice married, his first wife being a daughter of Dr. Isaac Hiester, . of Reading, his second, a granddaughter of Governor Joseph Hiester. He died while on a visit at London, England, March 16, 1874.
Durham also claims General Daniel Morgan, of the Revolution, as one of her distinguished sons. He was the son of James and Sarah Morgan, and born near the furnace, 1736. The father, after being employed at the furnace about half a century, died there, 1782. His widow removed to Morgan Hill, Northampton county, 1790. The Morgans, Welsh Baptists, settled in Chester county, Pennsylvania, about 1700, possibly earlier, whence John Morgan re- moved to Richland township, Bucks county, where he died, 1743. His son James, father of Daniel, settled in Durham about 1727. John Morgan had three sons, James, Isaac and John. After James' death his nephew, Mordecai Morgan, became general manager at the furnace, 1785, having charge of the three forges, and those at Chelsea, Greenwich and Bloomsburg, in New Jer- sey, erected, respectively in 1745, 1748, and 1760. The three latter erected and controlled by Durham blew out, 1742, and were torn down soon after. There were several other Morgans in Durham, probably all of the same family, among them Mordecai, a single man, Enoch, 1793, and Abel taxed for five hun- dred and thirty acres, 1783. Isaac Morgan, the brother of James, moved to what is Morgantown, Berks county, and John the younger to Brownstown, now Brownsville, Pennsylvania, and from there to the Shenandoah valley where .he died. The Morgans of West Virginia are descended from Isaac, John and Daniel. James Morgan lived on a portion of plat 30, Durham sur- vey, now owned by Charles Laubach, near the Laubach Brothers' lime kilns. Here Daniel was born.1012 Becoming tired of working at the Durham fur- nace, Daniel Morgan went to Chelsea across the Delaware, and within a year. at seventeen, followed his brother John to the Shenandoah valley, and hired out to a farmer. This suited him no better, and in two years, 1755, we find him driving a baggage wagon in General Braddock's disastrous expedition to Fort Duquesne, now Pittsburg. After the death of Daniel Morgan's father, his home at Durham was occupied by Jonathan Dillon, whose son John died Au- gust 1, 1890, at the age of ninety-one years, who told Charles Laubach he had
1612 There is some dispute as to the ancestry of General Daniel Morgan. Warren S. Ely. Doylestown, saying on the subject : "Deeds of record in Philadelphia for land in Providence township, Philadelphia county, now Montgomery, prove conclusively that James Morgan, of Durham, Ironmaster, was the son of Thomas and Jennet Morgan, of Providence township, the former of whom died about 1750. These deeds further show that the first wife of James Morgan, of Durham, was Elinor, who died about 1762. His second wife, Sarah, whom he married about 1766, survived him. James Morgan, "Iron- monger." was a resident of Providence township as late as 1765. He conveyed land in Providence township. 1771, while a resident of Durham, and the chain of title recited in the deed, clearly prove his identity with the James Morgan, of Providence, son of Thomas :ind Jennet.
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GEN. DANIEL MORGAN. From a lithograph, 1775.
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the honor of being born in the same house as General Morgan. The Morgan house was yet standing about 1800, in a tumble down condition.17
The birthplace of General Morgan has been involved in some mystery, but we believe the testimony we produce settles the question. His biographer fixes it at the little town of Finesville, on the New Jersey side of the Delaware, five miles east of Durham, and states that his father was a charcoal-burner. This is an error, as his place of nativity should have been fixed on the west bank of the Delaware near the furnace. Our most important witness is the late Michael Fackenthall, who died 1846. He served as a soldier and officer in the Revolution and is said, at one time to have driven a baggage wagon. He often related his meeting with General Morgan, who told him he was born in Durham township, describing the house as standing in the corner of the field where the road from Easton crosses Durham creek and where a small stream empties into said creek. The spot designated is a mile from the Delaware, on the farm of Charles Laubach, formerly Anthony Laubach, on the east side of the Easton road. The house that stood there was remembered by John Dixon, born 1793, died 1889, and a large flat stone, that may have been the hearth- stone, found on the site, was recently broken to pieces. The house stood near the creek. Michael Fackenthall, Jr., son of the above Michael, and a man of the highest respectability, related to our informant, Samuel H. Laubach, just before his death, 1872, the following often told him by his father: That . while serving in the army with Morgan, they were encamped near a well which getting low, none but officers were allowed to get water at, that Morgan said to Fackenthall : "Michael, you need not go to the creek to drink, you can drink at the well." Fackenthall replied that none but officers were allowed to drink at the well, whereupon the General handed him his own sword to put on, after which he was not interrupted when he went to the well for water. This state- ment is much more reliable than tradition, and we have faith in its truthful- ness. The Fackenthalls, father and son, were both men of unimpeached veracity, and a writer in the Bucks County Patriot, of January, 1827, claims General Morgan as a native of Durham, and the son of a charcoal-burner.
One of the natural features of interest in Durham was a cave on the north side of Durham creek, near its mouth, but now destroyed by blasting away the limestone rock. It was about three hundred feet long, averaging twelve in height, and from four to forty in breadth. The floor descended as you entered. A few stalactites hung from its sides, and a fine spring partly covered the floor with water. The main entrance was crossed by a narrow lateral cavern half its length that terminated somewhat in the shape of the letter T. The general direction of the main gallery was southwest. A passage about the middle of the cave led off to the right, to a room, about eight by twelve feet, and was called in olden times, "Queen Esther's drawing room," after an Indian woman. The cave was parallel to the creek.
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