USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania: From the Discovery of the Delaware to the Present Time (Volume 1 and 2) > Part 26
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had but four houses. It was first called by this name, in 1812, when a post-office was established there and John Lambert appointed postmaster. The erection of the bridge across the Delaware, between New Hope and Lambertville, 1816, gave the first impetus to improvement, and streets laid out and houses built. A street from the bridge was opened to what is now Main street, the latter of which was widened and straightened, and a new tavern built on Bridge street, whither the license was transferred from the ferry-house. In this latter build- ing the first post office was kept. The first Presbyterian church was built in 1817. The further growth of Lambertville was stimulated by the opening of the Belvidere-Delaware railroad, in 1853, and it is now a thriving and pros- perous town of some seven thousand inhabitants. Emanuel Coryell had three sons : Emanuel, who lived and kept the ferry on the Pennsylvania side of the river for many years; Cornelius, who performed the same office on the New Jersey side ; and Abraham, who lived at Kingwood. George, son of Emanuel, was a captain in the Continental army, and Cornelius's son George, who was learning the carpenter trade in Monmouth county, New Jersey, witnessed the battle of that name. He built Benjamin Franklin an elaborate fence and gate- way in Philadelphia. He removed to Alexandria, Virginia, at the request of General Washington, was a member of the same Masonic lodge as his patron, and his last surviving pall-bearer. Some of the Coryell family went west. About 1785. Lewis, son of Joseph, born at, or near, the ferry, 1768, emigrated with his father and mother, Jemima, to Mason county, Kentucky, where the parents died about 1815. James S. Coryell, son of Lewis, was Probate Judge of Adams county, Ohio, 1877.1
The water privileges afforded by the stream flowing from Great Spring made New Hope and the immediate vicinity an important point for mills and forges. We have already stated there was a fulling-mill on the Heath tract about 1712, built by Philip Williams. The first saw-mill was built about 1740, and, before 1745, Benjamin Canby built a forge on this stream, on which were now a grist, saw and fulling-mill, and a forge. The forge was sold by the sheriff, 1750-51, after Canby's death. Before 1770 Henry Dennis owned the. forge and a stamping-mill. The forge was on a ten-acre tract above the village,. but he owned a ninety-five acre farm on the river below the mouth of the Spring creek, and it was bounded on the north by that stream. The southwest line ran. two hundred and thirteen perches to the manor of Highlands, and along that land one hundred and eighty perches to the river. Ichabod Wilkinson who married Sarah, daughter of John Chapman, built a forge at New Hope above the Parry mills, in 1753. His cousin John became a prominent and wealthy man in Wrightstown, and was a member of Assembly
I The Coryell family was one of the most patriotic in the county. In the Revolu- tion, John Coryell, grandfather of the late Lewis S., was captain of the Solebury Asso- ciators, 1775. He was especially active during the winter of 1776-77. In the fall of 1777, after the British had taken Philadelphia, he collected the boats in the Delaware and had them taken up to Coryell's ferry, by order of General Mifflin. In the winter of 1778 he was ordered to remove them to Easton to prevent their falling into the hands. of the enemy. He sold flour and other provisions to the troops, but was only partially paid and that in worthless continental money. We have a copy of John Coryell's letter to Washington, of May 10, 1784, remainding him of this indebtedness, but could get no relief. His sacrifices for the cause finally ruined him financially. He was obliged to leave his farm in Solebury, and removed to Hunterdon county, N. J. John Coryell was born 1730, and died 1799.
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during the Revolution. The forge went down soon after the war, when a fine- saw-mill, that cut a thousand feet of lumber a day, was built on the spot. About 1767 Dr. Joseph Todd, a physician of some note from Montgomery county, moved to Coryell's ferry, where he died about 1775. He owned what was after- ward known as the Parry mill, in possession of the government for about three years of the Revolution and used as a forage store-house. Joseph Todd had a son, Charles F., born about 1758, who arrived home from boarding-school at Bustleton on Christmas day, and saw the Continental troops march from New Hope to attack the Hessians at Trenton. He studied medicine during the war- at Doylestown, probably with Dr. Hugh Meredith, and afterward lived in Cum- berland county. He traveled through the southwestern part of the country,. and along the Mississippi, and was absent from home for several years. In 1771 Thomas Smith kept store at or near New Hope, when the Ichabod Wil- kinson land was known as the "Forge tract."
New Hope has borne its present name over three-quarters of a century and probably longer. It is said the name was given it by Joseph Todd, who, it will be remembered, moved there in 1767 and died about 1775, but we think this doubtful. Down to near 1770 it was known as Wells' ferry, after John Wells, who kept the ferry on this side, but the name was afterward changed to Coryell's. ferry, after George Coryell, who kept the ferry on the New Jersey side. This name was retained until the present one was given to the place. Martin Coryell,. a native of the borough, accounts for the name in this wise: He said that after the slitting-mill was abandoned other mills were erected for grinding grain and sawing lumber, and were called the Hope mills; that they were afterward burned, and, when re-built, were called the "New Hope mills," and from that. the name of the town. This must have been before the close of the last cen- tury, for in 1800 the place was called "New Hope, lately Coryell's ferry."
The Parrys are descended from an ancient and honorable family of the name, long resident in Carnarvonshire, North Wales.2 The celebrated Lord Richard Parry, bishop of Saint Asaph from 1604 to his death in 1623, and Sir Love P. J. Parry, baronet, formerly member of Parliament, who lost a leg at Waterloo, were of this family. Their coat-of-arms-the crest a war charger's head, and the device upon the shield, a stag trippant-shows their lives in early times to have been passed amidst the sports of the chase and the excitement of the battle-field. Thomas Parry, the founder of the family in America, was born in Carnarvonshire in 1680, and came to this country about the close of the seventeenth century, settled in Philadelphia county, now Montgomery, and in 1715 married Jane Morris. They had ten children, Thomas, Philip, John, Stephen, Edward, David, Mary, Jacob, Isaac, and Martha-the first child being born, in 1716, and the youngest, in 1739. The immediate pro- genitor of our Bucks county family was Benjamin Parry, the third son of John, and Margaret Tyson, his wife, who was the third son of Thomas the eld- er, born in the manor of Moreland, March the Ist, 1757.
The coming of Benjamin Parry from Philadelphia county to New Hope gave a fresh impetus to the business interests of that section. In 1784 he purchased the Todd property of the widow and heirs, taking immediate possession, although the actual conveyance was not made until 1789. He was an active business man and acquired a large estate for that day, owning sev-
2 The family was established in North Wales in the twelfth century, and, in 1188. Madryn Castle is mentioned by Giraldus Cambrensis as the seat of the head of the house. The estate is still in possession of an elder branch of the family.
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eral farms, and mills for the manufacture of linseed-oil and lumber. Shortly after 1800 he purchased a mill property on the Delaware, in Hunterdon county, New Jersey, which he called "Prime Hope" which he conducted in connection with the New Hope mills. At the same time he was a member of the firm of Parry & Cresson, and interested with Timothy Paxson (afterward one of the executors of Stephen Girard) in the flour commission and storage busi- ness, in Philadelphia. This was about 1803. In May, 1790, the Parry grist and oil-mills at New Hope were burned down. An old tax receipt of 1802 shows that Benjamin Parry paid a sanitary tax that year, but true to his orthodox scruples, he refused to pay his militia tax. In 1794 nearly the whole of what is now New Hope belonged to the Parrys. The stone mansion erected by Benjamin Parry, soon after 1785, a view of which is given in this work, is still standing and occupied by the family as a summer residence. It was mainly owing to the exertions of Mr. Parry and Samuel D. Ingham that the act to build a bridge across the Delaware at New Hope was obtained from the Legislature, and they were the committee appointed to superintend its erection. Benjamin Parry married Jane Paxson, daughter of Oliver, of this county, the 14th of November, 1787, by whom he had four children : Oliver, born December 20th, 1794, Ruth, born 1797, Jane, born 1799, and Margaret, born 1804. He remained in active business at New Hope until a few years before his death, in 1839, at the age of eighty-three. Mr. Parry was a man ·of considerable scientific attainment, having patented one or more useful in- ventions, of varied and extensive reading, was public spirited and took deep interest in all that would improve his neighborhood or the county. His death was a serious loss to the community. In the Parry papers there is mention of several great freshets on the Delaware, in the years 1788, 1800, 1807, and 1814. In 1788 and 1807 the breast of the mill-dam, where the Great Spring creek empties into the Delaware, was washed away. There was then a row of lofty Lombardy poplars along the river front of the Parry property, close to the water's edge.
Oliver Parry, the eldest son of Benjamin, and born at New Hope, mar- ried Rachel, daughter of Major Edward Randolph, of the Continental army, the Ist of May, 1827. They had issue twelve children, of whom eight were living some years ago. The fourth child, Edward Randolph Parry, born July 27th, 1832, died April 13th, 1874, entered the United States army, in May, 1861, as First Lieutenant of the Eleventh Infantry and served to the close of the Civil war with distinction. He was Assistant Adjutant-General of the Regular Brigade, was Captain in 1864, and promoted to a majority for "gal- lant and meritorious services," and was with army headquarters at the surrender of Lee, in 1865. He resigned, in 1871, and died from the effects of hard service. Major Parry was not the first member of the family who did his country service in the field in the hour of need. Caleb Parry, a mem- ber of the Montgomery branch, was Lieutenant-Colonel of Colonel Samuel Atlee's Continental regiment, and instantly killed at the battle of Long Island, in 1776. He was the son of David and Elizabeth (Jones) Parry. Edward Randolph, grandfather of Major Edward Randolph Parry, on the maternal side, was likewise an officer in the Continental army. He served as Captain in Wayne's Brigade, and was Major at the close of the war. He subse- quently became a member of the Society of Friends, and died at Philadelphia in 1837.3 The wife of Oliver Parry died in 1866, and he deceased in 1874, in
3 Captain Edward Randolph commanded the outlying guard at the "Massacre of Paoli," and was desperately wounded. His portrait hangs on the walls of the Historical
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his eightieth year, and the remains of both lie in the Friends' burying-ground, in Solebury township. Of the other children of Benjamin Parry, Margaret married Charles Knowles, but had no issue. Richard Randolph Parry, of New Hope, grandson of Benjamin, and son of Oliver, is the fifth in descent from Thomas Parry, the first American ancestor. Parryville, Carbon county,. is named after Daniel Parry, grandson of the first Thomas. He owned large tracts of land in that and adjoining counties, part of which he purchased of the Marquis de Noailles of France.
There are other Parrys in the county who claim descent from Welsh parentage. The late Thomas F. Parry was the great-grandson of Thomas- Parry, who came from Wales and settled in Moreland township, where he married Jane Walton, and died the father of ten children. Stephen, the eldest of the ten, left his children a number of slaves. Thomas's eighth son, Philip, married Mary Harker, of Middletown, and moved into Buckingham. Thomas F., son of John, was the second of nine children, and brother of the late David Parry, Lahaska. In 1874 three of this family were living, two brothers and a sister, David, Thomas and Charity, whose united ages were two hundred and seventy-one years-ninety-six, eighty-two and ninety-three, respectively. William Parry, president of the Cincinnati, Rich- mond & Fort Wayne railroad, was a member of this family. Seventy years ago. Joseph Parry and family, of Horsham, immigrated to Indiana, and his descend- ants are now found in several states. Thomas F. Parry undoubtedly descends. from a common ancestry with the New Hope Parrys. His great-grandfather, Thomas, is believed to have been the eldest son of the first Thomas, who came from Wales at the close of the seventeenth century, and settled in Moreland township. About a half century ago the heirs of Thomas and Jane Parry were advertised for in English and American newspapers, being claimed as the heirs at law of a Welsh gentleman named Parry, who died intestate leaving a large estate. As the heirs here were well off in this world's goods, they made no claim. to the estate, and it reverted to the British crown. There is some evidence to connect our Parrys with Sir Edward Parry, the famous arctic navigator, but we have neither time nor space to pursue the inquiry .*
In his day and generation New Hope had no more useful and enterprising. citizen than the late Lewis S. Coryell. He was a son of Joseph Coryell, a de- scendant of Emanuel, the first of the name on the Delaware, and born at Lam- bertville in December, 1788. In 1803, at the age of fifteen, he apprenticed him- self for six years and one month, to Benjamin Smith, house carpenter, of Buck- ingham. The indenture is an old-fashioned and stately document, which sets. forth, with great minuteness, the rights and duties of both parties. At the end of three years and nine months he purchased the balance of his time for forty dollars, and formed a co-partnership with Thomas Martin, an older appren- tice. They established themselves at Morrisville, where they carried on business for several years. Mr. Coryell afterward engaged in the lumber business at New Hope, where he spent the remainder of his life. He was a man of exten-
Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and his biography appears in the "Lives of Emi- nent Philadelphians." He died in 1859.
4 Thomas Parry was the owner of one thousand acres in Philadelphia county,. of which he conveyed two hundred to John Van Buskirk, September 2, 1725, and three hundred to David Maltsby December 29, 1726. A large part of the rest descended to his. son John, usually designated "John Parry of Moreland" to distinguish him from an -. other of the same name. Upon this estate John Parry died November 10, 1789.
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sive information on many subjects, and one of the best practical engineers in the State. He was an early advocate of internal improvements, and in 1818 was appointed one of the commissioners to improve the rafting and boating channels ·of the Delaware, the work being placed in his charge. Although an active politi- cian he never held office, but exercised large influence. He had extensive -acquaintance with the statesmen of the country, and enjoyed their confidence. He was a favorite of President Monroe, and a frequent guest at the White House while he occupied it. During what is known as the "Buckshot war," at Harrisburg, 1838, Mr. Coryell assisted Thaddeus Stevens to make his escape from the back window of the House of Representatives. Under Mr. Tyler's administration he was the secret agent employed by the government to bring Texas into the Union. He was an active supporter of the war of 1812, and served as baggage-master at camp Marcus Hook. Mr. Coryell married to Mary Vansant, of New Hope, in 1813. Lewis S. Coryell died in 1865. They were the parents of four sons and two daughters, all of them dead except a son living in New York. Two of the sons were civil engineers, inheriting the father's talent. Of the daughters, the elder was twice married, first to Simp- son Torbert, a civil engineer, and on his death to Dr. Lilly, of Lambertville. The younger daughter, Rebecca, died single.
William Maris," who came to New Hope from Philadelphia soon after the war of 1812, made considerable improvement in the quiet village. Among the buildings erected by him were the large yellow house at the top of the hill, where Richard Ely lived ; the brick tavern ; two factories in the village, one for cotton, the other for woolen, the latter rented to Redwood Fisher and Lamar G. Wells, of Trenton. Later a cotton mill, a mile up the creek, owned by Joshua Whitely, engaged in spinning yarn, was burned down, 1836, rebuilt, has. been running since, and several dwellings. Maris was active in building the bridge across the Delaware, and, when completed, a bank, from which it was thought there was authority in the charter, was opened in the west end of the old tavern, now the Logan House. This was the old ferry-house. The improvements Maris made added greatly to the business of the town, which continued for several years, until overtaken by a financial crisis. Its former prosperity never re- turned. The opening of the Belvidere-Delaware railroad struck a heavy blow at New Hope. When Maris came to New Hope, 1812, there were but fifteen or twenty dwellings in it, and one tavern, where the Logan House stands, and kept by Charles Pidcock, and there was no other until the Brick hotel was built." The pole with the Indian on the top was planted the 22d of February,
5. William Maris was the son of Jesse Maris, the son of Joseph, the son of Richard, who was the son of George, the immigrant. William was born at Springfield, Delaware county, Pa., in 1781, married Jane Beaumont, 1803, was a merchant, Philadelphia, and a manufacturer in New Hope, went to the Madeira Islands, and died at Philadelphia, 1845. The elder sister of William Maris, Jemimah, 1775-1854, married John Welsh, Philadelphia, and became the mother of John and Samuel Welsh, merchants of Phila- delphia, the former representing this country at the Court of St. James, London, dur- ing President Hayes' administration, where the author had the pleasure of meeting him.
6 The brick hotel at New Hope, was built, 1820-21, and February 12, 1821, Mel- drum announced in the Bucks County Messenger, published at Doylestown, by Simon Cameron, that he had "removed from his old stand to the New Brick House in New Hope near the bridge." The landlord was probably the son of Garret Meldrum, who kept the ferry.
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1828. They were made by Samuel Cooper. At that time Garret Meldrum kept the ferry on the Pennsylvania, and Charles Pidcock on the New Jersey side. The place saw its most prosperous days when Parry, Maris, Coryell and Joseph D. Murray were in the full tide of operations. In 1830 there were several fac- tories, mills and a foundry, all doing a large business.
About 1809 Samuel Stockton, born in Burlington county, New Jersey, in 1788, and died, 1853, settled in New Hope where he lived to his death. He mar- ried Mary, daughter of Foster Hart, of Trenton, and had twelve children.
New Hope was a very insignificant village when the Parrys settled there, 1784. Twelve years later we find the following residents there besides Benja- min Parry and his brother David: Beaumont, Cephas Ross, O. Hampton, Jr., Pickering, Joseph Osmond, Vansant, A. Ely, Martha Worstall, Eli Doane, Enoch Kitchen, John Poor, Oliver Paxson, Coolbaugh and William Kitchen. There were thirty-four buildings in all, including dwellings, stores, shops, barns, tavern, stables, and a saw-mill. The tavern was owned by Beaumont, 1796, but we do not know who kept it. Garret Meldrum was the landlord, 1804, and that year the company of Capt. Samuel D. Ingham, Thirty-first regiment, Bucks county brigade, celebrated the 4th of July at his house. The Brick hotel near the bridge was built, 1818, and in 1820-21, was kept by George Meldrum. At that day Philip T. Tonchette, a very estimable Frenchman, and wife were keep- ing a boarding-school at New Hope.
Joseph Dawson Murray, one of the men who made New Hope the prosper- ous place it was from 1820 to 1850, was born at Edenton, North Carolina, 1785. His grandfather immigrated from the North of Ireland, with a Scotch colony, about 1716 and settled at Scotch Neck on the Roanoke river. Here his father married Rosamond Dawson and settled at Edenton. His parents dying while he was young he was brought up by an uncle, and at the age of seventeen made a voyage to the Dutch West Indies, as companion for the son of the ship's owner. In a second voyage, as supercargo, the vessel was wrecked on the island of St. Kitts. We next find Mr. Murray engaged in the dry goods business in Philadelphia, previous to the war of 1812, and while there he married Margaret Sharp, Salem, New Jersey. At the close of the war he removed to New Hope and opened a store in partnership with George Bozman, in a building erected by the Free Masons in 1808. It was subsequently remodeled by Mr. Murray and occupied as a dwelling until his death, and by his son William until his death, 1905. After Mr. Murray gave up storekeeping at New Hope, he entered into the lumber business with Lewis S. Coryell, which they carried on successfully for several years. . They built the canal through New Hope about a mile, 1829- 30, including locks and acqueducts ; also the canal locks at Trenton and Borden- town, all of stone from the Yardley quarries. The most important part of Mr. Murray's business life was the completion of the contracts on the canal and railroads, 1833 to his death. He and Mr. Coryell dissolved their business con- nection in 1841. He was interested in the purchase of the Beaver Meadow and Hazleton coal lands, and assisted in the organization of the companies. He was also an active participant in the purchase of the extensive tracts of land of the Pine Forest Company. Luzerne and Monroe counties, of which he was president several years, erecting and operating two steam and five water mills. He was likewise interested in the purchase of large tracts of timber lands in Carbon county, in company with Samuel D. and James D. Stryker, Lambertville, New Jersey. On these lands villages were started, and the manufactured lumber sent to market in boats. and subsequently via the I ehigh Coal & Navigation Company's and the Lehigh Valley railroads. In these extensive operations
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in developing the timber and coal interests of the Lehigh Valley Mr. Murray bore a conspicuous part. He died at New Hope March 2, 1852, at the age of sixty-four.
Seventy-five years ago Dr. Richard Davis Corson was a leading resident of New Hope, the contemporary of the Inghams, Parrys, Coryells, Elys and Marises. He was a descendant of the Coursons of Staten Island, a son of Rich- ard Corson, born near New Hope, read medicine with Dr. Wilson, and gradu- ated about 1812. Shortly afterward he made a voyage to India on a merchant- man and practiced a year in Calcutta. On his return Dr. Corson settled in prac- tice near Paxson's Corner, and, 1814, married Helen Stockton, daughter of Thomas Johnson, a distinguished lawyer of New Jersey, and brother of Samuel Johnson, Buckingham. He became an eminent physician with an extensive practice, students coming to him from a great distance. He had two sons, Dr. Thomas Corson, Trenton, New Jersey, and Colonel Robert R., Philadelphia. His daughter Harriet married Dr. Charles Foulke, and was the mother of Dr. Richard Corson Foulke, New Hope. Dr. Richard Davis Corson was taken ill on his return from India, and, on the vessel's arrival at Charleston, South Caro- lina, was taken to an hotel, but Dr. Ramsey, the historian, hearing of it, had him fetched to his own dwelling where he remained several months and until his recovery. Several years afterward Dr. Corson took Dr. Ramsey's son into his office and family, and continued him at the university until he graduated. He now returned to Charleston and settled in practice, becoming a distinguished physician and surgeon. Such incidents make one think better of human nature.
The oldest house in New Hope stands near the south end of the iron bridge that spans the Parry mill-dam. It was built by the Wilkinsons, among the early settlers about the ferry, on their tract which extended north to the creek, and was afterward owned by Joshua Vansant, the father of the late Mrs. Lewis S. Coryell. Some years ago, when a new roof was put on the house, a few grape shot were found imbedded in the old one. supposed to have been fired from a British battery on the opposite hills. The second oldest house in the borough is the frame hip-roof at the head of Ferry street, built by John Poor, grandfather of the late Daniel Poor, and the third oldest a stone on Bridge street above Dr. Foulke's, built by George Ely, grandfather of Hiram Ely. The pointed stone house on Ferry street, by the canal, built by Garret Meldrum, before 1808. is the fourth or fifth oldest dwelling. Meldrum kept a tavern in it soon after it was finished. The Paxson homestead, at the head of Bridge and Ferry streets, approached down a long, shady avenue, was built by Oliver Pax- son, the great-uncle of Oliver Paxson, the late owner. The date is not known_ We are told, and the authority is a person who witnessed it when a lad. that Washington tied his horse to a tree at the end of the lane while his army was crossing Coryell's ferry in 1778. Near the head of Ferry street is one of the oldest frame houses in which Rutledge Thornton, subsequently sheriff of the county, kept store sixty-five years ago. The first store in New Hope was prob- ably that of Daniel Parry, brother of Benjamin, who erected the frame building in which it was kept. and is still standing on the corner of River and Ferry streets, lately owned by Peter Johnson. The ferry was at the foot of this latter street.
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