USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania: From the Discovery of the Delaware to the Present Time (Volume 1 and 2) > Part 35
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It will be observed, that the great highways, namely; the road from the falls at Trenton, and the Middle, Durham, York, Easton, and the two roads from Bethlehem, led toward Philadelphia, the great objective point of the Province, whither the wealth, produced by labor and capital flowed in its course to the sea.
We do not know when the first post road or mail route was established in, or through this county, but by the beginning of the present century the mail facilities were very much extended. At the session of Congress, 1805, post- routes were established from Bristol to Quakertown via Newtown and Doyles- town, and from New Hope via Doylestown to Lancaster there and back once a
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week. These routes appear to have been arranged to facilitate the distribution "of Asher Miner's paper, and the mails were carried for several years by the late John McIntosh, Doylestown. In addition to the turnpikes already men- "tioned, we have the Byberry and Bensalem pike, chartered March, 1848, and opened for travel, 1852. The length is five and a quarter miles, and it cost $11,442; the Byberry and Andalusia turnpike, two miles in length was char- tered, 1857. The road-bed is composed of gravel eight inches deep, and the cost was $5,000. The turnpike from the Easton road, half a mile north of · Doylestown, to Dublin, in Bedminster township, about six miles long was com- pleted in the fall of 1875 at a cost of about twenty-five thousand dollars.
In addition to turnpikes and country roads traversing the county, it is well supplied with railroads. The first to be constructed was that from Phila- delphia to Trenton via Bristol which did much to develop Eastern Pennsyl- vania. It was chartered in 1833, and completed to Philadelphia in 1835. The first rails were flat iron bars and occasionally a "snake head" killed a pas- senger. The cars were first drawn by horses. The road is now a part of the Reading system to New York, and splendidly equipped. In 1871 the Pennsyl- vania Railroad Company obtained possession of the United Railroads of New Jersey, including the Trenton bridge and the road from Kensington to Trenton, and since then it has been greatly improved, the tracks multiplied, and an im- mense number of passengers carried and freight transported. It is part of one of the great trunk lines between the Pacific, the Gulf and the Atlantic.
The building of the North Pennsylvania Railroad, between 1853-7, from Philadelphia to the Lehigh at Bethlehem, gave a lively impetus to the upper section of our county through which it runs. The main line enters the county at Telford and leaves it at Hilltop, the distance between these points being about fourteen miles- the towns on this part of the line being Sellersville, Perkasie, Telford, and Quakertown. The construction was begun in June, 1853, and the road was opened through to the Lehigh the first of January, 1857, and trains ran regularly the whole length of the main line by July 8. It was opened to Gwynedd July 2, 1855, and to Lansdale twenty-two miles from Philadelphia and the branch road to Doylestown, ten and two-thirds miles, October 9, 1856, the entire length of the main line being fifty-five and one-half miles. The tunnel near Perkasie when the road was constructed was 2160 feet, but much of it was cut away. The entire cost of the road and equipment was $8,733,120.09. The earnings of the road for the fiscal year was $1,424,463, and carried 18,859 passengers, and 902,322 tons of freight. Since then the business has largely increased.
Besides the railroads already mentioned, there are others in Bucks county that assist in travel and the transportation of goods. The Philadelphia and Newtown road under lease to the Philadelphia & Reading, was opened for travel May 1, 1876, and since then passed into the Reading system. Following this the Pennsylvania Company built a road across the Delaware-Schuylkill peninsula from a point on the Schuylkill river river to Morrisville, on the Delaware. In common parlance it is known as the "cut off," and relieves the congested freight condition of the Pennsylvania. More recently a branch road was built from Quakertown on the North Penn, to Reigelsville, on the Dela- ware, where it taps the Durham furnace, and enables it to transport its output to market, and receive coal and iron ore at less expense. The last on the list is the trolley road, the poor man's railway, which is rapidly traversing our county in all directions, several roads being in running order and others pro- jected. Doylestown, the county seat, is rapidly becoming a trolley centre, and
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this convenient mode of travel already taps our neighboring cities and towns on the North, East and South, and it will not be long before the Schuylkill is tapped by a direct line.
When we compare the present, cheap, safe and pleasant modes of travel,. and compare them with that of the early settlers, the change is marvelous in- deed.
Bucks county had been settled many years before any public conveyance was run through it or along its borders. The country was newly settled, the- roads bad, and the few travelers rode on horseback along Indian trails. Public conveyance for several years was confined to the river and its banks. The route of early travelers was mainly on the western bank of the Delaware. through the river townships, crossing at the falls and thence to New York. Some of these early vehicles were given the name of "flying machines,' but judging from the speed they made, their flight was not very swift. About. 1752 a line of "stage wagons" run between Burlington and Amboy and return. once a week, by Solomon Smith and Thomas Moore, connecting at each end. of the line with water communication for Philadelphia and New York. In. 1734 a line was run to Bordentown, where passengers and goods were trans- ferred to "stage boats" for Philadelphia. A new line was put on in 1750,. which promised to make the distance between the two cities in forty-eight. hours less than any other line. In 1752 passengers were carried between these points twice a week. The success of this line started opposition from Phila- delphia, which promised to make the trip in twenty-five or thirty hours less. time, but failed to keep it. In 1753 Joseph Borden, Jr., started with his "stage-boat" from the "Crooked-Billet wharf," Philadelphia, every Wednes- day morning and proceeded to Bordentown, where passengers took a "stage- wagon" to John Clark's house of entertainment, opposite Perth Amboy. This. route was claimed to be ten miles shorter, and was announced to arrive at New York twenty-four hours earlier than by any other conveyance.
The first stage-coach between Philadelphia and New York was set up in 1756, by John Butler, who had kept a kennel of hounds for some wealthy gentlemen of that city fond of fox-hunting. When the population became too. dense to indulge in this sport the hounds were given up, and the old keeper established in the business of staging. The stages ran up and down the west. bank of the Delaware, crossing at the falls and three days were required be- tween the two cities. Three years later Butler ran his stage-wagon and stage- boat twice a week, settling out from his house "at the sign of the Death of the Fox, Strawberry alley," on Monday morning, reaching Trenton ferry the same. day. He received the return passengers at the ferry, taking them to Philadel- phia, Tuesday. In 1765 a new line was started to run twice a week, but the speed was not increased. The following year a third line of stage-wagons was. put on. They were improved by having springs under the seats, and the trip. was made in two days in summer and three in winter. They, too, were called "flying machines." They struck the Delaware at the Blazing Star ferry a short distance above Trenton bridge, where the old ferry-houses were standing in recent years. This ferry was the thoroughfare down to the building of the. Trenton bridge, 1805. The fare, in Butler's flying machine, was three pence- per mile, or twenty shillings for the whole distance.
In 1773 Charles Bessonett, a resident of Bristol, started a line of stage- coaches, the first of their character to run through from Philadelphia to New York ; the trip was made in two days, and the fare was four dollars for inside, and twenty shillings for outside passengers. These stages were probably made.
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.like the English post coaches. In 1781 Johnson and James Drake advertised .to run a four-horse "flying stage-wagon" between Philadelphia and Elizabeth- .town, making two trips a week. It was to leave the city "every Monday and Thursday morning, precisely at the rising of the sun, breakfast at Four Lanes End (now Langhorne), shift horses, cross the new ferry just above the Tren- ton falls, and dine at Jacob Bergen's, at Princeton.' The fare was forty shill- ings, or five dollars and thirty-three cents of our present currency.
From time to time lines were started with increased accommodations or. : made better time. In 1801 Thomas Porter ran a two-horse "coachee" from John C. Hummill's tavern, now City tavern, Trenton, to John Carpenter's, Philadelphia, down one day and back the next. In 1802 Peter Probasco and John Dean ran a coach between Trenton and Philadelphia daily, except Sunday. In 1807 John Mannington put on a line of "coachee stages," leaving Philadel- phia at eight a. m. and reaching Trenton to dinner, fare one dollar and fifty .cents. The first line of stages, to connect with a steamboat, was 1819, when John Lafaucherie and Isaac Merriam ran a line of coaches with the steamboat Philadelphia, at the Bloomsbury wharf, starting from the Rising Sun hotel. In 1828 there were three boats on the Delaware between Philadelphia and Trenton-the Trenton, Captain Jenkins, Burlington, Captain Martin, and the Marco Bozzaris, Captain Lane. In 1840 the Hornet commenced to make regular trips between Philadelphia and Trenton, for twenty-five cents each- way. The Edwin Forrest began to run between the same points, 1850. The stages continued to run until the Philadelphia and Trenton railroad was .opened, when they were withdrawn forever. In the spring of 1828 John Bes- sonett, James Hacket & Co., carried passengers and mails from Philadelphia to Bristol by steamboat, where they took coaches to Easton via Newtown, Lumberville, Point Pleasant and Erwinna, arriving at Easton about six p. m. The first stage up the River road was probably that run by John Hellings, about the time the canal was dug. It was afterward run by Hammet and Weartz, from Trenton to Easton and carried the mails.
The first "stage-wagon" from the Lehigh to Philadelphia, which started September 10, 1763, by George Klein, the pioneer of numerous lines from that time to the introduction of steam traveled down the Old Bethlehem road. The driver was John Hoppel, at £40 per annum. It carried both passengers and goods. The stage left Philadelphia every Thursday morning and returned the following Tuesday. The first year the proprietor lost £82. 12s. 7d. by his ven- ture. and, November, 1764, Klein sold out to John Francis Oberlin for £52, Pennsylvania currency. Passengers were charged ten shillings either way. Three-quarters of a century ago the stage from Bethlehem to Philadelphia, running down through this county over the Bethlehem road, was driven by John Feuerabend. He sounded his bugle as he left the village in the morning, and approached it on his return in the evening. He was born in Wurtemberg, 1786, and, when young, served as a soldier under Bonaparte. He was severely wounded several times, survived the hardships of the Russian campaign, and .at one time, was coachman for the great Napoleon. He was a mail-carrier and stage-driver in several states. He spent his last day in the Northampton county alms-house, where he died in the winter, 1874. Stages were running between Philadelphia and New York on the York road as early as 1805. In 1831 there were two daily lines between Easton and Philadelphia. These stages ran over the Durham road until the River road was opened in 1815-16, and along that until the Delaware Division canal was commenced, when they
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changed back to the Durham road, until the canal was finished. When the Belvidere-Delaware railroad was opened to travel, 1854, the stages to Easton were taken off, and passed into history.8
6 Prior to the completion of the Belvidere-Delaware Railroad, the only means of reaching Easton from Trenton, by stage, was up the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware, leaving Trenton II A. M. and, with five changes of horses, reaching Bellis' hotel, Easton, 7 P. M. Returning, the stage left Easton at 5 A. M. and arrived at Trenton at II. The Delaware was crossed at Yardley, going up and returning. Hammet .and Weartz were proprietors for many years, and one of the best drivers was James Gafney, of Trenton.
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CHAPTER XX.
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OUR POETS AND THEIR POETRY. .
William Satterthwaite .- Comes to Bucks county .- Pellar and John Watson .- Satterth- waite at Durham and Lumberville .- Domestic troubles .- His death and poetry .- Doctor Jonathan Ingham; Doctor John Watson; Paul Preston; Samuel Johnson ; Eliza Pickering; Ann Paxson; Nicholas Biddle, and "Ode to Bogle."-Samuel Blackfan; Samuel. Swain .- The Lumberville "Box."-Cyrus Livezey; George John- son ; Jerome Buck ; Thaddeus T. Kenderdine; Isaac Walton Spencer ; Allen Livezey ; Sidney L. Anderson; Catharine Mitchel : Lizzie VanDeventer ; Octavia E. Hill ; Rebecca Smith ; Laura W. White; Emily F. Seal; Elizabeth Lloyd; M. A. Heston .- John C. Hyde.
There was little outgrowth of poetic feeling among the first settlers, their life in the wilderness being too hard for any display of sentiment, but there was great proclivity for rhyming by the middle of the century, and from that time our county abounded in writers of verse. This talent was stimulated by the establishment of a county newspaper.
William Satterthwaite, classed among the "early poets of Pennsylvania." was probably the earliest, as well as the most distinguished of our domestic versifiers, but only a few of his effusions have survived him. He was born in England the early part of the eighteenth century, received a good classical education and settled in l'ennsylvania while a young man. It is difficult to tell at what time he first came to Bucks county. He is said to have been a school- teacher in England, and that one night a school girl, benighted on her way home, was offered the hospitality of his school house. The evening was long enough for their courtship and marriage. Satisfied of the false step. they had taken. they sailed for Pennsylvania in quest of better fortune and here re- sumed his old employment. He taught Greek and Latin for a while in Jacob Taylor's celebrated classical school. Philadelphia, and probably went from there to Durham furnace where he taught the company's school several years at a fixed salary. At that time John Chapman was clerk at the furnace. . When John Watson was surveying in that neighborhood he stopped at Satterthwaite's house, standing near a fine spring, where the two amused themselves reading. and talking poetry in praise of his spotted trout. Watson and his surveying party made their headquarters at the house of Cruikshank. a settler near the . mouth of Saucon creek. At such times Satterthwaite would go up to see him and Pellar, when work was suspended, and the poets work[ indulge their fancy
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for the muse. The following are the last four lines of an extempore ode, with which Watson woke some of the laggards in the morning :
"The sun peeps o'er the highest tree, Ere we have sipped our punch and tea ; So time rolls on from day to day, That it's noon before we can survey."
From Durham Satterthwaite moved down into Solebury and lived sev- eral years near Lumberville, then known as Hamilton's landing. Through the influence of friends he obtained several schools in the county where he taught English and the classics-in Solebury, Buckingham, and elsewhere. Some hundred and thirty years ago he taught in the school-house on the southwest side of the Street road between Buckingham and Solebury townships, nearly opposite the lane that leads into the old Blackfan homestead. He was ap- pointed deputy-surveyor for Bucks by Jacob Taylor, when the latter became surveyor-general. Mr. Satterthwaite found warm patrons in Lawrence Grow- den and Jeremiah Langhorne, Growden inviting him to Trevose, and offered to maintain him as long as he lived, but he went to Langhorne park where he ended his days. It is said that while Satterthwaite lived at Langhorne's two. of the latter's negroes had a fight, and, in consequence, one of them determined to hang himself. Satterthwaite said it would be wicked to take his own life, and persuaded the negro to let him be the executioner, and he performed this service so effectually that the negro was cured of a second attempt. He was unhappy in his conjugal relations, and after one of his disputes with his wife, it is said she tried to poison him. He had but one child, a son named George, of whom John Watson was very fond, but what became of him is not known.
Mr. Satterthwaite gave free vein to his fancy when he paid court to the muse, and he wrote on many subjects. A good deal of his poetry was of the heroic stamp, while a pious strain runs through some of his productions. Among his works are a poem on "Mysterious Nothing,"1 written about 1738, another, entitled "Providence," and "A Religious Allegory of Life's Futurity," addressed to the young, but never published. His poem entitled. "Providence" begins with :
"O, gracious power, divinely just and great, Who rules the volumes of eternal fate ; Thou guard of thought, inspirer of my song, My thanks to Thee, kind Providence, belong; Thou wing'st my genius and inspir'st my soul To sing Thy praise, Great Ruler of the Whole."
A verse addressed to a young lady, in reproof for singing, rar : "Though singing is a pleasing thing, Approved and done in Heaven,
It only should employ 'the souls Who know their sins forgiven."?
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1 One of his female scholars requested him to write her some poetry, and on his asking her for a subject, she answered, "Oh. nothing."
2 This was contained in a pamphlet that was in the possession of John E. Kender- dine many years ago.
17-2
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He composed a poem on "Free Grace," which he called "Excellent Mor- tal," beginning :
"Hail, Excellent Mortal, all blooming and gay, Serene as the morning, and fair as the day ; Thy garments unspotted, and free from a stain Of sinful pollution, so let them remain."
While ascending Coppernose,ª he was bitten on .the finger by a rattlesnake, - and his life is said to have been saved by Nutimus, the old Indian doctor of Nockamixon. He anathematized the serpent in verse, beginning :
"Thou pois'nous serpent with a noisy tail, Whose teeth are tinctured with the plagues of hell."
Mr. Satterthwaite's eccentricities cropped out in various ways. His wife .kept him poor by her extravagance, and to rebuke her pride he wrote an epic poem entitled the "Indian Queen," the scene being laid in New Jersey on the creek that empties into the Delaware opposite Paxson's island. He describes an Indian princess who lived delightfully on her domain, dressed in buckskin, etc., but was not satisfied until she had a calico gown and a looking-glass. Being dressed fine she must go abroad to show her clothes ; while passing a fire her calico dress caught the flames and she was burned to death, while her buckskin dress would have enabled her to pass the fire in safety. The last two lines read :
"Thus, like Alcides on his flaming hearse, The princess dies, and I conclude my verse."
The poetry did not reclaim his wife, who deserted him and he became a poor, forlorn old man. It is said of him that one bright Sunday afternoon, he strolled down to William Skelton's mill, at the mouth of Cuttalossa, and, finding him absent, wrote with chalk, the following couplet on the door :
"Here Skelton lurks, and an unkind refuge seeks, On Delaware's doleful banks, between two awful peaks."4
On referring to the attempt of his wife to poison him, he remarked to some friends that he had been poisoned by a snake and poisoned by a woman, and that now he defied all the devils in hell to do it. Among his eccentricities was that of calling his mare to him by repeating to her Greek verses, which she appeared to understand, at least she knew what he wanted. When Satter- thwaite grew impatient of teaching, he would repeat to himself :
"Oho! what stock of patience needs the fool Who spends his time and breath in teaching school; Taught or untaught, the dunce is still the same; But yet the wretched master bears the blame."
3 A bold hill near Lumberville.
4 Now known as "Indian" and "Quarry" hills. .
1
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On the death of his great friend and patron, Jeremiah Langhorne, Mr. Satterthwaite wrote an elegy on his character, from which we copy the follow- ing lines :
"He stood the patriot of the Province, where Justice was nourished with celestial care. He taught the laws to know their just design, Truth, Justice, Mercy, hand in hand to join, Without regard to fear, or hope, or gain, Or sly designs of base, corrupted men."
The date of Mr. Satterthwaite's death is not known.
Doctor Jonathan Ingham was one of the ablest and most useful men the State ever produced. He learned Hebrew, when well along in life, of Samuel Delezenna," a Jewish rabbi, and spent much of his time in reading the Hebrew Bible. He talked and wrote in meter with great ease. He wrote a journal in elegant verse, descriptive of a journey up the Delaware to buy logs for his mill, and translated the Aphorisms of Hippocrates into poetry at the request of Doctor Bond, Philadelphia. He communicated the death of a young British officer, whom he attended in his last illness, to Washington, in poetry, in the style of an elegy, beginning :
"Ah, gentle reader! as thou drawest near To read the inscription on this humble stone, Drop o'er the grave a sympathising tear, And make a stranger's hapless case thy own. * * #
* * "Flushed with ambition's animating fires, My youthful bosom glow'd with thirst for fame, Which oft, alas! but vanity inspires, To these inclement, hostile shores I came."
Doctor Jonathan Ingham, Jr., who learned Greek at a school in South- ampton, in the old school house at the Baptist church, was as learned as his father. He was a scholar in Greek, Latin, French, German and Dutch, learn- ing the latter of a hired man. Satterthwaite left him some of his Greek books at his death, and he succeeded to the practice of Doctor Joseph Watson, who was likewise a poet.
Doctor John Watson, whose genius adorned our county a century and a quarter ago, a son of the above named Doctor Joseph Watson, was born in Buckingham township, 1746, and died there, 1817, in his seventy-third year." He married Mary Hampton, Wrightstown, 1772, who died, 1778. He devoted the latter years of his life to literary culture, indulging his native taste for poet- ry, and some of his productions are much admired to this day. He was a poet of no mean parts, and his verse is noted for being written on American subjects, devoted to home-life and characteristics, and in sweet-flowing stanzas. He drew no inspiration from antiquity. He wrote considerable in prose, and, among his productions, are the History of Buckingham and Solebury town-
5 From whom Samuel D. Ingham got his initial "D."
6 He was a descendant of Thomas Watson, who. with his wife and two sons, immi- grated from Cumberland, 1701, and settled on four hundred and fifty acres in Buck- ingham valley. 1704. Doctor John Watson was the grandfather of the late Judge Richard Watson, of Doylestown.
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ships and a pamphlet on the "Customary U'se of Spirituous Liquors," published in 1810. The few of his poetical productions within our reach exhibit genius. His ode to "Spring," written in 1777, but re-written and changed twenty-five years after and published in Asher Miner's Correspondent, in 1805, is es- teemed one of his best pieces. A few verses will show its merits :
"The jolly boatman down the ebbing stream, By the clear moonlight, plies his easy way, With prosp'rous fortune to inspire his theme, Sings a sweet farewell to the parting day.
His rustic music measures even time, As in the crystal wave he dips his oar, And echo pleas'd returns the tuneful chime, Mixed with soft murmurs from the listening shore.
The lamp of love pursues the day's decline; And wearied nature seeks a soft repose; The stars bright shining, and the sky serene, Silence seems list'ning as the water flows.
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