USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania: From the Discovery of the Delaware to the Present Time (Volume 1 and 2) > Part 4
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In the summer of 1745, after the Moravians had planted themselves on the north bank, they erected a white-oak log structure, forty by twenty-eight feet; for a house of entertainment, on the south bank of the Lehigh. It was two stories high, had high gable roof, and four rooms on each story, floored with half-inch white-oak plank, and the doors secured with wooden bolts
' 3 An authority gives the spelling Sak-unk, meaning "at the place of the creek's mouth." There is supposed to have been a populous Indian village at the mouth of Saucon creek, near Shimersville.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
and latches, and it stood on the site of the railroad station, South Bethlehem. It was finished late in the autumn, and license was granted at the next June term of the quarter sessions, 1746. This was the first public house on the Lehigh that rose to the dignity of a tavern, and managed in the interest of the Moravian brethren. Mr. Reichel says of this primitive inn: "It was stocked with gill and half-gill pewter wine measures, with two dram-glasses, two hogsheads of cider, one cask of metheglin, one cask of rum, six pewter plates, iron candlesticks, and whatever else could minister to the creature-comforts of the tired traveler. Here he was served with a breakfast of tea and coffee at four-pence, a dinner at six-pence, a pint of beer at three-pence, a supper at" four-pence, or if hot at six-pence, with lodging at two-pence, and night's hay and oats for his horse at twelve-pence."
The tract, on which the Crown stood, was bought of William Allen, in February, 1743, and contained twelve hundred acres. This old hostelry went by several names, but in 1760, a new sign, emblazoned with a likeness of the British crown was swung from its side, and it was ever after known as "The Crown." In 1764, on the completion of the bridge over the river, the build- ing was transferred into a quiet farm-house, and when the union railroad station was about to be erected, it was sold and removed and is now known as the Continental hotel," South Bethlehem." The sign of the Crown is said to have been a frequent target for Indian arrows. In the early days the musicians .of the church-choir, performing hymns on their instruments, accompanied the harvesters as they went forth to cut grain on the Crown farm, all who could leave, men, women and children assisting. A shield, surrounded by a crown, made of oak taken from the old Crown inn, and covered with locks, hinges, and a clasp-knife that once belonged to the old hostelry, are now in the Moravian Historical society, at Nazareth. The Crown was often a place of refuge for the settlers on the frontiers when threatened by Indians. A barn was built on the premises in 1747. Five different landlords presided over the destinies of the Crown while it remained in Bucks county : Samuel Ponell and Martha his wife, of County of Salop, England, braiser, immigrated June, 1742, and died in Philadelphia, 1762, Frederick Hartman, and Margaret his wife, a German who immigrated before 1740, and probably died at Nazareth, in 1756, Jobst Vollert, and wife Mary, from Chester county, who retired from it November 2, 1745, Hartman Verdriess, or Vandriess, of Lancaster county, miller, who vacated March 29, 1752, and died in Frederick county, Maryland, in 1774. He was succeeded the same day by John Leighton, of Dundee, Scot- land, and Sarah his wife, who immigrated in 1743. The inn was visited by .distinguished persons, and occasionally by the Governor of the Province, and, during Indian disturbances, was frequently occupied by the military. In 1762 the inn and its appurtenances were appraised at £267.95. The Crown inn was built on what is known as the Simpson tract whose title runs in this wise : Deed of William Penn for five thousand acres to William and Margaret Lowther, October, 1681, to be laid out in Pennsylvania in such place as should be agreed upon. On the death of her brother, Margaret inherited his share and sold the entire grant to her daughter Margaret Pool who, with her hus- band, conveyed it to Joseph Stanwix, September 23, 1731. The latter sold it in January, 1732, to John Simpson, of Tower Hill, London, merchant. In 1743 the Moravians bought two hundred and seventy acres of this tract for
4 There are those who assert the original log building was the hut of a Swiss. :settler, named Ritchie, who settled there, 1742, and built it, 1743.
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f200, extending up the river as high as Calypso island, and down below the: depot-buildings. This purchase gave them the control of both banks of the river at this point.
We learn, from the register of the Crown, that settlers of the surrounding country made frequent visits to this popular resort, on business or to partake of the good cheer to be found there. Among those who came were the Webers, Laubachs, Lerchs, Bachmans, and Freemans," of Saucon, from Macungie and Salisbury the Knausses, Guths, Kræmers, Kemmerers, Ritters, and Zimmer- mans, from about Nazareth the Clevels, Bosserts, Lefevres, Scholls, and the Tromms, the Craigs, Browns, Horners, Gibsons. McCaas and the Campbells from Craig's settlement. Iron men came there from Durham, Hopewell, and other forges, from the Minisinks, the Brodheads, Deckers, Salades, with deer- skins and other things to barter.
Before 1747, a graveyard was laid out on the south side of the Lehigh, on the hill near the ferry and Crown inn, as a burial-place for the Moravians of Saucon. The 12th of January, that year, the wife of Frederick Hartman . was buried there and there is a record of nineteen interments in the next twenty years. William Tatamy, son of Moses, an interpreter to David Brainard, was buried there, and tradition tells us that several Revolutionary soldiers from the Continental hospitals at Bethlehem, found a last resting place in this old graveyard."
The 25th of May, 1747, a boarding-school for boys was opened on the south bank of the Lehigh, in the "Behringer" house that stood just below the New street bridge. It was occupied as a girl's-school in May, 1749, and con- tinued until December, 1753, when it was converted into a hat manufactory. The house was probably pulled down prior to 1757.
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When white settlers first located on the Lehigh it was a beautiful and romantic stream. The shores were lined with birch, sycamore and maple trees, their branches overhung the stream, and the water abounded in shad, herring, trout, suckers and eels, which the Indians caught in great quantities. The flats on either side were not heavily timbered, but covered with shrub- bery and scrub-oak, with occasional knots of large walnuts, oaks, and chest- nut, while on the bosom of the river floated the canoes of the Delawares, Mohicans, Nanticokes, Shawnees, and other savage denizens of this and neigh- boring regions.
The surface of Saucon is hilly, soil fertile and well-improved. It is well-watered by the Lehigh river, Saucon creek and their tributaries, which afford many fine mill sites. When cut off from Bucks county, in 1752, the population was about seven hundred, which had increased to two thousand seven hundred and ten by 1840. The country population is mostly German. South Bethlehem, the largest town, is one of the most flourishing in the valley, with a population of nearly eight thousand. It has one of the largest steel plants in the world. The soil contains large quantities of iron and other minerals.
At what time Saucon was divided into Upper and Lower Saucon is not known, but probably soon after the present township was organized. In 1743 constables and supervisors were appointed for both Saucon and Lower
5 The ancestor of the Freemans, of Freemansburg, was Richard Freeman, born in Cecil county, Maryland, 1717, and died in Saucon, 1784; he married a sister of William Doyle, the founder of Doylestown.
6 E. P. Wilber's hot-house is thought to occupy the site of the graveyard.
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Saucon, and these two names were in use in 1745. It is possible that Saucon was divided for the convenience of municipal purposes before a second town- ship organization was granted, as was the case with other townships. But however this may be, the following are the names of those who petitioned for the formation of Lower Saucon: George Hertzel. Henry Hertzel, Paul Frantz, Matthias Riegel. Christian Laubach. John Danishauss, Jacob Hertzel, Jacob Maurer, Matthes Menchner, Frederick Weber. Diter Kauss, Max Gum- schæffer, Joerg Freimann, Rudolph Owerle. George Peter Knecht, Michael Lintz, Peter Risser, Joel Arnimer, Rudolph Illig.
MACUNGIE .- This township, which originally embraced the territory now included in Upper and Lower Macungie. Lehigh county, is bounded on the south-west by Montgomery county. Its settlement was contemporaneous with the upper parts of Bucks and Montgomery and the first-comers were Germans. No doubt settlers were in the woods of Macungie prior to 1730, for when cut off from Bucks in 1752, the population was six hundred and fifty. The two Macungies were called Macaunsie and Macquenusie prior to 1735. 'In January, 1730, a road was opened from their settlements to Goshenhoppen. The Moravians were there as early as 1742, and in 1754, a congregation was organized among the settlers near the South mountain, south-west from Allen- town.
The inhabitants took their first steps toward the formation of a township in 1742, and, on the 28th of January. they caused it to be surveyed by Ed- ward Scull. The area was twenty-nine thousand two hundred acres. On the 16th of June, 1743, they petitioned the quarter sessions to lay off their town- ship according to the survey, the petitioners stating they had "lived there this many years without any township layed out." Their prayer was granted and the township organized as desired. The names of those who petitioned were Peter Tracksler, Henry Sheath, Jeremiah Tracksler. John Ecle, Frederick Rowey, Peter Walbert, Jr., Philip Smies, Joseph Albright, Jacob Wagner, Melchior Smith, George Stininger, Jacob Mier, George Hayn, Adam Cook, Casper Mier, Kayde Crim, John Clymer and Adam Prous. We are entirely in the dark as to the date when these settlers came into the township, or where they located, for we have no records to enlighten us.
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In March, 1749, the inhabitants petitioned the court for a road "from Casper Wiester's plantation, at a place called Jourdan, to George Good's mill and thence to the great road called Macongey road." The names attached to this petition are likewise wholly German: Peter Drexler, John Liechten- waultner, Frederick Nungesser, William Meyer, Heinrich Stanninger, Stoffel Stetler, Michael Kichel. Andress Meyer. Milton Schnick, Bregorius Scholtze, Philip Wendelklaus, Johannes Schmitt, Jacob Schlauch, Loren Schaatt, Bern- hart Schmitt. Frederick Roomich, Heinrich Drexler, Melchior M. Schmid, Peter Haas, David Gisty, Peter Potner, and Nicholas Figler. In 1745 Conrad Culp applied for license to keep a public house in Macungie, probably the first tavern in the township. In 1746 Kulp and John Traxeler" both applied for license, the latter new. John Brandbury was appointed constable for this town- ship as early as 1737.
The surface of Macungie8 is generally level and soil productive. It was divided into Upper and Lower Macungie, sixty-five years ago.
7 Probably Trexler. This family gave name to Trexlertown, Upper Macungie, and there is hardly a doubt the early tavern was the foundation of the village.
& The name is corrupted from Machk-un-tchi, signifying "the feeding-place of bears."
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
SALISBURY.º-This township lies on the Lehigh above and adjoining Saucon, and was peopled about the same period. March 18, 1732, John, Thomas, and Richard Penn issued their warrant to the Surveyor-General, to lay out a tract of five thousand acres in Pennsylvania, to Thomas Penn and his heirs. Penn assigned the warrant to Joseph Turner, and Turner to Wil- liam Allen, of Philadelphia, September 10, 1736. By virtue of these several assignments and the warrant itself, there were surveyed to William Allen five thousand acres in the upper part of Bucks on both sides of the Lehigh. A portion of this land lays in Salisbury township. The same year other grants were made in this section near the Lehigh, and probably a portion of them in this township: Thomas Græme, two thousand acres, James Bingham, two thousand, Casper Wister, one thousand five hundred, James Hamilton, one thousand, Patrick Græme, one thousand, all in five hundred acre tracts. The same year three thousand acres, in six parcels of five hundred acres each, were granted on the Lehigh in the neighborhood of Allentown, upon part of which that town was laid out by Chief-Justice Allen, prior to 1752. A portion of this tract lay in Salisbury.
We have seen no reliable record of the names, and times of arrival, of the earliest settlers, but it is said they came soon after the Allen tract was open to settlement, in 1735. In 1747 a few Moravians settled at what is now Emaus, a small village at the foot of South Mountain, five miles southwest of Allen- town. Among the earliest arrivals were Sebastian Knauss, Jacob Arenhard, and Andrew Guehring.10 The latter, who did not arrive until 1751, was mar- ried at Bethlehem in 1754. The land for the town-plot of Emaus was given by Knauss and Arenhard, while Guehring gave an equivalent in money. There were German settlers in that vicinity about 1740, and a congregation was or- ganized and a church built, 1742. In 1746 it was called Schmaltzgass, and is now known as Jerusalem church. Salisbury township was not organized until it became a part of Northampton, in 1752.
WHITEHALL.11-Settlers pushed gradually up the Lehigh, and between 1730 and 1735 we find Germans in what is now Whitehall township. One of the first to arrive was Adam Deshler, in 1730, whose son David was one of the earliest settlers at Allentown, and owned a mill on the Little Lehigh. He was an active patriot in the Revolution, advanced money to the government when its coffers were empty, and was a commissary of supplies for the Con- tinental army. Among the names of the early comers to the wilderness of Whitehall we find those of Schreiber, Schaad, Kohler, Kern, Burghalter, Mickley, Troxel, Steckel, Palliet, now written Balliet, Sæger, Knapp, Guth, and others, whose descendants live in that region. Some of these early set- tlers were Swiss, and in religion generally Reformed. Lawrence Guth located eight hundred acres, the Troxels about fifteen hundred, George Knapp one hundred acres, on which he built a grist-mill. and Peter Kohler one hundred and twenty acres, on which he likewise built a grist-mill. Balliet, Kohler, and Guth were tavernkeepers. They settled in a well-wooded and a well-watered district about Copley creek, which, because of its fertility, was called "Egypt."
The Mickleys, descendants of Huguenots, driven from France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 1685, settled at Deux Ponts, then part of
9 In Lehigh county, and was named after Salzbury, South Austria.
10 He was born 1729, at the town of Boll, Wurtemberg.
II In Lehigh county. There are three townships which bear this name, Whitehall, North Whitehall, and South Whitehall.
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the German Empire. The name was corrupted and variously written, Miquilet, Mückli, etc., and finally anglicized into Mickley. The family name in Germany is Michelet. John Jacob Mickley, born in Germany, in 1697, landed at Philadelphia in 1733, married Elizabeth Barbara Ulrich, and set- tled in Whitehall township, then in Bucks county, now Lehigh, where he died, 1769. He left three sons and two daughters. The eldest son, John Jacob, settled in South Whitehall, John Martin, the second, in Adams county, 1794, and John Peter, the youngest, in Bedminster township, Bucks county, 1784. They left numerous descendants now found living in twelve states. The two younger sons served in the Revolutionary war and John Jacob, the elder, had charge of the transportation of the Liberty Bell from Philadelphia to Allen- town, where it was concealed while the British held that city. The family, in this country and Germany have held honorable places in the various walks of life, in the professions, business, etc. In time of war the descendants of John Jacob have always served their country, two were soldiers in the Revo- lution, three in the War of 1812, and fifteen on the Union side in the Civil war, one being an officer of the Navy.
About 1740 Lynford Lardner, of Philadelphia, built a house on a tract of land he owned near the Jordan and Cedar creeks. It was painted white, and, because of its color, was called "Whitehall," which afterward gave the. name to the township.12 On Scull's map of 1770 it is called "Grouse-hall." Gentlemen used to come from Philadelphia to Mr. Lardner's in large parties to shoot grouse, then a favorite sport. Lardner was one of a company which purchased land near the head waters of the Conestoga creek, Lancaster county, soon after 1733. On the property they erected forges for the manufacture of bar iron, and a large mansion in English style, calling the place Windsor. Lardner attended the old Bangor church. The company sold out about the time of the Revolution. Descendants of the Lardner family are still living in Lancaster county.
The Reformed church in this township, one of the oldest in Lehigh county, was organized about 1733. Service was first held at the houses of George Kulp, Jacob Kern and Peter Troxel by the Reverend John Henry Gotschius, of Zurich, Switzerland, and one of the oldest German missionaries in America. The date of the church organization is not known, but the bap- tismal record commences the 22d of March, 1733;18 the first bap- tism entered is a son of Peter Troxel, the 26th of October, of that year, with Nicholas Kern and Johannes and Margaret En- gender for sponsors. The child was named Johannes. Mr. Goetschius, the first pastor, came to this country before 1730, and in that year be- came pastor of the Reformed church, at New Goshenhoppen, Montgomery county. He officiated at the Egypt church, in conjunction with that at Saucon, until 1736. The church was now without a pastor for several years but was supplied occasionally by John Philip Bohm, and the children were taken down to the Saucon church to be baptised by the Reverend P. H. Dorsius. The Reverend John Conrad Wuertz was called in 1742, but in 1744 he removed to the Springfield church.
A small Reformed log church, with loose planks laid on blocks for seats, was erected in 1742. A Lutheran congregation was organized, in 1758, and, since then, the two congregations have continued to worship in the same
12 Mr. Henry.
13 At this time it was called "the congregation at the Lehigh."
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
building. After the resignation of Mr. Wuertz in 1744 there was a vacancy, with supplies, until 1752, when John Jacob Wissler, a native of Dillenberg, Nassau, was called to the charge. At this time the Reformed charge was com- posed of the congregations of Heidelburg, Egypt and Jordan. The church in Whitehall has been known as the Egypt church since 1752. The township was not laid out and organized until 1753, the year after it was cut off from Bucks, but probably the inhabitants had taken steps toward it before.
HEIDELBURG township, to the northwest of Whitehall, was settled about the same period, but was not organized until after 1752. Nathaniel Irish owned real estate there, in 1749, and, on the 24th of April leased two hundred acres to Nicholas Snyder.
WILLIAMS township in the south-east corner of Northampton, was or- ganized 1750, two years prior to the county being cut off from Bucks. At this time it contained a population of about two hundred. By the erection of Lower Saucon, at the March sessions of Bucks county, 1743,. this township embraced the remaining portion of the territory belonging to Northampton county south of the Lehigh to the Bucks county line. When this township was organized, a survey of it was deemed unnecessary, as its boundaries were clearly defined by the erection of Saucon, which bounded it on the west, the Lehigh river on the north, the Delaware on the east, and the Durham tract, now Durham township, Bucks county, on the south. The township took its name from John Williams, an early settler, and between 1750 and 1760. the county records speaks of it as "Williamston" township. In the assessment for 1766, the widow Williamson was assessed for two hundred and forty acres of land. How early they came into the township, or where from, we are not informed. Some of the first settlers came between 1725 and 1730. About the time the settlement of Easton was begun, 1752, \Villiam Parsons, in De- cember of that year, says, "Most of the provisions supplying that infant town, are brought from Williams and Saucon townships, which contained a consid- erable number of inhabitants." Among the first settlers we find the names of John Williams, Melchior Hay, Nicholas Best, George Best, Michael Shoe- maker, George Raub, and Martin Lahr. The first congregation organized, and church erected. was probably about 1740-45. on the road, or path, leading from the ferry at Easton toward the so-called "Great road leading from Phila- delphia to Irish's mill at the mouth of Saucon creek." As this part of the township was at that time the most settled. it was considered a suitable loca- tion for a church. It existed until 1763, when the congregation, Lutheran, purchased a house from the Moravians, at Easton, and was used by them until the completion of the union church, Lutheran and Reformed, at Easton, 1776. Nearly the entire surface of the township is covered by the Lehigh hills, beginning at the Delaware and extending southwest. In these are found magnetic ore, at various places, which has been mined since 1826. An elevated spot along one of the ridges, about the middle of the township .. is called "Witch-peak." or head, from the superstitious notions of the first inhabitants, and noted in "Henry's Lehigh Valley." Williams is now a rich and populous township.
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CHAPTER III.
ROCKHILL.
1740.
John Furnace .- The Hartzells .- Abraham Wombold .- Rockhill settled by Germans .- Isaac Stout .- The Arndts .- Rosenbergers .- William Maybury .- Manor of Perkasie .- Paul Gerhart .- Jacob Stout .- Abraham Stout .- John Benner .- The Wormans .-- John Shellenberger .- The Groffs .- Mennonites .- Township laid out .- Origin of name. -Area and population .- Derstein's mill .- Peter . Shepperd .- Sellersville .- Thomas Sellers .- Rev. Peter S. Fisher .- Andreas Lauch .- General Frank Fisher .- Bridge- town. - Perkasie. - Telford. - Christian Dettra. - Valentine Nicholas. - Indianfield church .- A Hessian surgeon passes through Upper Bucks.
Rockhill was one of the objective points of German immigration that came up the Perkiomen and set across into Bucks county, 1720-1730, Germans were among its very earliest settlers and it has maintained its German status to the present time. Our knowledge of the pioneers is limited, being of that class that rarely preserves recorded family history or tradition.
The earliest purchase made in Rockhill was by John Furnace, a barber of Philadelphia, the deed bearing date December 11, 1701, for three hundred acres. In 1723. he sold the tract to Andrew Hamilton, and Hamilton to Heinrich Hartzell, an immigrant from the Palatinate, 1732. It now bounds the limits of Telford. Hartzell improved the property and added to it. He owned one thousand acres in all, on the Montgomery line, the homestead being on the Bucks side. He died here June 21, 1784, leaving three sons and eight daughters, and was buried at Indianfield German Reformed church. Ulrich Hartzell, probably a brother, who came in the same ship, bought land near Tylersport, Montgomery county, and died there, December 6, 1771. He was born in Switzerland, August 20, 1705. December 6, 1738, another Hartzell finds his way to America-Conrad, who settled in Salisbury township, Lehigh county, then in Bucks. Heinrich Hartzell was the ancestor of the family in Bucks county. One of the earliest settlers, in the west end of the township, near where Sellersville stands, was Abraham Wombold, who purchased a tract on a branch of the Perkiomen, 1738, on which he built a dwelling, grist mill1 and tannery. Here he carried on milling and tanning many years, and to
I Prior to the building of this grist mill, the nearest mills for the pioneer settlers were those of Mathew, at Flourtown, and Hyde's, Centre Valley.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
him the farmers, many miles round. brought their grain to be ground. He was followed by Samuel Sellers, who built a dwelling and opened a tavern in it on the site of the present Sellersville house. Around this old inn has grown a flourishing village named after its founder. Mr. Sellers lived to become a prominent and influential citizen, was a member of Assembly and High Sheriff and died August 18, 1817. William Maberry was an early settler, but the date of his arrival is unknown. He became a large landed proprietor. At his death, 1782, he owned seven hundred and forty-five acres in Rockhill, which were divided among his heirs.
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