USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania: From the Discovery of the Delaware to the Present Time (Volume 1 and 2) > Part 44
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The Springtown Weekly News was established by Henry S. Funk October, 1885, a four page, twenty-four column paper, and in April following, the size was increased to eight pages, doubling the number of columns. About the same time it was moved into more commodious quarters, and a cylinder and fast jobbing presses introduced. In 1887 Henry H. Funk entered the office as an apprentice, and in 1891 became joint owner and manager, the founder remain- ing as editor. The Sellersville Herald was born into the journalistic world January 16, 1897, C. R. Addison and E. C. Althouse standing godfathers for it at the baptismal font. Althouse bought Addison's interest the following fall, and since that time has been sole proprietor. It is a seven column, four page paper, printed on a sheet eighteen by twenty-four, claims a good circula- tion, and is independent in politics. Mr. Althouse is a young man, and a native of Rockhill township. On November 1, 1897, the Preston Publishing Company began the publication of the Yardley Review, a weekly, printed on a sheet eighteen and twenty-six, and in 1898 the Bristol American made its appearance, the third paper in that ancient seaport borough, the first number making its ap- pearance May 5th. When the latter paper was discontinued we do not know.
The Bucks County Republican, daily and weekly, with two exceptions, is the youngest secular paper in the county. It was brought out in 1893, and, as was the case with some of its predecessors, was born of a political quarrel which its coming failed to reconcile. Its first issue was November I, and, on
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the following 12th of December, the plant was incorporated with the title of the "Republican Printing Company," J. Clinton Sellers, editor and business mana- ger, and Edward A. Trego, local editor. The size of the two papers is uniform with those published in the offices of the Intelligencer and Democrat. The Republican introduced a Thorne type machine July 19, 1897.
Since 1895 the Rev. W. G. P. Brinkloe, rector of the Protestant Episcopal church at Eden, has issued a small monthly sheet called the Church News and Missionary Journal, with a limited circulation outside the congregation.
The latest publication in the county in the journalistic line is The Sower and Reaper, a twelve page monthly, which made its appearance January, 1901. It is published by the First Baptist Church, Doylestown, with John Howard Deming, editor-in-chief, and Charles R. Nightingale, managing editor. It is considered a church paper.
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CHAPTER XXIV.
OLD TAVERNS.
First license on the Delaware .- Claimed early attention .- How license was procured .- Liquors good for sick or well .- First landlord .- New England rum .- Crown Inn .-- Thomas Brock .- Samuel Beakes keeps a disorderly house .- John Ward fined .- Tav- erns in 1730 .- The Anchor .- Cross Keys .- Friends discouraged use of rum .- William Biles sells rum to Indians .- Rum at vendues .- Licenses in 1744 .- Harrow tavern .- Craig's tavern .- Red Lion .- John Baldwin .- Brick hotel, Newtown .- William Doyle's tavern .- Keichline's tavern .- The Black Horse tavern .- John W. Tully .- Distin- guished visitors .- Joseph Bonaparte .- Mrs. Keichline .- Public houses at Bristol .- The Plough .- The Buck and the Bear .- Tavern at Centreville .- Sellers' tavern .- Beans' tavern .- The White Horse.
Spirituous liquors were sold along the Delaware as soon as the white man showed his face on its banks, for strong drink invariably waits upon him in the wilderness. The earliest record on the subject goes back to 1671, when Captain John Carre, the English Governor of the west bank of the river, licensed persons both to sell and distill spirituous liquors.
One of the first subjects that claimed the attention of the county authori- ties was that of license, places to sell liquor being considered a prime necessity. At that day, and down to nearly the close of the eighteenth century, the ap- plicant for license had to be recommended by the court to the Governor, and if approved he was duly commissioned. As there was but little traveling abroad, public houses were chiefly supported by the community around them. Strong liquors were then in universal use by all classes, and it had not yet en- tered the minds, of any considerable number, that its use, as a beverage, was an offense against good morals or detrimental to health. At the first settle- ment of the county spirits were considered an excellent thing for patient and nurse, the sick and the well. Rum, either raw or sweetened, and tobacco, smoked or chewed, were thought to be an antidote against infectious or offen- sive smells. The dram and the pipe were much indulged at leisure hours. The early settlers believed the air and water of this "hot climate," as they called it, were unwholesome, and rum was drunk to prevent evil effects. The bottle was handed around at vendues and funerals among all classes of the population. At first the common beverage among Friends was water or home- brewed beer, but soon New England and Jamaica rum found their way into the
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Centenarian
Cider Press
On the farm of H. Paxson
quiet settlements. When the orchards came into bearing, cider was added as a common drink. In 1830 the yearly license for retailers in this county, was $1,471.80, collected from 128 licensed houses. The highest license paid was by John Bessonett, of Bristol, $38, whose yearly rental was $800. At that time there were nine licensed houses in Doylestown township, which included the present borough, not yet organized. Seven were in the village limits. The highest license paid in the borough was by Henry Scholl, $15.60 on a rental of $240. He kept where the Monument House stands, and it was called the "Court Inn." The other houses in the village, were kept by Charles Morris, William Field, Elnathan Pettit, Valentine Opp, Mary Magill, and Henry Car- ver. The rate of license at that time was a new adjustment under a recent act of Assembly.
Richard Ridgeway, who lived on the river in Falls opposite Biles's island, was probably the first landlord in the county, being licensed to keep an "ordin- ary" August 3, 1686. He and his wife Elizabeth were among the earliest set- tlers in the township, and had a daughter born to them, the 17th of the twelfth month, 1682. The number of public houses kept pace with the increase of population, and in many cases, were the first sign of advancing civilization. They often overleaped a wide intervening wilderness, and planted themselves in advance of those who were to support them. They reached the banks of the Lehigh almost before the settlers, and the historic Crown inn became a noted hostelry when there was a sparse population around it. The crown is one of the oldest English signs, and is typical of royalty. There was a Crown inn in Cheapside, London, as early as 1467. The crown was associated with many other names, as "Crown and Mitre," "Crown and Anchor," etc .-
"The gentry to the King's head, The nobles to the Crown." .
In olden times, when few persons could read and write, taverns and their sign-boards played an important part in cities and towns. The names of many of the streets of London are derived from the sign of the inn, or public house,
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which frequently was the first building in them. The study of the signs, some- of them several centuries old and very curious, is an interesting one. They suggest the modes of thought or idea of humor of the people of the period. In this country they are less suggestive and their history less curious. Next to Richard Ridgeway the earliest recorded petitioner to keep a public house in this. county was Thomas Brock. On the 15th of February, 1705, he petitioned the court to recommend him to the Governor for a license to keep a house of en- tertainment in Bristol the ensuing year, stating that he had been in the county about twenty years, and had been principally occupied in keeping public house, and that he is "now grown ancient, and is destitute of any other em- ployment." No doubt Mr. Brock was licensed. It was as difficult then as now to prevent abuse of this privilege, and we find that at the October term, 1703,. Samuel Beakes was presented for "keeping an ill and disorderly house, suffer- ing and contenancing drunkenness, both in English and Indians, and suffer- ing gambling ad quarreling and drunkenness in his house on the first day of the week." In 1726 John Ward was fined five pounds at the March term "for selling liquors without license." At the October term, 1727, the inhabit- ants of Solebury asked the court to recommend John Wells, who kept the ferry at what is now New Hope, and Jonathan Woolston to the Governor to keep public houses to retail strong liquors. Wells kept there several years. In 1730 when he made application to have his license renewed, he asked to be allowed to "retail rum and other spirits by any quantity less than thirty-five gallons." Benjamin Canby succeeded John Wells, and George Ely succeeded Canby. David Kinsey married the widow of Benjamin Canby, who was a Yardley, and petitioned, March 15, 1753, for license to keep the tavern at Wells' ferry and followed Ely. In 1730 twenty-five persons were returned to. the court as "retailers of rum" in the county, of which Bristol had five and Makefield three. Among the townships that reported none were Buckingham, Warminster and Southampton. The amount of tax assessed was ninety-two .. pounds. The Anchor tavern, Wrightstown, is probably one of the very oldest continuously-kept public houses in the county, and is still in business. It was.
CROWN INN.
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built by Joseph Hampton who came into the township, 1724, and kept it for several years. The anchor was perhaps used rather as an emblem than re- ferring to its use in shipping. It is said to have been frequently used in the catacombs, typical of the words of Saint Paul, "The anchor of the soul," etc. It was a favorite sign with early printers. At the June term, 1728, Henry Betts, James Moon and Evan Harris requested the court to recommend them for license to keep public houses in Bristol. In 1731 the fees for license in Bristol were ten shillings more than in any other part of the county, but the reason is not known. The Cross Keys tavern, Buckingham, a mile above Doylestown, ranks among the oldest public houses in the central part of the county, and dates back to the middle of the eighteenth century. The cross keys are the arms of the Papal see, the emblem of Peter and his successors. This sign was frequently used by inn keepers and other tenants of religious houses even after the Reformation, and no doubt was first used by them.1
When the Friends became sensible of the growing evils from rum drink- ing, they put a stop to it as far as it was possible, and were the pioneers of temperance reform in the Province. From the earliest settlement they dis- couraged the sale of rum to Indians, and the meeting dealt with those who offended. In 1683 it was reported to Falls meeting that Ann Miller "doth keep a disorderly house and sell strong liquor to English and Indians, suffer- ing them to drink it until they are drunk." In 1687 William Biles, the only merchant along the Delaware, who imported and sold rum, a leading Friend and several times elected to the Assembly, was called to account for selling rum to the Indians, and Thomas Janney and William Yardley were appointed to wait on him. The earliest temperance pledge known to be upon record is found in the minutes of the Middletown monthly meeting, 1687, signed by forty-nine members, who bore testimony against the evil practice of selling rum to Indians, because it is "contrary to the mind of the Lord and a grief and burden to his people." They advised every monthly meeting to subscribe against it. In the meeting records we find several instances where the early Friends bore testimony against the use of strong drink in families and else- where, and parents, in particular, are cautioned against giving it to their chil- dren. Down to about 1724 the practice of the crier at public vendues giving rum "to the bidders to encourage them to enhance the price of the goods," was countenanced by all. That year the Middletown monthly meeting declared . against it, and from that time the practice was discountenanced by Friends. April 9, 1827, a meeting was held at Union school house, Buckingham, to adopt measures to stop the practice of selling liquor by the small at vendues and other public gatherings without license. Soon afterward it was prohibited by act of Assembly, but the law was only partially observed .. In 1737 the
I Several changes and improvements were made in the Cross Keys in the fall of 1896, and the historic sign was removed from the south to the north end of the building. When taken down it fell apart from long exposure to the weather, but the pieces were bound together and the sign is as staunch as ever. It was retouched and restored to its old-time glory in red, black and gold, by William H. Rorer, Doylestown, and the orig- inal design preserved. This consists of two large keys, crossed and flanked on one side by a star, on the other by a moon. In the upper triangle are the square and compass with an eye in the centre; in the lower triangle the grotesque figure of a sheep and a pennant. Beneath the whole are the words "Drovers Inn." It was first licensed at the June term, 1758 At that time Doyle's Tavern, Doylestown, was the next nearest public house.
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yearly meeting took notice of the growing evil from the common use of liquors, and "tenderly" cautioned Friends against it. Friends of to-day watch with jealous care over the morals of their society in this regard, and are probably the most temperate religious body in the country. In compliance with the re- quest of the yearly meeting, a committee is appointed each year in the monthly meetings to make inquiry of the members whether they use intoxicating liquors themselves or give them to those in their employ. The result of the inquiry for 1873 shows there were only two persons in the Bucks quarterlies who used liquors themselves or gave them to others, and that only occasionally.
.In 1744 thirty persons were licensed to keep tavern in Bucks county : Benjamin Harris, Joseph White and Malachi White, Bristol borough; Eleazar Jones, Bristol township; John Orr, Bedminster; Ann Amos and John Vande- grift, Bensalem ; Benjamin Bering, New Britain; Eleazar Stackhouse and Mary Taylor, Middletown ; John Rich, Plumstead; Joseph Thornton and Joseph Inslee, Newtown; Benjamin Canby, Solebury; Thomas Hamilton, Peter Grover, Peter Snyder, and Jacob Boyer, Rockhill; Peter Walbec and Jacob Moyer, Upper Milford; Richard Brink and Richard Thomas, Warrington; John Ogilby, Southampton ; John Baldwin,2 Warminster; John Williams, Falls; Andrew VanBuskirk. Nicholas Pennington, and Hugh Young, Wrightstown ; John Wilson, Tinicum, and George Groover, "above Macungie in the back woods of Lehigh county." The locality of some of these taverns of one hundred and thirty years ago is well known. Joseph Thornton kept on the site of the Brick hotel, Newtown, John Baldwin, at Hartsville, who moved away in 1748, and was succeeded by James Vansant, Ann Amos at the Red Lion, Bensalem, and John Ogilby probably at the Buck, Southampton. In 1748 we find that license was granted to David Owen, Upper Saucon, Stoffel Wagoner, Lower Saucon, John Trexler, Macungie, who had purchased the plantation and tavern-stand of Philip Labar. Bernard Vanhorne, Jr., had been keeping public house in Northampton, but, 1748, he came to grief, because he "had no regard to the laws, encouraged drunkenness, gaming, fighting, etc., on week days and Sundays, and doth frequently abuse and beat his wife in an extraordinary manner." In 1754, thirty-five persons petitioned the court for license, and amongst them we find John Strickland and Lawrence Hoff, of Southampton. In 1758 the leading Friends of Middletown recommended Thomas Stackhouse, Jr., to the court for license. At the June sessions, 1765,
. Adam Kerr petitioned for a license at the tavern "on the Old York road over the North Branch of Neshaminy," having "purchased Charles Janney's lease." This was at Bridge Valley. In 1761, Thomas Cooper, in a petition to the court, says "it is the opinion of the principal inhabitants of that neighborhood that there is a necessity of a public house, where the road called "Bristol Road," crosses York Road in the township of Warwick," but it was rejected. This was at the present Hartsville. He got license there, 1765, evidence a tavern had been opened there meanwhile. John McClanahan was keeping at Bridge Valley, 1756. The Harrow tavern, Nockamixon, was so called, 1785, and twenty years before that John Wilson kept a tavern on or near the Dur- ham road in the same township. Nearly a century ago the tavern at Newville,
2 Baldwin kept at what was afterward "Beans'" tavern on the York road just below the Street road, the only public house in Warminster, then or since, so far as is known. The tavern at Hartsville was always in Warwick. Baldwin moved away, 1748, and was followed by James Vansant, who bought his lease of the premises, and at the following . June term, petitioned the court for license and it was allowed.
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Warrington township, was kept by John Craig and called "Craig's tavern." Within the present generation, under the management of Jacob Markley it became quite a celebrated hostelry and was patronized by gentlemen from a distance, who delighted in a well-cooked and well-served meal washed down by a glass of choice liquor.
The Red Lion3 tavern, Bensalem, is one of the oldest in the lower part of the county. In 1730 Philip Amos petitioned the court to keep a public house of entertainment "near Poquessing creek, on the highway from Philadelphia to Bristol, where Leonard Vandegriff lately lived." His petition was a pre- tentious one, headed by Joseph Growden and twenty-five other signers. The house is a substantial stone building, with wide piazza on two sides, and with stone stables across the road immediately in front of it. The situation is pic- turesque and naturally invites the traveler to repose; surrounded by trees, on the bank of a gently-winding stream where it is spanned by an old stone bridge with hills on either side of it. It was still kept by Philip Amos's widow in 1770.4 . The delegates to the first Continental Congress from Massachusetts, Messrs. Bowdoin, Cushing, Samuel and John Adams and Robert Treat Paine, on their way to Philadelphia dined at the Red Lion, August 29, 1774, the Pennsylvania delegates coming out to meet them there. John Adams dined there twice subsequently, on December 9, 1775, and October 13, 1776. In 1781 part of the Continental army, en route for Yorktown, encamped at this place over night. Among the owners, in the long ago, were John Hill, Samuel Hazlett, and John Hart, Hart's deed bearing date 1785. He sold to Henry Clayton Baker. Elias T. Hall. father of a recent owner, Lewis (). T. Hall, was the landlord for many years. The property has been much improved of late years with modern conveniences. The house is furnished with electric lights and a drainage system. The Bristol trolley runs by the door. The old drop curtain of the Walnut Street theatre, painted by Frank F. English, was from a study of the inn, the picture representing a coaching party drawn up in front of the porch with a group of Philadelphia whips in the foreground. A late land- lord was ex-Sheriff Purdy, of Doylestown. The Red Lion was, and still is. a very common sign. It is thought to have originated with the badge of John Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, who married a daughter of Don Pedro the Cruel, and wore a lion rampant to represent his claim to the throne of Castile. There was a Red Lion inn at Sittingbourne as early as 1415.
The Brick hotel, Newtown, has something of a history, and was built at an early day. The date is not known, but there was a public house there before 1744. It stands on land that Shadrack Walley located before 1684, and which Joseph Walley leased to Amos Strickland. 1748, for twenty years, but 1761, the Red Lion, as it was called. was sold by the sheriff and Strickland bought it. He died, 1779, and left his estate to his wife and children, and one of his
3 A tavern at this place was established as early as 1723. At the June term Evan . Harris petitioned the court for license "at his plantation by Poquessin creek, near the road leading from Bristol to Philadelphia, being a place where travelers frequently call." What action was taken is not stated. That the license was granted is confirmed by a sub- sequent petition, wherein the petitioner asks the court to "continue their usual favor." which he says was "about a year since." This fixes the birth of that roadside inn with reasonable certainty.
4 February 18, 1742. the De Normandies conveyed one hundred acres on the north- east bank of the Poquessing to Ann Amos. In 1755 the constable of Newtown. returned Ann Amos as a retailer by the "Jell & Smale Quantity." This was Philip Amos's widow
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daughters marrying Mark Hapenny,' he became the owner of the hotel and an hundred acres of land, 1787. He sold it to John Smock, 1792, and thence it passed through many hands into the possession of its present owner. This house is indebted to Joseph Archambault, who bought it, 1829, for most of its modern improvements. He added a third story to the main building, and afterward built the two-story brick at the west end besides making other ad- ditions. He kept it as a first-class hotel for several years, and seventy years ago it was a resort for people from Philadelphia, and was generally filled with summer boarders. Joseph Archambault's life was one of vicissitudes and
CAPT. JOSEPH ARCHAMBAULT.
varied experience. Born at Fontainbleau, France, 1796, and left an orphan, he became a ward of the Empire, through family influence. On leaving the military school he was attached to the suite of Napoleon as a page, and sub- scquently to that of Josephine. On the Emperor's return from Elba young Archambault was again attached to his suite and shared his fortunes. He was wounded at Waterloo and left on the field, but, rejoining the Emperor, was one of the twelve selected to accompany him to Saint Helena. When ordered to surrender his sword on the Bellerophon he broke it and threw the pieces into
5 The late John Yardley married a daughter of Mark Hapenny. We have been informed that Mrs. Hapenny, daughter of Amos Strickland, told those recently living that her father built the first brick hotel. The great-grandfather of William K. Carver, Newtown, did part of the carpenter-work. From the surplus bricks was built the house owned by Mrs. Martha T. Heyde, once kept as the "Court inn." The bricks were probably burnt in a field of Samuel Phillips.
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: the sea. At the end of a year he was sent to the Cape of Good Hope, where he was confined for a time, and thence came, via England, to New York, where he landed May 5, 1817. He spent a year at William Cobbett's model farm, Long Island, who was his fellow-passenger, teaching French to his son and receiving instruction in scientific agriculture. Archambault was a frequent and welcome visitor at the house of Joseph Bonaparte, Bordentown. He first went into business in New York, but that proving unsuccessful, came to Phila- delphia and thence to Newtown where in turn he kept a hardware store, practiced dentistry and was host at the Brick hotel. He spent most of his act- ive life in this county, where there are many who remember him. He took a deep interest in the volunteers, and commanded the Union troop, a fine com- pany of cavalry for several years. He served as captain and major in the Civil war, and died in Philadelphia, 1874, at the age of seventy-eight, leaving a widow, five children, thirty grand and two great-grandchildren. He was the last survivor of the suite that accompanied Napoleon into exile, and is known in history as "the younger Archambault." The White Hall hotel, Newtown, is venerable enough to have a place in this list. The building was erected early in the last century, and probably first occupied as a dwelling. A private school was kept in 'it about 1835; next occupied as a store by Wilson & Gibson, and licensed as a tavern, 1848. Since that time it has been kept almost contin- uously as a public house.
One of the earliest taverns in Middle Bucks, was that kept by William Doyle, within the present limits of Doylestown borough. The license was ob- tained in March, 1745, and from that time, one of more public inns have been maintained. The town was named after the Doyle family. The earliest site has always been in dispute, and never definitely fixed upon. Later investiga- tions, however, fix the location within a few years after the first license was issued on the northwest corner of State and Main streets, the same occupied by the Fountain House. Since that early day the Fountain House has become a very valuable piece of property, and, in August, 1900, sold for sixty-five thou- sand dollars. The author remembers when it sold for a trifle over five thousand dollars. If this be correct it is not impossible the present building has some of the old walls in it. William Doyle occupied it until 1774, when he rented it to Daniel Hough and retired from business, Hough buying. the premises, 1776. The Doyles came into the county early, Edward Doyle arriving, 1687, and settling at Cold Spring, Bristol township, where he died and was buried in the Baptist grave yard. Edward and Clement Doyle bought land on the New Britain side of Doylestown about 1730, William Doyle being a grandson of Edward. The location being a very desirable one at the intersection of two great highways, one leading from the Delaware to the Schuylkill, and the other from the Lehigh to Philadelphia, it soon became the centre of much travel.
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