USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > History of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time, Vol. I > Part 23
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
.one of the preachers to the Keithian band, on whose tombstone is the following inscription :
"Intered here I be O that you could now sec, How unto Jesus for to flee Not in sin still to be. Warning in time pray take And peace by Jesus make Then at the last when you awake Sure on his right hand you'l partake."
Among the pastors there have been some able and eminent men and in its time, the Southampton Baptist church was one of the most influential of that body.
The Davisville Baptist church. an offshoot of Southampton church, was organized March 31. 1849, at the house of Jesse L. Booz, in that village. It began with thirty-three members, who left the mother church because of a want of harmony. The seceders were accompanied by the pastor, Alfred Earle, who became the first pastor of the new organization, with John Potts and Bernard Vanhorne as deacons. A meeting-house thirty-six by forty-five fect was erected at an expense of $1,500, and was first occupied January 1, 1850. The pastors from that time to the present have been the Reverends Messrs. F. Kent, Charles Cox, James H. Appleton, and William H. Conrad, who was installed Sep- tember Ist. 1862. with eighty-four members, and thirty-five children in the Sun- day school. followed by the Reverend S. V. Marsh, Philip Berry and D. W. Sheppard, the present pastor. Since then the church building has been much ' enlarged and improved, and a handsome parsonage erected. There are now about two hundred and fifty members, with nearly as many scholars in the Sun- day school. The money collections, 1873, for all purposes, were $1.436.22. The church is one of the most flourishing of the denomination in the county, and exercises a wide influence for good in the surrounding neighborhood.
The Low Dutch Reformed-12 congregation of North and Southampton whose place of worship is at Churchville on the Bristol road, is probably the third, if not the second. oldest denominational organization in the county. It was originally ealled Neshaminy church, or, as it was written in the old Dutch rec- ords, "Sammany," and "Shammony." It is not known just when. nor where. the first church was built. but no doubt near the creek that gave its name, and. at an carly date. churches were erected on the Street road. Southampton, at what is now Feasterville. and at Richborough, Northampton. These churches were necessary to accommodate the Holland settlers in these two townships. Reverend Paulus Van Vleck,es who was chosen pastor at Bensalem, May 30.
2712 This denomination was formerly known as the "Reformed Protestant Dutch Church in North America." but the name was changed in recent years to "The Re- formed Church in America" It is Presbyterian in government and Calvinistic in doctrine. It is the oldest branch of the Presbyterian church in America by nearly a hundred years, being planted on these shores in 1610. when the Hollanders settled at Manhattan. In the petition for the organization of Northampton township. December, 1722, this church is called the "Neshaminy meeting-house."
28 Paulus Van Vleck, the probable founder of the Low Dutch Church, North and "Southampton, about 1710, was a schoolmaster and presenter at Kinderhook, N. Y .; then
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
1710, officiated at "Shammony" until he left his charge in 1712. Jan Banch, a Swedish missionary from Stockholm, visited this church, January, July, No- vember and December, 1710, and was there again in April, 1711, and January, 1712. At his second visit he baptised a child of Jacob and Catalinda Welfen- stein, the witnesses being Van Vleck, the pastor, his wife Janett, Rachael Coar- son, and Stoffel Van Sand, a deacon.
Samuel Hesselius, one of the pastors at Wicacoa, officiated there in 1719 and 1720, and afterward preached there in connection with Kalkonhook" 12 and Matson's ford on the Schuylkill. He was there in 1721, but how much longer is not known. This congregation and Bensalem were probably branchies of Wicacoa at first, and the people of "Shammony" had the privilege of burying on the north side of the Wicacoa graveyard. At what time it was given the name of the church of North and Southampton is not known, but probably when a church was erected in each township.
After Mr. Hesselius, there is an interregnum of several years until the pas- torate of Reverend Peter Henry Dortitis,29 who came about 1730.3º He preached in Dutch and German, and frequently traveled a considerable distance to preach to destitute German congregations. In September. 1740. he baptised several children of the Egypt church, north of Allentown. in Lehigh county. He was called "Herr Inspector," and probably had a commission to inspect the German churches and report their condition to the authorities in Europe. In the latter year of his pastorate he was involved in troubles with his congregation on ac- count of his falling into dissipated habits. The Reverend Michael Schlatter, 31 the ruling-elder of the Reformed churches in America, was called upon by the pastor to settle the trouble between him and his congregation. He made sev- eral visits to "Northampton, in Schameny," as he calls the place, to allay the strife but was not successful. Dortius left about 1748, and is supposed to have
a chaplain of the Dutch troops under Colonel Nicholson. in the French and Indian wars. For eighteen years after Van Vleck's departure, 1712. the Rev'd Frelinghuysen of N. J. supplied the church. Feeling at nced, the congregation called a supply from Leyden, and Rotterdam. Netherland, in 1730, through the consistory, and we suppose got one. The official document read : "Done in our Congregational meeting, May 3. 1730. by ns, your Revd. humble servants, Elders and Deacons of the above named church in Bucks county." The salary was fixed at £60 "proclamation money." to be counted from his first sermon, with "free dwelling and firewood and free ship's passage."
2812 Darby creek.
29. His wife was Jane, daughter of Dirck Hogeland; they had three children.
30. An authority states that Mr. Dortius was called January 1st, 1744, to receive f40 a year salary in "gold money," house, land, fire-wood, and saddle horse, to preach twice on Sunday in summer and once in winter. Abraham Van de Grift, and Garret Wynkoop were then elders. The year is wrong. probably because the entry was not made until that year. He was pastor there as early as March, 1739, and no doubt the date given in the text is correct.
31. A native of St. Gall, Switzerland, where he was born July 14th, 1716, and came to America in 1746 to inspect the Reformed churches. At one time he was chaplain in the British army, and was imprisoned because he was a patriot in the Revolution. He died between October 22d and November 23d. 1790. Schlatter says that when he landed in New York he received especial proofs of friendship from Father DuBois, who had labored in the ministry with great success more than fifty years.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
returned to Holland. During the vacancy Mr. Schlatter preached to the con- gregation once a month on a week day.
The Reverend Jonathan DuBois- was called to succeed Mr. Dortius, on recommendation of Mr. Schlatter, November 11, 1752, and installed the next day. Ile was to receive f50 a year, a house and seventeen acres in Byberry, a saddle horse, and eight Sundays in each year to himself. In the call the elders and deacons style him "your honor." He was to serve the church in each town- ship on Sunday when the days were long. It is stated in the life of the Rever- end Henry M. Muhlenberg, that he visited the remnant of Dutch Lutherans, at Neshaminy, twenty miles from Philadelphia, in 1754. They had been served some time by Mr. Van Doran, who preached to them in a barn. Mr. Muhlen- berg visited them every six weeks in the summer, and preached three sermons each Sunday, in Dutch, German and English. He says the Dutch Reformed had a church. The Lutherans were scattered by death, removals, etc. In the distribution of charities from the classes of Amsterdam, April, 1755. "Mr. Du- Bois, of Northampton," received £21. 5s., and Mr. Dortins £5. 85. In 1759 £20 were given to Mr. DuBois. In 1760 the congregation maintained a school of sixty boys. Mr. DuBois officiated for this congregation until his death. De- cember 16, 1772, a period of nearly twenty-two years.
There is no record of a successor to Mr. DuBois, until 1777. when he was succeeded by Reverend William Schenck, who was driven out of New Jersey by the British. He was born in Moumouth county, October 13, 1740, graduated at Princeton, 1767, married 1768, and studied theology with Mr. Tennent. He was chaplain in the army for a time. He came to Southampton March 3, 1777. and moved to the parsonage, then the farm recently owned by Stephen Rhoads on the road to Churchville, a quarter of a mile from Buck tavern, the 24th of April. It is not known how long he staid. but he was at Pittsgrove in 1783. and probably leit Southampton that year or the year before. Mr. Schenck died at Franklin. Ohio, September ist 1827,33 where he had settled in 1817. After- ward, in succession, were Reverends Mathias Leydt, who died November 24. 1783, aged twenty-nine years, Peter Stryker, in 1788, who resigned in 1790, Jacob Larzelere, who came October 13. 1798. and resigned in 1828, on account of declining years, A. O. Halsey, 1829 to 1867, an able man and minister, who
32. Jonathan DuBois was the son of Barnet DuBois, and both he and his cousin John, son of Louis, were educated for the minstry by voluntary subscription, the father of Jonathan carrying round the subscription paper. which was drawn by David Evans. pastor of the Palgrave church. Salem county. New Jersey. John died in New London. in 1745. while pursuing his studies with Doctor Allison. The wife of Jonathan DuBois is said to have been Amy, sister of Reverend Nehemiah Greenman.
33. The Schenck's trace their ancestry back to Colve De Witte, the founder of the house, a Hollander who was killed in battle with the Danes, in 828. Christian, the first of the name, butler to the Count of Gulic, called by him Schenck in 1225, was a younger son of one of the lords of Tomtenburg. The name means cup-bearer, butler, of wine server. We have seen a copy of the hangman's bill of expenses attending the execution of Sir Martin Schenck. in Holland, about 1559 He had some sort of con- pleasantne -- " with the powers that be, and to prevent further trouble he was turned over to the public executioner. The cost of putting him and three of his faithful soldiers out of the way was twenty-five guider- and fifteen stivers. It is a quaint old document. The Reverend William descends from Peter Schenck, who came to Long Iland in 1650. While Mr. Schenck was at Southampton his son John Noble was born, January 28. 1978.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
left his mark on the community, William H. DeHart, 1868 to 1870, and H. M. Vorhees, October. 1871, followed by B. C. Lippencott, Samuel Streng and H. 1'. Craig.
The church was chartered by the legislature September 20, 1782, the con- sistory being then composed of Mr. Leydt, president, Gilliam Cornell and Henry Wynkoop, elders, and William Bennet. Arthur Lefferts and Daniel Hogeland, deacons. The first parsonage was in Byberry, Philadelphia county, but in 1775 the assembly authorized the trustees, Henry Krewson, Gilliam Cornell, John Krewson and William Bennet, to sell it and buy a new one. They bought one hundred and twenty acres34 of the estate of Thomas Harding, deceased, South- ampton, for £805. 16s.
During the pastorate of Mr. Larzelere, the church buildings at the ex- treme ends of the parish. Richborough and Feasterville, being out of repair, a new church was built at a central point. A lot of three acres was bought of John McNair, Churchville,"3 and the corner-stone laid June 16, 1814. The original building has been much enlarged and improved within recent years. The old church at Feasterville stood in the graveyard about on a line with the front wall, was small. old-fashioned, of stone, and was torn down soon after the new edifice was erected. That at Richborough stood just outside the grave- vard, about on the site of the present school-house. In the front wall of the old graveyard in Southampton we find, among others, the following inscrip- tions : "G. K. 1738.""" "D. K .. ": 1738." The oldest gravestone that gives an ac- count of itself bears the inscription, "A. S. 1760," Abraham Staates. One stone records that Garret Krewson died in 1767. aged eighty-two years. There is a large number of stones that tell no story of those who sleep beneath. Three- quarters of a century ago the minister preached in Dutch and English, Sunday about. The congregation generally spoke Dutch, and the late venerable John Lefferts remembers when he learned to speak English of the black cook in the kitchen. The people went to church in ox teams, and the girls without stockings in warm weather. On the Street road, a short distance above the site of the old church. is a burial-ground, free to all, and known as Harding's grave- vard. The flourishing Reformed Dutch church at Richborough is the chill of the old church of North and Southampton.
Probably the oldest school house in the township, and possibly in the coun- ty, when it rendered its final account, was at the Southampton Baptist church, a mile east of Davisville ; and was thought to have been built as early as 1750. A school house was there in 1765. and doubtless a log one, when Thomas Fol- well leased the lot to Gilliam Cornell. Joseph Beans and Richard Leedom. "in trust for the people of the neighborhood, for the use of a school, and no other nie whatever, so long as said house shall remain tenantable with small repairs." The house then on the lot was an old one or one was to be built on it. In 1771. Thomas Folwell and Elizabeth, doubtless his wife, and son William, con- veyed an acre to the Baptist church, including the school lot of twelve square perches, "on which the new school house stands." This is evidence a previous school house had been taken down. As the first church was erected. 1732. 00 doubt a school house soon followed. These lots were part of one hundred and sixty acres Thomas Folwell granted to his son William, 1762. The school was
34. Farm of Stephen Rhoads on Churchville road. near the Buck tavern.
35. Then called Smoketown.
36. Garret Krewson.
37. Derrick Krewson.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
classical and mathematical. We know the name of but two of the carly teachers. Rev. Isaac Eaton and Jesse Moore, a brother of Dr. Moore, who was subse- quently a tutor in the University of Pennsylvania, then read law and became a judge in one of our western counties. He taught Latin at Southampton. At a later day Robert Lewis taught there, eighty years ago, and was paid four dollars per quarter for each pupil. Among Moore's pupils were Doctors Wil- son, Ramsey, Hough, Rev. Oliver Hart, a distinguished Baptist minister, and Joseph Gales, one of the proprietors of the National Intelligencer, Wash- ington.3712
Southampton lies in the southwest part of the county, adjoining Phila- delphia and Montgomery, is six miles long, two wide, and in the shape of a parallelogram, except a ragged corner next to Middletown and Northampton. The upper part is quite level with occasional gentle swells, but more broken and rolling in the middle and lower end. Edge Hill crosses the township, about its middle. It is well watered by the Pennypack, Poquessing, Neshaminy and numerous smaller streams : the soil is fertile and well cultivated, with little waste land. The township is well provided with roads. The Street road runs through the middle its entire length; the Montgomery county line bounds it on the southwest, the Bristol road on the northeast, while a number of cross roads cut them at nearly right-angles. In 1700 the inhabitants stated to the court they had no public roads to market, mill or church. In March, same year. they peti- tioned for a road "from the Queen's road in Southampton down to Joseph Grow- den's mill. "", and in September ask the Court to open a road "towards the new mill39 on the Pennypack, which is likely to be our chief market." As late as 1722, the inhabitants complained they had no regularly established roads, and as early as 1699 a road was laid out from the King's highway to Peter Webster's new dwelling." The Buck road to the Philadelphia county line was relaid fifty feet wide, 1790, and the old road vacated, 1797: the road from the Buck" to Churchville was laid out, 1795, and that from Davisville to Southampton Baptist church, 1814. The oldest inhabitants of Southampton, we have any account of, was a colored woman, named Heston, who died November 15, 1821. in her one hundred and fifth year, which carried her birth back to 1716-17. Sarah Bolton, daughter of Isaac, of Southampton, 150 years ago, became a minister among Friends and preached in Byberry, 1752.
This township was the birthplace of Dr. John Wilson, who became one of the most distinguished physicians of the county. He was born in the vicinity of Feasterville, sent to the classical school at Southampton Baptist church. grad- uated at the Philadelphia Medical School, and spent the greater part of his professional life in Buckingham, where he died. He was accomplished and ele- gant in manner. The township is crossed by three railroads, built in the past twenty-five years. The first was that from Philadelphia to Newtown, intending
3715 The author learned his A, B, C's in this old school house, stone pointed 16-16 feet. and has a distinct recollection of attending a school commencement there when a child. That and the stone shed and quaint sexton's home were torn down nearly seventy years ago.
38 Old Buck Road.
39 Probably Gwin's mill. below Hatboro.
40 The location of Webster's dwelling is not known.
41 The "Buck" was so named from the head of the animal that graces its sign board.
محافظ ٥
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
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to be continued to New York, but never finished. It crossed the Street road at Southampton, which it has been the means of greatly improving and was finished in the early spring of 1878. The Bound Brook road from Philadelphia to New York, shortly followed, forming connection at Bound Brook, and thence running over the New Jersey Central tracks to Jersey City. It leaves the North Penn, track at Jenkintown, crossing the Street road at the township line. The third is the "Pennsylvania Cut-Off," from the Schuylkill below Norristown to the Delaware at Morrisville, and is used by heavy through freight. It, too, crosses the Street road half a mile above Feasterville. The township has like- wise two turnpikes crossing it from northeast to southwest, one on the bed of the Middle or Oxford road, giving a continuous pike from Philadelphia to New Hope, via Centerville ; the other from Richborough via the Buck, Somerton, etc., to Philadelphia. These roads were early arteries of trade and travel, the latter one the first pike in the county. A branch turnpike a mile long runs from the Fox Chase, Richborough pike to Davisville. There are five post offices. in the township, Davisville, established 1827, Feasterville, 1831, Churchville, 1872. Southampton and Cornell of more recent date.
Southampton has six villages, in former times all ending in ville, the American weakness. Davisville, the oldest in name, at the Warminster line : Feasterville, four miles below, also on the Street road ; Brownsville, two miles below that ; Churchville on the Bristol road : Cornell on the same road, a mile above it, and Southampton, the youngest and largest, named after the township. Davisville was named after the late General John Davis, and we may say was founded by him, 1827, when he erected a store house and dwelling at the cross roads, and the post office was moved down from Joseph Warner's over the line in Warminster, the head waters of one branch of the Pennypack, taking its rise in the incadows a few hundred yards above. It was the seat of a sawmill for nearly a century, and in former years the center of very considerable busi- ness. A county bridge built 1843, spans the old sawmill dam, now almost filled with mud. Here five public roads meet, and the village contains twenty dwell- ings, with a store and some minor industries."2 A school house was erected fifty-five years ago, and dedicated to public use with the following inscription, eut on a marble slab in the gable, by the late Daniel Longstreth, HI mo., 1843 : "Davisville Seminary, built by voluntary contribution ; lot the gift of Richard Benson. The building committee were, David Marple, James M. Boileau, Thomas Montanye, Samuel Naylor, and Jesse Edwards." A day school was kept in it until the township accepted the school law, when it was turned over to the public school board and occupied until recently. The first school in Davis- ville was a select school for girls, opened by Miss Isabella McCarren, 1834. and kept there several years. She subsequently married and spent many years in Philadelphia, but now lives at Southampton, a mile below, in her ninety-second year. Her mind is good and she takes an interest in current events.
The village of Southampton, a mile below Davisville at the junction of the Street and Middle road. contains one hundred dwellings with the usual complement of stores, mechanics, etc. In 1841 there were but three houses here
Seventy-five years ago there were but four dwellings in the immediate vicinity of Davisville: the Watts homestead. Josiah Hart's dwelling and sawmill property, John Folwell's house, recently Roberts, and the John White dwelling on the Duffield farm. For a number of years, especially during the active life of the late General John Davis. the village was a political and military center. The volunteer system was in its prime, politics warm and spicy, and the kaders of both made frequent visits hither for orders.
12
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
-- Elijah Banes, Edward Boileau, and the store with dwelling attached. The store house was built by Thomas Banes for his son William, 1793, and prob- ably occupied by him until his death, 1803, being accidentally killed in Phila- cielphia. He was born, 1770, and married Nancy Miles. Thomas Banes died, 1828. The storehouse was left to his daughter, Lydia Lukens, who sold it to Dr. Joshua Jones, 1827, and since that time, it has had a number of owners and occupants. A smithy and wheelwright shop was located here early in the century. In the early day this place was called the "Lower Corner," in con- tradistinction to the "Upper Corner," now Johnsville, a mile above Davisville, and later took the name of the storekeeper for the time being, as "Hicks' Corner," "Fetter's Corner," etc. Among the occupants of the store in the past sixty years were Watts Jones, 1841 ; James Hicks, 1845 ; Casper Fetter, 1853 ; George W. Boileau, 1868; Alfred Boileau, 1874; John Woodington, William Sharp, Frank Buckius, Jacob Buckman, George Wolf and others. Woodington removed to Kansas some years ago. In the field at the northeast corner of the two roads, Capt. William Purdy's rifle company assembled, Sept., 1814, previous to set- ting off for Camp Dupont, Delaware, the Rev. Thomas B. Montanye preaching an appropriate sermon. A Baptist camp meeting held in a wood near here, 1835, on the Baptist parsonage farm, gave birth to the Hatboro Baptist church.
Feasterville, a hamlet of a few houses on the turnpike leading from Rich- borough to Philadelphia, is in the midst of a highly cultivated country. Here is the only tavern in the township, the historic "Buck," and on the turnpike, a mile from Churchville, the only flour mill. In the old hip-roofed house near by the late James Carter, Byberry, was born, 1778. Springville, a hamlet of about the same number of dwellings and two or three farm houses, with a post office called "Cornell," a smithy and a store at the intersection of the Bristol and Middle road, make up the complement of Southampton's villages. Tradition tells us that in the "long ago," whereof the memory of man "runneth not to the contrary," Springville had a tavern called "The Blue Bell," on the site of the store on the Bristol road, but of its history we know nothing.
CHAPTER XIV
WARMINSTER.
1703.
Warminster the twin of Southampton .- One of the earliest settled .- Jolin Rush .- John Hart .- Bartholomew Longstreth .- Henry Comly .- The Nobles .- Their family mansion -Noble burying ground .- The Cravens .- The Yerkes family .- Rev. Thomas B. Mon- tayne .- John Fitch .- Comes to Bucks county .- Mends clocks .- Goes west and re- turns .- Builds model of steamboat and tries it on Southampton creek .- Cobe Scout .- A notable character .- The Vansant graveyard .- Dr. William Baelielor .- The Log College .- Johnsville .- Hart's school-house .- Hartsville .- Schools .- Public inn .- Horse racing .- No gristmills .- Roads .- African and Indian school .- Earliest enumeration of inhabitants .- Present population .- First postoffice .- Hatboro .- John Dawson .- David Reese .- Battle of Crooked Billet.
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