USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > History of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time, Vol. I > Part 26
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13 A full account of the Log College and its distinguished graduates will be found in Chapter on Historie Churches.
14 In addition 10 the schools already mentioned in Warminster, there was a log school-house on the Street road a few hundred yards above the York road, and another on the York road half a mile below the Warminster tavern at John C. Beans' gate.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
Warminster has three villages, Johnsville, at the junction of the Newtown and Street roads, a mile from the lower line of the township, Hartsville, on the York road, where it crosses the Warwick line, and Ivyland, on the Northeast Pennsylvania railroad, half a mile south of the Bristol road. The foundation of Johnsville was laid, 1814, when James Craven built a store house for his son John on the only corner of the cross roads not covered with timber, and a store has been kept there from that time to the present. The village contains twenty dwellings. Almost fifty years ago Robert Beans, son of Stephen Beans, War- minster, established an agricultural implement factory there, and carried it on successfully until burned down and not rebuilt. The greater part of Hartsville is in Warminster, the store and tavern being on opposite sides of the township line .. The old name was "Cross Roads," and occasionally an old-fashioned citizen still calls it by this name. It was only called Hartsville in the last fifty years, after the. Hart family lived there. The tavern, in Warwick township, was kept for many years, at the close of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century, by William Hart, and a human heart was painted on the sign board. In 1818 it was known as the "Sign of the Heart," and owned by Joseph Carr. William Hart died, 1831, at the age of eighty-four. The post office was established, 1826. The old stone bridge, half a mile above, spanning the Neshaminy where it crosses the York road, was built 1793, and had a heart eut on the date stone. Ivyland, the youngest village of Warminster, was founded by Edwin Lacey, 1873, and he built the first dwelling. Several shortly followed, streets were opened, named and lighted; station and freight houses were built and the first train stopped there March 29, 1891. The population has increased to over two hundred and fifty. The 25th anniversary of its found- ing was observed August 12, 1898. Among Ivyland's improvements and organ- izations are a Presbyterian chapel, Christian Endeavor Society, two lodges, and truck and ladder company. Breadyville, at the crossing of the Bristol road by the Northeast Pennsylvania railroad, is a hamlet of half a dozen dwell- ings, tavern, store and station.
Hartsville has played a more important part in the social, religious and educational world than any village of its size in the county. The Hartsville Presbyterian church is known as the "Neshaminy Church of Warminster," and the constituent members originally belonged to the "Neshaminy Church in War- wiek." In consequence of the choice of Reverend James P. Wilson, as pastor, by a small majority of the congregation in November, 1838, one hundred miem- bers withdrew in a body, Saturday, February 10, 1839, and held service, for a time, in the school house in the graveyard, claiming to be "the Nesaminy Church and Congregation." On that day Reverend Mr. Howard preached for them as a supply. They worshiped for a time in private houses, and then, in a tem- porary frame structure called the "Tabernacle," erceted in the woods at the top of Long's hill on the Bristol road. The question of title to the original church property was tried in the court of Bucks county, but finally decided by a com- promise in the winter of 1841-42. It was soll and bought by the congregation then worshiping there. The pastors, in their order, have been Reverends Thomas B. Bradford. installed April 29. 1839, resigned March 9, 1841 ; Henry R. Wilson, from 1842 to his death in 1849; Jacob Belville, from 1850 to 1860; Alexander M. Woods, 1860 to 1870; Gersham 11. Nimmo, 1870 to 1891, when he was called to the Torresdale church, where he died. 1898. Mr. Wood went from Hartsville to Mahanoy City, where he died. The present pastor is the Reverend W. R. Preston. The building was erceted, 1842, and the congrega- tion is large. The most pleasant feature, in connection with these congrega-
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HISTORY OF. BUCKS COUNTY.
tions, mother and daughter, is that there is entire harmony between them, and the bitterness of sixty years ago has been buried deeper than plummit ever sounded.
Hartsville and vicinity was an educational centre almost from the time of the Log College. The schools of the Reverend James R. Wilson, Robert Bel- ville, Jacob Belville, D. K. Turner, and the Messrs. Long and others, gave it a wide reputation, and partially or wholly, educated many prominent and use- ful men. Samuel Long. principal of a classical school, met a sad end, being killed by the limb of a tree falling on him while giving directions to some wood choppers, killing him instantly. This occurred in December, 1835. A Friends' meeting house was erected nearly fifty years ago on the Street road half a mile above Johnsville. Gideon Pryor, who died in Warminster, February 14, 1854. was one of the last Revolutionary soldiers to die in the county. He was born in Connecticut. August 5, 1764, served in Rochambeau's army at the siege of Yorktown, 1781, and witnessed Cornwallis' surrender. After the war he fin- ished his education by graduating at Dartmouth College. He started south on foot, but was taken sick near Hartsville, and spent his life there. He lived and died in the first stone house, north side of the Street road below the York road. One son, Azariah, became a minister of the gospel, and died at Pottsville. Gideon Pryor was a very fine scholar.
In so far as we have any means of knowing there had been but two taverns in Warwick since its settlement, until in recent years, a third one was licensed. The oldest was probably on the site of the present one, known as the "War- minster tavern," on the York road just below where the Street road crosses it. As early as 1730 Thomas Linton petitioned the court for a recommendation for license "to keep a house of entertainment for man and horse." In the petition he states that he is an inhabitant of Warminster, "County de Bucks," and owns a house and good plantation on the York road near the cross roads. In 1732 Thomas Davids, Northampton, attorney in fact for Thomas Linton, sold his farm of one hundred acres to David Howell, Philadelphia, whereupon Linton removed to New York. This old hostelry became much more noted and popular in later years. In the twenties of the last century a Masonic Lodge was insti- tuted and held its sessions in the attic of this famous old inn, where such well- known Masons as Dr. John H. Hill and John Kerr officiated. It was forced to the wall by the anti-Masonic crusade growing out of the Morgan affair. Its existence had been almost forgotten until a few years ago, when the Masonic Lodge at Hatboro was instituted, the late William' Williamson, of Davisville, appeared and presented to the new lodge the jewels and habiliments of the old one. Ile had cherished them carefully for over half a cenuiry. Three quarters of a century ago, when horse racing was much more common than now, this tavern was frequented by those who indulged in racing. It was then kept by Thomas Beans,13 a famous horseman. At elections and militia training a hali mile track was cleared on the Street road, where favorite nags were put on their speed. Mr. Beans had a fine circular half mile track laid out on his farm back of the buildings. The death of a rider at one of the races down the Street road did much to break up the practice, which was wholly discontinued many years ago. Warmister is the only township in the county without a grist mill, nor is it known that it ever had oner This comes from its surface being level : there is no stream of sufficient size and fall to drive a mill wheel. Many years ago
15 In 1769 Thomas Beans owned 200 acres on the north side of the Street road. extending from Johnsville upward.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
Robert Darrah built a saw mill on his farm near Hartsville, which is still in use, the present owner being John M. Darrah. The west branch of Neshaminy cuts across its northwest corner, near the Warrington line, and affords a good mill site in the latter township, where a mill was built near a century ago.
Warminster is well provided with roads, having one on each of its four rectilincal sides, three of them, the Bristol and Street roads and the Montgom- ery county line, being part of Penn's system of great highways laid out on northwest lines. These are intersected by lateral roads laid out and opened as they were required. Of these cross roads that between Warminster and War- rington was opened about 1785, by one of the Longs who had lately built a grist mill, and was then building a saw mill where this road crosses Neshaminy. The road. that crosses the township half a mile above Johnsville, and at that time the line of travel between Horsham and Wrightstown, was opened in 1723. and the one on the Southampton township line in 1769.16 As early as 1709 a road was viewed and laid out to allow the inhabitants of Warminster to reach the new mill on the Pennypack. The road across by Johnsville was probably opened about 1724.
An institution for the education of male orphan children of African and Indian descent was located in Warminster on a farm of one hundred acres on the Street road, a mile below the Warrington line. It was known as the "Emlen Institute," and was founded about fifty years ago by Samuel Emlen, Burling- ton, New Jersey, who gave $20,000 to trustees for this charity. The institution was first organized in Ohio, soon after the founder's death, but removed to a farm of fifty-five acres in Solebury. In 1872 it was again removed to Warmin- ster. By careful management the original fund had been increased to $30,000, several thousand of which have been expended on the present property, improv- ing the buildings, etc. The pupils are instructed in the mechanic arts, and other useful pursuits. The income was sufficient to maintain and educate about twenty pupils.17
The earliest return of the inhabitants of Warminster that has met our notice was made over a century and a quarter ago, but the exact date is not given. It comprises a list of housekeepers and single men, with the quantity of land owned by each, the acres in with corn, with the cattle, sheep, etc. There were then but fifty-eight housekeepers and twelve single men in the township. Joseph Hart was the largest land-owner, four hundred and thirty-five acres, with three hundred acres cleared and sixty in with corn. He owned twenty- four cattle, eight horses and thirty-five sheep. Daniel Longstreth was the next, who owned four hundred and ten acres, two hundred cleared and forty-four in with corn. He was the owner of thirteen cattle, three horses and twenty-thrce sheep. This return gives two thousand, eight hundred and one acres of cleared land, of which six hundred and seven were planted with corn. The whole num-
16 This road was resurveyed, and the direction probably somewhat changed, Decem- ber 10, 1816, the following being the new line: Beginning in the Street road at the corner between Harman Yerkes and William Craven, thence between their land south 39 degrees west 160 perches, thence ihro' Henry Puff's land, south 44 degrees, west 110 perches, and the same course thro' Isaac Cravens' land to the county line. 50 perches. The jury was composed of Samuel Gillingham, Jolin Watson, Andrew Dunlap, Thomas Hutchinson, Josiah Shaw and Aaron Eastburn. John Watson was the surveyor.
17 The Institute was closed 1802, and the property sold to James Keith, Newtown: then to a Mr. Gartenlaub. and he to a syndicate of Episcopalians. Philadelphia, who in 1897 established on it a charity known as "St. Stephens' Orphanage."
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
ber of domestic animals was two hundred and thirty-six cattle, sixty-five horses. sixty-seven mares, and two hundred and seventy-eight sheep. There were but eleven negro slaves in the township. In 1784 the township contained 368 white inhabitants and 28 blacks, with 66 dwellings. The population at stated periods, since 1784, was as follows: 1810, 564 ; 1820, 695 ; 1830, 709, and 155 taxables ; 1840, 934 : 1850, 970; 1860, 987; 1870, 8440, of which thirty-two were foreign birth ; 1880. 1.061 ; 1891, 909: 1900, 973.
The first postoffice in the township was established in 1823. and Joseph Warner, who lived on the Street road just above Davisville, was appointed post- master. The office was removed to Davisville about 1827. Among the aged pe- ple who have deceased in Warminster during the last half century, may be men- tioned Mary, the widow of Andrew Long, who died January 17, 1821, aged ninety-five years, and John Harvey, who died the 31st of the same month, at the age of eighty-seven. Warminster is the middle of the three rectangular townships bordering the Montgomery line, and is four miles long by two wide. After rising from the valley where some of the headwaters of the Pennypack have their source, the surface of the town- ship is generally level, with but little broken or untillable land. There is not better land in the county than the plains of Warminster, which extend eastward to the hills of Neshaminy, and the inhab- ilants are employed in agricultural pur- suits. It can boast of good roads. rich and well-cultivated farms and an intelli- gent, happy population.
Just over the southwest border of Warminster, in Moreland township. Montgomery county, is the flourishing village of Hatboro, lately incorporated into a borough, with a bank, weekly newspaper, an academy, two churches, a LOLLER ACADEMY. valuable library18 and a population of one thousand. It is thought to have been first settled by John Dawson, of London, who, with his wife Dorothy, daughter Ann, then five years old, and possibly two sons, immigrated to Pennsylvania
18 The library was organized, 1755, and some of the most active men in the work were of Warminster, including Joseph Hart and Daniel Longstreth. During the Revolu- tion the books, for safety, were stored in the Longstreth garret. This is said to have been the first country district library established in North America.
The library building was erected in ISH, on a bequest for that purpose, in the will of Robert Loiler, was named "Loller Academy," after him, and is still standing. In it a classical school was kept many years, and became quite famous. The first teacher was George Murray, the same who subsequently kept a boarding school in Doylestown. Rev. Robert Belville, many years pastor at Neshaminy, and father of Rev. Jacob Belville, taught at Loller Academy. IS19. The building was used for public debates, and some distinguished men have measured political and polemic swords there. In 1844, during the Polk and Clay campaign, General John Davis and Hon. Josiah Randall discoursed in the past.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
in 1710. He was a hatter, a Friend, and carried on his trade there several years. The place was then called "Crooked Billet," from a crooked stick of wood painted on the tavern sign where he kept at one time. He erected a stone house, his daughter Ann carrying the stone and mortar for him in her apron. It is said she was engaged in this occupation when Bartholomew Longstreth decided to marry her. He had more courage than the modern swain is credited with possessing. She rode to Horsham meeting on a pillion behind her father, and after the marriage rode behind her husband to his house in Warminster. Ben- jamin, the youngest child, established the iron works at Phoenixville, and died; 1798, of yellow fever. John Dawson had seven children. In 1,42 Dawson lived at the southwest corner of Second street and Church alley, Philadelphia, in the first house crected on that site. The present name, Hatboro, is said to have been given to the village out of regard to the occupation of the earliest inhabitant. On the evidence of William J. Buck, the earliest name given to the place, when hardly a hamlet, was "Hatboro," and is found on Lewis Evans' "Map of the Middle Colonies," published at Philadelphia, 1749. Doubtless the village took the name of "Crooked Billet" from the sign that swung at the tavern door, a crooked billet of wood. John Dawson, a maker of hats, was there soon after 1700, and his occupation had something to do with the name. Both names were probably applied to it at the same time. In 1759 the public house was kept by David Reese, whose daughter, Rebecca, born 1746, married John Hart. of Warminster. The village was the scene of a spirited contest between American militia, under General Lacey, and a detachment of British troops, on May 1, 1778. The retreating militiamen were pursued across Warmister to the Bristol road, killed and wounded. on both sides, marking their route.10 The descendants of Jolin and Dorothy Dawson number about two hundred per- sons. The Dawson family is an old one in England. The first of the name. Sir Archibald D'Ossone, afterward changed to Dawson, was a Norman noble- man, who accompanied William the Conqueror to England, 1066, and received the grant of an estate for services rendered in battle. It is not known that John Dawson was descended from him, and probably was not.
The Longstreth manuscripts give additional information on the Crooked Billet fight of an interesting character. Jolin Tompkins' tavern on the York road was British headquarters. This was in the stone house, still standing, on the west side of the road about three hundred yards below the county line as we enter the village. We believe it is used as a dwelling. It is the tradition that Robert Ircdell piloted the enemy, and that Isaac Dillon and a "Colonel" William Dean had something to do with it. They were probably Tories. Captain Isaac Longstreth commanded a company of militia and Abraham Sutphin stood guard on the bridge at the lower part of the village the night prior to the morn- ing of the attack on Laccy. Lacey and his aid-de-camp quartered at the house of John Guilbert, a stone dwelling recently taken down on the west side of the turn- pike, about half way from the county line to where the monument stands, and occupied an cud room next the road. The night was moonlight and Mrs. Guil- bert, not being able to sleep, got up and on looking out one of the back windows, saw British soldiers in the apple trees. She dressed, went down and awakened Lacey and his aide, who got their horses and rode to camp. The refugees were cruel and gave no quarter. An English officer had his thigh broken near the Longstretli gate, and two soldiers were sent for a blanket to sling him between
19 William Carnahan, a Revolutionary soldier, died in Warminster township. 1839, aged ninety-four, possibly a survivor of the Crooked Billet fight.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
horses. The soldiers began to plunder and an officer who was sent after them took Daniel Longstreth up the lane to point out his goods. A refugee demanded his silver shoe buckles, and dismounted to take them off, threatening to run him through unless he gave them up, but Longstreth appealed to the soldier's two comrades, who shamed him and he rode away.
Safety Maghee, of Northampton township, at the age of ninety-three, related to the author, 1858, what he knew of the battle of the Crooked Billet. He said: "In 1778 I was living with my uncle, Thomas Folwell, in South- ampton, where Cornell Hobensack lives, on the road from Davisville to South- ampton church. On the morning of the battle I heard the firing very distinctly, and a black man named Harry and myself concluded we would go and see what was going on. I was then about thirteen years old. We started from the house and I went directly toward where the firing was. When we came near to where Johnsville now stands we heard a heavy volley there, which brought us to a halt. The firing was in the woods. The British were in pursuit of our militia and charged them from Johnsville to the Bristol road, and also through the fields from the Street road to the Bristol road. They overtook the militia in the woods at the corner of the Street road and the one that leads across to the Bristol road. When the firing had ceased we continued on to the woods, where we found three wounded militiamen near the road. They appeared to have been wounded by the sword, and were much cut and hacked. When we got to them they were groaning greatly. They died in a little while, and, I understand, were buried on the spot. They appeared to be Germans. We then passed on, and, in a field near by, we saw two horses lying dead. They were British. One of them had been shot in the head and the gun put so close the hair was scorched. While we were in the field, Harry picked up a cartouch box, that had been dropped or torn off the wearer. Shortly after we met some of the militia returning, and, when they saw the black fellow with the cartouch box, they became very indignant, and accused him of robbing the dead, and took it away from him. Three dead horses were on the farm of Colonel Joseph Hart. Soon after this we returned home. The last man was killed on the Bristol road at the end of the road that comes across from Jolinsville."
The first Sunday-school at Hatboro was opened September 5, 1824, in Loller Academy. At that time there was no church there. The Baptist church, the first to be organized, grew out of a woods meeting held in the summer of 1835, in a grove half a mile below Southampton, and a mile from that church. During the meeting, the Rev. L. Fletcher, one of the officiating ministers, preached one evening in the Hatboro Academy. Several converts having been made at the woods meeting, and the Southampton Baptist church not being in sympathy, a question arose as to what was to be done with the new converts. Mrs. Yerkes, wife of the late Joseph B. Yerkes, who had recently come to Hat- boro, solved the problem by suggesting that a church be organized. The sug- gestion was accepted and, out of this movement, the prosperous church at Hat- boro grew.
CHAPTER XV.
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NEWTOWN.
1703.
Main stream of settlement .- Called Newtown, 1687 .- Lands taken up, 1684 .-- Christopher Taylor .- John Martindale .- Thomas Hillborn .-- The Lintons .- William Buckman .-- Map of 1703 .- Townstead .- The common .- Joseph Briggs .- Durham and other roads. -Jolin Harris .- James Hanna .- Charles Stewart .- First site of church .- Area of township .- Population .- Tradition of borough's name .- What called in 1795 .- Newtown in 1725 .- Laid out in 1733 .- Tamer Carey .-- Samuel Hinkle .- Newtown in 1805 .- James Raguet .-- Newtown library .- Academy .-- Brick hotel .- Joseph Archam- bault .- Romantic career .- Death of Mrs. Kennedy .- Edward Plummer .- Doctor Jenks .-- The Hickses .- Isaac Eyre .- Oliver Erwin .- General Francis Murray .- Pres- byterian church .- Episcopal .- Methodist, and Friends' meeting .- Newtown of to-day. -incorporated .- Population .- Paxson Memorial Home .- First temperance society.
It will be found, on investigation, that the main stream of English settle- ment flowed up the peninsula formed by the Delaware and Neshaminy. For the first forty years, after the county was settled, the great majority of the immi- grants settled loctween these streams. West of the Neshaminy the territory is more circumscribed, and the current of English Friends not reaching above War- minster. The pioneers, attracted by the fine rolling lands and fertile valleys of Newtown, Wrightstown, and Buckingham, early pushed their way thither, leaving wide stretches of unsettled wilderness behind. Newtown lav in the track of this upward current east of the Neshaminy, and the smoke of the English settler was hardly scen on the Delaware before the sound of his ax was heard in the forest north of Middletown.
It is not known when Newtown township was laid out, or the name first given to it, but it is possible it was so known and called some years before the date given to it at the head of this chapter. It was probably surveyed by Thomas Holme, and on his map, 1684. its boundaries are nearly identical with those of the present day. This district of country was called "Newtown" as early as 1687. in the inventory of Michael Hough, near which he had two hundred and fifty acres of land, valued at £15. Samuel Paxson was appointed "overseer of highways" for Newtown. 1601. In the early day it was called "New township." a new township laid out in the woods, and no doubt the origin of its name, and it is probable the syllable "ship" was dropped for convenience, leaving it "New town" as we now have it.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
In 1684 its lands were pretty well apportioned among proprietors, some to actual settlers, and others to non-residents. Richard Price owned a tract that ran the whole length of the Middletown line. Thomas and John Rowland and Edward Braber (probably a misspelling) along Neshaminy, Thomas Revel, Christopher Taylor, and William Bennet, on the Wrightstown border, Arthur Cook, John Otter, Jonathan Eldrey, Abraham Wharley, Benjamin Roberts, Shadrack Walley, William Sneed, Israel Taylor, and a traet laid out to the "governor," along what is now Upper Makefield. All these several tracts abutted on the townstead. Some of the parties had land located for them before their arrival. Of these early proprietors we know but little. William Bennet, of Middlesex, England, came with his wife Rebecca, November, 1685, but he died before the year was out, and she was left a widow in the woods of New- town. On the gth of September, 1686, Naomi, daughter of Shadrack Walley, was married at Pennsbury to William Berry, of Kent county, Maryland. In 1709 Walley owned twelve hundred acres in the township, probably the extent of his original purchase.
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