USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > History of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time, Vol. I > Part 32
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The earliest enumeration of taxables is that of 1764. when they numbered 67. We do not know the population earlier than ISio, when it was 562; in 1820, 618; 1830, 66o. and 148 taxables : 1840. 708: 1850. 812 whites; 1860, 853 whites and 9 blacks, and 1870. Sit whites and 12 blacks. of which 771 were native-born and 52 foreign : 1880. 773; 1890. 838 : 1900. 775.
The large buttonwood that stands in front of Thomas Warner's house grew from a riding-switch his father brought from Hartford county, Maryland, in the spring of 1787. and stuck in the ground. It measures eleven fect in circumference twelve inches above the ground. . An ash, planted in the same yard. 1832, measures nine feet around it.
It is well known to all who have examined the subject, that the original white settlers above Newtown were encroachers on the country owned by the Indians. The Proprietary was censured for permitting this intrusion on the Indians, and the latter made mild protest against it. The upper line of Mark- ham's purchase, July 15. 1682. ran through Wrightstown, a short distance below the Anchor, and therefore all the settlers in this township north-west
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
of it were intruders. The same may be said of those who first settled in Buck- nigham and Solebury, and all above. In truth, all the land settled upon north of Newtown prior to the "Walking Purchase," 1737, belonged to the Indians, and the whites were really trespassers. John Chapman settled on land to which the Indian title had been extinguished before he left England, but some of the carly settlers were not so careful to observe treaty obligations.
Some light is thrown on the origin of the name "Wrightstown," by which it was called soon after it was settled, by the following extract from a letter of Phineas Pemberton to William Penn, in England, dated 27th, 11th month, 1087:
"The land I have in Wrightstown is twelve hundred ackers, and only one settlement upon it. I lately offered to have given one hundred ackers if he would have seated there, and he has since bought at a very great price, rather than go so far into the woods. There is about five hundred ackers yet to take up in the towne. The people hereabout are much disappointed with sd. Wright and his cheating tricks he played here. They think much to call it after such a runagadoe's name. He has not been in these parts for several years, therefore I desire thee to give it a name. I have sometimes called it Centretown, because it lyes near the center of the county, as it may be sup- posed and the towne is layd out with a center in the middle of 600 ackers or thereabouts."
The Wright, here referred to in Pemberton's letter, is thought to have been Thomas Wright who was associated with William Penn in the West Jer- sey venture. He arrived in the Martha 16;7, and settled near Burlington. In 1682 he was a member of Assembly. The name was first applied to the settle- ment and intended for the prospective township, but, at the time Pemberton wrote, there was no township organization. When he speaks of the "towne" he evidently refers to a settlement in the middle of the townstead. William Penn did not see fit to change the name, although it was called after a "run- agado."
When Abraham Thompson tore down his old dwelling, IS78. erected back in the eighteenth century, he found, under the roof, an assessment paper dated April 1, 1809. It was made out in the name of Amos Warner for the tax on that farm, assessed at $21 per acre. The assessor was Jesse Anderson.
Near the Windy Bush road, running from the Anchor tavern, Wrights- town, stands an old stone school house in which. about 1845. Charles C. Bur- leigh was rotten-egged while advocating the abolition of negro slavery. The person who threw the eggs subsequently perished in a snow storm.
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CHAPTER XVII.
BUCKINGHAM.
1703.
The empire township .- Vale of Lahaska .- Surface broken .- Durham and York roads .- Or.gin of name .- First settlers .- Amor, Paul and Samuel Preston .- James Streator and Richard Parsons .- The West and Reynolds tracts .- Robert Smith .- The Worth- ingtons .- Windy Bush .- Gen'l A. J. Smith .- Thomas Canby .- William Cooper .- Thomas Bye .- Edward Hartly .- The Paxson family .- The Watsons .- John Watson, the surveyor .- Matthew Hughes and others .- Joseph Fell .- Jesse Fells burns hard coal in a grate .- Gillingham Fell .- The Carvers .- Meetings for worship .- Meeting- house built -Burned down .- Used as hospital .- Birth,, deaths, marriages .- The Laceys .- General John Lacey .- Old house .- Taverns .- Cross Keyes .- Lenape Stone. -Ann Moore .- Earliest boundary .- Old map .- The Idens .- Doetor John Wilson .-- Schools .- Amos Austin Hughes .- Justice Cox .- Doctor Cernea .- Buckingham library. -Nail factory .- Big Ben .- James Jamison .- The villages .- Population .- Caves and sink holes .- African church .- William Simpson .- Seythe and ax factory .- Catching pigeons.
The central location of Buckingham, its productive soil, valuable quarries of limestone, its wealth, intelligence, population and area, eighteen thousand four hundred and eighty-eight acres, entitle it to be considered the empire township of the county. The stream of immigration, that brought settlers into the woods of Wrightstown. carried them up to the "Great mountain,"1 and they gradually spread over Buckingham and Solebury, originally one township. It is well watered by the Lahaska creek and tributaries, which meander the town- ship in several directions, and branches of Pine run, Pidcock's creek, and Pannacussing, which drain its east and north corners and along the north-east horder.
A note to the "Vale of Labaska," written by Samuel Johnson in 1835, says Lahaska was the name of what is now called Buckingham mountain. This is an error. On an old manuscript map of part of the township. drawn in 1726. the name is written, "the Great mountain, called by the Indians Pepa-
[ Called by the Indians Lahiskekre. Samuel Preston said the Indian name was "La-keek." In an old paper it is written "Lehoskuk" hill. In 1815 it was called, by s anº. "Tackawissa."
2. The Ind an name was Pannanissinck.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
cating," probably Pepacatek, as "ing" is not an Indian termination The mountain must have been named after the township at a later date. It lies in the lap of one of the loveliest valleys in the county, running nearly north- east and south-west and about two miles long. It is rich in agricultural and mineral wealth, and, in the middle of it, is a natural well around which the Indians cleared off the timber, and built a village for the sake of the water. The poet of the valley drew a true picture when he wrote:
"From the brow of Lahaska wide to the west, The eye sweetly rests on the landscape below ; 'Tis blooming as Eden, when Eden was blest, As the sun lights its charms with the evening glow."
The surface is broken by Buckingham mountain.212 A vein of limestone begins back of the Lahaska hills, widens as it extends into Solebury, the many lime- kilns it feeds adding greatly to the productive wealth of the township. The soil in all parts is naturally fertile and the famous valley is unsurpassed in fertil- ity. The population is well-educated and intelligent. The original settlers were almost exclusively English Friends, whose descendants form the bulk of the population. Two of the main highways of the county, the Durham and York roads, pass through the township in its entire length and breadth, inter- secting at Centreville, while lateral roads run in every direction. Before Sole- bury was cut off, about 1703, Buckingham contained thirty-three thousand acres, but with its present area is the largest township in the county.
The name "Buckingham" is of English origin and in England is borne by several localities. We have Bushing from becen, the beech-tree, then Becen- ham, then Bushingham, the village among the beeches, and lastly Buckingham. Probably it was given this name from a desire to retain it in the county, after that of Bristol had been changed from Buckingham to what it now bears. In 1706 the township was called New Buckingham, probably to distinguish it from Bristol which was still called "Buckingham." It is possible the name had not been given to it in 1700, for in the return of survey of James Streater's land it is said to be laid out in Bucks county, township not mentioned. John Watson records, that in cutting down a white oak, in 1769, there were found in it several large marks of an ax, which the growth of the tree indicated must have been made some fifty years before the Province was granted to Penn.
It is impossible to say who was the first settler in Buckingham, or the time of his arrival, but it could not have been more than a year or two after John Chapman had seated himself in the woods of Wrightstown. It is prob- able all the first settlers of this region made a halt in Falls, or the neighboring settlements, before they pushed their way back into the woods about the great mountain. They were mostly members of Falls meeting, and it is said some of them walked all the way down there to attend meetings before they had per- mission to hold them in Buckingham. These settlers were of a better class. many of them were intelligent and educated, and the cnergy required in the settlement of a new country developed their best mental and physical qualities. Surveys were made as early as 1687, and, before 1702, nearly all the land was located. This was before the Indian title had been extinguished to an acre
214. On the summit, and near the middle of the range, is a rocky cavern, called "Wolf Rocks," said to have had its hermit, and some romantic stories are told about it. The mountain is much frequented in the spring of the year by young people.
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
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in the township.3 Until grain enough was raised to support the pioneers of Buckingham and Solebury a supply was fetched from Falls and Middletown. At the time Buckingham was settled there was no store north of Bristol, and prior to 1707 grain was taken to Morris Gwin's mill, on the Pennypack, to be Freund.
It is claimed that Amor Preston was the first white man to settle in Buck- ingham, but the time of his coming, or whether he was actually the earliest settler, is not positively known. He is said to have followed his trade, a tailor. at Wiccaco where his cabin was burned, whereupon . the Indians, who lived about the Buckingham mountain, invited him to move up to their village. His wife, the child of Swedish parents who lived on the Delaware above the mouth of Neshaminy, was brought up in the family of James Boyden, who had five hundred and forty-one acres surveyed to him in Bristol township, in 1682. Their eldest son, Nathan, erroneously said to have been the first white child born in Buckingham, was born, 1711, married Mary Hough in 1737, died, in 1778, and was buried at Plumstead. His widow died in 1782. The descend- ants of Amor Preston claim he married his wife at Pennsbury in the presence of William Penn; but as they were not married until 1710 or III, several years after Penn had left the Province not to return, this claim is not well founded. His widow died in 1774, at the house of her grandson, Paul Pres- ton. in Buckingham, aged upward of one hundred years." She used to relate that she saw William Penn land where Philadelphia stands.5
This family produced an eccentric, and, to some extent, a distinguished member in the per- son of Paul Preston. By close application he became a fine mathematician and linguist, study- ing in a small building he erected off from his dwelling. He led an active life until upward of sixty, dressed in homespun clothes and leathern apron, ate off a wooden trencher and died from a fall into a ditch at the age of eighty- four. His widow. Hannah Fisher, whom he married in 1763. lived to her ninety-fourth year. He was county surveyor. tax-collector. and trans- later of German for the courts. He was six fret six and three-quarters inches in height. Paul Preston was the friend and associate of Franklin,
PRESTON COAT-OF-ARMS.
3 Among the original settlers were John and Thomas Bye, George Pownall, Edward Henry, Roger Hartley, James Streater, William Cooper, Richard Burgess, John Scarbor- ough, Henry Paxson, John and Richard Lundy, John Large, James Lenox, William Lacey, John Worstall. Jacob Holcomb, Joseph Linton, Joseph Fell, Matthew Hughes, Thomas Weston, Amor Preston, Joseph George, Lawrence Pearson, Rachel Parsons, Daniel Jackson and Joseph Gilbert. Some of these settlers did not come into the town- ship until after 1700.
4 The Preston homestead was the farm owned and occupied by Benjamin Goss, near the east line of the township.
5 The Preston Bible says that Amer Preston was born at Frankford, Philadelphia Co., Feb. 7. 1084-5. In it is the following made by the father. William Preston: "I leit old England, with my wife and children, the roth, 4th month, 1683. We arrived in Pennsylvania 20th, 6th month, 1683." William Preston's wife, the mother of Amor,
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
who esteem him highly. It is related, that a friend of Franklin. about to go to court at Newtown. asked for a letter of introduction to Preston, but the doctor declined to give it, saying he would know him easy enough, as he will be the tallest man, the homeliest looking man and the most sensible man he would meet at Newtown. His son Samuels born in 1756. and died in 1834, was the first Associate Judge of Wayne county, where his descendants reside."= Samuel Preston used to relate of his grandmother that when a little girl, tending cows in the swamp near Neshaminy, she discovered the dead body of a white man in the water, a peddler who had been seen the day before. She was sent to the nearest house, one Johnson's, to give the alarm. and that as she entered a little girl said her father had killed a man the night before and a woman was then wiping up the blood.7
James Streater. of Alsfre, England, and Richard Parsons each owned five hundred acres they located soon after 1683. The former bought the tract which Penn granted to George Jackson, of Wellow, in September, 1681, and by the latter to Streater, in 1683. which Penn confirmed March 5. 1700. He sold it to Edmund Kinsey, 1714, and, at his death, it passed to his heirs. The meeting-house stands on this tract. It was a parallelogram in shape, and lay on both sides of the York road from the township line to about Greenville. In 1714 Streater styles himself, "practitioner in physic," but as he was a grocer in 1683, he must have studied the healing art between these dates. Perhaps he practiced without study, and exclaimed with Shakespeare, "Throw physic to the dogs." Parson's tract, above Streater's, was granted in 16S2. He conveyed it to Thomas Nicholas, New Castle, 1727. and at his death. 1746, three hundred and thirty-four acres were bought by Stephen Perry. of Phila-
was Ann Taylor. The will of William Preston, Frankford, Philadelphia Co., is dated 5 month, 29, 1714, and probated Oct. 9. 1717-witness, Thomas Canby and Morris Morris. The children mentioned are Amor, Abell, Paul, Priscilla and Saralı. The executors were the widow and Paul Preston.
6 Extract from the Journal of Samuel Preston, Surveyor, 1787: "June 12. 1787. I set out on my journey about eight o'clock in the morning. Traveled up Durham road to the sign of the Harrow, where I fed and cat dinner; from thence by Burson's and Brackenridge's to Valentine Opp's tavern, where I fed and rested about two hours." This extract is from the "Journal to the frontier of Northampton county for Henry Drinker," to survey lands for Drinker and Abel James, merchants, Philadelphia.
61/2 The Preston coat-of-arms is almost identical with that of the Preston family of England, and the motto nearly the same, assumed, by royal license. by Thomas Halton. a descendant of the Prestons, who was created a baronet in 1815. The family seat is at Beeston, St. Lawrence, Norfolk. The name of Preston is one of great antiquity in North Britain.
7 We find it impossible to reconcile the conflicting statements concerning Mrs. Pres- ton. If she were a "little girl" when she found the dead man (who was killed in May, 1692), she could not have been over an hundred years when she died, in 1774. If she were married at Pennsbury, while the Manor house was building, and Penn at the wedding, it must have taken place at his second visit. 1600-1701, for she was too young at his first visit. The theory that her son Nathan was the first white child born in the township is spoiled by the fact that he was actually born in 1711, and as he was the eldest child of his parents we have the right to suppose they were married within a year of that tim The Buckingham Meeting records contain the date of birth of seven children of Willian and Jane Preston, of Bradley, England, all born between 1600 and 1713.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
delphia. The farm of Joseph Fell was part of it. In 1688, a tract of a thousand acres was confirmed to Richard Lundy, and at the close of 1684 a warrant for several thousand acres was issued to Thomas Hudson. The land was located 11 Buckingham and elsewhere, but not being taken up regularly it was finally covered with warrants to other persons. In 1722, two hundred and twelve aeres, lying on the Street road, were surveyed to Joseph Worth.
The 21st of June. 1687, nine hundred and eighty acres were surveyed to Edward West, and nine hundred and eighty-four to John Reynolds, on the south side of the mountain, the two tracts joining each others and extending to the Wrightstown line. The original purchasers never appearing, the land was settled upon by others at an early day, without any color of title, and the ini- provement rights sold, down to 1769. The Proprietaries took bonds from the tenants against waste. In' 1742 they sold five hundred acres of the West tract. From 1752 to 1760 there were numerous suits for the possession of these lands, and litigation was continued down to within the present generation. At various times those in possession took out warrants to locate by actual survey. In 1781 the Reynolds tract was declared an escheat to the Proprietaries, and the claim- ants. under the escheat, were permitted to take out patents at the rate of £15 per hundred acres. Those claiming to be the heirs of the first purchaser filed caveats against issuing the patents, and, about 1788, one Reynolds, from Ire- land, brought an action of ejectment, but was non-suited. The caveat claimants afterward brought suit, but were defeated. In 1808 John Harrison Kaign made claim to the property for himself and others. The last suit about these lands was terminated within a few years, in which the late Thomas Ross was engaged as counsel. The absence of Reynolds was accounted for by his alleged loss at sea, and the Revolution was given as the cause of delay in bringing suit. There are two traditions, one that he was lost at sea returning to England, the other that he was lost coming to America to take possession of his tract which had been located by an agent. On the trial several old letters were produced, one purporting to be written by John Reynolds in England to his brother in Chester county, stating his intention to sail for Pennsylvania to take possession of the land. The absence of West was not accounted for.
Some steps were taken in more recent years to recover the Reynolds tract for the heirs, but nothing came of it. The editor of the Doylestown Democrat received a letter at the time, stating that the tract "descended to the late Samuel Reynolds, Philadelphia, but three years of age when his father, James Rey- nolds, died, 1767; who was heir in common with two brothers, Nathaniel. the elder, who possessed the land, 1794, and Chicester, the younger. They were the sons of Reverend James Reynolds, rector of the Parish of Denertogney in the Barony of Inishane, County Donegal, Ireland : that the Reverend James Rey- nolds was the eldest son and heir-at-law of Nathaniel Reynolds, which Nathan- iel Reynolds was the eldest son and heir-at-law of the original purchaser, who came in the "Welcome" with Penn. The original patent of this land is in the Land Department at Harrisburg, and the title is now in the heirs of the late Samuel Reynolds.
Robert Smith, the first of his family in Buckingham, was the second son of his father, who died on his passage from England. He arrived before 1699. and in his minority. His mother married a second time, and, on arriving at
8. The two tracts were re-surveyed by Cutler in 1703 by virtue of a warrant dated 11th month, 5, 1702, and found to contain two thousand four hundred and fifty acres.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
age, he left the maternal home bare-footed. He took up five hundred acres of land. He made his way well in life, married, 1719, and died, 1745, possessed of seven hundred acres in Buckingham, Makefield and Wrightstown. He had six sons, and John Watson, the surveyor, said they were the six best penmen he had ever met in one family. He was the grandfather of Robert Smith, sur- veyor and conveyancer three quarters of a century ago, and the ancestor of Carey Sinith, of Spring Valley. About the time of Robert Smith's purchase, came William Smith with his son Thomas and purchased five hundred acres adjoining Robert. When the township lines were run the latter's land fell into Upper Makefiekl, and was known as the "Windy bush" tract. These two families were not related. Joseph Smith, who introduced the use of anthracite coal into this county, and Charles Smith, of Pineville, the first to burn liine with hard coal, were both descendants of Robert Smith, the elder. Robert Smith, but from which of the original Smiths descended we do not know, was one of the pioneers in burning lime, having burnt a kiln as early as 1785. It is uncertain when the first kiln was burnt in this county, but probably as early as 1761.812 The account book of Samuel Smith, grandfather of the late Josiah B., Newtown, who lived on the Windy bush farm, shows he paid John Long and David Stogdale for "digging limestone," June, 1761. This work was prob- ably done in Buckingham. In 1774 he charged Timothy Smith fifteen shillings "for hauling five loads of lime." and about the same date, with one hundred and eighty bushels of lime at eight pence a bushel. January 2. 1819, the lime- burners of Buckingham and Solebury met at Newtown to petition the legisla- ture for an act to establish a bushel measure for lime. Buyers and sellers of lime were invited to attend. Thomas Smith, the elder, of Buckingham, planted the seed that grew the tree that bore the first Cider apples raised in America, on the farm where the first Robert Smith settled. This now excellent apple began its career as natural fruit. The name, "Cider apple." was given to it by an Irishman who lived at Timothy Smith's. Mahlon Smith said he remem- bered the tree as a very large one. At one time there were ten Robert Smiths in the same neighborhood in Buckingham. Samuel Smith, a soldier and officer of the Revolution, was not of this family, but a son or grandson of Hugh Smith, a Scotch-Irish settler on the Reynolds tract in Buckingham. He was born Feb- ruary 1, 1749, and died September 17, 1835. He entered the Continental Army in 1776, and served to the end of the war. He rose to the rank of captain, and was in some of the severest battles. He was an officer in Lafayette's brigade. After the war he married a daughter of John Wilkinson and settled down as a farmer. In the war of 1812-14 he commanded a brigade of militia at Marcus Hook. He was the father of General Andrew J. Smith," of the United States Army, who distinguished himself in the Civil War.
8%. Limestone was quarried, and probably burnt, in Buckingham as early as 1703. In a deed from Lawrence Pearson to his brother Enoch Pearson, for 100 acres of the 200 bought by Lawrence of John Burgess in the Lundy tract, comprising the western part of the farm of Samuel E. Broadhurst and the Anderson farm, the 100 acres to be taken off next the Lundy, or Eastern side, and dated March S, 1703-4. is this reservation : "Except the privilege of getting limestone for the said Lawrence and his children's own use with full egress and regress for fetching the same." Deed Book No. 3. pg. IST.
Andrew Jackson Smith was born in Buckingham township. Bucks Co., Pa. 1815. and died at St. Louis, Mo., January 30, 1897. He entered West Point. IS34. gradu- aled, 1838; on recruiting service, 1839-45 : promoted Ist lieutenant and served in Mexican
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