USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > History of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time, Vol. I > Part 38
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In Solebury, as elsewhere, the carly settlers clung to the bridle paths through the woods until necessity compelled them to open roads. We cannot say when the first township road was laid out. There was a road from the river to Barcroft's mill, and thence to the York road, 1730. About the same time a road was laid out from Coryell's ferry to the Anchor tavern, Wrightstown, where it united with the Middle or Oxford road, thus making a new continuous highway from the upper Delaware to Philadelphia. It was reviewed, 1801. In 1756 a road was laid out from John Rose's ferry, now Lumberville, to York road, and from Howell's ferry, now Centre Bridge, 1765, and from Kugler's mill, Lumberton, to Carversville and thence to the Durham road, 1785. Al- though the Street road between Solebury and Buckingham, was allowed about 1,02, it was not laid out by a jury until September 2. 1736.26 ` It was viewed by a second jury August 6, 1748. In 1770 it was extended from the lower corner of these townships to the road from Thompson's mill to Wrightstown. The road from the river, at the lower end of Lumberville to Ruckman's was laid out and opened 1832. Owing to the opposition an act was obtained for a "state road" from Easton to Lumberville, thence across to Ruckman's and down the York road to Willow Grove, which gave the local road desired, with but trifling al- teration in the old roads. The late James M. Porter, of Easton, was one of the jurymen, and Samnel Hart the surveyor. The "Suggin" road is probably the oldest in the township and originally a bridle path, along which the settlers of Plumstead took their grain to the Aquetong mill, above New Hope, to be ground. It left the Paunacussing creek at Carversville, running northeast through Will- iam R. Evans's and Joseph Robert's farms, crossing the present road near Jo- seph Sacket's gate, thence through Aaron Jones's woods to meet the present road near Isaac Pearson's, and by Armitage's mill, Centre Hill and Solebury meeting-house to New Hope.
26 The jury were Robert Smith, Francis Hough, John Fisher, John Dawson, and Henry Paxson, and it was surveyed by John Chapman.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
Half a mile southeast of Carversville, on the road to Aquetong, is an old graveyard known as the "Sebring" graveyard, and in it were buried the former owners of the four hundred and fifty acre tract of which it was a part. The tract is now surrounded by public roads : on the northeast by the road above mentioned, the Lumberville road on the southeast, the Street road on the southwest, and the road from the Street road to Mahlon Carver's corner on the northwest. It was laid out to Thomas Carnes in 1702. He devised it to his aunt Ellen Saunders of Yorkshire, England, the same year; she to George Parker, Yorkshire, same year, late of Philadelphia; he to Ambrose Barcroft, Talbot county, Maryland,, in 1723. In 1724-25 Barcroft was drowned in the' Delaware, when the property descended to his three sons, William, Ambrose and John. The second Ambrose Barcroft and John Hough were the builders of the Carversville mill, about 1730: and William and Joh Barcroft conveyed their share of the four hundred and fifty acre tract to John Sebring in 1746. Later the tract was found to contain but four hundred acres. The Sebring family of Dutch ancestry. came from Province of Drenthe, Holland, and settled on Long Island prior to 1700. Major Cornelius Sebring was a large landowner on Long Island and a member of Assembly in 1695-1723. The family subsequently removed to New Brunswick, or rather Roelof, a member of it did, settling at the Raritan, where he married a daughter of the Rev. Johannes Theodorus Polhemus. His son, Jan, or John, Sebring, re- moved to Solebury in 1742, where he died in 1773. in his seventy-second year, leaving four sons, Roelof, John, Fulkerd and Thomas, to whom the land de- scended. The son, Thomas, was a captain of militia during the Revolution. Probably the oldest stone in the Sebring graveyard is that marked "A. B." sup- posed to be the grave of Ambrose Barcroft. Sr. There also are found the tomb stones of John Sebring. Sr., 1773. John Sebring, Jr., 1777, Hugh McFall, 1786, John Leasman, 1793, and a number of others, ranging in dates from 1766 to 1779. Among the descendants of John Sebring are Judge William Sebring, Easton, William Sebring Kirkpatrick, late member of Congress from North- ampton county, and the widow of the late General John F. Hartranft.
Sulebury 1 Mering House
The villages of Solebury are, Lum- berville and Lum- berton lying con- tiguous on the Del- aware, Centre Bridge below on the river, Centre Hill in the interior of the township, Carversville on the Paunacussing, Cot- tageville, and New Hope, an incorpor- ated borough.
About 1785 the site of lumberville was owned by Col- onel George Wall
and William Hambleton. We know but little of Hambleton, but Wall was an ac- tive patriot of the Revelation, and a man of influence. He built two saw-mills
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
and carried on the lumber business, was justice of the peace, and followed sur- veying and conveyancing. His dwelling and office stood on the site of Lukens Thomas's new house. At one time he kept a school to instruct young men in surveying, and died, 1804.27 Hambleton's dwelling was opposite Coppernose, at what was called "Temple bar," probably from a gravel bar in the river, and was taken down, 1828. when the canal was dug. He died about 1797, leaving his estate to his son Thomas, who sold it in 1807. The place was known as Wall's sawmill and Wall's landing as late as 1814, when the name was changed to Lumberville by Heed and Hartley who carried on the lumber business there. In 1810 there were a few dwellings, a store and tavern and other improvements were made in subsequent years. The road then ran near the river, with the houses on the upper side, but the canal destroyed it and the present road was laid out. The tavern was burned down about 1828, and rebuilt. Since then several new buildings have been erected, including a Methodist church, and a substan- tial bridge across the river. The church was built, 1836, and re-built on the opposite side of the road, 1869, with a frame basement thirty by fifty feet. The bridge was commenced in 1854, and finished, 1857, built by Chapin and An- thony Fly at a cost of SI8,000. The Lumberville library was founded in the fall of 1823, the first meeting on the subject being held at the Athenian school house near the village, which William L. Hoppock, Samuel Hartley, Aaron White, Joseph Heed."> and Cyrus Livezey attended, among others. The shares were five dollars each. Mr. Hartley was the first librarian, and the library was kept in his office. The books were sold at public sale, 1833. because there was no place to keep the three hundred and fifty volumes that had aeenmulated. During its short existence it did considerable to improve the literary taste of the neigh- borhood. The post-office was established, 1835, and William L. Hoppock ap- pointed postmaster.
Lumberton, less than a mile below Lumberville, was known as Rose's ferry" before the Revolution, when there was a grist and sawmill belonging to William Skelton. Jacob Painter and Reuben Thorne became the owners, 1796.
27 George Wall was one of the most prominent men in the county during that Revolutionary struggle. In 1778 he was appointed lieutenant of Bucks with the rank of colonel, and his commission is signed by Thomas Wharton and Timothy Matlack. In 1787, George Wall invented and patented a new surveying instrument called a "Trignometer." The Legislature granted him a patent for 21 years, the act being signed September 10, 1787. Among those who recommended the instrument were John Lukens, Surveyor General of Pa., David Rittenhouse. the astronomer, and Andrew Ellicott, subsequently surveyor general of the United States. In 1788 Wall published a pamphlet descriptive of the instrument. George Wall, Jr. and David Forst were the agents for the sale of confiscated estate in Bucks county. "George Wall" and "George Wall. Jr." were one and the same person. Ile was the son of George Wall, his mother being the widow of Andrew Ellicott and daughter of Thomas Bye.
28 The Heeds were early settlers in Solebury but we have not the date of their arrival. Abraham Heed, who died May 10. 1843, at the age of 102, was a remarkable man. Beginning life as a farmer, by indolent habits he became bankrupt in a few years. This did not discourage him and he started anew as a gunsmith, his trade; then bought real estate, built home and mill. run lime kilns, carried on lumbering and other occupa- lions, being successful in all. He held the office of justice of the peace, and at his death le left 142 descendants.
2) The right of landing was reserved to John Rose in the deed of William Skelton of Kugler, 1771.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
The latter kept the ferry, and the place was called Painter's ferry and had a tavern and a store. It was a favorite crossing for persons going from upper Jersey to Philadelphia who fell into the York road at Centre Hill. Painter, who died, 1805, probably built a new mill and the subsequent owners were Joseph Kugler, John Gillingham, Jeremiah King, Thomas Little and John E. Kender- dine. The canal covers the site of the first mill, a long, low and narrow stone building. Gillingham rebuilt the tavern, 1816 or 1817, about which time it had fallen into bad repute, and was called "Hard Times." A tavern has not been kept there since 1842. When Mr. Kenderdine enlarged his mill, 1834, he pulled down the old Pike dwelling. Lumberton contains a few dwellings and a grist- mill. Here is a valuable quarry of light-colored granite, owned and worked by a company, developed when the canal was constructed and the stone were used to build abutments and wingwalls of bridges. The new locks at New Hope were built of it. The quarry was bought by John E. Kenderdine, 1833, and sold by his administrator, 1868. On July 12, 1877, a blast of twenty kegs of powder made at this quarry, threw down a ledge 63 feet long, 27 feet high and 39 feet deep containing about 00,000 feet of stone. The stone trimmings for the new court house, Doylestown, came from this quarry. Mr. Kenderdine gave the place the name of Lumberton. The Indian name of the island in the Delaware opposite Lumberville was Paunacussing, which it retained until 1721, when John Ladd and R. Bull bought a large tract in that vincinity, which soon fell into the possession of Bull, and was then called Bull's island. Paxson's island, lower down the river, took its name from Henry Paxson, an early settler in the township. His nephew, Thomas, inherited two hundred and nine acres along the Delaware including the island, which contained one hundred acres. The island was the cause of much trouble to the Paxsons, the Indians claiming the title to it on the ground that they had not sold it to Penn. About 1745 they offered to sell it to Paxson for £5, but he refused to buy with the Proprietary's sanction. In the first deed it is called a "neck," and 1745, was an island only about three months in the year.
Centre Bridge, four miles below Lumberville, was called Reading's ferry soon after 1700, from John Reading, who owned the ferry-house on the New Jersey side, and afterward Howell's ferry from the then owner. It was so called, 1770. It was known as Mitchel's ferry before the present century. In ISIo it had but one dwelling, in which John Mitchel, the ferryman, lived, who kept the tavern there for many years, and died, 1824. At one, time he repre- sented the county in the Assembly. The bridge was built across the river, 1813, when it took the name of Centre Bridge half way between Lumberville and New Hope. Since then several dwellings and two stores have been erected. The post-office was established at Centre 1lill, 1831, and John D. Balderston post- master, but changed to Centre Bridge, 1845.
Carversville was originally called Milton, which name it bore in 1800. At the beginning of the century it contained a gristmill, store, smith-shop, etc. About ISHI, Jesse Ely, built a woolen factory, oil-mill, and tannery ; the factory was burned down, ISIG. and re-built. Isaac Pickering opened a tavern here 1813-14, and kept it to his death. 1816, when it, and the property of Jesse Ely were bought by Thomas Carver who carried on business to his death, 1854. . 1 post-office was established 1833, and the place called Carversville. Since then
201/2 The sign blew down and the landlord put up a whitwashed window shutter in its stead, on which he wrote with tar the words "Hard Times," and times did look hard enough thereabouts.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
the village has considerably improved, several dwellings, Free and Presbyterian churches, a large school building, a store, etc., erected, and a cemetery laid out. The Presbyterian congregation was organized about 1870, and the church, a pretty Gothic structure, that will seat about three hundred, was built, 1874, at a cost of $4,500. In ISII a woolen factory was built at Fretz's mill, on the road irom Carversville to the Delaware, and run until about 1819 or 1820. A clover- mill was afterward built, and burned down, 1833, when a gristmill was erected on the site. Centre Hill, known as the "Stone school-house" a century and a half ago, contained only a store, one dwelling, and an old school house, in ISIo, but, within more recent years, several dwellings have been erected, an additional store opened and mechanics established. Cottageville has several dwellings, and a schoolhouse. The Solebury Presbyterian church was organized, 1811, mainly through the efforts of Mrs. Rebecca Ingham, Mrs. Johanna Corson, and Mrs. Elizabeth Neeley, of the Newtown congregation. It has about one hundred members, and the yearly collections amount to nearly one thousand dollars. The church was repaired in recent years by William Neeley Thompson, of New York, but a native of Bucks, and is now one of the most beautiful in the county. It is now known as the "Thompson Memorial church," after Thomas M. Thomp- son in whose memory it was re-built by his son. It contains four very fine mem- orial windows, to commemorate the virtues of two men and two women, one of the foriner a loved pastor, the Reverend Doctor Studiford. The present pastor is the Rev. Adolphus Kistler. The Solebury Baptist church grew out of a meet- ing of twenty-one persons of this faith held at Paxson's Corner, now Aquetong, the 6th of March, 1843. They resolved to organize a Baptist church, and it was constituted the 28th of the same month with thirteen constituent members; Charles F. Smith, Joseph Evans, Leonard Wright, Ann Walton, Catharine Naylor, George Cathers, Nelson H. Coffin, Jacob Naylor, David R. Naylor, Ira Hill, Margaret Smith and Susan Smith. The membership was increased to thirty-one by the middle of the following May. The Reverend J. P. Walton was the first pastor, serving the church to 1845, when it was supplied, until 1849, by Reverend W. B. Srope, Lambertville, New Jersey. The Reverend Joseph Wright was now called and remained until 1854. In 1851 an addition was built to the church. The pastors in succession afterward were, Joseph N. Fol- well, 1854, W. W. Beardslee, 1856, Samuel G. Kline, 1859, Martin M. King, 1860, and Silas Livermore, 1863. The church was closed in September, 1866, on account of the reduction in membership by death and removal, and was not reopened for worship until October 10, 1869. In November of that year George 11. Larison, M. D., a deacon of the First Baptist church of Lambertville, was called to the pulpit, and served the church several years. He is now deceased. He was ordained pastor in 1872. Under his pastorate ninety-three were added to the church by baptism, and many others by letter. The house was repaired, 1871, at an expense of $2,000, and is now a commodious place of worship.
In response to a long-felt want and urgent need of a school for higher edu- cation in middle Bucks, the Excelsior Normal Institute was established at Car . versville, 1858, and a charter obtained. The movement secured the co-opera- tion of the Rev. F. R. S. Hunsicker, then principal of the Freeland Seminary, Collegeville, Montgomery county. Mr. Hunsicker was appointed principal with William W. Fell. Mary Hampton and William T. Seal assistants. The school was opened in October, 1859, with a good attendance, occupying a convenient building erected for the purpose. It was popular from the first and the most prominent families became its warm supporters and patrons. Mr. Hunsicker retired in 1862, and from that time to 1865 the school in succession was in
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
charge of William T. Seal, William R. Evans, Mr. Fish, Dr. G. P. Betts, and Samuel B. Carr. In 1867 Mr. Hunsicker again assumed charge, being suc- ceeded by Simeon S. Overholt in 1872. The Normal Institute proper was closed, 1874, but the academic department was continued a year longer under Henry O. Harris.By The property was now sold to William R. Evans, who re- modeled the building, and for a time was a popular summer resort. Among the popular instructors in the institute, besides those named were A. M. Dickie, John Peoples, William G. White, William P. M. Todd, George P. Betts, M. D., M. F. Bechtol and Lizzie Hunsicker and others. Many of the pupils have reached positions of honor, among them Judge D. Newlin Fell, State Supreme court, Judge Pancoast, Camden, N. J., Judge Henry Scott, common pleas, Northampton county, Pennsylvania, county superintendents, Eastburn and Slotter, and others in the learned professions. The "Excelsior Normal Insti- tute" made its mark on the community.
On the banks of the Delaware, at the lower end of Lumberville, rises a headland fifty feet high called Coppernose. Local antiquarians say it was so called because copperhead snakes were found there in olden times, and William Satterthwaite, an eccentric poct and schoolmaster of the township, has the credit of being the author of the quaint name. From the top of this bold promontory is obtained a fine view up and down the river, with the islands, the bold shores on either side, with the hamlets of Lumberville and Lumberton nestling at the declivity of the western highlands. Half a mile below, the Cutta- lossa,31 in a tortuous course of three miles, empties into the Delaware after turning several mills. It is a romantic stream and its beauties have been herald- ed in both prose and poetry.32 John G. Whittier, the poet, lived on the banks of the Cuttalossa during parts of 1839 and ISjo, on the Watson Scarborough premises.
Opposite the old grist-mill, and in hearing of the patter of its dripping wheel, a beautiful fountain bearing its name has been erected. A never-failing spring gushes out from underneath the roots of a large tree, on the summit of a wooded knoll thirty yards west of the woods and twenty feet above the level of the creek. Years ago the late John E. Kenderdine placed a wooden trough to catch the water after it came down the gully, and utilized it for the traveling public, and, in the summer of 1873, a few liberal persons, in and out of the neighborhood, contributed money to erect the beautiful stone fountain that now adorns the locality. A leaden pipe conveys the water down the hill and under the road to the fountain where it falls into a marble basin four feet square. A figure stands in the middle of the basin surmounted by a shell through which the water escapes in threadlike jets to the height of twelve feet, and an iron- fence protects it from intruding cattle. At the roadside near the spring is a sub-
30 Mr. Harris and Mr. Eastburn are both members of the Bucks county bar settled at Doylestown.
31 In 1897 William J. Buek issued a publication of ninety pages-originally printed in the Bucks County Intelligencer, 1873, entitled "The Cuttalossa and its Historical, Tradi- tional and Poetical Association." It is replete with matter of a highly interesting char- aeter, but we have not space to indulge in quotations from it.
32 Tradition, not of the most reliable character, says it received its name from a strayed Indian chill, named Quattic, meeting a hunter in the woods and crying "Quattie lossa," meaning that Quattie was lost, and from that the name was gradually changed to its present, Cuttalossa. It is called "Quatielassy" and "Quetyelassy" in a deed of 1702.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
xantial stone watering trough, flanked by a wall. At the two extremities of the wall are columns, two feet square and six high, with a marble slab set in each. 'n one is the inscription : "Cuttalossa fountain, erected 1873, by admirers of the beautiful," and the other :
"Are not cold wells, And crystal springs, The very things, For our hotels?"
A flight of steps ascends the steep, wooded bank at each end of the wall, and graveled paths lead to the grounds surrounding the spring. On the slope, water, from other fountains supplied by branches from the main pipe, leaps up from the ground and falls into miniature basins and a rustic bridge spans the stream just above. The grounds about are pleasantly laid out, seats placed in inviting spots and hitching-posts for horses. During the summer it is a great resort for croquet, and other parties, which spend pleasant hours in the shades of the romantic Cuttalossa.33 The beauties of this locality have been sung by Solebury's sweetest poet.34
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"While Cuttalossa's waters Roll murmuring on their way, 'Twixt hazel clumps and alders, 'Neath old oaks gnarled and gray,35 While just across the valley From the old. old grist-mill come
The water-wheel's low patter, The millstone's drowsy hum.36
Here sparkling from its birthplace, Just up the rifted hill, In tiny cascades leaping Comes down a little rill. Till in a plashing fountain It pours its crystal tide Just where the road goes winding To the valley opening wide.
Thy beeches old and carven With names cut long ago; Thy wooded glens, dark shadowed, Beside thy murmuring flow, Thy spice-wood fringed meadows, The hills that sloped beyond, The mills that drank thy waters From many a glassy pond.3i
33 We have the authority of William J. Buck for saying that there was an Indian village called Quatyelossa about the present dam of Armitage's old mill as late as 1705, and it probably gave the name to the stream.
34 Thaddeus S. Kenderdine.
35 Referring to the upper end of the valley.
36 Alluding to the old mill, built 1758.
37 Referring to the fountain near the mill.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
Thy rivulets, laurel-shaded, Thy hemlocks, towering high; My home beside thy waters, Thy river rolling by, All crowd into my memory, Called up by the conjuring Past, Oh, I'll forget them, never! While life and memory last."
At the middle of the last century there were three taverns in the township, at each of the three ferries, Rose's, Howell's and Coryell's, principally to accon- modate foreign travel. The hostelry at Ruckman's was opened at a later day, but a public house has not been kept there for many years. At what time it was first licensed we do not know, but was kept by one David Forst in 1789, and probably several years earlier.
In 1854, accident led to the discovery of an old mine on the farm of John T. Neeley, two and a half miles below New Hope, the mouth covered with a large flat stone. The drift, with an opening through solid rock, seven feet by four, runs into the hillside about sixty feet, where it meets a chamber fifteen feet square and eight or ten feet high, with a pillar in the centre hewn out of solid rock. Here is a shaft about forty feet deep, and to the right of the cham- ber is an oblique shaft about ten feet wide and from thirty to forty high, and opens further up the hill. The drift terminates in the solid rock. There are no other evidence of mining operations, and no minerals found except a few pieces of copper picked up among the debris. There is no tradition as to when, or by whom, the excavations were made, but it must have been at the early settle- ment of the country for large trees are now growing over the old excavations. The Proprietaries sold the tract to William Coleman, and by him, about 1750, to James Ilamilton, Langhorne Biles, Joseph Turner, William Plumstead, William Allen and Lawrence Growden. Three years after they sold it to Robert Thompson, reserving to themselves the right to dig and search for metals. As these gentlemen were interested in the Durham works, no doubt they purchased the property to secure the supposed minerals and caused the excavations to be made. Many years ago the late John Ruckman leased the property and em- ployed an engineer from New York to superintend the excavations. He un- covered the passage and shafts mentioned but did not find copper in sufficient quantities to justify working it. The engineer decided that the original exca- vations had been made by German miners. The location is on the west side of Bowman's hill.
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