USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > History of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time, Vol. I > Part 46
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63
Henry Lewis, a Welshman, was settled in Hilltown probably as early as 1730. He is said to have been a political offender against the British gov- ernment, and "left his country for his country's good." He bought about three hundred acres lying on either side the Bethlehem turnpike, a mile from Line Lexington, also an hundred acres a mile west of Doylestown near Vanx- town, and the same quantity at Whitehallville ( now Chalfont) which covered the site of the tavern property and extended up the west branch of the Neshan- iny. He married Margaret, daughter of William James. His son Isaac Lewis, born in 1743. a soldier of the Revolution, was shot through the leg on Long Is- land while setting fire to some wheat-stacks that had fallen into possession of the British, and his comrades rescued him with great difficulty. He was with the army at Valley Forge, and from there was sent to Reading, probably as an invalid, whence he was brought home by his parents. Jefferson Lewis. the grandson of Henry, an intelligent old gentleman, a school-teacher for many Years, lived on the ancestral property. He had in his possession the veritable old Welsh Bible brought over by his ancestor, in which is written "Henry Lewis. 1729." and a record of his children. Several families of Lewises set- tled in Hilltown, but were not all related to each other; Jeremiah purchased land in the northern part of the township. James Lewis was there early, but removed with his family to Virginia before the Revolution. The Lewises living in this township and adjoining parts of Montgomery are principally the descendants of Henry. In the early days of these Welsh settlements Edward Eaton, probably a step-son of Jeremiah Lewis; was the only man among them honored with the title of "Doctor." but his knowledge of the heal- ing art was as limited as his practice. Moses Aaron, ancestor of the Aaron fam- ily, settled near the New Britain line a mile east of Line Lexington, between
348
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
1725 and 1730, where he bought a farm, improved it and raised a family of children.
The Mathias family were carly settlers in Hilltown, and the descendants are numerous. The American ancestor was John Mathias, born in Pem- brokeshire, Wales, 1675; immigrated 1722-23, with a second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Morgan, and a family of young children, and with other Welshmen; settled in Franconia township, now Montgomery county, near the Bucks line, about where Souderton stands. The locality took the name of Welshtown. John Mathias married a third wife about 1740, a widow, and died, 1748. Among his children were. Mary, born in Wales, Griffith. 1727, Thomas, 1730, Mathias, 1732, John, 1734, and David, 1737. The Mathias homestead was in Hilltown, a mile west of Dublin, near the Bethlehem road; the dwelling, a Colonial house, is still standing, unless torn down recently, and well preserved. It was built at two periods, the Eastern end bearing date, 1750, the Western. 1768. The late Rev'd Joseph Mathias, the most distin- guished member of the family, in the past, was a grandson of Jolin, the immi- grant, and the youngest son of Thomas by a second wife. He was born May 8. 1778, baptised September 29, 1799, ordained to the ministry July 22, 1806, and died March II, IS51, in his seventy-third year. During his pastoral life he attended upwards of seven hundred funerals and preached six thousand eight hundred and seventy-five sermons. The children of John Mathias inter- married with the families of Griffith, Jones, Thomas, and Pugh, and among the descendants of John Mathias was Mathias Morris, a prominent member of the Bucks county bar. member of the State Senate and of Congress. The widow of Joseph Mathias died 1870, at the age of ninety-three. The Houghs. New Britain, connected with the Mathiases by marriage, were descended from Richard, whose son Joseph married Elizabeth West. Her parents were early settlers in Warwick, and she was a sister of Joseph Mathias's grandmother on the maternal side. Joseph and Elizabeth Hough had sons Richard. Joseph, and John and seven daughters. The late General Joseph Hough, Point Pleasant, was a descendant of Joseph the elder.
The Morrises were English Friends, who arrived shortly after William Penn. and settled in Byberry. It is not known at what time they came into this county, but Thomas Morris was in Hilltown before 1722, and some of the family in New Britain as early as 1735. and probably earlier. Morris Morris, son of Cadwallader, and grandson of the first immigrant. married Gwently. daughter of the Reverend William Thomas, from which union come the Mor- rises of this county. They had nine children. Benjamin, the third son. he- came quite celebrated as a manufacturer of clocks, and occasionally one of the old-fashioned two-story affairs of his make, with the letters "B. M." engraved on a brass plate on the face. is met with. He was the father of Enos Morris, who learned his father's trade, but afterward studied law with Judge Ross. Easton, and was admitted to the bar about 1800. He was a leading member of the Baptist church, and a man of great integrity of character. Benjamin Morris, Sheriff of the county sixty-five years ago, was a brother of Enos. Enoch Morris, next younger than Benjamin, had a son James, who fell into the hands of the Algerines, and was one of those liberated by Commodore Decatur. He married a Miss Helson, Philadelphia; settled at Cincinnati, and one of their sons graduated at West Point.
William Lunn. from England, was an early settler, whose son Joseph married Alice, daughter of Lewis Evans. The latter was an unwilling im-
349
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
migrant. He was on ship-board bidding good-bye to friends about to embark for America, when the vessel sailed and he was obliged to accompany her. William and Alice Lunn had nine children, who married into the families of Jones, Griffith, Brittain, Vastine, Thomas, and Mathew. Joseph, the third son, was killed, 1770, by being thrown from his wagon and run over in Ger- mantown, on his return from market. William, the second son, joined the British army while it occupied Philadelphia, 1777-8, and never returned home. William Bryan was a purchaser of real estate in Hilltown, 1743, probably the same who settled in Springfield.
lliltown was laid out and organized into a township in the fall of 1722. The inhabitants held several meetings on the subject, and there does not appear to have been entire unanimity among them. In the summer of that year a meeting "of several of the inhabitants of Perkasie" was called at the house of Evan Griffith to petition the court for a road to Richard Michael's? mill. The question of a new township was evidently in their minds, for in a note at the bottom of the petition they say: "We agree that our township should be called 'Aberystruth,' unless it be any offense to our justis Lanorn."+ Twelve names are signed to the petition, embracing most of those already men- tioned as among the earliest settlers. On the 3d of August the inhabitants of Perkasie held another meeting to consider the matter of being erected into a township. They drew up and signed a petition to the court, in which they state that having heard the inhabitants of that section are to be organized into a township with the "Society5 and Muscamickan." they protest against it. They express a wish to be formed into a township by themselves, "to begin at the Long Eiland lind and run it along with the county line to Parkyowman.'s They further state that they had lately fixed upon a place to "make a school- house" upon Perkasie, probably the first school-house in the township. The petition, signed by eleven of the inhabitants, was carried to Bristol by Evan Griffith, a long journey through the woods at that day.
We have no record of any further action being taken by the inhabitants in the matter of a township. nevertheless it was ordered and laid out that year. The only draft we have been able to get sight of, and which probably accom- panied the return of the surveyor, gives it the shape of a parallelogram. ex- cept an offset of eighty perches, with the angles all right, and it contains the names of all the land-owners except Jeremiah Lewis. It has been thought the township was named after William Hill, who was mayor of Philadelphia. 1710, speaker of the Assembly. 1715. and Judge of the Supreme Court. 1726. It was called "Hill township" in 1725.7 It is probable, however, it was called "Hilltown" because of the rolling and hilly nature of its surface.8 The pres- ent area is fourteen thousand five hundred and twenty acres. It is well watered
3 Richard Mitchell, of Wrightstown, the "Swamp road."
4 Jeremiah Langhorne, then on the county bench.
5 The settlements in New Britain were then called the "Society," because the land formerly belonged to the "Free Society of Traders." The locality of "Muscamickan" is not known.
6 Perkiomen.
; In old deeds for land in New Britain we find that township was called "Hillton" down to 1735, twelve years after it had been organized.
8 As there are several townships and parishes in England called "Ilillton," it is possibile the name finds its origin there, with a slight change in spelling.
350
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
by the tributarics of the northeast branch of the Perkiomen, and some of the branches of Neshaminy. The soil is fertile, and agriculture the only interest that receives particular attention. In 1759, two thousand five hundred acres of the manor of Perkasie, lying in Rockhill and Hilltown, were given by the Proprietary to the University of Pennsylvania, on condition that it should never be alienated.
We have met with but little success in getting reliable accounts of the Ger- man families of Hilltown, which race now forms a large part of the population. About 1735 Jacob Appenzeller, an immigrant from Switzerland, settled in the township. He married into the Oberholtzer family and lived on the farm owned by the late Elias Hartzell, forty-five years, and died about 1780. He had two sons, Henry and Jacob. The former is supposed to have joined the British army in the Revolutionary war, as he was never afterward heard of. while Jacob married into the Savacool family, and remained in Hilltown. He had two sons and one daughter, Henry, Jacob and Elizabeth. Henry settled in Greene county, in this state, and Jacob married Elizabeth Upp, had three children, and died in 1863, at the age of eighty-one. Gideon Appenzeller, of Hilltown, is the youngest son. Elizabeth, the daughter of Jacob, married George Miller, Rockhill, where she lived.
John Williams, thought to be a descendant of Roger Williams, Rhode Island, settled in Hilltown prior to 1740, and was a member of the Baptist church. His farm, partly in New Britain, was northwest of New Galena. His son William, was educated at Brown University, graduating in the first class. 1769, at the age of twenty-one. He was born, 1748, died 1823, and was pastor of a Baptist church at Wrentham, Massachusetts, for forty-eight years. The father died about 1780, intestate. The son William, preached at New Britain at one time, but was not the settled pastor. The daughter, Rebecca, married William James. The other children of John Williams were: Sarah, Isaac, and Elizabeth. The Rev. William Williams had a famous debate with David Evans, a noted Universalist, at New Britain church. The descendants are living at Providence, Rhode Island.
The Beringers of Hilltown are descended from Nicholas Beringer, a German immigrant, the date of whose arrival is not known. The 26th of June, 1777, he bought of John Penn one hundred and forty acres in the manor of Perkasie, marked No. 10 on the plat, for £350, charged with an annual rent of an ear of corn, to be paid on the 24th of June. It is probable he was in the township before this time. Nicholas Beringer was the great-grandfather of Amos Beringer, a resident of Hilltown. Michael Snyder bought one hundred and thirty-six acres in the manor, plat No. 12 of the plan, June 19, the same year, probably the first of the name who settled there.
In Hilltown are four churches, two Baptist, one union, Lutheran and Re- formed, and one Mennonite. We have already spoken of one Baptist church, that built by the Reverend William Thomas, and known as the Lower meeting- house, where he leaned his rifle against the hollow log that served as pulpit. before he began to preach. The second of this denomination, called Hilltown Baptist church, was constituted. 1781, with fifty-tour members, although service was held there several years before. It was the off-shoot of the Mont- gomery church, the parem of Baptist churches in this section of Montgomery and Bucks, and, until regularly constituted, the members went thither to take communion. The first pastor was John. the second son of Reverend William Thomas, born at Radnor, 1716, called to the ministry, 1549. ordained, 1751. and became pastor at Montgomery at the death of Benjamin Griffith. He bal
3,5 t
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
charge of both the Hilltown churches, and at the same time preached for a small congregation among the "Rocks." north of Tohickon. At the death of Mr. Thomas, 1790, he was succeeded by Reverend James McLaughlin. The Reverend Joseph Mathias was chosen and ordained pastor, 1806, who officiated there until his death, 1851. His mother died, 1821, at the age of eighty-six. The present pastor is the Reverend Mr. Jones, a Welshman, who was ordained in the fall of 18;5. The immediate organization of this church is due to the prevailing difference in political sentiment during the Revolution. The in- habitants of Hilltown were much divided, the whigs probably predominating, but the tories were in strong force. Both sides were exceedingly bitter. The tories refused to take the oath of allegiance to the new government, but they were obliged to give their paroles not to leave the county. This was a great inconvenience to them, as they lived near the county line, across which they were accustomed to go on business, for pleasure, and to attend the Montgom- ery church of which most of them were members. This situation afforded the whigs a good opportunity to annoy their less loyal neighbors, which they were not slow to avail themselves of. On one occasion, while the tories were at- tending church, a vengeful neighbor had them arrested and taken before a justice of the peace. but the latter understanding the cause discharged them. This unpleasant condition of things hastened the formation of a new congre- gation, and the Hilltown church was constituted accordingly. Whigs and tories were nited peaceably in the work. In the next two years there was an addition of forty members, making ninety-four in all. Of the constituent members thirteen were Thomases, six Brittains, and five Mathiases. The Hilltown church was torn down, April, 1875, preparatory to rebuilding. In the cornerstone were found three pieces of silver coin, one ten and two five cent pieces, coined in 1802 and 1803. The documents, when exposed to the atmosphere, blew away like ashes. The old house was built in 1804.
Saint Peter's church. Lutheran and Reformed, on the Bethlehem road a mile and a half from Line Lexington, was erected in 1804-5, on a lot conveyed by the heirs of Abraham Cope, the 18th of June. 1803. At the cornerstone laying were present Reverends Messrs. Thomas, Pomp, and Senn, Reformed, and Messrs. Yager. George Roller, and Rewenack, Lutheran. The first pastor was Rev. Jacob Sen, who preached his first sermon April 1, 1805. The house was of stone, forty-five by thirty-eight feet, with galleries on three sides, an elevated . pulpit. and seats for about five hundred. When erected it was one of the handsomest places of worship in this section of the county. During the first seventy years it stood, not over six hundred dollars were spent to keep it in repair. The Reformed congregation numbers about four hundred, and in the last forty years several new congregations have been built up from it. The Lutheran pastors, in succession, were Messrs. Mench, Wyand. William B. Kemmerer, for thirty years. F. Berkemeyer. who was in charge many years, and the present pastor is Rev. M. J. Kucher. The pastors on the Reformed side served as follows: Reverend George Wack. 1805 to 1827. In 1821 J. W. Dechant supplied for Wack while he was a member of the Legislature. Henry Gerhart, 1827 to 1834. H. S. Bassler, 1831 to 1839, during whose pastorate the communicants increased from fifty- nine to one hundred and thirty. T. W. Haugen, 18440 to 1842, A. Berky, 1843 to 18:5. T. Naille. 1815 10 1852. A. I .. Dechant. 1852 to 1858. Without pastor from 1858 to 186o. W. R. Yearick, commenced his pastorate, 1860, and was installed the following February. At his first communion. May 25. 1861, there were present one hundred and ninety-six communicants, thirty-six re-
----
----
-
352
-
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
ceived into the church by confirmation. The congregation of St. Luke's church constitute part of the Hilltown charge. During the existence of this congregation, the pastorates of Reverends Dechant and Yearick were the most prosperous. The congregation at present numbers some three hundred mem- bers. The Reverend Abraham Berky subsequently joined the Dutch Reformed church, and died, 1867, at the age of sixty-two. The Reverend Peter S. Fisher, pastor of this church, was struck with fatal illness while preaching there, May 22, 1873. Many years ago an organ was bought for the church at a cost of four thousand dollars. In ISto the Hilltown cemetery association, a chartered company, laid out a burial-ground opposite the church across the turnpike, containing nine acres. Trees and evergreens have been planted, and the walks graveled. The church has shedding for two hundred horses. Down to March, 1875, there had been little alteration in the old building, but was then tom down and a new house erected on the site. St. Luke's church, Re- formed and Lutheran, of Dublin, is a brick structure built in 1870. The Reverend William R. Yearick was elected the Reformed pastor and organ- ized with fourteen members. It now has a membership of over a hundred, with a flourishing Sunday-school. Among the subsequent pastors were the Reverends Fritz, Lutheran, to 1899, A. R. Horn, 1883, J. W. Magin, 1888, R. B. Lynch and others.
The German Lutherans,9 though numerous in Pennsylvania, had none to preach to them in their own tongue until John Peter Miller, a graduate of Heidelberg, arrived in Philadelphia, and was ordained by Tennent, Andrews and Boyd, 1730. In 1729 many Lutherans removed from New York to Berks county, among them the well-known Conrad Weiser. The name German Re- formed was changed to the Reformed church of the United States, 1869. It is derived from the Reformed church of Germany and Switzerland as distin- guished from the Lutheran. The latter agrees with the Reformed church in holding the Heidelberg catechism as its Confession of Faith, but differs from it. in not requiring its members to subscribe to the Belgie Confession and the articles of the Synod of Dordrecht. It is the oldest of Protestant denomina- tions which are generally known as "Reformed churches." It has been weak- ened in Europe by the union of portions of the Lutheran and Reformed churches to form the "Evangelical church of Germany," but it still numbers some eight or ten millions of communicants. Scattered members of the Re- formed church came to Pennsylvania soon after Penn settled the Province. In a few years they began to arrive in large numbers, and the Reformed con- stituted the larger portion of the German immigration. In 1730 they numbered upward of fifteen thousand in this State. Subsequently Lutheran immigra- tion became more numerous, and the Reformed have ever since continued in the minority. The first German Reformed church in Pennsylvania is said to have been erected at Skippack, Montgomery county, 1726, but other churches claim the same honor. In the United States this denomination numbers about
9 The Reformed church one of the strongest German religious bodies in Bucks county, and all north of Doylestown. The classical report, 1897, gives the number of congregations at 28, membership. 9.800 ; communicants, 8.012; number of Sunday-schools. 48; scholars, 4.000; and during the year the contributions for benevolent purposes was $6.100, and congregational. $20.000 As evidence of the rapid growth of the denomina- tion in the past twelve or fifteen years: The contributions for congregational purposes have doubled in this period, the attendance and membership both largely increased, and the Sunday school scholars from 1,500 to 4.000.
353
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
one thousand three hundred churches and one hundred and thirty thousand communicants. In this county the Dutch Reformed established churches several years before the German Reformed, and the pastors of the former churches co-operated cordially with their German brethren, preached for con- gregations that had no pastors of their own, and they were admitted members of the German Synod. The harmony and Christian fraternity in which Lutheran and Reformed worship in the same church convey a lesson that should not be lost on other denominations. The Methodist church at Mount Pleasant, in Hilltown, built about 1842, grew out of a camp-meeting held in the neighborhood the first in the upper end of the county.
The villages of Hilltown, or which she claims in part or in whole, are Line Lexington, Dublin and Leidytown, are all small places. The first named, in the southwest corner of the township, lays along both sides of the county line between Bucks and Montgomery, and is in two counties and three town- ships. It was first called Lexington. About 1810, when Henry Leidy began making hats there and putting his name in them, the village name was changed to Line Lexington, 1827, when the post-office was established. The first post- master was named Sinnickson. About 1800, a tavern, store and a few houses scattered along the road constituted the village generally known as "Middle- town" from being half way on the stage road between Philadelphia and the Lehigh. Jacob Clemens kept the tavern eighty years ago and was there as carly as 1800. The first stage to pass what is now Line Lexington was September 10, 1,63, from Betlilehem to Philadelphia. It contains about fifty houses, with a population of two hundred and fifty, one tavern, two stores, three smiths and a coach-shop. The tavern is built on the line between New Britain and Hilltown, and while the landlord behind the bar stands in the latter township, the customer, who takes a drink stands in the former. The landlord sleeps on the New Britain side of the house and votes in Hilltown. An extension of the village has been laid out on the farm of Casper Wack. but there is no present prospect of much improvement. Hatfield township, Montgomery county, shares the honors of Line Lexington. At this point the Bethlehem turnpike, in its course from the Lehigh to Philadelphia, crosses the county line. Before the construction of the North Pennsylvania railroad Line Lexington was the great stopping-place for stages from Lehigh to Phila- delphia-being half-way between these two places, horses and coaches were changed and the passengers took dinner. Among the earliest settlers in and about the village were the families of Trewig. Harman, Snare and Clemens. The post-office is in Montgomery county, but we do not know when it was es- tablished. Dublin is in the extreme castern section of the township on the Swamp road. and lies partly in Bedminster in which township it will be further noticed. Leidytown, a flourishing little village on the Old Bethlehem road, contains some twenty dwellings, and a Methodist church, built about 1846. Ilalf a mile above on the same road is the hamlet of Mount Pleasant consisting of half a dozen houses, the seat of Hilltown post-office established in 1817.
Within a few years "Myers' store," two miles west of Dublin, has grown to a place of twenty dwellings, several of them brick, with a brick yard and the usnal assortment of mechanics, and now known as Blooming Glen. The Movers or Myers, were early settlers in that section, which contains large landowners. Near the village is Perkasie meeting house. Mennonite, attended by a large congregation : Blooming Glen, in the eastern part of the township, has a poput- lation of three hundred and is the largest village in the township. Silverdale. on the turnpike between Dublin and Telford, was first called "Portland." then
23
----
---
354
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
"Lawndale," and subsequently changed to its present name, has a population of two hundred and fifty.
We have seen no record of roads in Hilltown earlier than 1730. In that year one was laid out from "Pleasant spring run by Bernard Young's land" to the county line near Graeme park. This was an outlet for the settlers at the Great Swamp, Rockhill and Hilltown, to the lower mills and Philadelphia. Four years afterward a road was opened from Charles Morris's, by Perkasie school-house, to the Old Bethlehem road. About the same time a road was opened from Thomas Morris's to that from Sellersville to Whitehallville, which led via what is now Doylestown to Newtown, then the county seat. The road from the Swamp road to the Hilltown Baptist church was laid out, 1766. At that day the Swamp road was a much traveled highway to the lower part of the county. The two Bethlehem roads, known as the Old and the New, which run through Hilltown, were, laid out at an early day. Books were opened for subscription to stock to turnpike the Bethlehem road, from Tre- wig's tavern via Sellersville, June, 1806.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.