USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > History of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time, Vol. I > Part 48
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8 The Riale family are descended from John Riale, born in England 1687, came to \merica 1725-30; hought 300 acres of Joseph Kirkbride April 24. 1730, in the south-west corner of New Britain, a portion of it being within the present limits of Doylestown Bor- ough. He died, 1748, at the age of 61, leaving a widow and five children.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
Mr. Gummere, remaining until 1824. In 1828, he was ordained to the ministry. and called to the charge of the New Britain Baptist church, but about 1831, connected himself with the Doylestown Academy, the Rev. Robert P. Du Bois being co-proprietor. He subsequently became principal of the Gummere's School and pastor of the Burlington Baptist church. In r841 he was called to the Norristown Baptist church, which he resigned, 1844, and founded the "Freemount Seminary," which became a famous school, having one hundred and twenty boarders, and sixty day scholars, at a time. Here many promi- nent men received their education. In 1859 Mr. Aaron accepted a call to the Mount Holly Baptist church, and, shortly after, opened a school, remaining there to his death, April 11, 1865. In the graveyard there his admiring friends erected a monument to his memory.
The Rev. Samuel Aaron was twice married ; his first wife being Amelia, daughter of the Rev. Uriah Du Bois, of Doylestown, who dying, 1830, he mar- ried, 1833, Eliza G. daughter of Samuel Currie, New Britain. Mr. Aaron was an able and eloquent man and probably the finest speaker ever born in the county. He was equally eloquent in the pulpit and on the rostrum, his sweet, musical voice charming all listeners. He was a great champion of temperance and a strong advocate of the Anti-Slavery cause. He was a passionate man. and probably wrecked his fortunes on this rock. The author was his pupil at Doylestown and Burlington, and remembers him very distinctly. Samuel Aaron was born in the house where Adam Gaul lived, a mile north of New Britain village.
The first movement to organize the township was in the summer of 1723. The 14th of June "the inhabitants of Bucks county, situated and settled upon branches of the Neshaminy, adjacent to Montgomery, in the county of Philadelphia," petitioned "the Honorable Branch" to lay off and creet a certain tract of country into a township. The petitioners suggested that the new township should be called "Britain," but some years before this the set- tlers had named all that region of country "New Britain," after the island from which they had immigrated. The petitioners ask that the prayer of "ye inhabitants settled on peckquisi hills" to be made into a township may be "duly considered." The petition is endorsed "petition from Forks of Nesha- miny," and the following names were signed to it : David Evans. David Wil- liais, Thomas Edwards, Daniel Ilide, Thomas David, Samuel Davies, David John, John Humphreys, Rees Lewis, William James, David James, Griffith Evans? John James, John Evans. Benjamin Griffith, John David, John Ed- wards, Simon Butler, Thomas Edwards, Simon Mathew, Thomas Rees, an 1 Josiah James. The boundary cannot be correctly made out from the original record, but we know that it was much larger than now, and that its south- west line reached to the county line. Although we have not any record to confirm it. we believe the township was laid out and organized in accordance with the prayer of the petitioners, and probably in the fall of that year. and with the name it now bears, yet it was called "North Britain" as late as 1735-
The progenitor of the Hines family, this county and State, was Mathew Ilines, a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian who settled at Whitemarsh, then l'hil .- delphia, now Montgomery county, about 1720. His wife dying he married Ann Simpson, a widow, and by her had one son named Mathew after his
9 Griffith Evans was in New Britain prior to 1720, his farm being of the Fitz- water tract.
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inher. He came into New Britain, 1759. and 1773. James Delaney, a non- resident. conveyed to Mathew, William and Sammel Hines, and William Simp- ti, their half brother, five hundred aeres. William Hines was active in the Revolution. He was ensign in Colonel Joseph Hart's battalion organized Tily, 1776, and served with it in the Amboy Expedition that summer and fall, add was discharged toward the end of December. It is also claimed that William Hines commanded a militia regiment at one time. He died, 1830, at the age of eighty and both himself and wife were buried at Neshaminy grave- wird. Dr. A. J. Hines, Doylestown, was a grandson of the William Hines, of whom we speak, and son of William, Jr.
Germans began coming into New Britain quite carly, although they can- not be classed as original settlers. There was a number of families there previous to the Revolution, not less than ten of which were land-owners. some of them owning land as early as 1744. Among the names we notice those of Souder, Godshalk, a Mennonite, who owned the first riding-chair in the neighborhood, Kephart, Lapp, Rosenberger,10 and Haldeman, most of whom were in the township previous to 1776. The Haldemans, who settled there near the close of the last century, are descended from one of two brothers who immigrated from Switzerland many years before. One, or both of the brothers settled in Salford township, Montgomery county, whence John came into Bucks county in 1762.11 He bought two hundred and seventy acres of Benja- min Anstin, Milford township, on which he settled. and, 1786, bought one lutdred and forty-three acres of Samnel Nixon, Richland. In 1790 John Haldeman. probably one of the brothers who settled in Salford, and great- grandfather of John R. Halleman, came into New Britain and settled on two hundred and twenty-three acres on the county line which he bought of Wil- liam Roberts, part of three hundred and twenty acres that Joseph Kirk- bride had granted to Lewis Roberts, of Abington.12 Five years before, Jacob Ilalleman. no doubt member of the same family, bought thirty acres in New Britain of Jacob Geil. He was probably a son of John the first, and the advance-guard in the immigration southward. John Brunner, a blacksmith of Sancon, Lehigh county, came to New Britain and settled at Castle valley about 1790, and the late Thomas Brunner was a descendant. The
Brinkers came from Saucon about the same time, and the Garners13 from Towamencin, or Worcester, Montgomery county, to Warrington about the close of the century. The Barndts came from near Tylersport, Montgomery county three-fourths of a century ago, and gave the first name to Whitehall- ville. now Chalfont. The Detweilers, numerous in New Britain and Bedinin- ter, spring from ancestors who immigrated from Germany about the middle
10 Ile owned the property that now belongs to Abraham Swartley.
11 Nicholas Haldeman, in Salford township, Montgomery county, 1734. is said to leave crossed the ocean prior to 1728, and John, probably his son, came into Bucks from Lower Salford when a young man.
12 Owen Roberts, a settler in New Britain, but of a different family, was a tory in the Revolution, joined the British, 1778, was charged with treason and his real estate Con- ! cated, and 60 acres sold at the court-house, Newtown, 1779. It was bought by Henry Darrah.
13 The earliest trace we have of the Garners in Bucks county was 1776, when John Garver was enrolled with non-Associators. In 1778 his name is on the roll of Captain Parralt's militia company. Was a taxable, 1799.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
of the century and settled in Horsham and Whitpain. The Shutt family removed down from one of the upper townships of Montgomery about a century ago. and the Kepharts and Meyers came into the township about the same time. The Leidys are said to have descended from one of three brothers who immigrated from Germany, one settled in Montgomery county, a second in Lehigh, and a third in Bucks. The Godshalks are old residents, and members of the Mont- gomery Baptist church as long ago as 1770.
The Reese family was in New Britain as early as 1722, when Joseph Kirkbride sold Thomas Reese two hundred and fifty acres. Later sixty-five acres, making three hundred and fifteen in all. Little is known of the family. Thomas was the son and successor of the father. In 1773 David Reese sold the remainder of his tract to Capt. Henry Darralı, New Britain, and, 1779, was taxed for two hundred and thirty-seven acres. He died, 1782, leaving a widow and two minor children, lle was the great-grandfather of Rev. D. K. Turner's wife. In 1794. James, son of Capt. Henry Darrah, sold the New Britain farm and moved down into Warminister, where he spent the rest of his life. The name of Reese is no longer carried on our records. The Flacks were among the early set- tlers. James, born in Ireland, 1715, died in Buckingham, 1809, at the age of ninety-four. and was buried at Neshaminy graveyard. Robert Flack of New Britain, who served in Captain Darrah's Company, in the Revolution, died. 1814, at the age of seventy-one. One of the Harts, of Warminster, married a Miss Reese. The Weirs, Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, thought to have come into the Province carly, made their appearance in New Britain, 17Go, probably con- ing from Warrington. Samuel Weir was a trustee of Neshaminy church 1754, and four Weirs were buried at Neshaminy, respectively, James, John, Mary and James, '3-4, '40, '51 and '54. at the ages of seventy-eight, eighty-seven. eighty- seven and sixty-seven. In 1765. William Allen conveyed a tract of three hundred and twenty-five acres to James Weir, who was a sergeant in Darrah's company. 1777. "Weir's Corner." at the junction of the Whitehall pike and the State road. took its name from the family. The Weirs and Mckinstrys intermarried. The above deaths are from Mr. Turner's "Neshaminy Church." 1876, but from another source, we believe Edward Mathews, we have other data of deaths in the Weir family: John. 1840. aged eighty-seven and Samitel. ISHI, at eighty- probably sons of the immigrant. Rebecca Weir, daughter of Samuel, was the grandmother of General Grant. James Weir, who died. 1834, at the age of seventy-eight, was a son of Jolm. He was born, 1756.
T'he Bachmans of New Britain are descended from a German immigrant, great-grandfather of Jacob Bachman, whose name and time of arrival are not known. He probably settled in this county, possibly in Hilltown, where his grandson, Jolin, the father of Jacob, was born about 1785. John had two children. Jacob and Mary, both dead. Jacob Bachman, a prominent citizen, lived and died at Line Lexington on the New Britain side of the line. Charles Eckert, ancestor of the Eckert family, was born 1742, and came to America, 1761, at the age of nineteen. He was sold for three years, to pay his passage. to a man who lived at Oley. Berks county, who taught him the blacksmith „trade. Eckert was smart and industrious, saved money, and married his em- ployer's daughter. Hle was a captain in the American army in the Revolution. In 1707 he walked down from Berks county, and bought near three hundred aeres in New Britain of "Quaker" Thomas Jones, north of Newville, the greater part of which Jones had bought of Abel James in 1768.
New Britain was essentially a Welsh settlement, and for many years, that race largely predominated in the population, and is yet strong in numbers
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
and influence. Her early settlers were likewise Baptists, which explains the preponderance of that denomination in the township at the present day.
The Reverends William Thomas and Benjamin Griffith. the former pastor at Hilltown, and the latter at Montgomery across the county line, extended their labors among the New Britain settlements and to the region north- west of Hilltown, beyond the Tohick- on. and were the only ministers. of the gospel through- out all that section for several years. The Welsh Bap- tists connected themselves with the Montgomery church, and formed part of that con- gregation until the church at New Brit- ain was constituted, about 1740. This New Britain church, in part, Baptist Church owes its origin to a
quarrel between the Baptists settled at New Britain and Montgomery about the "sonship of Christ." We are toll that the first person buried in the Bap- tist graveyard was a woman, carried from a house that stood near the inter- section of the railroad with the road leading to Landisville, and near the village of New Britain. At one time the house belonged to a man named Gray, and the lowland adjoining has always been known as Gray's incadow. This lot. of fourteen acres, was reserved by David Stephens when he sold the surround- ing property to John Mathew, 1700, and was not conveyed to the latter until 1764. The site of the house is pointed out by a depression in the ground. but when and by whom built is a mystery. This burial probably took place about 1740.
The church building, sixty-five by forty-six. with a seating capacity of six hundred, was remodeled, refurnished and otherwise much improved in appearance, inside and out, 1882. In 1885 a chapel, fifty-six by thirty-three, with a seating capacity of three hundred, was erected at the cost of $7,000. It is divided into seven compartments, including a library, infant class room. and two dining rooms, for church festivals, in the basement. The member- ship is over three hundred, and mainly represents the descendants of the Welsh settlers. For the history of New Britain Baptist church see chapter on "Historic Churches."
The early settlement of German Mennonites in New Britain led to the Organization of a church of this denomination. In 1752 a lot of about one acre, was brought of James McColister in the northwest corner of the township. wear the Hilltown line, on which a log meeting-house was erected. The lot was afterward enlarged to between three and four acres. The first deed was made in trust to one Roar and Christian Swartz, of New Britain, and Henry Shooter and John Rosenberger, of Hatfield. When the log house was found too small to accommodate the growing congregation, it was torn down and a stone one
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erected in its place. This was enlarged to double the capacity in 1808, and in IS6S this house was taken down and a new stone church, forty-five by sixty feet, built on the site. This organization is sometimes called the Line Lexington church, and at others the Perkasie church.
Squire Boone, father of Daniel Boone, the famous hunter and pioneer, of the southwest, was an early settler in New Britain.
There has been some contention over the birthi place of Daniel Boone, not a few crediting it to this county, more than one author locating it on the west bank of the Delaware, below Bristol. Whatever else may be said in its favor, the evidence does not sustain this latter conclusion. The authorities substantially agree that the Boones were English Friends from near Exeter, Devonshire, and settled in that part of Philadelphia county, now included in Montgomery. They landed at Philadelphia. George Boone, Jr., the first to come 1713, settled within the bounds of Abington Meeting, producing a certificate from Bradninch Meeting, 8th mo. 26, October, 1713. He subsequently be- came clerk of the Meeting, and entered on its records, the date of his marriage, 5th mo. 26th, July, 1713. to Deborah, daughter of William Howell, which probably took place in England, as the date of this marriage antedates his mem- bership by three months. He was followed, 1737, by George Boone, Sr., his father, accompanied by his wife and several children. They united thein- selves with the Gwynedd Meeting. The records of this Meeting have the fol- lowing entry. under date of ioth mo. 31st, December. 1717: "George Boone. Sr., produced a certificate of his good life and conversation from the Monthly Meeting at Callumpton, in Great Britain, which was read and well received." Of the children of George Boone, Sr., the names of four
DANIEL BOONE.
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sons and one daughter appear on the Gwynedd records, including that of Squire Boone, father of Daniel, all probably born in England. Squire Boone became of some local note as will be seen from the . following extract taken from the "Minutes of the Board of Property."
".At the Proprietaries x ber 3 d. 1734."
"Ordered that J. Steel write to Squire Boon for him to seize the walnut timber cut down by some person, unknown on the island which is about to be surveyed to B. Fairman and Peter Rambo, lying on Schuylkill for twenty-one years.'
"The timber to remain the property of Proprietaries."
Squire Boone, son of George Boone, Sr., was married to Sarah Morgan, daughter of Edward Morgan, 7th mo. 23. September, 1720, on records of Gwynedd Meeting, the certificate reciting that Squire Boone is a "son of George Boone, of Philadelphia County," and among the witnesses, were George Boone, George Boone, Jr., and James Boone. Where Squire Boone and wife first settled is not known, but they were living in New Britain township a few years later. Such location would be natural. The Morgans were early settlers in the township, and gave the name to "Morgan's Ford," on the Neshaminy, where the Street road crosses that stream, the family owning land on both sides of it. As the young wife was a Morgan, the husband would be inclined to make their home among her relatives. We learn from the Recorder's Office, Doylestown, that on the 3d of December, 1728, "Squire Boone, of New Britain, in the said county of Bucks, weaver," was "party of the third part" to a tripartite deed, whereby "Thomas Shute, of the city of Philadelphia, in the Province of Pennsylvania, Yeoman, and Elizabeth, his wife, of the first part, and Ilierominus Hus, of P'erkioming, in the county of Bucks, in the Province of the second part, conveyed to the said Squire Boone a tract of one hundred forty-seven acres in said township, the line beginning at a "corner of the reputed land of Abel Morgan." Boone was living in New Britain before he took this conveyance as we learn from the deed. About this time he is known to have been a petitioner for a road in New Britain, and the author has examined his signature, "Squire Boone." in plain letters
Squire and Sarah Boone were the parents of nine children, born between 1724 and 1740, but the place of birth of the whole of them is not definitely known: Sarah, born 4. 7. 1724; Israel, 3. 9, 1726; Samuel, 3, 20, 1728; Jonathan, 10, 6, 1730: Elizabeth, 12, 1, 1732; Daniel, 8, 22, 1734; Mary, 9. 3. 1736; George, 11, 2. 1739 : and Edward, born 9, 9, 1740. They are recorded, as they stand here, on the Quarterly Meeting records of Oley.
Thus we have given a brief minute of the Boone family from its arrival in this county, 1713-77; the marriage of Squire Boone, 1720; his taking a conveyance of real estate in New Britain and living there, 1728. The author- ities agree that Squire Boone purchased a tract of two hundred and forty acres in Exeter township. November 30, 1730, then in Lancaster county, now in Berks, near the present Reading, and to it the whole family removed, but there is no evidence as to the time, including George Boone, Sr. and wife. No one knows when Squire Boone and his family lett New Britain, Der at what time he settled on his new purchase. George Boone, Sr. died there, February 2. 1740, at seventy-eight, and his wife in May, at seventy-two. The fact that the names and births of his children are recorded on the Meeting records of Oley has no significance beyond that fact itself. With these facts, and we know of nothing more pertinent, unless some stronger testimony be offered, the place of Daniel Boone's birth is, and will remain, an open question. If
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
B
1
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
not born in Bucks, he was not born in Berks, for that county, formed from Philadelphia, Bucks and Lancaster was not organized until after Squire Boone and his family had removed to North Carolina, 1750. He may have been born on territory that was subsequently included in the new county of Berks. 1315
The Wigtons, Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, probably settled in New Britain, 1735-40, the first of the name being Samuel "Whigdon," or "Wigton," who died intestate, 1741. In 174444 his brother John bought two hundred and twelve acres in the township, of John Kirkbride, and subsequently sixty-three acres of Thomas and Catharine Morris, and 1791, divided his real estate between his
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1.
IRON HILL, RESIDENCE OF LIEUT. SAM'L WIGTON. 1807.
surviving sons, Samuel and William. John Wigton died March 7, 1801, aged one hundred and was buried at Deep Run. Captain James Wigton, son of John, was killed in the battle of Wyoming, July 3. 1778, and all his family massacred. except a young daughter, Isabel, whom Samuel went after and fetched to Bucks county on horseback. The same Samuel was a lieutenant in the 4th battalion. Bucks county militia, 1777-8, and served at Brandywine, Germantown and Monmouth. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Christopher and Jean Hughes, and lived on his farm on Iron Hill, in a brick house, the first in the neighbor- hood. Ile died October 11, 1812, aged seventy-five. His children were Samuel. an early iron master of Western Pennsylvania, died, 1828, and succeeded by his
139/2 Nearly all, if not all, of Daniel Boone's biographers have fixed his birth place. and the residence of his family, on the west bank of the Delaware below Bristol, Bucks county, but there is no evidence to sustain it. There was a family of Boons in Bristol township at an early day but they were not of the lineage of Daniel. They were Swedes. Solomon Boon, with his family, was settled near Bristol prior to 17.45 and owned a farm Some time that year he petitioned the court for a road from his place direct to the village We have examined the petition, and the name, in a legible hand, is spelled Boon. H: will was executed, 1743, Dec. 6, and he had sons Ralph, Joseph and Solomon, and a daughter Elizabeth. Daniel Boone is said to have died at Charette village, Mo., Septem- ber 26 1822, in the goth year of his age.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
brother, Christopher, 14 who married Margaret Hines. He commanded a company of riflemen in the war of 1812-15 with England, and was succeeded in business by his sons Samuel and Richard B .; Jane Wigton, daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth, married Daniel Morgan, Montgomery county, 1802, and was the mother of seven children, born between 1803 and 1818, five growing to ma- turity ; Isabel Wigton married Jolm Kennedy, and their descendants, the Kennedys, Fentons, Blakes, Manns and Rabbs are living in Montgomery county ; Margaret Wigton, married Thomas H. Logan, merchant, Philadelphia, whose only son was a member of the city bar; Anne Wigton married John Sebring Brown, Alexandria, Va., a descendant of the Browns, of Plunistcad, whose oldest male descendant is F. Wigton Brown, Philadelphia; Richard Benson Wigton, member Pennsylvania Legislature, 1859, and leading iron and coal operator ; Mary A. Wigton married Joseph Dysart, Altoona; Eleanor Wigton married William O. Wallace, and one of their daughters was the wife of Gen. Robert A. McCoy, IIth Pennsylvania Reserves.
The Wigton descendants, when the Civil war broke out, displayed the patriotism their ancestors exhibited in the Revolution. Several entered the military service. William Wigton Wallace, managing editor of The Presby- terian, Philadelphia, was captain in the 125th Pa. John Melville Wigton. Huntingdon county, who married Jane, daughter of Dr. Jackson, medical director and medical inspector, was in charge of hospital on Lookout Moun- tain, and John J. Wigton served a three years' enlistment in the 104th Pa. At the battle of Antietam, Captain Wallace, of the Color Company, of his regi- ment, 125th Pa., seized the flag after five bearers had been killed. William Wigton was the immediate ancestor of all the Wigtons living in Bucks county during the past three quarters of a century. The late Charles Wigton. Doyles- town, was his grandson, the son of James. Charles Wigton spent his life here and was active in business and politics. The town is indebted to him for some desirable improvements. Samuel Wigton, whose wife was Elizabeth, died, 1741, the wife, 1757 .. His son was Lieut. John Wigton, 3d Reg. Penna. Line, member of Pennsylvania Society of Cincinnati, tutor at the University of Penn- sylvania, 1775-85 ; and himself, wife and two daughters died within three weeks. of yellow fever at Philadelphia, and were buried in the churchyard at Fourth and Pine. He was married twice, one wife being Nancy Darrah. The family has produced some distinguished men. Among them diplomatic representatives at Washington, of the Republic of Texas; another, Robert Un- derwood Johnson, Cross of the French Legion of Honor, Knight of the Crown of Italy, and Assistant Editor, Century Magazine. His brother, Henry Under- wood Johnson, was a member of Congress from Indiana.15
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The Atherholts, a numerous family in Eastern Pennsylvania, settled in Bucks county, 1753. Christian, the immigrant, sailing from Ilamburg and landing at Philadelphia. He was a native of Hanover, Germany. In re- ligion he was probably a Mennonite or joined them soon after his arrival. He
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