USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > History of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time, Vol. I > Part 56
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Warrington has but one church within her borders, the Reformed at Pleasantville, on the county line, founded, 1840. It grew out of a woods' meeting there in August or September of that year, held by the Reverend Charles H. Ewing, on invitation of Frederick W. Hoover, and he became the first pastor. A comfortable brick church building, still standing, was erected that fall. It was organized with seven members in the grove where the first sermon was preached. but it now has a membership of about two hundred. and a congregation of some three hundred and fifty. Among its pastors have been Mr. Ewing its founder, and the Reverends Messrs. William Cornwell, N. S. Aller, and D. W. C. Rodrock. Mr. Aller officiated twenty years and seven months, longer than all the other pastors combined. Although it was organized and incorporated as a Reformed church, all' the pastors except Mr. Rodrock, have been Presbyterian in faith. The present pastor is Rev. J. Hunter Watts, called, 1898.
There is evidence of the Glacial period in Warrington. Traces of glaciers are found in this county even to the tops of our highest mountains. Our geologists advocate a Maine, Connecticut, Hudson and a Susquehanna glacier, and we have a right to believe there was a Delaware glacier also, sliding from
5. Probably where the Doylestown and Willow Grove turnpike crosses Neshaminy. 6 In Whitemarsh.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
the mountains southward, in a direction a little south of east, a spur of it passing over this county. It crossed the hills about little Neshaminy, and as it advanced, carried the boulders we now find in some parts of the county, dropping them out of its melting edge, and received their rounded shape by constant friction and rolling. These traces are seen in the northeast part of the township and the adjacent parts of Warminster. In this section we . observe loose round stones lying on or near the surface, varying in size from a few inches to two or three fect in diameter, of different composition from the stone found in quarrying. They have no cleavage or grain, and when broken are like fragments of trap-rock, scored and scratched on all sides and in several directions, having evidently been brought from other localities and dropped where they lay. at random. They are found on both sides of the Bristol road, half a mile south-east of Warrington post-office, extending three or four miles in that direction, bearing to the west, and from a half to a mile wide. The line crosses the Street road, east of Little Neshaminy, and the south-west corner of Warrington into Horsham. The drift probably extends farther both north and south than is here stated. These stones evidently mark the track of a glacier, and their presence cannot be satisfactorily accounted for upon any other theory. The inhabitants of the vicinity call them "mull- docks," the origin of the word being unknown. Webster gives the word "mundie" as applied in Wales to iron pyrites in the mining districts. It is possible that the word mundock is a corruption of mundic, brought to us by some immigrant, but it can hardly come from the Latin mundus, world. On the Darrah farm, near Hartsville, Warminster, in an oak grove, is a fine growth of pines, which have been there from the earliest settlement of the country, the seed being probably deposited by the glacial drift. The trees belong to a more northern region. In early days the site of Pineville was covered with pine trees in the midst of a region of oak, whose origin may have been the same, and there is evidence of the same drift in the upper end of the county. Along the shores of Solebury, and likewise inland, are found num- crous boulders of the same character as those scattered about Warrington.
Warrington is well-watered by the branches of the main stream of Nesh- aminy, the North branch, and several small rivulets. The surface is generally level, and the soil fertile, with some thin land on both sides of the Bristol read ascending from the Warminster line. North of Warrington post-office the country falls off considerably, and the Doylestown and Willow Grove turnpike descends a long declivity, called Greir's hill, to the valley of Nesh- aminy. From the top of the hill is obtained a beautiful view of the valley below and beyond, with Doylestown in the distance seated on the opposite ridge like a thing of beauty, the whole making one of the finest stretches of landscape scenery in the county. The population is wholly engaged to agriculture. There are no villages in the township, but several hamlets of about half a dozen houses, cach, Warrington. Neshaminy, Tradesville, and Pleasantville. The two first and the last named are the seats of post-offices : that at Warrington was established 1839, and Benjamin Hough, Jr .. appointed postmaster, and Neshaminy, 1864, with Daniel S. DuBree postmaster. The post-office at Pleasantville, called Eureka, is on the Montgomery side of the county line.
We have not been able to obtain the number of inhabitants in the town- ship prior to 1784, when the population was 251 whites, 4 blacks, and 33 dwellings. The population in ISto was 429; 1820. 515: 1830, 512, and 113 taxables : 1840, 637: 1850. 761 ; 1800, 1,007, and 1870, 949. of which Go were
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
foreign-born : 1890, 820; 1900, 883. The area of the township was five thou- sand three hundred and ninety-seven acres, 1830, but since then its territory has been added to, and its acres somewhat increased.
Nathaniel Irwin, pastor at Neshaminy, Warwick, was a resident of this township many years, living in the large stone house on the west side of the Willow Grove turnpike. a mile below Warrington. This remarkable man, the son of a maker of spinning-wheels of Fogg's manor, Chester county, worked his way up from the bottom of the ladder to the pulpit and eminence. Hle spent a year and a half in missionary labors among the Indians on the frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia after he was licensed to preach, and was called to Neshaminy, 1774, at the death of the Reverend Charles Beatty. During his forty years of pastoral life he was one of the leading ministers of the large and able body of which he was a member. He was an active patriot during the Revolution, stimulated the people to resist the British crown, and more than once was obliged to flee from home to escape capture. On several occasions he loaned money to the struggling patriot government. He was a man of large information, and there were few branches of learning of that day with which he was not conversant. He was a great student of the natural sciences, and, in his leisure, indulged in the delights of music. Ile was everything to his people, lawyer, doctor, minister and friend; was the patron of all schemes that promised good to mankind, and rendered great assistance to John Fitch, the inventor of the steamboat. He took an interest in politics, and had great power in the county. In 1802 he was appointed register and recorder. but, resigning shortly, his son-in-law, Doctor Hart, was appointed in his stead. He was mainly instrumental in having the Alms-house established, and placed in its present location. His death, 1812, was considered a public calamity. In person he was tall and muscular, of full Scotch-Irish type, and his manners courteous and affectionate.
CHAPTER XXVII.
MILFORD.
1734.
Concluding group .- Early names .- First township settled by Germans .- Ask naturaliza- tion .- Their language .- Mum .- Change of names .- Germans aggressive .- Churches and schools .- Upper and Lower Milford .- Early settlers .- Jacob Shelly .- Petition for township .- Names of land-owners .- Township allowed .- Jacob Beidler .- Name desired .- George Wonsidler .- Michael Musselman .- Old stone house .- Land turtle .-- German names, 1749 .-- Ulrich Spinner .- The Zollners .- The Hubers .- Opening of roads .- "The Fries rebellion."-John Fries .- Henry Simmons .- Effort to annex Mil- ford to Lehigh .-- Spinnersville. Trumbauers et al .- Lower Milford church .- Scheetz's Lutheran church .-- Mennonites and Mennonite churches .- Stricker's graveyard .- Tav- erns .- Fine land .- Population
Milford, the fast township of our last and concluding group, includes all the remaining townships in Bucks, and those of Northampton and Lehigh, organized prior to 1752.
Settlers were on our north-west border in Philadelphia. now Montgomery county, before 1730, finding their way into this distant wilderness up the valley of the Perkiomen. Among the land-holders in Hanover township. Montgomery county, 1734. were Melchoir Hoch, Samuel Musselman, John Linderman, Peter Lauer. Balthazer Inth,1 Andrew Kepler, Jacob Hoch, Jacob Bechtel. Ludwig Hitting, or Pitting. Jacob Heistandt. Philip Knecht. Henry Bitting. Barnabas Tothero, George Roudenbush, Conrad Kolb, Jacob Schweit- zer, Adam Ochs, Nicholas Jost, now Yost. Jacob Jost. Bastian Reifschneider. John George. Jacob Schafer. John Schneider, Anthony Hinkle. Anthony Ruth, Nicholas Haldeman and Henry Funk owned land, and probably lived. in Salford township and Herman Godshalk in Towamencin, Montgomery county. As these are all Bucks county names, probably the ancestors of those bearing them here came from over the border. Before 1739 George Gruver built a grist-mill in the Perkiomen valley five miles above Sumneytown, and. 17.42 Samuel Shuler built one on East Swamp creek one mile above the same place. the walls of which were standing and some of the machinery remaining a few years ago. In ITIS Shuler built a dwelling near the mill which is still in use. About the same time Jacob Graff built a large grist-mill on the Perkio-
Probably Ruth.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
men creek on the site of Perkiomenville .. It was in use about an hundred years, and is now occupied by the three-story grist-mill lately owned by Mr. Iliestand. The next mill built in the valley is about half-way between Green Lane and Perkiomenville, and still standing. Among the earliest settlers in this part of Montgomery county were Frederick Hillegass, of Upper Han- over, Jacob Wissler, Johannes Iluls. Philip Labar, George Shenk, Ludwig Christian Sprogel, Henry Roder, Ludwig Bitting and Peter Walstein. Immi- grants were not tardy in crossing the line into Bucks county.
Milford is the first township to which the Germans came in any considerable numbers. From their first coming into the Province, a few found homes in Bucks, but they were too few to make any impression upon the English popu- lation. The heaviest German immigration took place between 1725 and 1740, and during this period a large number settled in the upper end of this county, and what is now Northampton and Lehigh. Ry 1775 they numbered about one half the population of Pennsylvania. Our early German settlers followed the track of those which had preceded them up the valley of the Perkiomen, and planting themselves in the north-west corner of the county, they gradually spread across to the Lehigh and Delaware, and southward to meet and check the upward current of English immigration. In time they became the domi- nant race in several townships originally settled by English speaking people. The early Germans came with a fair share of common school learning, and there were but few who could not read and write. They early estab- lished schools to educate their children : and it was a feature with German settlers that they were hardly seated in their new homes before they began to organize congregations, build churches and open schools. Among them were men of education, and to the Moravians, especially, are we indebted for the in- troduction of a high degree of cultivation into the wilderness on the Lehigh. The third newspaper published in Pennsylvania was in German, in 1,39. Christian Sowr, of Germantown, had printed several editions of the Bible in German, years before the first English Bible was printed in America, which issued from the press of Robert Aitken, Philadelphia, 1780. As a class, the Germans excelled the other races that settled this county in music, and were the first to introduce it into their churches. At first the Proprietary govern- ment was prejudiced against them, but such was not the case with William Penn, and it was not until 1742 the Assembly passed an act for their naturaliza- tion, though in 172; an act was passed requiring them to take the oath of alle- giance to the English crown on their arrival. Shortly after the act was amended so as to apply to Dunkards, Moravians, Mennonites and all other Protestants except Friends, who refused to take an oath, But this boon was not granted with- out the asking, and then it took years to get the law passed. A petition was pre- sented to the Assembly in 1734. from "inhabitants of Bucks county," stating the petitioners were from Germany, and having purchased lands they desire naturalization that they may bold the same and transmit them to their children. This was signed by John Blyler. John Yoder, Sr., Christian Clemmer, John Jacob Clemmer. Abraham Shelly, Jacob Musselman, Henry Tetter. Peter Tetter. Leon- ard Button, Peter Wolbert, Owen Resear, John Resear. Felix Pruner, Lawrence Earp. Joseph Everheart, Michael Everheart. Jacob Wetsel, Michael Tilinger, Baltzer Caring. Joseph Zimmerman, John Rinck. Jacob Coller, John Lander, Peter Chuck: John Brecht, Henry Schneider, Felty Kizer. Adam Wanner, Martin Piting. John Landes, George Savres. Abraham Heystandt, Christian Newcome. Felty Young, Henry Weaver, John Weaver, Jacob Gangwer, Francis Bloom, Frederick Schall, Henry Rincker, Lawrence
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
Mirkle, Leonard Cooper, John Yoder, Jr., Adam Shearer, Felty Barnard, John Reed. The earliest case of an alien of Bucks county being naturalized by the Assembly is that of Johannes Blecker and others on petition of Francis Daniel Pastorius. September 28, 1700. In 1730-31 Jacob Klemmer, of Richland, Jacob Sander, Philip Keisinger, George Bachman and John Drissel petitioned the Assembly to be naturalized.
The descendants of the German immigrants of this county have retained, to a considerable degree, the manners and customs of their fathers. The every-day language of at least one-third of the population is German, or "Pennsylvania Dutch," as it is popularly called. In so far as this is a lan- guage at all, it is mosaic in its character, and the result of circumstances. The early immigrants from the German principalities and Switzerland became welded into one mass by intermarriage, similarity of religion, customs and language. This, with subsequent admixture with the English-speaking por- tion of the population, gradually gave rise to a newly-spoken, and to some extent, a newly-written, dialect known as "Pennsylvania Dutch," which is used, to a considerable extent, throughout castern Pennsylvania .? The advent of the Germans introduced a new drink, called Mum, from Mumma, the name of the inventor, who first brewed it at Brunswick, 1492. It was a malt liquor. brewed from wheat and at first considered a medicine. It was nauseous, but made potable by being fermented at sea. Ash defines it to be a beer brewed from wheat, while a dictionary of 1770 says it was "a kind of physical beer made with the husks of walnuts infused." Tiswick, in the Notes and Queries, says: "Mum is a sort of sweet, malt liquor brewed with barley and hops and a small mixture of wheat, very thick, scarce drinkable till purified at sca." Pope turned his verse upon it, and says :
"The clamorous crowd is hushed with mugs of mum, Till all, turned equal, sound a general hum."
It was sold at Bethlehem, in 1757. at a shilling a pint ; but we doubt whether the Germans of the present day have any knowledge of the beverage that regaled their ancestors a century and a half ago.
A noticeable feature in connection with the Germans of this county is the great change that has taken place in the spelling of family names. In some instances the German original is almost lost in the present name, and the identity can be traced with difficulty. Who but one versed in such lore would expect to find the original of Beans in Beihn, Brown in Braun, or Fox from Fuchs. and yet there are greater changes than these. Mr. William J. Buck, who has paid considerable attention to the subject, prepared for us the following list of changes in the names of German families in this county : Swope from Schwab. Bartholomew from Barteleme, Miller from Muller, Fox from Fuchs. Smith from Schmidt, Mevers from Meyer or Mover, Shank from Schenck, Kindy from Kindigh, Overholt from Oberholtzer, Shoemaker from Schumacher, Cassel from Kassel, Everhart from Eberhardt, Black and Swartz from Schwartz, Wolf from Wolff, Calf from Kolb, Keyser from Keiser. Snyder from Schneider, Knight from Knecht. Shearer from Scherer, Overpeck from Oberbeck, Wise from Weiss. Buck from Bock, Weaver from Weber, Stone- back from Steinbach, Harwick from Harwich, Amey from Emig or Emich.
2 The influence of the public schools, wherein English alone is taught. is gradually doing away with German as a spoken and written language in Bucks county.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
Fisher from Fischer, Root from Ruth, Funk from Funck, Rodrock from Roth- rock. Brown from Braun, Fraley from Freehlich, Deal from Diehl, High from Iloch, More or Moore from Mohr, Beans from Beihin, Strawsnyder from Strohschneider, King from Konig, Young from Jung. Stover from Stauffer. Steeley or Staley from Stahle. Frankenfield from Franckenfeldt, Fulmer from Folmer. Bishop from Bischoff. Arnold from Arnohh, Heck from Hecht. Einery from Emrich, Umstead from Unistadt, Nonamaker from Nonnemacher. Gruver from Gruber, Kline from Klein, Hinkle from Hinckle, Vanfossen from Van- fussen. Godshalk from Gotschalk. Singmaster from Singmeister, Allem from Ahlum. Mickley from Michele. Heaney from Heinich, Applebach from Affler- bach, Leidy from Leidigh, Clymer, or Clemmer from Klemmer. Lock from Loch. Taylor from Schneider, and Wireback from Weierbach.
The Germans have been exceedingly aggressive since they settled in Bucks county. Seating themselves in the extreme north-west corner of the county. they have overrun the upper townships, and in some of them, nearly rooted out the descendants of the English race. Like their ancestors, who swept down from the north on the fair plains of Italy, they have been coming down county for a century and a half with a slow but steady pace. Sixty years ago there were comparatively few Germans in Plumstead. New Britain, Doyles- town and Warrington,3 now they predominate in the first and are numerous in the other three townships. Among twenty-two names to a petition for a road in Hilltown. in 1734. three only were German, and it is now considered a German township. They have already made considerable inroad into Sole- bury, Buckingham and Warwick, and still the current is setting down county. As a class, they are money-getting and saving. they add acre to acre and farin to farm, their sons and danghters inherit their land, and they go on repeating the process. They have large families of children and but few emigrate, but marry at home and stay there. With a persistent, clannish race like the Germans, this system of accumulation will. in course of time, enable them to root out others who have less attachment for the soil. Where this ad- vancing Teutonic column is to halt is a question to be answered in the future. for it has its pickets here and there, in all the townships down to the mouth of the Poquessing.
Oar present German population is well up to the descendants of the English speaking settlers in the spirit of progress. Their schools are numer- ous and well attended, and they give the common school system a generous support. Churches are found in every neighborhood, and all denominations are administered to by clergymen of their own choice. Their church cdifices, as a whole, are superior to those in the English portion of the county, cost more money and are constructed in better architectural taste. In addition. there is hardly a German church that does not contain a pipe organ, some of them large and expensive. They pay considerable attention to music, and some good performers .are found in the 'rural districts. During the Revolutionary war the Germans were universally loyal to the American cause. The great majority of them left the land of the'r birth to seek liberty in the new world, and they came with too cordial a hatred of tyranny to assist the English king in enslav- ing the land of their adoption. Many Germans of this county served in the ranks of Washington's army and a number bore commissions. No portion of
3 There are a seaport and borough in, Pembrokeshire, Wales, and a village and parish in England of this name.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
our population excel the Germans in those qualities that go to make good citizens, kind neighbors and fast friends.
Our knowledge of the carly settlement of Milford, is neither extensive nor as accurate as we could desire, for we have found it exceedingly difficult to obtain information of this and other German townships. Originally, the terri- tory included in the township and Upper Milford in Lehigh, was one district for municipal purposes, but was never embraced in one organized township. These divisions bore the distinctive names of Upper and Lower Milford down to the close of the eighteenth century. The new county line of Northampton, 1752, ran through the middle of this district. or thereabonts, leaving each county to fall heir to a Milford township. Its first settlers were Germans who came over the border from Philadelphia county, having found their way up the valley of the Perkiomen.
It is not known who was the first land-holder in Milford, but Joseph Grow- den owned a large tract there at an early day. Martin Morris, who was there among the first, took up five hundred acres which he conveyed to Jacob Shelly, May 5. 1725, part of which is now owned by Joseph S. Shelly. In 1749 Abraham Shelly was a petitioner for a road. William Allen likewise owned land in Milford among the first. The 17th of November, 1724. Nicholas Austin, of Abington, Philadelphia county, purchased two hundred and seventy acres of Joseph Growden the patent to which was not issued by the Penns until 1739. It passed through two generations of Austins to John Haldeman, the ancestor of the Haldemans of New Britain.
The Beidllers were carly settlers in Milford, but just when they came is unknown. They are descended from Jacob Beitler, a redemptioneer, who is credited with arriving carly in the cighteenth century ; settled first in Chester county, then removed to Lower Milford. Bucks, where he married Anna, daughter of Hans Meyer, or Mover, a recent immigrant. After this the family history is Known. In 1753-60 Henry Beidler patented one hundred and twenty acres, became a farmer, and died 1810, at the age of 101, his will being pro- bated May 10. He had seven children: Anna, who married Henry Ober- holtzer; Barbara, John Newcomer; Elizabeth, Christian Swartz, and sons, John. Abraham. Jacob and Christian. Of the sons of Jacob Beidler, John spent his life in Chester county, leaving many descendants there and else- where, Judge Abraham M. Beidler of the Court of Common Pleas being one; Abraham settled in his native township, had one daughter, Mary, who inherited her father's estate. married John Stahr, who became the ancestress of the Reverend John S. Stahr, D. D, a distinguished clergyman of the Re- formed church, and president of Franklin-Marshall College, Lancaster, Pa. Ile died 1800, his will being probated November 25: Jacob, the third son of Jacob, the immigrant, settled in IHilltown, married Annie Leiderach, had three children, Henry. Jacob and Annie and died. comparatively young. 1781. His will directs, that after his children are well educated they shall be "put to trades." Of his children, Henry, born 1778, removed to Lancaster, Pa., dying there, 1852. Jacob, born Oct. 5, 1776, and dying February 8, 1866, married Susanna Kraut, and was the father of nine children, Annie, who married Sam- uel Stover, Aaron, Elizabeth married Isaac Kratz, Henry, Nathan, Jacob, the millionaire lumber merchant, who died at Chicago, March 15. 1898, Christian, Susanna, widow of Jacch Fretz, and Joseph, residing near Plumsteadville ; all are dead except the last two named. Annie Beidler, daughter of Jacob and Annie ( Leiderach ) Beidler, married Henry Licey and died 1837, without is- sue. Christian Beidler, the youngest son of the immigrant, who died 1827,
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
inherited the homestead, Lower Milford, married Mary Shelly, daughter of Jacob Shelly.
No doubt the agitation for a township organization in Richland, whose inhabitants were moving in this direction, stimulated the people of Milford to set up for themselves. On June 13, 1734, those living between the county line. and the section then about to be laid out as Richland, petitioned the court to erect the country they inhabit into a township with the boundaries they specify. They state in the petition that heretofore they had been united with Richland for municipal purposes, but now wish to be separated, because the territory is so large the constable and collector can not atttend to their duties. That section of the county must have been pretty well peopled at this early day, for the petition has sixty-two names upon it, nearly all German, and among them, we find those of Cline, Clymer, Musselman, Jamison, Nixon, Jones, Lawer, Wies, Ditter, Hone, Sane, and others equally well-known at this day. The court doubtless granted the prayer of the petitioners for the township was laid out and established soon after. It was twice surveyed both times by John Chapman, the second survey only differing from the first on its south-east boundary. The first was returned into court September 13, 1734. and the last October 22. On the first plat of survey are given the names of the following real estate owners: Robert Gould, Michael Atkinson, John Ed- wards, Thomas Roberts, David Jenkins, Edwin Phillips, Peter Evins, Michael Lightfoot, Arthur Jones, Morris Morris, John Lander, Jacob Musselman, John Yoder, Peter Lock, Abraham Heston, John Dodsel, and "Josephi Grow - den's great tract, sold mostly to Dutchimen." On the back of the draft is en- dorsed "Bulla," the name the petitioners desired their township called. Whether it was ever called by this name we are unable to say, but, however this may be, it was soon changed to Lower Milford, and afterward to Milford. The survey fixes the area at fifteen thousand six hundred and forty-six acres. Some of the land-owners did not live in the township but only owned land as an in- vestment. In the session's docket, 1734, we find the following entry : "Ordered that some part of the township of Richland, now and for the future to be called Bala (or Bulla) be recorded according to a certain draft of the said township, now brought into court." This has reference to the formation of Milford.
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