USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > History of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time, Vol. I > Part 57
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Among those who came into the township, after it had been organized, was George Wonsidler,4 ancestor of the family of this name, who immigrated from Germany, 1744. at the age of twenty-two, and settled in Milford, where he spent his life and died in 1805, at eighty-four. He left two sons, George and John Adam. George remained in Milford, where he died, 1858, at the age of cighty-four, leaving three sons and one daughter, John, George and Jacob, and the daughter's name not known. John died in 1869, at the age of seventy-seven, leaving three daughters. George lives in Milford, at the age of eighty, and Jacob in Springfield, who have sons and daughters married, with families; there are only seven descendants of the second George living. John Adam, the second son of George Wonsidler, born 1770, and died 1854. aged eighty-four years, settled in Hanover township, Montgomery county, where he passed his life. He liad eight sons and two daughters, and fourteen of his descendants, bearing his name, are now living. The name is but seldom met with, and probably all who bear it in this section of the United States can trace their descent back to the Milford immigrant, 1744.
Hle landed at Philadelphia. from the Phoenix, Oct. 20, 1744.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
Charles H. Wonsidler, of Trumbanersville, is a descendant of George, eldest son of the first George.
The great-grandrather of Michael Musselman came into the township with a son, fifteen years old, in 1743, and bought land of William Allen, on which he built a log house, still standing twenty years ago, and used as a dwell- ing. near the Mennonite meeting-house, not far from the Milford and Steinsburg turnpike. The great-grandson, Michael Musselman, over eighty years of age, now lives in the old house where probably three generations of the family were born. An adjoining tract, then owned by William Roberts, belongs to Jacob W. Shelly. Probably the oldest stone house, in the north-west section of the county, stands in the south-east corner of Milford a mile from Trum- bauersville near the road from Bunker Hill to Sumneytown. It was built 1740. 1742. by Thomas Roberts, and then passed to the estate of John Won- sidler. The stone house of Daniel H. Kline was built, 1750. Among the carly inhabitants of Milford and possibly remembered by some of the present gen- cration, was a land turtle, which was there probably as early as 1750. It was picked up in May, 1821, and found to be marked "J. B. 1769," and "Ditlow, 1814." As it was found between, and within a mile, of the dwellings of J. Bleyser, and Mr. Ditlow, it was probably marked by them. It had been a known inhabitant of that vicinity for years, but how much longer no one can tell.
Before 1750 Milford had practically become a German township, for of forty-nine names signed to a petition for a road, in 1749, every one is Ger- man, and many of them are familiar names of residents of this and adjoining townships at this time, viz: Abraham Zaln, John Drissell, Johannes Funk. George Clark, Paul Samsel, Ludwig Cutting, Philip Hager, Christian Cassel, Ulrich Win.mer. William Labar, Christian Willcox, Adam Schneider, Andrew Wiel:schuttz, David Mueckley, Heinrich Hitz, Michael Eberhart, Philip Liber, Henry Bach, Rudi Frick, Kasper Hayser, Christian Sitzmar, Jacob Hecock, George Ackermann. Peter Kreiling, Jacob Zweifuss, Nickol Mumbauer, An- dreas Trinbauer, Theobold Branchlar, Jacob Beittler. John Stell, Heinrich Huber, Johannes Frick. Lorentz Esbach, Charolus Olinger, Rudolph Reigert, Abraham Shelly, jr., Abraham Dittlo, Johannes Huber, Jacob Martin, Jacob Martin Musselman. Samuel Lauder, Abraham Kreider, Andreas Hochbein, Johannes Wombol. Johannes Reb, George Rodi, Johannes Clymer, John Peter Kreider and Michael Schenk.
Ulrich Spinner. or Spinor, the great-grandfather of Edwin D. Spinner, of Milford. immigrated from Baske, in Switzerland, in 1739. His wife, Ursula Frick. came from the same place, and probably he was married at his arrival. Tie settled in Milford the same year. In 1753 he bought two hundred and three acres in the "Great swamp," lying about Spinnerstown, in the western part of Milford, and died, in 1782, at the age of sixty-five, leaving two sons and two daughters. The youngest son, David, received the real estate, other children getting their share in money. The eldest son settled in Salisbury. Lehigh county, and the daughters married a Mumbaner and a Deal, Mrs.
5 Ulrich Spinner wed at Philadelphia December 11. 1730, in the Lydia, and was 23 years old at the end With hin ca . Ludwig. Johannes and Casper Frick, probably relaties of his way kage gus the name as Ulrich "Steiner." an error in copying of De origen : 'at ates the many Ulrich "Spinder." David Spinner, youns st Stir. INA 75, and his e. Cinture to the greenback is not forgotten.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
Reuben F. Scheetz, of Doylestown, being a descendant of the latter. David spimer, the son, died on the homestead, in 1811, at the age of fifty-three, fol- a wing the trade of a potter, besides conducting his large farm, to his death. Ile was Justice of the l'eace, and held other local offices, among them collec- tor of taxes, about the close of the war of independence. Ile advanced the entire amount on his duplicate to the county in gold, which was afterward paid in, in Continental money, by which he lost a large sum. He left two children, the late David Spinner, who died about 1867, at the age of seventy-six, and one daughter, who married a Weaver and had one child. David Spinner's widow survived her husband many years. The latter left two children, Edwin D .. who married, and has one child, also married, and a daughter, Elvina, who married Doctor Dickenshied, and has one son. The homestead is still in the hands of the family. The wife of the late David Spinner was the only daughter of John Eckel, of Bedminster.
The Zollners or Zellners' were in the Province by the middle of the eigli- teenth century, Conrad, Christian and John Zollners, relatives, if not brothers, settling in Milford township. Conrad who came in the Phoenix, was natur- alized August 28, 1750. He was a Lutheran and became a member of St. Peters' Church. In 1756 we find him a soldier in the Provincial service, called out to defend the frontier from the Indians. He married Margaretha Camerer, or Kemerer, and their son John, born September 12, 1747, and died in Lchigh county, January 20, 1824, was a soldier in the Revolution. He married Maria Elizabeth Woll, and was the father of four sons and four daughters, two sons and two daughters living to maturity. The sons were John and Peter Zöllner. Christian Zöllner, the supposed brother of Conrad. married Susanna Stahl and was living in Milford, 1761. One of his sons was a lieutenant in the Northampton regiment, probably in the Whiskey Insurrec- tion. 1794. and his descendants are still living in the neighborhood of Dilling- ersville. Lehigh county. John Zollner, the third of the three brothers, bori December 3, 1743, and died May 26, 1834, married Susannah, daughter of George and Magdalina Magle Getman, and were the parents of ten children, among them Aaron, a Mennonite minister of Michigan. Hannah, who mar- ried Benjamin F. Brown, Philadelphia, and Sophia, who married the late Charles Hamilton, Doylestown, April 2, 1845. and Peter a soldier of the war oi 1812-15 with England. He married Elizabeth and their seven chil- dren hear the name of Zollner, Hendly, Rittenhouse, Philadelphia, and others elsewhere. John Zöllner was an eller in the Schlieterville Lutheran church. Charles Hamilton, who married Sophia Zollner, was born in the North of Ireland, November, 1812, and came to America when a young man. He was a farmer in Doylestown township for many years, but moved into the borough in his later years. Ile had considerable local prominence and served several years in the borough council. He made a visit to Ireland a few years before luis death, dying at Doylestown, February 11, 1884. George Getman, a leading rian in the Fries Rebellion. 1798-99. married Magdalena Magle, Haycock township, and had three daughters, Susannah, who married John Zollner. Mary married George Trumbaner and Hannah married. George Solliday. The latter was a farmer and Justice of the Peace of Montgomeryville, Montgomery county and among his children were the late Benjamin Solliday, Doylestown. The Hubers immigrated from Switzerland between 1750 and 1760, and
6 The name, which is German, means toll, or tax collector, was variously corrupted early records into Zeler. Siller and Scalner.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
settled in Milford. The father's name we do not know, but the mother's was Ann, born, 1722, died 1775, and buried in the Trumbauersville church. They had a family of eight children, of which Henry was born, 1756, and John Jacob, 1758. The former made powder for the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety, 1776, at a mill he built on Swamp creek, on the road from Trum- bauersville to Sumneytown, the remains of which are still to be seen. Part of the property was in the possession of Jesse Wonsidler in recent years. The children of the first settler married into the families of Hillig, Trumbauer, Weidner, Hartzel, James, and others. There are said to have been several powder-mills on Swamp creek, below Dannehower's mill, during the Revolu- tion, and that one was in operation many years later.
We know but little of the opening of roads in Milford, but there were few of them for several years, the inhabitants appearing to have been disin- clined to increasing the number. In 1749, when there was a movement for a new road, the inhabitants complained there were four highroads in the town- ship already to be kept in repair, and they opposed the opening of the fifth because to repair it would be a heavy charge.
"The Fries rebellion," as it is known in history, an insurrectionary move- inent against the house-tax of 1798, and other direct taxes, broke out in this township in the fall of that year. The head and front of it were John Fries, Frederick Heany and John Getman, all residents of Milford. Fries was born in Hatfield township, Montgomery county, about 1750, married Mary Brunner, of Whitemarsh, at twenty, and five years after removed to Milford, where he built a house on land of Joseph Galloway, at Boggy creek. At the time of the outbreak he lived in a log house on a lot that belonged to William Edwards on the Sumneytown road, two miles from Trumbauersville. He was a man of good mind, but had received only the rudiments of an education ; he talked well and possessed a rude eloquence that swayed the multitude. His char- acter was good, and he was popular among his neighbors. He learned the cooper's trade, but followed the occupation of vendue-crier, traversing the country attended by a little dog, named "Whiskey" to which he was much at- tached. Heany and Getman were Fries's two most active lieutenants. The former, born at Stover's mill, Rockhill, and at one time kept the tavern at Hagersville, died in Northampton county. Getman is supposed to have been born in the same township, but this is not certain, and his brother George died .near Sellersville, 1855, at the age of ninety-two. The opposition of Fries and his friends to the tax prevented all assessments in that township and they were given up. It also extended into Northampton county, where several of the insurgents were arrested and confined in the Sun tavern, at Bethlehem, March. 1700. Fries headed about one hundred and forty of the malcontents in Mil- ford, including two companies in martial array, and marched to Bethlehem. taking possession of the tavern. and by threats and intimidation, obliged the officers to surrender the prisoners to him. The President sent an armed force to put down the "rebellion." and in April. 1799. Fries was captured in a swamp near Bunker Hill, on the farm of John Keichline, betrayed by his little dog.7
7 The armed force President Adams put into the field to quell the "Fries Rebellion" consisted of the disposable troops the government had to -pare. They were commanded by Brigadier-General William MePherson, who was born at Philadelphia, 1756, and died there Nov. 5, 1813. He was appointed an ensign in the 16th regiment foot, British Army. 1700, in which he served as ensign, lieutenant and adjutant until 1750, when the Congress appointed him brevet-major in the army of the United States, serving through the war.
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HISTORY. OF BUCKS COUNTY. 1
lle was tried, convicted, sentenced to be hanged, but pardoned by President Adams. Ileany and Getman were likewise tried and convicted, but received much lighter sentences. After his pardon John Fries returned to his humble home in Milford and pursued his former occupation, he and his little dog "Whiskey" traversing the upper end of the county attending vendues as before. He died about 1820. Fries was a patriot during the Revolutionary struggle and twice in the military service. On one occasion, while the British Fell Philadelphia. he headed a party of his neighbors and gave pursuit to the light-horse that were driving stolen cattle to the city, rescuing them about the Spring house tavern.
Among the authors, of Bucks county birth, was John Simmons, son of llenry. Simmons born on his father's farm. Milford. Ile began life as a school teacher and removed to Horsham where he taught school. He first published the "Pennsylvania Primmer" in 1794, but subsequently went to Philadelphia, where he published ".\ Treatise on Farriery," and died there, 1843. Within the past seventy-five years efforts were made to annex Milford township to 1.chigh county, the last attempt in January, 1823. when petitions were presented to the Legislature. The proposition. of course, was not favorably entertained. What the cause of complaint was we have not been able to learn.
The villages of Milford township are Trumbauersville. Spinnerstown, near the Lehigh county line. Steinsburg and Milford Square.": The largest and most populous is Trumbanersville, formerly called Charlestown. a place of over sixty . families, built half a mile along both sides of the road from l'hiladelphia to Allemown. Half a century ago it con- .tained about a dozen houses. The Eagle tavern, that claims to be the patriarch house of the village, is said to be some one hun- dred and twenty-five years old. but. from appearances, the one formerly occupied by George Wonsidler is nearly as old. For several years Trumhauers- ville, was the seat of extensive cigar manufacturing, turning out two millions oi cigars a year. a single maker. Mr. Croman, employing thirty-seven hands, and making a million and a half annually. There was but little room for diver- sity of political opinion, even if allowed twenty-five years ago, for the inhabi- tants all voted the same ticket. Trumbauersville has a handsome union church, built of stone, at a cost of $15,000. The datestone tells us that it was "founded 1700: re-built 1805: and again re-built, 1808." The ceiling of the audience chamber is handsomely painted in frescoe : a pipe organ stands in the gallery, and a shapely spire points heavenward. The size of the building is sixty-two by forty-six feet and was originally called the Lower Milford church.
The congregation was probably organized several years before the first
and was aide-de-camp to Lafayette and General St. Clair. He was appointed surveyor of the Port of Philadelphia by Washington, March 8, 1792: subsequently filling a number of political and other appointments, including delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the Constitution of the United States. He was an original member of the Penn- ylvania Society of the Cincinnati, and vice-president to his death. He married Margaret Stout. daughter of Liemt. Joseph Stout. R. N., born, 1764, and died Dec. 25. 1707. His elder bre'er, Capt. John McPherson, was anle-de-camp to General Montgomery, and killed at Quebec. December 31. 1775.
;'. On the farm of Irvin Shantz, between Milford Square and Spinnerstown, stands a large chestnut tree, one of the very largest in the state. By the measurement of State Forestry Commissioner Rothrock it is 54 feet high, and 27 feet 6 inches in circumference four feel alive the ground, and 36 feet 4 mches at the base.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
church was erected, for we find that Adam Rudolph and wife presented it with a Bible, June 24, 1702, and a communion service was presented by George Seibert, September 30, 170g). The Reverend Philip Henry Rapp' took charge in 1769, and Christian Robrecht was Reformed pastor about that time, al- though we are toll the church was wholly Lutheran until 1805. The first child baptised was George Peter, son of George Michael and Anna Eve Koll, Janu- ary 23, 1770. Running through six years we find the following among the names of the baptised: Lohaus. Heist, Miller, Zangmeister, ( Singmaster. ) Schuetz, ( Scheetz), Sax, Maurer, Cugler, Weber, Schantz, Leister, Barthol- omew, Stacher and Frederick. Christian Espick was pastor in 1792, and was succeeded by Frederick W. Geisenhaimer, in 1793, George Reeller, 1798, Fred- erick Waage. in 1822, who. after a successful pastorate of forty-four years, was succeeded by his son, Oswin T. Waage, in 1864. In ISog there was great pros- perity in the church, and forty-three persons were confirmed. Abraham R. Smith led the singing in 1815, and filled the office for seventeen years at five dollars a year, but the Swamp church paid him forty dollars for the same service. There was a lottery for the benefit of the church, in 1818. We know but little of the Reformed pastors. Mr. Senn was there in 1823, and served many years for a salary of Syd a year. Reverend F. A. Strassberger was also Reformed pastor, but we do not know his length of service. The oldest stone in the graveyard bears date 1,69, and the next oldest, that of Anna Huber, born 1722, died November, 1773. Among those who preached in the church at Trumbauersville, was Reverend John Theobold Faber, Jr .. of Montgomery county, in 1773, but we do not know whether he was Lutheran or Reformed. He was an excellent man and died suddenly, in 1788, from an apoplectic stroke while preaching in the New Goshenhoppen church. He was succeeded by his son, who died of the same discase while preaching a funeral sermon in the same pulpit.
There is nothing worthy of special note to be said of the other three villages of Milford township. They consist of a few dwellings each, Spinnerstown hav- ing a tavern and a store, and Milford Square a printing office, where the organ of the Mennonite denomination is published.
Schuetz's Lutheran church, known as Saint John's, is on the road from Spinnerstown to Pennsburg. in the north-west part of the township. It has been the site of a church for over a century and a quarter, and the new building, erected in 1874, and the third house, faces south and overlooks the valley of Molasses ereck. The oldest stone in the graveyard bears date 1759. but the inscription is effaced. Head and foot stones of primitive rock with uit inscription, show that persons were buried there at an early day.
The Mennonites, so named from Menno Simon, a prominent reformer vi Friesland. Germany, born, 1492 and died in Holland. 1550. were among the first settlers in Upper Bucks. They were mostly from the Palatinate, whither religious persecution had driven them from Switzerland and Alsace. They were poor but industrious and frugal, and soon provided homes for themselves an ' families. There are few indigent among them, and no one in good stan.lire will accept public alms. They settled in the north-eastern corner of Milionl. about 1715. The first minister in the county of this denomination, was Vak' tine Clemmer, as early as 1717, and attended the first Mennonite conferen . in America, held at Skipjack or Franconia, 172.4. He represented the church at the "Great Swamp.
The earliest services were held in private houses, the first church build
8 He was the ancestor of the Rapp lamdy of Durham and Nechanixon.
435
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
ang not being erected until 1735, built on the land of William Allen. In 1771, A second building was erected for the Swamp church, a mile east of the orig- miil one, on a piece of land conveyed by Ulrich Drissel, Abraham Taylor and John Lederach, to Valentine Clemmer, Peter Saeger, Christian Beidler and Jacob Clemmer, "Trustees of the Religious Society or Congregation of Men- nonites in the Great Swamp." In 1790 the original building was removed to a int Michael Musselman and wife conveyed to l'eter Zetty, Christian Iluns- berger and Michael Shelly, "Trustees for a meeting house and burial place." This is half a mile west of the site of the first meeting house and the site of the present West Swamp church. Both the present churches are the third buildings on their respective sites, the one at East Swamp, a brick. Until 1850, that at West Swamp a two story stone with basement and a seating ca- pacity of 450, 60x40 and cost $7,000. In all there are eight Mennonite churches in Bucks county, three of them in Milford township.
In 1847 the Mennonites became divided, causing a rupture in a number of churches, the organization of new congregations and erection of church build- ings. The two sections were known as the Old and New Schools. While the Mennonites are conservative they have held pace with the times in the vari- aus branches of church work, the New School Mennonite being the most pro- gressive. The Mennonites of Bucks took the lead in the introduction of Sun- day schools into the denomination, the first one organized being at the West Swamp church, the spring of 1858, the Reverend A. B. Shelly, superintendent. lle was subsequently called to the Swamps parish, composed of West Swamp, East Swamp and Flatland churches, which he has been serving nearly thirty- five years. Other Sunday schools followed and at this time nearly every Men- nonite church in the county has Sunday schools, both the old school and the new. The majority are kept open the whole year, annual Sunday school con- ventions are held, and the Sunday schools of the Swamp church hold period- ical Sunday school Institutes. In some churches church music receives due attention and all connected with the Eastern Mennonite conference are sup- f lied with red or pipe organs. Some of the churches are not behind other denominations in Young People's organizations. The Eastern Mennonite conference to which a number of the churches of this county belong has estab- lished a "Home for the Aged" at Frederick, Montgomery county. This can- ference being connected with the General conference of North America. the churches belonging to it assist actively in its work. This includes mission- ary work among the Indians, local and general home mission work, publication work, etc.
In the north-west corner of the township is a burial-ground known as "Stricker's graveyard," established by Henry Stricker, seventy-five years ago, where about twenty persons have been buried. Wheeled carriages were in use in this section of the county as early as 1739. In a petition to the court that wear, on the subject of repairing a road "leading toward the county line near Joseph Nailer's." it is stated that many of the "back inhabitance, with waggons. shes down to Shaver's mill on Tohickon creek." In 1757 there were two pub- lic honses in the north-west corner of Milford, on the old road leading to Philadelphia, one ke; t by a Pitting, or Bitting, probably the same who peti- tioned for naturalization. in 1734, and the other by a man named Smith. One of the earliest public houses in Milford was that kept by George Horlacher."
) George Hurlicker, or Horlocker, was a private in the Lower Milford company of Associators. Captain Henry Huber, 1775, and his name will be found in the appendix with proper reference.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
and subsequently by Conrad Marks, on the "Magunshey" (Macungie) road, and licensed as early as 1750. Marks, who was a petitioner for a license at the August sessions, 1797. states there had been a tavern kept there for fifty years. His petition was allowed, his sponsors being David Spinner and George Hor- lacker, the latter doubtless the previous landlord. An hundred years ago it was known as "Conrad Mark's tavern, and a resort of the insurgents" during the "Fries Rebellion." When it went out of license is not known, as the quarter ses- sions office has no record of it. Christopher Clymer was appointed constable, 1737.
Milford is a fine farming region and the careful tillage of the German farmers for a century and three-quarters, has brought the land to a high state of cultivation. A majority of the real estate has passed from father to son since its settlement. The township is well-watered by Swamp creek, a branch of the Perkiomen, and its numerous tributaries, which enters at the southwest corner and spreads in every direction. The stream affords a number of fine mill sites, and mills were erected along it at an early day. It is populated almost exclusively by Germans. The population 1784, was 861 and 156 dwell- ings; in 1800 it was 1.334; 1820, 1,195; 1830, 1,970 and 02 taxables ; 1840, 2,203; 1850, 2,527; 1800, 2.708: 1870, 2,900, of which only 64 were foreign born ; 18So, 2,975; 1890, 2.725; 1900, 2,532. Milford has four post-offices, Trumbauersville, the oldest established, 1822, with Joseph Weaver, post- master ; Spinnerstown, 1825, Henry Haring postmaster; Steinsburg, 1852, George Steinman, postmaster, and Milford Square, 1872, and Charles Him- melwright postmaster.
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