USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > History of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time, Vol. I > Part 61
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Joseph Fell, grandson of Joseph Fell, of Buckingham, at his death left a farm in Upper Makefield to his son Joseph, who settled there, and was great- grandson of the Joseph Fell who came from England, 1704. Here his son, who became Doctor David Fell, and father of the late Joseph Fell, Buckingham. was born September 1, 1774. His mother was Rachel Wilson, granddaughter of Thomas Canby, the father of eighteen children. In his youth there were few facilities for farmers' sons to acquire a good education, but. instead, the labors of the field, fishing, swimming and fox-hunting, with horse and hound. gave them robust health. In these David Fell was proficient. He studied mathe- maties with Doctor John Chapman, Upper Makefield, and Latin with the Rev- erend Alexander Boyd, Newtown. He entered his name as student of medicine with Doctor Isaac Chapman, Wrightstown, having Doctor Phineas Jenks a- fellow-student. Completing his studies at the University of Pennsylvania be married Phobe Schofield. Sokbury, and settled in practice in his native town- ship, near the foot of Bowman's hill on the River-side road. On leaving the University Doctor Fell carried with him the following certificate from Dortor Rush, the great founder of the medical school and a signer of the Declaration of Independence :
"I do hereby certify that Mr. David Fell hath attended a course of my lectures upon the Institutes and Practice of Medicine in the University of Pennsylvania, with diligence and punctuality.
(Signed)
"BENJAMIN RUSI." "Philadelphia, February 25th, 1801."
He continued to practice here until 1814-15. when he removed to Jenkin- town. Montgomery county, but soon returned to Bucks county, to the premises lately owned and occupied by Dr. Seth Cattell. Buckingham. Here he resided the remainder of his life, attending to his large practice while health permitted. dying February 22, 1856, in his eighty-second year. Doctor Fell was much esteemed by all who knew him, was remarkably mild and gentle in his disposi. tion, a peacemaker among neighbors, slow to believe evil of another and quick at the call of suffering humanity, He was a warm friend of education, and an advocate of temperance.
First-day meetings in Upper Makefield were first held at the house of Samuel Baker, who owned the farm just below Taylorsville, and late the property of Mahlon K. Taylor, deceased. Sammel Baker, born in Darby. Lan- cashire, October 1. 1676, was a son of Henry and Margaret ( Hardman) Baker. who came to Bucks county in 1684. married Rachel Warder, 1703, and was the anrester of Johns Hopkins, the founder of the university which bears his name. A meeting-house twenty-five by thirty feet. one story high, was erected. 1752. and the first meeting held in it the following February. The building commit- tee were Benjamin Taylor. Joseph Duer, Timothy Smith and Benjamin Gilbert It was enlarged. 1764. by extending it twenty feet to the north, at a cost of [120. It was used as an hospital while Washington held the Delaware, De- cember, 1776.
The Knowles family settled in Upper Makefield. John being the first comer. probably prior to 1700, and settling on the farm owned by the late Thomas Law - less. A portion of the original log homestead is still standing. Later, a stone
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
addition eighteen by twenty-four was built to it, two stories high. John Knowles married Sarah, daughter of John and Mary Scarborough, 1716, as is shown by the Fall meeting records. She was born, tog4, and died 1717, after the birth of their son, Joseph. John Knowles married a second time, and a on, John, was the only child, from whom is supposed to have descended all of the name in Bucks county. John Knowles, the eller, died intestate, 1730. The homestead passed out of the family, 1875.
Among the distinguished sons of Upper Makefield the late Oliver II. Smith, Indiana, member of the Legislature and of Congress, United States Senator. Attorney-General and lawyer, probably stands first. He was a son of Thomas and Letitia Blackian Smith, a descendant of William Smith, who settled in Wrightstown, 1684, and was born on the farm formerly owned by John A. Beaumont, 1794. and died in Indiana. 1859. He had a vein of wit and humor in his composition, and many anecdotes are related of him. When quite a young man. a raftsman at New Hope offered a high price for an ex- perienced steersman to take his raft through Wells's falls. Oliver, believing he could do the job, accepted the offer, and carried the raft down the falls in safety, but he knew nothing more about the channel than what he had learned while fishing. It is told of him, that when he first went to Washington as a Senator, he was asked by one of his fellow-Senators at what college he had graduated and answered "Lurgan," the name of a roadside school-house in Upper Makefield. At one time Mr. Smith kept store at Hartsville. Warmin- ster, and at fireen Tree, Buckingham, 1817. He settled in Indiana while a young man, and, as already mentioned. rose to distinction. Moses and Ed- ward Smith were brothers of Oliver H., and Thomas Smith, Wrightstown, and father of Dr. Charles W. Smith
Thomas Langley was as eccentric as Oliver Il. Smith was distinguished. He was bom near London, came to Pennsylvania about 1750, at the age of twenty, with a handsome fortune for that day. settled in Upper Maketiel. commenced teaching school, and, for several years, conducted his business with propriety. Without any apparent cause his mind became deranged and he continued so to his death, 1800, aged upward of seventy. He imagined himself the king of Pennsylvania and believed in the invisible agency of evil spirits. He traversed the country in the employ of an itinerant cooper, carry ing saddlebags with clothing and tools. At times he hired out to farmers. and journeyed back and forth with his staff to visit his friends, reading Black- stone and other books. In the summer, 1803. with knapsack and rations on his back, he traveled to Charleston, South Carolina, on foot and was absent a year. He was a man of very considerable knowledge, dignified and polite. clean and neat in his person and correct in his morals. From his conversation no one could discover his peculiarities. He was educated an Episcopalim. but joined the Friends and attended their meeting. At his death he left a personal estate of E500, but had no heirs in this country.
On the line between Upper Makefield and Solebury rises an elevation known as Bowman's hill, said to have been named after Doctor John How- man, an early settler on Pidcock's creek. Being of a contemplative turn of mind he used to frequent the round top of the hill, and when he died, was buried there at his request. The loli a name for the hill was said by some to be Nebosh-hick, and by others. None-haw achung. Svend offers have found a last resting-place on the top of gel hill, among them a man who was
4 He is likewise called "J ... tha. "
.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
drowned at Well's falls, in the Delaware, many years ago. The top is reached by a road of easy ascent up the westerly end. Framon has woven a tale of romance around the name of Doctor bowman. It tells us he was appointed surgem of the English fleet sent out under captain William had, logo, to sup- press piracy on the high seas, and turned pirate with him; he came to New - town after kod was hanged, about 1700, and by his habits, and the visits of strangers, drew upon himself suspicion that he belonged to the pirate's gang : that he mysteriously disappeared and was gone for years, and then returned and built a cabin at the foot of the hill that bears his name ; that he removed to Newtown in his old age, built a house on the edge of the village in which he was found dead : that he left a "massive oaken chest" behind, but it failed to yield up Captain Kyd's gold. The story used to be told, that if one would go quietly and lie down by Bowman's grave and say, "Bowman, what killed you?" the reply would come back, "Nothing." Bowman was probably an eccentric man, and had a preference for the summit of this quiet hill for his last rest- ing-place. This ridge of hills extends into New Jersey, and there is every appearance of its having been broken through some time long in the past to allow the dammet up waters to How to the sea.'
At the southern base of Bowman's hill." is a small hamlet called Lurgan. after the birth-place of James Logan. In a little Que-story building, now used as a dwelling, was kept a day school three-quarters of a century ago, where were educated several prominent men. Among the scholars were the late Judge John Ross, Oliver Il. Smith, Senator in Congress from Indiana. Doc- tor John Chapman. Edward Smith, a learned moan, Seth Chapman, son of Doctor Jolin Chapman, lawyer and judge, Doctor Seth Cattell, a student of and who succeeded Doctor John Wilson, who died early, and others of nute. Amongst those who taught at this primitive seminary, were Moses Smith. afterward a distinguished physician of Philadelphia, Mr. McLean, a noted teacher, fine Latin scholar and mathematician, Enos, father of Hiram Scar- borough, New Hope, celebrated for his penmanship, and Joseph Fell, Buck- ingham. The glory of Lurgan is departed. and most of her scholars, states men, and jurists have gone to the "tikdiscovered country."
5 "B. W .. " a correspondent. in criticising what is sabl of Bowman, in the first edition of the "History of Bucks County," remarks: "John Bowman bought of Israel Morris fifty-two acres in Newtown township, by deed dated 7th of Both mo., 170%, and by his will, 1712, gave samt land to his son Jeremiah, and go to his daughter Sarah He was buried the 8th of toth mo., 1712, probably at Middletown, and France- Bowman, his widow, the Ist of roth mo, 1730, was buried at the same place. Jeremiah Bowman sold fifty-two acres to Stephen Twining, the deed bearing date December 26. 1735." The author did not vouch for what "B. N." said of John Bowmin. but credited it to "tradition." We regret "B W." did not throw some light on the subject What he said of Bowmans who lived in Northampton does not unravel the mystery. What about the Bowman who gave the name to the hill, is the question. Miss Sallie N Boyd said of Bowman : "lle was an eccentric Enghshman, and made his home at the Beaumont place on the river. a tract of land taken up by that family. 1742, now the Heed property. Before his death he requested to be buried on Nene-haw ca chung, as that would be as near heaven as he ever expected to get. This gave the elevation the name of "Bowman's Ilill." His grave was not marked and some think the hody was removed
6 The site of an Indian village, near the west end of Bowman's Hill, was marked. for many years, by thousands of tortoise shells. These shell- were seen as late as 1780, by Rebecca, wife of the late Peter Cattel, who lived in the vicinity.
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 465
On a hill on Windy bush farm, the homestead of the Smiths, and which tradition tells was so called by the Indians because the leaves on the scrub oaks fluttered in the wind all winter, are several old shaits where sulphate of barytes was mined many years ago. Half a mile south is a clear and sparkling spring, whose waters, impregnated with iron, were used for medicinal pur- poses. The late Jacob Trego, who died near Doylestown upward of ninety years of age, and whose father was born on the adjoining farm to Windy bush, 1741, frequently heard him say that when ten years of age he used to go to the mines to see the miners digging for silver, in charge of an experienced English miner. There were then five shafts sunk, about fifty feet deep, but only a very small quantity of silver was obtained. The mines were abandoned, and the tools left at the bottom. The water that came into the shafts cut off the flow of a fine spring on the farm owned by John L. Atkinson, several hundred yards away. It is said that attention was first attracted to the spot by the great number of trees struck by lightning in that vicinity, and the frequent dis- charge of electricity from the clouds coming to the ground. The first school- house in that section was built of logs, 1730, a short distance southwest of the mineral spring. There was an extensive Indian burying-ground a little west of the road that passes over Windy bush hill, and within an hundred yards of the old silver mine. People living a few years ago remember walking among the graves, then kept well banked up. The Smiths left the timber stand- ing around the burial-ground, in respect to the memory of the Indians, who had been kind to them. A century ago a few Indians lived in cabins in the vicinity by making baskets.
William H. Ellis, Upper Makefield, was a steel-engraver of no mean repute, and produced many works of merit. His first production, doubtless, is his engraving of "Washington's First Interview with Mrs. Custis," his future wife, a spirited sketch of that interesting occasion which met the ap- probation of George Washington Park Custis, grandson of the lady.
The villages of Upper Makefield are Dolington, in the southern part on , the line of Lower Makefield, Taylorsville and Brownsburg on the Delaware, Jericho, a hamtet at the foot of a range of hills which bears the same name, and Buckmanville in the northwest corner of the township.
Dolington, on the road from Newtown to Taylorsville. in the midst of a beautiful and highly cultivated country. contains a dozen or more houses, a post-office with daily mail, and a graded school. Its first settler was Peter Dolin, deceased since the Revolution, and the place was called "Dolinton," after its founder. What ambitious denizen changed the name to that it now bears is not known, or it is just possible that the "g" crept in by accident. His daughter married Paul Judge. an eccentric schoolmaster, who loved whiskey and governed his school by the rod. Next to Dolin, Benjamin Canby and William Jackson were the earliest inhabitants of the village. The latter kept store, but was succeeded by Oliver Hough, who, dying 1803, was followed by William Taylor. A draft of the village. 1806, then called "Dolinton." shows a number of lots laid out on the road to Yardleville but only a few were im- proved. Here a Friends' meeting and school-house. The post-office was first called Lower Makefield, but changed to Dolington. 1827.
Taylorsville is just below what was called MeConkey's ferry? for many years, where Washington crossed the Delaware with his army the night of
" This ferry was formerly called "Vessel's ferry." but we do not know when the name was changed.
30 **
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
. December 25, 1776, to attack the Hessians at Trenton. This circumstance has made it a point of great historic interest. It is a small village, with a tavern, store and a few dwellings, and received its name from the Taylor family which established itself there more than three-quarters of a century ago. A wooden bridge spans the Delaware, and on the New Jersey side, the railroad station is called "Washington's Crossing." In 1895 the Bucks County Historical So- ciety erected a monument at Taylorsville to mark "Washington's Crossing" and dedicated it October 15 in the presence of an audience of 500. The services consisted of vocal and instrumental music, an historical address by General William S. Stryker. New Jersey, and an oration by Dwight M. Lowrey, of Philadelphia. The monument consists of three brown-stone slabs five feet, nine inches high, with base five feet eight inches by three fect eight inches and weighs 1,500 pounds. On the front of the upper slab is the following in- scription :
Near This Spot Washington Crossed the Delaware, On Christmas Night, 1776, The Eve of the Battle of Trenton. Hist. Soc. Bucks Co. Erected, 1895.
On the same day the "New Jersey Society of the Cincinnati" erected a bronze tablet on the cast bank of the Delaware to mark the spot where the army disembarked. The occasion was one of great interest.
Brownsburg, four miles higher up the river, had two small houses, one stone, the other wood, 1790; belonging to Mahlon Doane, uncle of Thomas Betts, who owned the surrounding property. He lived a mile west of the ferry, his brother Joel occupying the log, and Joseph Dubree, harnessmaker, the stone house. There was probably no tavern then at the ferry. Down to 1810-12 there were still bat two houses, a frame, probably on the spot occu- pied by the log twenty years before, and the stone. The frame belonged to Harman Mlichener, who lived in one end, and kept a small store in the other, but the stone house was not occupied. About this time David Livezey built a tavern down at the ferry. Brownsburg, containing a tavern, store and a few dwellings, was formerly called "Pebbletown," but received its present name from Stacy Brown. He got the post-office established there, 1827; was ap- pointed postmaster and held the commission to his death.
The hamlet of Jericho, on the southeast slope of Jericho hill, was founded by Jeremiah Couper, known in his day both as "Lying Jerry," and "Praying Jerry." He was born, troo, probably in Falls, and, 1795 bought three acres of John Hayhurst., built a house upon it and took to wife Mary, daughter of Mallon Doane. the father of Brownsburg. Ile gathered enough mountain boulders upon his lot to fence it in. A century ago the hill was called the "Great hills," and the hamlet "Raylman's." Cooper was a carpenter by trade. He was suspected of assisting in the rubbery of the County Treasury and went away until the excitement blew over. He admitted that he accidentally came upon a party of men, counting a large amount of money on a coverlet, but the evidence against him was ant strong enough to cause his arrest. On the old Tomlinson tario, row owned by Hetty Ann Williams, near the Eagle, and a few feet north of M. Hall's line, is a head-stone said to mark the grave of John Tomlinson, who assisted the Doanes in the robbery of the County Treas- ury, at Newtown, 175%. He is said to have been a Tory. Tradition tells us he was advised to Hide and for a time kept himself concealed, but was finally
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
caught, convicted and hanged and buried as stated. It is said the walnut tree near his grave has been frequently struck by lightning, and that flowers that bloom but once in a century have bloomed over Tomlinson's grave. Other members of the family are said to be buried at the same place. Two graves only, are marked.
Among the aged persons who have died in Upper Makefield were John Knowles, March 1, 1817, in his eighty-eighth year, leaving ten children, fifty- eight grand-children, and twenty-nine great-grandchildren. He was probably a grandson of the first Knowles who settled in the township, and Mrs. Jemima Howell, who died February 13, 1825, aged ninety-nine years, eleven months and nineteen days. In the winter of ISTo, a negro woman died in the neigh- boring township of Lower Makefield, at the age of one hundred and five.
The earliest enumeration of taxables in Upper Makefield is that of 1732, when there were but fifty-seven, all told. . This was four years before the town- ship was organized, but it appears that Makefield, which included both town- ships, had been divided into "lower division," and "upper division" some time before for the convenience of collecting taxes, etc. In 1742, but fifty-eight tax- ables were returned, of whom seven were single men. That year the town- ship rate was 3d., and single men paid 9s. each. In 1754, the taxables were 79; in 1762, 108, and in 1763, 97. In 1784 the township contained 792 white inhabitants, and 5 blacks, with 117 dwellings; 1810, 1,271 ; 1820, 1,367; 1830, 1,517 inhabitants and 314 taxables ; 1840, 1,490 ; 1850, 1,741 ; 1860, 1,955; IS70, 2,060, of which 210 were colored, and 227 foreign-born; 1880, 1,470; 1890, 1,236; 1900, 1,143.
Upper Makefield is a river township, its eastern shore being washed by the Delaware its entire length, and on the land side is bounded by Solebury, Buckingham, Wrightstown. Newtown and Lower Makefield. On the east- ern side, a ridge of hills broken here and there, runs from north to south nearly parallel to the river. In the northern part of Jericho mountains runs almost across the township, pushing up broken spurs at the eastern end that unite with similar spurs from Bowman's hill. In other parts the township is diver- sified with gentle swells, intervening dells, and stretches of nearly level sur- face. About the Jericho range are some cozy little valleys, while from the top the eye takes in a wide expanse of cultivated country, following the windings of the river several miles. Hough's ercek in the south, Knowles' ereck in the middle. and Pidcock's creek in the north, with their numerous branches, sup- ply an abundance of water. All these creeks empty into the Delaware, toward which all the water of the township flows. In 1788 the commissioners of Penn- sylvania and New Jersey confirmed to this township Harvey's upper, and Lowne's Islands.
They, who gave Jericho hill its Biblical name, little dreamed it would be- come associated. in the future, with a religious incident of romantic interest. In the Fall of 1804. four or five monks came to old Jericho, built a Priory on its summit. a long one-story frame structure with a cross, containing sleeping cells, a refectory and small chapel. The monks made a roadway up the rocky hill and about the Priory, built a rustic fence, of saplings, whose gate was surmounted by a cross. They prayed and fasted: wore the garh of the Bene-
8 These hills are the "mountain" range along the foot of which the line of William Penn's first purchase ran in its course south west, from "a corner spruce tree, marked with the letter P .. to a corner white oak, standing near the path that leads to an Indian town called Playwickey "
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
dictine monk of old; their heads were shorn, their feet protected by sandals, and wore the gown and cowl. In Summer, life had its compensation, in winter, its privation and physical pain, for no fire warmed their cold cells, lighted by narrow windows. The founding of the order was the work Bishop Potter, of the Protestant church, to revive in the nineteenth century the monasticism of old. The order was known as the "Community of Saint Benedict." It sprang from the mother of the church, and was instituted by Bishop Potter in St. Chrysostom's chapel, Trinity Church, New York, 1894. Russel Whitcomb, a young Bostonian of culture, and successful in business, took upon himself the vows of the order and became prior. After an experi- ence in conducting a Priory in the tenement districts, New York, the monks came to Falls township, Bucks county, and occupied an old farm house offered them without cost. Here they established a home for orphans and crippled children, gave up their names and became "Fathers of the Community of Saint Benedict." Some, finding the life too austere, abandoned the order, the others removing to Jericho the Autumn of the year they came into the county. When the cold weather came on, it was decided to abandon the Monastery on Jericho, for what reason unknown, when Russel Whitcomb, who was known as "Father Hugh" went to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, where Bishop Grafton pre- sided, to pursue the same religious work he had taken up in Bucks county, After the monks had departed the Priory was torn down, and the top of old Jericho was given over to its former solitude and the bark of the fox and mournful call of the owl. The people of the community lived in harmony with their strange neighbors, being particularly interested in Father Hugh. Despite his shorn head and garb, he was a very handsome, prepossessing man. quite young, and, in former years, had been the companion of men of learning and social distinction.
A considerable portion of the Continental army found shelter among the river hills of Upper Makefield, immediately preceding the attack on Trenton, December 26, 1776, and Washington had his headquarters at a quiet farm house in the shadow of Jericho hill, and that band of patriots embarked from Makefields's shore on the desperate venture that turned the tide of the Revo- hitionary contest.
In Upper Makefield on the farm owned by John M. Darrah, stands the original Eastburn cherry tree, with a few live branches still bearing fruit. The cherry is cultivated quite extensively in the surrounding neighborhood.
1 1
ARIGHT LINE FROM THE END OF THE DAY AND A FILE WALK THROUGH A MOUNTAINOUS DARREN COUNTRY ABOUNDINS WITH PINES &E TOAPOPLAR THEY BY THE RIVER DELAWARE MARKED WITH THE
2
UPPER PART OF BUCKS COUNTY.
TRIL
ITATINON- MOUNTAINS
NARE
PART
OF
LEK
PHILADELPHIA
AM
ACHLA
AMAP OF THAT PART OF BUCKS COUNTY.
COUNTY.
; WRIGHT'S TOWN
NESHAMATIMY S.
P.ELTA SER BY THE INDIANS TO THE PROPRIETARIES OF PENSILVANA IN SEPTEMBER 1737AS BY AICHNER AGREEMENT MADE WITH THE SAID INDIANS LY THE EXTENT OF A MANE WALK IN ANIST AND A HALF AND FROM THENCE BY A RIGHT LINE TO CLAVIDE RIVER
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