History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 157

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1534

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Jonathan, the first-born still lives. He moved on the old homestead a few years ago, and continued there until quite recently, when he purchased a farm near North Wales, and moved thereto, and Joseph the seventh son and ninth child, who had been living in Philadelphia, removed to the homestead.

The two youngest children, daughters, are still liv- ing, are married and have families of children.

Thomas, the third son and child, and from whom the above memorial was gathered, was aeeiden- tally hurt at thirteen years of age by a wound in the knee with a pitchfork while working at hay-mak- ing, and from which he was confined to the house pretty much for seven years, when he got so that he could go to school, and after a couple of years went to teaching school in the country, which he followed for seven years, then went to Philadelphia in 1859 and entered upon the study of the law with John S. Shoemaker, Esq., and after a couple of years was ad- mitted to practice at that bar where he still continues to practice.

For a corroboration of some of the above stated facts we are indebted to George W. Bradfield, of Philadelphia, who is the oldest living member of the family now known in this eounty. He remembers seeing Abner Bradfield, the elder, who was his grand- father.

707

BOROUGH OF BRIDGEPORT.

CHAPTER XL.

BOROUGH OF BRIDGEPORT.1

THE borough of Bridgeport is of recent origin, having been incorporated by an act of Assembly passed February 27, 1851. Its area is four hundred and sixty acres, and was wholly taken from the township of Upper Merion, in which it had been previously situ- ated. In its form it is irregular, having somewhat the shape of a scalene triangle. It is bounded on the north and northeast by the Schuylkill, and on the south and west by Upper Merion. Few towns have a more beautiful and advantageous situation. It is opposite Norristown, and the land rises gradually from the river. The borough extends on the Schuylkill from the dam down to the outlet lock, a distance of a mile. De Kalb Street, which was laid out in 1830 as the State road, extends across the bridge from Norris- town, and is turnpiked. Front Street extends from De Kalb Street to the Swedes' Ford bridge. The nearest street running parallel with the river is called Front Street, the next is Second, and so on to Tenth Street, which forms the southwestern boundary of the borough. De Kalb, Front, Second and Third are the principal streets, and contain handsome brick houses, several of which are occupied by persons who have retired from business. According to the census of 1850, Bridgeport contained 572 inhabitants; in 1860, 1011; in 1870, 1578; and in 1880, 1802.

That Bridgeport is no inconsiderable business place is sufficiently proven from the number of its stores, manufactories and other establishments located within its limits. In May, 1883, it contained seventeen stores, four hotels, two dealers in flour and feed, two restau- rants and one lumber and three coal-yards. The Minerva Mill ranks among the extensive manu- factories in the State. It is now conducted by James Lees & Sons in the manufacture of blankets, Ken- tucky jeans and worsted carpet-yarns, giving employ- ment to near one thousand hands. In consequence of the space required for such extensive operations this firm has greatly enlarged the buildings. The factory was originally erected in 1854 by Bodey & Jacobs, and afterwards owned by Needles & Brothers. Next in extent is the woolen-mill of Worrall & Rad- cliff, manufacturers of Kentucky jeans, employing one hundred and seventy hands. Isaac W. Smith, formerly of Valley Forge, las erected an extensive building on Swede Street (in 1883) for the manufacture of cotton and woolen goods, calculated to give em- ployment to about one hundred hands. Hugh Me- Innes carries on the manufacture of Manilla paper at the Rebecca Mill, employing some thirty-five hands. This building was formerly known as the Norris Oil- Works, established by Dr. H. T. Slemmer in 1866. Dager & Cox employ twenty hands at the Eureka

Mill in the manufacture of Manilla paper. They occupy the building, formerly used as a saw-mill, near the canal basin, which they have enlarged and im- proved. Isaac Richards occupies the building for- merly used by Joel W. Andrews as an agricultural warehouse, employing ten hands in the manufacture of elevators and patent dumb-waiters. Allen Ridg- way occupies a portion of W. W. Potts' car-works building, employing fifteen hands in the manufacture of woolen yarns. Benjamin Gardner occupies the other part in the manufacture of Turkish toweling, giving employment to ten hands. In the spring of 1883 a creamery was put in operation by Kersey & Brothers, from Chester County. Besides the aforesaid there are two extensive flouring-mills and several smaller manufacturing establishments and mechanic shops. In 1882 the real estate was valued at $695,- 525, and for 1883, 455 taxables were returned, holding a total property of $755,550, the aggregate per capita being 81656.

The public schools are five in number, all held in one commodious brick building, erected in 1856 ou a lot of ground one hundred and fifty feet square, situ- ated at the south corner of De Kalb and Sixth Streets. They are divided into three departments,-grammar, secondary and primary. The schools are open ten months, with an average attendance of one hun- dred and fifty-five pupils for the year ending June I, 1882. In 1857 the schools were three in number, open only five months. The school-house previously used was built for this purpose in 1842, and stood at the corner of Mill and Second Streets. It was a stone structure, twenty-five by fifty-eight feet in dimensions, and the schools were kept in it until the erection of the present large building, when it was used for several years for the meetings of the Borough Council. After remaining awhile unoccu- pied it was torn down in the spring of 1883.

The Baptist Church of Bridgeport was consti- tuted March 19, 1850, with fifteen members, by a council composed of delegates from the Baptist Churches of Norristown, Roxborough, Chestnut Hill and Balligomingo. A preliminary meeting had been held February 20, 1850, at the house of Samuel Yo- eum, and eleven persons, mostly members of the Baptist Church of Norristown, signed an agreement to endeavor to organize a church. A lot, eighty by one hundred feet, had been purchased on' Fourth Street, and a church edifice, forty-five by sixty feet, was then being built, and was completed at a cost ot two thousand four hundred dollars. It was dedicated June 16, 1850, the Rev. A. S. Patton, of West Chester, and the Rev. J. A. McKean, of Philadelphia, officiat- ing. On the 9th of April, 1850, the Rev. William Smith was called to the pastorate, and accepted and served until September 19, 1851. The church was admitted to the Philadelphia Baptist Association October 10, 1850. The pastors who have served the church from the resignation of the Rev. William Smith are as fol-

1 By W'm. J. Buck.

708

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

lows: David T. Carnahan, May 15, 1852, to April 30, 1856; Charles Thompson, January, 1857, to February 27, 1861; Miller Jones, December 14, 1861, to March 30, 1864; Henry Bray, January 13, 1865, to March, 1867; Samuel C. Meade, June 26, 1867, to February 26, 1868; E. E. Jones, December 3, 1868, to March 27, 1872; Miller Jones, May 1, 1872, to December 7, 1879; Charles F. Williams, March 31, 1882, to Sep- tember 3, 1884; C. C. Earle, September 29, 1884. The Jast is the present pastor. The church has a member- ship of about two hundred and fifty.

The parsonage on the church lot was built in 1868 at a cost of about three thousand five hundred dollars. The church edifice was remodeled and refurnished in 1880 at a cost of abont fifteen hundred dollars.

The Second Presbyterian (Old School) Church of Norristown, located at Bridgeport, was constituted in 1850 and its charter was obtained the same year. A meeting was held in 1849 at the house of Samuel Stew- art, at which a number were present. A committee was appointed to visit Samuel Paul, who was sent out from New York as a missionary to near Phoenixville. He visited this place, and services were held for a time in the German Reformed Church of Norristown. In 1852 the small frame building that had been used by the Protestant Methodists, and which stood on the corner of Green and Airy Streets, was rented and, Iater, purchased. Mr. Paul preached to the people until 1852, when the Rev. Joseph Nesbitt assumed charge of this church with the church at Consho- hocken, and continued as pastor until about 1859 when he was succeeded by the Rev. Samuel Harrison' Upon the breaking out of the war, in 1861, the entire male members of the church, except three, joined the army; this left the congregation so small that the Rev. Mr. Harrison resigned. From that time until the close of the war the pulpit was supplied, without charge, by the Rev. Charles Collins, a clergyman of the German Reformed Church who resided near here. At the close of the war the Rev. James Mosten was chosen as a stated supply, and remained until about 1870. About this time the church and lot were sold, with privilege of use for church purposes for one year. In 1872 the congregation began to hold service in Mogee's Chapel and continued to do so for two years. In the spring of 1874 a lot, seventy-seven by one hundred and fifty feet, on Sixth, De Kalb and Green Streets, ih Bridgeport, was purchased of Benjamin F. Hancock's estate, and the present church edifice was erected, at a cost of twenty-two thousand eight hun- dred dollars.

About 1872 the Rev. Belleville Roberts was chosen as supply and, later, as pastor. He served four years and was succeeded by the Rev. Henry F. Mason, who served until 1882, since which time the church has been served with supplies, mostly from Princeton College.

The various public improvements that either pass through or begin here contribute much to the pros-

perity and business advantages of the place. Among the first constructed was the Schuylkill Navigation and Canal. This great work is one hundred and eight miles in length, beginning at the Fairmount dam and extending to Port Carbon, above Pottsville. It was commenced in 1816 and finished in 1824 for the pas- sage of boats of sixty tons' burthen, It was sufficiently completed to this place in 1818 to admit the descent of a few boats. The whole line in 1846 was enlarged, and boats of one hundred and ninety tons now pass and repass. When the navigation company con- structed the dam here it was their intention to make the canal on the east side of the river, but the people of Norristown were so much opposed to the measure that, through the liberal offers of Elisha Evans, the principal owner of the land on the Bridgeport side, they were induced to locate it there. No doubt at this early day, when there were but two houses here, Mr. Evans foresaw the advantages that would arise in the future from such an arrangement. The result, how- ever, occasioned some alarm, for a public meeting was held in Norristown June 27, 1820, recommending the appointment of a committee to purchase from John Markley the right of way across the lower end of Barbadoes Island that readier access be afforded to the canal in the shipment or transportation of goods. This, it should be remembered, was ten years before the completion of any bridge over the Schuylkill for miles within this vicinity. The entire works of the navigation and canal were leased by the Reading Railroad Company July 12, 1870, and have since been under their control.

The bridge over the Schuylkill, at De Kalb Street, is eight hundred feet long, resting on three stone piers, and with the abutments ten hundred and fifty feet. The original cost was thirty-one thousand two hundred dollars; of this amount the county subscribed ten thousand dollars and the State six thousand dol- lars. It was erected by a joint-stock company, char- tered April 6, 1830. It was commeneed in the spring of 1829, and by September was so far completed that foot-passengers were enabled to cross. It was finished in 1830, but the largest portion has since been rebuilt. In October, 1884, it was made a free bridge and now belongs to the county, A company had been ehar- tered as early as 1815 to erect a bridge here, but failed for the want of sufficient capital. The Swedes' Ford Bridge Company was incorporated March 30, 1848, but the bridge was not finished until the close of 1851, at a cost of about forty thousand dollars. On the evening of March 15, 1883, it was destroyed by fire, but has since been rebuilt by the Reading Railroad Company, whose tracks are laid over it, and who have leased it since 1872.

No sooner had the De Kalb Street bridge been built than efforts were made to have a State road laid out from New Hope, on the Delaware, though Doyles- town, by way of this place and West Chester, to the Maryland line. To authorize this the Assembly passed

709

BOROUGH OF BRIDGEPORT.

an act at the same time the bridge was chartered. The road was accordingly laid out December 29, 1830, passing through Montgomery County a distance of sixteen miles. The court, August 17, 1831, directed it to be opened and cleared to the breadthi of forty feet. It has since been generally known as the State road. This road was turnpiked from Bridgeport to the King of Prussia in 1853.

The Reading Railroad Company was chartered April 4, 1833, and the next year the larger portion of the road was put under contract. On December 9, 1839, the first locomotive and train of cars passed over it to Reading. It was not opened to Pottsville till early in 1842, when the event was celebrated with a military display and an immense procession of seventy-five passenger cars, twelve hundred and fifty- five feet in length, containing two thousand one hun- dred and fifty persons, three bands of music, one hun- dred and eighty tons of coal, part of which was mined the same morning four hundred and twelve feet below water-level. In August, 1858, the writer, while stand- ing in De Kalb Street, counted a train of ninety-five cars passing loaded with coal, drawn by a single locomotive. The depot here was built in 1838, eighty feet long by thirty feet wide. Near by the company have also a building or reservoir to supply locomotives with water while stopping, which is elevated by means of water- power furnished at the spring. The Chester Valley Railroad Company was incorporated by act of April 22, 1850, and extends from Bridgeport to Downing- town, twenty-two miles. The first train of ears passed over it September 12, 1853. It is also operated by the Reading Company, and is connected with their road here and in Norristown.

In the desire to have a post-office here in 1836 a contest arose as to what it should be called; some were in favor of Evansville, others of Keigersville, but the majority settled on Bridgeport, which name has been retained. The post-office was established in 1837 and Jonathan Morris appointed postmaster. He kept at this time a store in De Kalb Street, near the bridge. Strange to say, from the want of support it was abol- ished about 1843. After the borough had been ineor- porated over two years, or in 1853, the application was renewed and it was re-established, with Francis Lyle postmaster. Ile was succeeded the following year by John HI. Rowan, next Abraham Schoffher for two years, E. M. Bickel in 1858, Jacob M. Hurst until May, 1861, when Dr. George W. Holstein was ap- pointed, who still retains the position. The mails have increased from one daily arrival and departure to seven, thus showing that the office is no sinecure.

by Gunner Rambo, Peter Rambo, Peter Yocum and John Matson. His tract lay farthest up the river, along which it had a frontage of nearly a mile, and extended back into the country twice that dis- tance, embracing all the territory upon which the borough of Bridgeport is now laid out, the Shainline farms and the land from Red Hill to the river. The house into which he moved his family was built of logs, on the site of what was afterwards known as the Swedes' Ford Hotel. In 1714 he built a stone house, upwards of a mile from the river, the walls of which are still standing, having been built upon and added to several times since. He died in 1738, aged sixty-one years. His eldest son, Andrew, inherited the land in the vicinity of Swedes' Ford, where he settled and re- mained until his death, in 1769. He had an only son, l'eter, who inherited the property, who married Abi- gail Jones. lle kept the Swedes' Ford public-house in 1779, if not earlier, and the following year was appointed collector of taxes for Upper Merion. In 1780 he was assessed for holding here one hundred and ninety-seven acres of land.

Mats Holstein, the first settler, at the time of his death had a second son, Mathias, who was just then aged twenty-one years. He soon after married Mag- dalena, daughter of Marcus Hulings, an early Swedish settler at Morlatton, on the Schuylkill, four miles above the present borough of Pottstown. From this union has descended all of the name now in this locality. They had one son and seven daughters. Samuel, the son, married Rachel, the daughter of Philip Moore, of Haverford. The offspring of this marriage were tour sons,-Mathias, Charles, George W. and William. Samuel Holstein is rated in the assessment of 1780 as holding in Upper Merion two hundred and seventy-eight aeres, one negro, five horses and nine cattle. Respecting his son, Major Mathias Holstein, who became a prominent citizen of Bridgeport and Norristown, we shall have more to say.

Swedes' Ford must have borne this name some time before 1723, for in November of this year applica- tion was made to the Governor and Council to have a road laid out from Whiteland, in Chester County, to this ford, which, in the spring of the following year, was confirmed, and ordered to " be with all convenient speed opened, cleared and made good." A portion of the old Swedes' Ford tavern was supposed by the late Matthias Holstein to have been built before 1730. How carly a public-house was kept here is not known, but certainly before 1760. It is a tradition that be- fore the Revolution the inn had on its sign a repre- sentation of a ferry. A road was opened in 1730 from Wells' ferry now New Hope, on the river Delaware, through the present Doylestown, to this place, and in an advertisement in the Pennsylvania Gazette of 1780. is called " the great road to the Swedes' Ford." That this was an early noted and important crossing-place

Although Bridgeport is of recent origin, as has been already stated, yet its history extends back to an early period. Swedes' Ford is within its limits, around which cluster both colonial and Revolutionary remi- niscences. In the year 1712, Mats Holstein, with his wife, Brita Gostenberg, moved into this neighborhood from the country below, accompanied is also confirmed by other authorities. Lewis Evans,

710

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

on his maps of 1749 and 1755 mentions it, also Nicholas and William Scull in 1759 and 1770, Thomas Pownal in 1776, and Reading Howell in 1792.

The battle of Brandywine was fought September 11, 1777; at twelve o'clock that night Washington wrote a dispatch to Congress from Chester, in which he says, "This day's engagement resulted in our defeat." On the 13th he formed his headquarters at Germantown, with the determination of having another engagement before the fate of Philadelphia shoukl be decided. General Armstrong, with a portion of the militia, was posted along the Schuylkill to throw up redoubts at the different fords where the enemy would be most likely to cross, and which were to be occasion- ally occupied while Washington moved with the main body of the army to the other side to make another attack. Apprehending that it would be very likely that the British would attempt to cross at Swedes' Ford, Chevalier Du Portail, a French engineer, con- structed a number of redoubts on the east side of the river, upwards of half a mile in length, with the as- sistance of Armstrong's command. It is said that they had scarcely completed these works before the British wade their appearance on the opposite side of the river, and on beholding the defenses, changed their purpose and crossed at Fatland Ford.

When Washington broke up his encampment at Whitemarsh with the intention of going into winter- quarters at Valley Forge, it was his intention to cross the Schuylkill at Matson's Ford now Conshohocken, for which purpose a temporary bridge was formed, but on reaching there they found that Lord Cornwallis was in possession of the Gulf Hills, when the troops were recalled, and he proceeded up the east side of the river. It was ascertained afterwards that the British troops on this occasion had only been out here on a foraging expedition. At Swedes' Ford the army crossed December 13th, which was witnessed by Major Holstein, then a boy accompanied by his father, who related that it was effected by making a bridge of wagons all backed to each other. The aforesaid date is confirmed by an eye-witness in a letter, Colonel John Laurens, Washington's private sec- retary, to his father, from which we take an ex- tract,-

"The army was ordered to march to Swedes' Ford and encamp with the right to the Schuylkill. The next morning the want of provisions-I could weep tears of blood when I say it-rendered it impossible to march- We did not march till the evening of that day. Our ancient bridge, an infamous construction which in many parts obliged the men to march in Indian file, was restored, and a bridge of waggons made over Swedes' Ford, but fence-rails from necessity bring substituted to plank, and fur- nishing a very unstable footing, the last served to cross a trifling num. ber of troops. On the 19th instant we marched from the Gulph to this camp."

The aforesaid is interesting, showing conclusively that Wasbington crossed here at the aforesaid date and that they remained encamped in the vicinity until the 19th, when they reached Valley Forge. Historians have been heretofore somewhat puzzled as to the

exact date of the army arriving at their winter quar- ters, which this now clearly establishes.

Mary, the only child of Peter Holstein, on the death of her father in 1785, inherited the whole of his property. Within four months of that occur- rence she married Levi Bartleson, stated to have been of reckless habits and to whom her parents had been opposed. Records show that he kept the Swedes' Ford tavern in 1786. In one year she was compelled to sell one hundred acres of the tract to pay off his most pressing debts. Thus the property became divided and before long passed entirely out of her hands.

The Chevalier Louis L. Du Portail, mentioned as an engineer, arrived in this country in 1777, having previously served in that capacity in the French army. On the following November 17th he was commissioned a brigadier-general, and in the begin- ning of 1778 a colonel of engineers. He was at York- town, and for his services in November, 1781, ap- pointed a major-general. He soon after this sailed for France, but returned before 1789, and purchased a farm here from James Philip Delacour, assessed in 1804 as containing one hundred and seventy-one acres. He built a dwelling where the present Evans House stands, where he resided with his family. He advertised to sell at public sale, June 15, 1801, all his farming stock and utensils, including "two planta- tions adjoining each other." He soon after this sailed for France, but it is stated died on the passage out. The property going to decay and the taxes unpaid, it was sold by the sheriff some time after 1804, and purchased by Elisha Evans, and from him came into the possession of his son, Cadwallader Evans, who laid out the up- per part of Bridgeport, and also largely contributed to its improvement.

The remaining portion of the tract around Swedes' Ford, which Mary Holstein was obliged to part with after her marriage with Bartleson, was purchased by Jesse Roberts, who sold it in 1800 to Samuel Holstein, from whom it descended to his son, the late Major Mathias Ilolstein, of Norristown. We find in the asses- sor's list of 1804 that he then kept the old Swedes' Ford tavern and was the owner of two farms in Upper Merion, one of fifty-one acres, which we presume was here; the other contained one hundred and four- teen acres. He was also taxed for keeping the ferry, which was rated at one hundred and twenty dollars per annum. While he resided here he built an addi- tion to the house. In 1806 his property here was purchased by Samuel Henderson, and he removed to Norristown. In this connection a further account of Major Holstein may not be amiss. He was born October 10, 1772, on the old homestead that had been so long in the family. He related that about 1790 he was the means of killing, on his father's farm, a bear, by shooting it while on a tree where it had sought refuge. In the spring of 1802 he was elected major

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History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 157

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 1534

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1534