History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 160

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

USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania > Part 160

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The public or common school in this borough is open for seven months in the year, and the wages paid the teacher is thirty-three dollars per month. The post- office is located here, and the railroad depot for passen- gers and freight brings to the village the general trade of an industrious and providential community.

Mercantile appraiser's return for 1884: Merchan- dise, J. R. Allebach ; live stock, Frank Frederick ; lumber, H. N. Scholl; flour and feed, HI. N. Scholl ; Number oftaxables, 1884, 54; value of improved land 874,400 ; value of unimproved land, $5685; value of horses, $2015; value of cattle, $670; total value of taxable property for county purposes, 891,210.

CHAPTER XLIV.

BOROUGH OF HATBORO'.'

THIS borough was incorporated August 26, 1871, and contains an area of about six hundred acres, taken wholly from Moreland township. Its extreme length from north to south is one and a half miles; greatest breadth, three-fourths of a mile ; and extends on the Bucks County line nearly half said distance. The main part of the town is situated along the old York road, which is now called York Avenue, opened through from Philadelphia to the present Centre Bridge in the fall of 1711. The Hatboro' and War- minster turnpike was completed in 1850, and extends from the Willow Grove to the Street road, a distance of four and a half miles. This improvement is laid on the bed of the old York road, which extends through the whole length of the borough, dividing it very nearly into two equal portions. The Northeast Pennsylvania Railroad is a branch of the North Pennsylvania road, and commences at Abington Station and extends to Hartsville, a distance of nearly

1 By Wm. J. Buck.

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

ten miles. It was commenced in 1872 and opened for travel December 18th of that year to the county line, and in 1875 extended to Hartsville, its present termins, The Hatboro' Station is six and four-fifths miles from Abington, three from Hartsville and six- teen from Philadelphia. Fulmor Station, near its southern extremity, is also within the borough limits. Five passenger-trains pass through here daily to Phil- adelphia.

The place is progressing, and now contains two hotels, two drug, one boot and shoe, one hardware one jewelry and clothing, two confectionery, one fur' niture and three general stores. There are, besides two carriage manufactories, two blacksmith-shops' one wheelwright, two tin-shops, two bakers, one machine-shop, two merchant flour-mills, one livery- stable, one lumber and two coal-yards. According to the census of 1880 it contained five hundred and eighty- six inhabitants. The assessment for 1883 returned two hundred and twenty-four taxables and four hun- dred and sixteen thousand eight hundred and ninety- five dollars as the amount of taxable property. The means for education have not been neglected, and in this respect it has enjoyed unusual advantages for a long time. The library was founded in 1755, and now contains over ten thousand volumes and has one hun- dred and forty-six members. The academy was built in 1811-12 from the proceeds of a bequest from Judge Loller. The public schools are hell in this building, and for the year ending June 1, 1882, had an average attendance of seventy-nine pupils for ten months. The post-office now possesses two daily communica- tions with Philadelphia. The national bank was es- tablished here shortly after the incorporation of the borough, with a capital of sixty thousand dollars. Its present officers are Hon. I. N. Evans, president; Jus- tice Mitchell, vice-president; and James Vanhorn, cashier. Three public halls are in the place. LoHler Lodge of Independent Order of Odd-Fellows own a three-story stone buikling, in which they hold their meetings, which was erected in 1851 and dedicated October 9th of said year. The W. K. Bray Lodge of Mas ms meet in Jones' llall. The Patriotic Sons of America also possess an organization.

The name of the place is said to be derived from one of the first stone houses built here, which was abont 1705, and in which, shortly after, John Dawson followed for many years his occupation of making hats. This building likewise became a tavern, and had for its sign a crooked billet, suggested by a popu- lar inn then kept in Water Street, Philadelphia. It stood near the centre of the present town, on the old York road, where is now the dwelling-house of Oliver Watson, and into which, on being modernized, a por- tion was incorporated. We know from records that John Dawson was still residing here in 1734 on a lot of three acres, and that a Daniel Dawson at that time owned four aeres. The earliest mention of the name we have found is on Lewis Evans' map of Pennsylvania

and the adjoining provinces, published in 1749, where it is called "Hatboro'," precisely as it is now written. In an advertisement in Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette of October 12, 1752, it is mentioned as the "Crooked Billet." The library records in 1755 call it "Hatborough," and the meetings are mentioned as being held at the house of "David Reese, at ye Crooked Billet." Our next authority in the order of time is Nicholas Scull's map of Pennsylvania, pub- lished in 1759, on which it is "Billet ;" the same also on William Scull's map of 1770. Washington, in his letter to Congress from this vicinity, dated August 10, 1777, mentions therein the "Billet tavern." General Laey, in his correspondence of 1778, calls the place "Crooked Billet," as also Majors Simcoe and Sted- man, who were British officers in the skirmish here. Reading Howell, in his township map of 1792, calls it "Hatborough," and also Joseph Scott, in his Gazetteer of 1795. Now, carefully considering these several authorities, we come to the conclusion that the proper name of the place or village from the beginning was Hatboro', and by the Billet or Crooked Billet was more particularly meant the tavern that had here this sign, which conclusion is sustained by the library records and Washington's correspondence.

A road was laid out from Byberry to Horsham in 1720 and passes through the central part of Hatboro'. That portion east of York Avenue has been called Byberry Avenue, and that extending westward More- land Avenue. The county line road, leading from the present toll-gate to Græme Park, was laid out in 1722. As the York road was opened through here still carlier, it would denote that some settlement in and around here must then have been made. David Reese, whom we know kept the tavern here in 1759, had a daughter, Rebecca, married to John Hart, of Warminster. Jacob Tomkins kept a store in 1761; the following year the library was removed to his house, and for some time he performed the duties of librarian, secretary and treasurer. In 1776 he was taxed for fifty-six acres, which would indicate that he also carried on farming. In the fall of 1786, William Todd purchased Tomkins' share in the library, when it is probable he removed from the neighbor- hood. Abraham Duffield, in 1784, kept a public-house in the lower part of the village, to which the library was soon after removed, and where it remained for some time. John J. Marple became the proprietor of this inn and kept it at least from 1814 to 1825. He was postmaster in 1816. This office is stated to have been established here about 1809, chiefly through the exertions of the Hon. N. B. Boileau. In an adver- tisement of Mr. Marple's property, in 1825, it is described as containing "a large two-story house, sixty by forty feet," two barns and sixty-one acres ot land. In 1813 the polling places of Moreland and Horsham were removed here from Abington, and continued until after 1828. These were at the stand now known as Jones' Hotel.

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BOROUGH OF HATBORO.

Colonel John Lacy, of Bucks County, was commis- sioned a brigadier-general January 8, 1778, and to him was given the command of the militia between the rivers Schuylkill and Delaware. His orders were to watch the enemy, to protect the inhabitants and pre- vent further intercourse between the British and the country and cut off all supplies designed for their use. To carry out these measures he was stationed at War- wick about the middle of January, on the 23d at Græme Park and next at the Cross-Roads (now Ilarts_ ville). From the latter place he proceeded to Hatboro' where he formed his camp on the Byberry road, about half a mile east of the village. He received here four hundred men from York and Cumberland Counties. which made his forces amount to about four hundred and fifty men, who were poorly supplied with arms and ammunition, suffering at times severely for pro- visions, and often only two days' allowance in camp. As he had been pretty active in cutting off supplies going to the city, as well as arresting the parties con- cerned therein, it was determined by the British to effect his capture in the night through information received from spies resident in the vicinity. Early on the morning of May 1, 1778, a detachment of the British army from Philadelphia, composed chiefly of American loyalists, under command of Lieutenant- Colonel Abercrombie and Major Simcoe, made a sudden attack on the camp, in which about thirty Americans were killed and seventeen wounded. The British loss was trifling,-some six or seven men were wounded, five horses found dead and three captured. During the skirmish some of the wounded were either conveyed to, or sought shelter in, a heap of buckwheat straw, to which the enemy set fire, and perished in the greatest agony. They soon after hastily retreated to the city, when the dead were collected and placed in one grave on the north side of the County Line road near what has been long known as Wood's Corner. A handsome white marble monument, twenty feet high, was erected on the east side of York Avenue, on an elevated site, by the citizens of the neighbor- hood in 1861, in commemoration of those who lost their lives in this attack.

Mills must have been early established here on the Pennypack. Nicholas Scull mentions on his map Dungworth's mill beside the York road in 1759. This property in 1787 was owned by Mordecai Thomas, who was taxed for one hundred and ninety-four acres of land, four dwellings and a grist-mill. In 1808 he had erected here a mill for carding wool, which was for some time extensively carried on. For a long pe- riod Hatboro' has been noted for its wagon and carriage- making establishments. John Paxson advertised in 1807 that he had a two-story stone coach-shop, thirty by twenty feet, a blacksmith-shop, thirty by eighteen feet, and a harness making shop, thirty-six by sixteen feet, with other buildings essential to the business. At a meeting in September, 1814, a company of fifty- two was raised here for the war with England, of which

Alexander McClean was elected captain and Thomas L. Boileau first lieutenant. During the Revolu- tion Hatboro' is stated to have contained about vigh- teen houses, one-half of which were built of logs, a tavern, store, a mill and blacksmith-shop. Scott, in his "Gazetteer" of 1795, mentions it as containing about twenty houses and a library of a thousand volumes. In 1850 it contained three hundred and four inhabit- ants, about fifty-six houses, three stores, two taverns, two merchant flour-mills, two churches, academy, li- brary and several mechanic shops.

About a quarter of a mile east of the town, on the north side of the Byberry road, stood a small one- story stone school-house, supposed to have been built about 1730. Here, in 1768, N. B. Boileau first went to school. After the erection of the academy, in 1812, this was ordered to be sold, with the lot of ground belonging thereto. One-half the proceeds were given to the academy, and the balance towards the erection of a new school-house on the land of Isaac Piekering, about a mile distant on the county line, and near its intersection with the Newtown road. The venerable building alluded to, after being sold, was converted into a dwelling-house, and stood till about 1862, when it was torn down, and the spot is now under cultiva- tion, with nothing to denote its former existence.

From the report of the grand jury in 1773 we learn that the York road passed over the Pennypack Creek by a bridge, which they state "is now very much out of repair and should be repaired at the expense of the county, in consequence of its being so publie a road." It may have been at this time temporarily improved, but we doubt that much more was done to it. However, in 1789 the whole structure was torn away and a new one of stone erected in its place by the county, about twenty-four yards above the present bridge. The late George Kenderdine informed us that he remembered it well, and that it consisted of one arch of an exact semieirenlar form of twenty-four feet span, and that when built it was considered a marvel of workmanship. It possessed short abut- ments, or wing-walls, making it high in the centre, and which made the travel over it difficult. When the stream became high the water would flow around it, thus rendering it at times extremely unpleasant to cross, especially for those afoot. It was only half the length of the present bridge and not of sufficient width to let wagons pass each other. The master- mason and probable architeet was Stephen Love, who fancied its only arch the perfection of skill. An act was passed April 6, 1830, for James M. Porter, Samuel Hart and John H. Hill to view and lay out the York road down to the Willow Grove. When they came to the Pennypack they directed the road to be laid further down so as to materially straighten it in a distance of two hundred yards. It was on this route that the present substantial bridge was built in 1824, which possesses three arches, each of eighteen feet span. The date-stone of the former bridge having

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

been inserted in this one, has led persons to believe that the present structure was built in 1789. A tra- dition exists that just before the arch of the previous bridge was completed, a person residing in the vicinity ran his horse over it safely at one prodigious leap, for the honor, as he said, of being the first to pass over it.

There is reason to believe that the first newspaper published anywhere in the lower portion of Mont- gomery County, outside of Norristown, was The Lit- erary Chronicle, issued weekly by Oliver I. Search, at Hatboro', in the beginning of June, 1840. The size of its sheet was twenty-two by thirty-two inches, with six columns to a page. It was published on Tuesdays, at two dollars per annum, in a building adjoining the upper hotel. About April, 1842, or after it had ex- isted one year and ten months, Mr. Search removed the establishment to Newtown, where it was continued under several names until 1848. The second attempt at newspaper publishing in Hatboro' was by Dr. Wm. T. Robinson, September 7, 1873, when the Public Spirit commenced its career on a sheet twenty-four by twenty-eight inches in size, and a few years there- after it was enlarged to its present dimensions. It is published every Saturday, and has now attained its eleventh year with a good circulation. From a few numbers of The Literary Chronicle we ascertain that in 1841 the following persons were in business in Hatboro' : Lukens Wakefield and David Titus, coach and house-painters ; Abraham Haslett, smith ; Hiram Reading, store; Charles Wakefield, tailor ; G. W. Gil- bert, wheelwright ; Il. N. Smith, boot and shoemaker; and O. I. Search, job printing.

The Methodist Episcopal Church was the first erected in the place. The corner-stone was laid Sep- tember 8, 1836, on which occasion Rev. David Bar- tine preached ; it was dedicated May 22, 1837. It was a plain stone edifice, forty by fifty feet in dimensions, and the parsonage was built at the expense of Joseph and Deborah Lehman, and by them presented to the congregation. The church cost two thousand seven hundred dollars and the parsonage two thousand one hundred dollars. Mr. Lehman died November 11, 1845, aged eighty-one years and Deborah, his wife, April 4, 1841, aged seventy-four, both being interred under one large flat stone beside the church. In 1879 the congre- gation determined on rebuilding it after a Gothic de- sign, to which a steeple is attached. The lot of ground contains about one and a half acres, is neatly inclosed and well-shaded. The building and grounds are kept in neat order and are an ornament to the town. It is called Lehman Chapel, and is situated on the west side of York Avenue, but a short distance above the Pennypack bridge. Rev. M. A. Day was ap- pointed to this charge in March, 1883, as successor to Rev. Peter Cox. On the tombstones in the grave- yard are found the names of Wood, Murray, Wil- son, Bisbing, Eisenbrey, Meyers, Moore, Kenderdine, Sutch, Wakefield, Cline, Mottershead, Stewart, Ben-

ninghoff, Arnold, Fisher, Coar, Chilcott, Tudor, Em- erson, Perry, King, Bower, Fesmire, Forpin, Bush, Sisty, Beans, Goentner, Maxwell, Christopher and Mc Dowell.

The Baptist Church is located on the east side of York Avenue, near the upper part of the town. It is of stone, forty by sixty feet in dimensions, and sur- mounted by a spire ninety feet high. The congre- gation was organized in September, 1835, and held worship in Loller Academy until the erection of the building. The corner-stone was laid September 5, 1839, and the church was dedicated January 16, 1840, and cost eleven hundred dollars. In 1855 it was deemed insufficient for the accommodation of the worshipers and the present more commodious edifice was erected at an expense of upwards of four thousand dollars. At the laying of the corner-stone, May 22nd of that year, the Rev. Daniel Dodd preached. The pastors in charge from the beginning have been Rev. William Maule, J. P. Walton, Mathew Semple, J. J. Baker, Samuel J. Creswell, Lewis Smith, Theophilus Jones, George Hand from May, 1852, to January 1, 1862; Thomas R. Taylor, July, 1862, until his death, in April, 1863; William S. Wood, from the autumn of 1863 to about the close of 1 867; Isaac C. Wynn, February 8, 1868, to June, 1870; George Bowman, September, 1870, to April, 1879; 1. Blanchard Hutchinson, September 1879 to the present time. About one hundred and eighty members belong to the congregation, to which are also attached four Sunday-schools, with thirty teachers and two hundred and twenty scholars. The church premises comprise upwards of two acres of ground, on which is a two-story stone parsonage and a sexton's house. The entrance to the church is approached through a fine, shady avenue of maples. The grave- yard is to the rear and is of ample size. On the numerous stones aronnd are found the names of Fretz, Bitting, Martin, Scott, Lester, Sutch, Yerkes, Craven, Lukens, Search, Johnson, Meredith, Snyder, Haslet, Kimbell, Vanartsdalen, Booskirk, Rover, Margerum, Stockdale, Robbins, Lower, Dean, Taylor, Hill, Beans, Ashton, Swartz, MeNair, Baine, Marple, James, Hay, Ilobensack, Evans, Morgan, Humphreys, Davis, McDowell, Mathew and Eisenbrey.

The cemetery is located on the north bank of the Pennypack, to the east of York Avenue. The grounds comprise about twenty-one acres. In 1882 a two- story house was built for the residence of the super- intendent, and a chapel and gateway erected of stone. The interments up to October 1, 1883, have numbered ninety. The cemetery association was organized in 1876 and incorporated March 17, 1877. A street has since been opened along its whole northern boundary rendering it convenient of approach from several directions. The ground is elevated and ascends with sufficient slope from the stream to be of easy drainage. The whole has been inclosed and handsomely divided into sections and plots fronting on its several avenues and walks that extend in various directions. Though

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BOROUGH OF HATBORO ..

but a comparatively few years have elapsed since | this cemetery was laid out, yet numbers have availed themselves ofits privileges in purchasing lots, as may be seen by the graves of those since buried here, ornamented with flowers and neat tombstones and railings around. A stroll here affords a view of a rich productive and improving country, diversified with beautiful scenery, adorned with com- fortable homes and inhabited by an intelligent people. In sight is Huckleberry Ilill, Edge IIill, Sampson's Hill, Horseheaven, the place of Lacey's defeat and the Pennypaek which need only be men- tioned to revive legendary and historical associations.

Robert Loller resided in the house now veenpied by the principal of the academy. In early life he was a school-teacher, and followed subsequently the business of surveying and conveyancing. He was mar- ried to Mary, the daughter of Archibald McClean, of JIorsham. In 1776 he was chosen one of the deputies ofthe county to frame and adopt a new State Con- stitution. He soon after joined the army of Washington, and was in the battles of Trenton, Princeton and Ger- mantown. He became a colonel in the army, a member of the library in 1787, member of Assembly and associate judge of the county for many years. He died October 21, 1808, aged sixty-eight years. Through his bequest the academy was built in 1811-12 on his estate, and handsomely endowed.

In the lower part of the present borough, adjoining Loller Academy, long resided Nathaniel B. Boileau, a native of the vicinity, and a son of Isaac Boileau. He was a graduate of Princeton College, a member of Assembly, in 1808 chosen Speaker of that body, and for nine years Secretary of State to Governor Simon Snyder. In 1836 he was appointed register of wills for the county. Ile was personally acquainted with John Fitel, the steamboat inventor, who was a fre- quent visitor to his father's house. He was also the executor of Judge Loller's estate, and superintended the erection of the academy. Hedied March 16, 1850, in his eighty-eighth-year.

By a popular vote, in the spring of 1884, authorized by an act of Assembly passed the previous year, it was decided that a pavement seven feet wide be laid along each side of York Avenue. The borough paid the damages occasioned in carrying out this measure, in the removal of buildings, etc. We cannot leave this subject without expressing a regard for the memory of George Kenderdine, the first burgess of the town and a resident the third of a century. Ile was a native of Horsham, a millwright by profession and an ingennous man, modest, unassuming and friendly in his inter- course and ever disposed for the advancement of the general good. He died February 8, 1883, at the close of an useful life.

The Union Library,-An institution that was established one hundred and thirty years ago for the dissemination of useful knowledge in this county and has flourished ever since certainly merits some notice

in a historical work of this nature. At the date of its origin there could not have been above eight or nine public libraries in the thirteen colonies, of which two had been established in Philadelphia. To show the enterprise of its projectors at this time and the sparse- ness of population, Hatboro' could not have then contained above a dozen houses, and it is probable that in this respect it was not surpassed by any village within a distance of ten miles. In a country so new and unsettled, and at a time when book publishing was almost unknown here and the people compelled to import most of the books they did get, and at high prices, it certainly required some effort and pecuniary sacrifice, to establish such a library. We should remember, too, that it was at a gloomy period in the history of Pennsylvania; war existed with the French and the Indians, and the latter were mas- sacring hundreds of the inhabitants within a distance of sixty miles. Indeed, so intent were they on its establishment that the first meeting called for the purpose was only ten days after Braddock's defeat, which, with all the appalling results, did not deter or prevent them from prosecuting the matter so vigor- ously that it soon became a success.

The circumstances under which the library was founded are thus set forth in its proceedings : " Where- as dark ignorance, with all the concomitants that flow from it, did about this time prevail in these parts, and no general scheme on foot for the promotion of knowl- edge and virtue, this, by some of the thinking part of the people, was looked upon with concern, and some proposals were made for executing a public library of select books as the most likely way to expel those gloomy clouds of ignorance and open profaneness so much abounding, and give the gentle reader an agree- able taste for learning. However, nothing was done towards the formation thereof until the beginning of the summer of 1755, when the same came to be seri- ously considered on the 19th of July, when a meeting of conference was held on the premises by the Rev. Charles Beatty, Rev. Joshua Potts, John Lukens and Joseph Hart, when a plan for establishing the same was unanimously agreed upon. Public notice was then given to all persons willing or desirous to pro- mote said library that they should meet at David Rees', at ye Crooked Billet, the second day of August, for establishing the same," on which occasion the plan was read and approved and signed by the several members, who were required to meet the first Satur- day in November to choose officers and make their first payment.

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History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 160

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