History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 210

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 210

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Huntingdon Valley is situated on the Middle road, near the Pennypack Creek, and but a short distance from the Abington line. It contains two hotels, two stores, a hall, merchant mill, church, post-office, coal and lumber-yard, railroad-station and about forty houses. Eagle Hall, belonging to the I. O. O. F., was originally built in 1850, is a large two-story stone building, recently improved. The Presbyterian Church is a one-story stone building, surmounted with a steeple, erected in 1861. The pastors who have served the church from its organization are as follows: Revs. theorge J. Mingins, James B. Ken- nedy, Thomas Gray, T. C. Anderson, J. J. Cowles and the Rev. W. S. Barnes, the present pastor. The church has a membership of eighty-four. Adjoining the latter is a hall for concerts and lectures, contain-

ing a reading-room and library. The public school- honse is two stories high, built in 1857. A factory has recently been erected here by a company for the manufacture of metallic caps for blasting purposes, employing about a dozen hands and capable of turning ont forty thousand caps daily. Near the lower part of the village the Jenkintown Branch of the New York Railroad and the Newtown Railroad intersect each other, tending to add considerable to its prosperity. In 1852 the place contained only twelve or fourteen houses. In 1711 the Welsh road is mentioned as crossing at a ford here over the Pennypack, showing that there was then some travel and a settlement made. John Boutcher, of Moreland, by his will, dated June 25, 1707, bequeathed to his son Samuel three hundred and fifty acres of land, with all its improvements, and mentioned it as being "at Huntingdon." A part of this tract came in possession of Thomas Austin, whom we know had a grist-mill erected thereon before 1747, a public road to which is men- tioned. This is the mill property now belonging to John Walton, from whose deeds we have received these facts. When application was made here for a post-office, which was previous to 1850, to retain the name of Huntingdon, Valley was added on account of the former name existing elsewhere in the State. About the beginning of this century the name of Goosetown was given it, derived, it is said, from the great numbers of geese raised in this vicinity along the Pennypack. On the completion of the railroad to New York, in 1876, the station here was called Bethayres, a contraction of Elizabeth Ayres, who was born here and mother of one of the directors of this improvement. Near where the Welsh road crosses the Pennypack are still to be seen the ruins of the old stone school-house, built about 1790, where the ancestors of numbers in the vicinity formerly received their education. The turnpike through here to the Fox Chase was finished in 1848, crossing the Penny- pack by a substantial stone bridge, built hy the county in 1811. Although the merchant mill of Mr. Walton here is situated nine miles from the source of the creek, which receives in this distance numerous tributaries, the diminution of water in dry seasons became so great that in the summer of 1881 he had placed within it a steam-engine to afford additional power. Along the stream in this vicinity the ground lies low, and in time of freshets is subject to over- flows. The surrounding country, however, is quite rolling and attains to some elevation. The Penny- pack here affords boating and fishing, and a short distance below the turnpike bridge the scenery as- sumes a more romantic character. The census of 1880 exhibits one hundred and fifty-four inhabitants.

Yerkesville is situated not far from the centre of the township, near Terwood Run, and has also been long known as Blaker's Corner. It contains about eight houses, a store and blacksmith-shop. Richard E. Yerkes carried on here a cotton-factory in 1850. On

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MORELAND TOWNSHIP.

its site, in 1776, John Nesmith carried on a grist and saw-mill. Shelmire's Mills, on the Pennypack, was formerly a noted business place. Near the beginning of this century Jacob Shelmire carried on here ex- tensively the manufacture of flour. The Sorrel Horse tavern is situated on the Middle road pike, about two miles above Huntingdon Valley. The township elec- tions have been held here for about half a century, the Lower District voting here since 1878. The turn- pike was extended from this place to Richborough in 1850. Morgan's Mill is near Heaton Station, and contains a grist-mill and ten houses.

This township was called by William Penn after Nicholas More, a physician of London, president of the Free Society of Traders and the first chief jus- tice of Pennsylvania, who arrived here in Novem- ber, 1682. More is a word of Celtic origin, signifying great. The warrant was granted 5th of Eleventh Month, 1682, for nine thousand eight hundred and fifteen acres, and it was located and the deed given the 7th of Sixth Month, 1684. In an ex- amination of Holme's map of original surveys it will be observed that a long, narrow strip be- tween More's grant and the Bucks County line is mentioned thereon as belonging to Joel Jelson. Thomas Lloyd and Thomas Fairman, containing about fourteen hundred acres. With this exception, the original purchase comprised all of what was known by the name of Moreland, in Philadelphia County, down to the organization of Montgomery. in 1784, when much the larger portion was taken into the latter county. By the conditions of his patent, Nicholas More and his heirs and successors were re- ' quired to pay forever unto the proprietary and his heirs and successors annually a silver English shill- ing for every hundred acres as quit-rent. This ! payment was about equivalent to the interest of three

hundred and seventy-five dollars at six per cent. The three were land-holders and the balance tenants. Of commissioners of property issued a warrant, dated , the former. John Van Buskirk is mentioned as own-

July 10, 1689, to Thomas Fairman, the deputy sur- veyor-general, to resurvey this grant, when an over- plus of tive hundred acres was found and was laid off in one piece on the upper part, adjoining the present township of Horsham.

About 1685, Nicholas More commenced the erection of buildings on the eastern part of his tract, near the present village of Somerton, now in Philadelphia, and where he also built a mansion-house, which formed the first settlement in Moreland, and called it Green Spring. In April, 1685, the Council ordered that the boundary between Philadelphia and Bucks should be determined. In making this survey we learn that where the County Line road extends along the entire length of the township there was then a dense forest, and that they were compelled to mark the course on the trees.

After his death, in 1688, the heirs of Nicholas More continued selling off portions of his exten- sive estate to actual settlers and others, so that the

greater part was soll before 1720. In 1703 twelve hundred acres were purchased by Nicholas Waln and Thomas Shute; this embraced all the land in and around the Willow Grove and the western corner of the township. In 1719, Jacob and James Dubree purchased three hundred acres from the heirs and settled upon the same. In the vicinity of Hunt- ingdon Valley, in 1702, three hundred and fifty acres were sold to John Boutcher. Richard Hill of Phila- delphia, in 1711, purchased four hundred and five acres, and, in 1713, fourteen hundred and four acres additional, which lay along the Abington line and extended to the present Yerkesville. All this tract was still in the possession of the family in the year 1730.

William Allen, of Philadelphia, sold to William Walton, in 1712, five hundred and fifty-two acres situated to the southeast of Hatboro'. James Cooper purchased three hundred acres, in 1711, in the vicinity of Morgan's Mill, on which he settled and made the first improvements. On a part of this tract Thomas Parry built a grist-mill before 1736. The York Road, in 1711, was extended across the full breadth of the northwest part of the township up to the river Dela- ware, at the present C'entre Bridge. The Welsh road was laid out the same year from Gwynedd to the i present Huntingdon Valley, to enable the people settled there to reach the Pennypack Mills. The Byberry road was extended to Horsham Meeting- house in 1720. In 1722 roads were laid out from the York Road at the present Willow Grove, and on the Bucks County line to Governor Keith's settlement, in Horsham. All these improvements invited settlement and denoted that a rapid extension of population was taking place northwards from the city.

In 1734 Moreland had already seventy-one taxa- bles settled within its limits. Of this number, forty-

ing 180 acres ; Benjamin Cooper, 100; Walter Comly, 100; John Comly, 100; John Dorland, 200; Thomas Pennington. 150; Sampson David, 50; John Led- yard, 100; James Dubree, 150; Joseph Comly, 100; John Simcoek, 10; David Marple, Thomas Murrell, 15; John Dawson, 3; William Hancock, 1; Daniel Dawson, 4; William Murray, 29; William Mops, 19; Standish Ford, 4; Isaac Tustin, 100; Richard Marple, 170; Garret Wynkoop, 200; Henry Comly, 300; Isaac Walton, 100; Peter Luken, 100; Nicholas Gilbert, 200; Thomas Lloyd, 120; Thomas Wood, 200; Jere- miah Walton, 100; James Ilawkins, 50; Thomas Walton, 50; Thomas Whitton, 100; John Boutcher, 100; Widow Dungworth, 9; Cornelius Wynkoop, 100; Thomas Kirke, 40; Patrick Kelly, 100; Joseph Duf- field, 200; Joseph Van Buskirk, 150; Joseph Mc- Vaugh, 100; Harman Yerkes, 150; Theodorus Hall, 150; and Samuel Boutcher, 50 acres. From the list of tenants we extract the following names : James Watson, Peter Jones, John Michener, Jacob Bennet,

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Caleb Walton, Samuel Worthington, George Newell, James Erwin, Tunis Titus and Joseph Lewis.

Of the descendants of those in the aforesaid list, we still find here those bearing the names of Van Bus- kirk, Comly, Marple, Murray, Wynkoop, Walton, Gilbert, Lloyd, Wood, Boutcher, Duffield, McVaugh, Yerkes, Michener, Worthington, Erwin and Titus. Of the aforesaid, the Yerkes' have become the most numerous. David and Anthony Yerkes, ancestors of the family, came from Germany and settled in Ger- mantown before the year 1693. Harman Yerkes, in the above list, resided in the central part of the township, near the present Shelmire's Mills. Henry Comly, of Bucks County, in 1695, purchased of John Holme, Nicholas More's mansion and six hundred acres near Somerton, which remained in the family until 1860, when, on the death of Franklin Comly, Esq., then came into possession of Moses Knight. Jeremiah Walton, Sr., eame from Byberry, and was married to Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Walmsley. They had children,-Willian, born 1719; Thomas, 1721; Rachel, 1724; Jeremiah, 1726; Jacob, 1728; James, 1730; Mary, 1732; Sarah, 1734; Elizabeth, 1737; and Phebe, 1740. He died in 1740 and was buried at Horsham. John and Sarah Miehener settled about a mile east of Willow Grove in 1715. They had six children, and their descendants are now numerous. In the assessment of Moreland for 1776 we find the names of Thomas Michener, holding one hundred and sixty acres, and William Michener, one hundred acres. Arnold Michener, cordwainer, is mentioned as residing in Abington in 1780. The aforesaid John Michener was one of the founders and overseers of Horsham Meeting, and was settled in Philadelphia before 1696.

Concerning the disappearance of certain animals and birds in this section, the following facts have been aseertained: Thomas Hallowell shot two deer, in 1744, near the Upper Dublin line. A bear was seen in that vicinity as late as 1772. James Dubree, in 1762, shot a wild turkey that weighed thirty-two pounds, on a tall hickory-tree, halt a mile west of Willow Grove. This tree was three feet in dia- meter and stood until about 1866, when it was blown down in a storm. Joseph Hallowell shot, in the same vicinity, between the years 1774 and 1776, four wild turkeys. Previous to 1810 wild pigeons bred in the woods, and as many as twenty nests were sometimes eounted on one tree. Raecoon-hunting by moonlight was a favorite diversion as late as 1820. Such are the changes brought about by an inereasing population since the first settlement !

From the assessment of 1776 we obtain the follow- ing information : Samnel Shoemaker, a tan-yard and 75 acres ; Isaac Cadwallader and Mordecai Thomas, smiths; Isaae Stoltz, Stephen Love and Samuel Shoemaker, masons; Isaac Longstreth, tan-yard and 9 aeres; Samuel Swift, doctor; John Blaker, joiner ; Philip Crips, cooper ; Robert Field, turner; Joseph

Hart, grist-mill and 40 acres ; Silas Yerkes, grist-mill and 100 acres; Daniel Regen, grist-mill and 47 acres; John Parry, grist-mill and 106 acres ; John Nesmith, grist and saw-mill and 60 acres; Isaae Warner, grist and saw-mill and 19 aeres; Thomas Austin, grist-mill and 140 acres. Joseph Hart's mill is now owned by Dr. William Hallowell, and was built in 1762 by Samuel Lloyd. John Parry's mill is now owned by Benjamin Morgan. John Nesmith's mill was on the site of the cotton-factory at Yerkesville. Thomas Austin's mill at Huntingdon Valley, is now owned by John Walton. Silas Yerkes' grist-mill is the property so long known as Shelmire's Mills. John Tomkins kept store in Hatboro', and probably then the only one in the township. In the Revolution the British did some damage in Moreland,-most likely in some of their ineursions while in pos- session of Philadelphia. For this cause Samuel Boutcher, residing near Huntingdon Valley, was al- lowed £402; William Tillyer, £250; James Dyer, £176; and John Wynkoop, £119.

In' the assessment of Moreland for 1785 mention is made of 343 horses, 373 cattle, 4 bound servants, 19 negro slaves, 14 riding-chairs, 3 family wagons, 1 phaeton, 10 grist-mills, 3 saw-mills, one fulling-mill, 1 oil-mill, 2 tanneries and 1 distillery. The largest land-holders were: Jonathan Clayton, 370 acres ; Isaac Boileau, 220; Samuel Boutcher, 202; Mordecai Thomas, 194; Joseph Folwell, 186; Abraham Duffield, 157; and Andrew Van Buskirk, 153 acres. According to the census of 1790, Isaac Boileau had 3 slaves ; Garret Wynkoop, 2; Andrew Van Buskirk, 2; Joseph Fol- well, 1; and Enoch Green, 1. In the assessment of 1787 mention is made of Peter Tyson having an oil and fulling-mill; David Cumming, store-keeper, 2 bought servants. 134 acres, 4 dwellings, 3 horses and a riding-chair; Mordecai Thomas, 194 aeres, 4 dwell- ings, grist-mill and 3 horses ; William Dean, Esq., 108 aeres, 3 horses aud a riding-chair. Mr. Cum- ming kept store at the Willow Grove, Mordecai Thomas resided at Hatboro', and Mr. Dean was a magistrate at Huntingdon Valley and eolonel of the Fourth Battalion of the Philadelphia militia from 1777 to 1780.1

Among the township officers Henry Comly was collector in 1718; Joseph Hall, 1719; Marcus Huling, 1720; Thomas Parry, 1723; William Britain, 1724; and Walter Comly in 1742. Joseph Kelly was ap- pointed to said office in 1741, and on his refusal to serve was fined ten shillings. Joseph Butler was constable in 1767 and John Wynkoop in 1774; Philip Wynkoop and John Hancock supervisors in 1767; Isaac Cadwallader and John Sommer in 1773; Garret Van Buskirk and John Rhoads in 1785; and Amos Addis and Charles Johnson in 1810. The elections for Moreland and twelve other town-

1 Col. Dean was one of the first four Justices of the Montgomery County Courts. Died September 4, 1807, aged sixty-seven years.

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MORELAND TOWNSHIP.

ships were held at Whitemarsh for twelve years, when, in 1797, they were removed to Abington; next, in 1813, to Hatboro', and before 1838 to the "Sorrel Horse." Moreland was divided March 4, 1878, by order of court, into what is called the Upper and Lower Election Districts, the former voting at Willow Grove and the latter at the " Sorrel Horse,"

Montgomery was formed into a county from Phila- delphia by an act passed September 10, 1784. The twenty-first section of the aet states that "it is rep- resented by petition to the General Assembly that by the lines hereinbefore mentioned a long, narrow neek or point of land, being part of the Manor of Moreland, and lying between the townships of Byberry and Lower Dublin, in the county of Philadelphia, would be included in the county of Montgomery, to the great inconvenience and injury of the inhabitants of the said neek of land, who have prayed that they may remain with the county of Philadelphia." In conse- quenee it was determined "That the boundary lines of the said county of Montgomery shall be as follows : that is to say, beginning in the line of Bucks County, where the same is intersected by the line which di- vides the township of Byberry and the Manor of Moreland, thenee southwesterly along the last-men- tioned line to the first corner or turning thereof, and thence on the same southeasterly course to the line of Lower Dublin." The part of Moreland thus cut off and left to Philadelphia, by the census of 1800, con- tained three hundred and sixty-two inhabitants and three thousand seven hundred acres, reducing the population and area about one-fourth. Although the original survey of the manor was not quite ten thou- sand acres, through the addition made along the Bucks County line afterwards the portion that went to Montgomery County was estimated to contain in all eleven thousand four hundred and sixty-four aeres, showing that a liberal allowance had been given.

About 1794, Thomas Langstroth built a paper-mill on the Pennypaek, near the central part of the township. Here, in 1795, Samuel D. Ingham, of Solebury, in his sixteenth year, went to serve as an apprentice to learn the business. In the school-house near by Mr. Adrian taught a night-school during the winter, which Mr. Ingham diligently attended, and, as he afterwards stated greatly to his benefit. He worked here until he was twenty years old, when Mr. Langstroth releasing him from further service, he went to New Jersey and became a foreman in a paper-mill near Bloomfield. In 1812 he was elected to Congress from Bucks, which po- sition he held the greater portion of the time until 1829. General Jackson, in that year, entering on his du- ties as President, appointed Mr. Ingham Secretary of the Treasury, which office he filled for two years. Thomas Langstroth afterwards formed a partnership with his brother John in the business here for several years, when, unfortunately, on the night of March 19, 1809, the mill was burned down. At the time the loss

created considerable sympathy for the owners, and a public meeting was called and a considerable amount subscribed for their assistance. John Langstroth re- fused any relief and it was awarded to his brother. This property afterwards came in possession of Joseph McDowell, of Philadelphia, who carried the mill on many years. During his ownership it was greatly enlarged and the most improved machinery used. This mill too, on the night of July 1, 1858, was burned down, eausing a loss of thirty thousand dollars, with an in- surance, however, of twenty thousand dollars, and eighty hands were thrown out of employment. The mill since has not been rebuilt, its loss being quite a blow to the business interests of the neighborhood.

The Rev. Joshua Potts lived in the house of the late Joseph B. Yerkes, near the York Road, below Hatboro', which he built in 1759, and which is still standing, containing a stone with his name and the date. He owned here at the time several hundred acres. He was the first pastor of the Southampton Baptist Church, built in 1746, and in which he officiated till the time of his death, which happened June 18, 1761, at the age of forty-six years. He was one of the founders of the Hatboro' Library, in 1755.

John Gummere, son of Samuel, was born at Willow Grove in 1783. He commeneed his career as school- teacher at Horsham, and taught successively at Raneocas and Burlington, N. J., Westtowu, and Haverford, Pa. With his son, Samuel J. Gummere, he resumed the boarding-school at Burlington, N. J. His work on sur- veying was first published in 1814, and went through fourteen editions before being stereotyped. His " Ele- mentary Treatise on Astronomy " was first published in 1822, and the sixth edition in 1854. He died in 1845. Samuel R. Gummere, brother of the aforesaid, was also born at Willow Grove in 1789. He was the principal, for a number of years, of a popular boarding-school for girls at Burlington, author of the "Progressive Spelling Book," "Compendium of Elocution," and a "Treatise on Geography."

The "Montgomery County Society for the recovery of stolen horses and bringing thieves to justice," origi- nated in this township and the adjoining parts of Horsham and Upper Dublin in 1799. From an early period they have held their annual meetings chiefly at the Willow Grove. The officers in 1856 were, Joshua Y. Jones, president ; T. Elwood Comly, secretary ; and William Hallowell, treasurer ; the society consisting of forty-five members. A company was chartered to con- struet a turnpike road from Doylestown to Willow Grove in 1828, and though every exertion was made at the time, failed in raising the necessary amount to con- struct the same. The result was an application for a second charter in 1838, and the road was finally com- pleted in 1840. John Warner, one of the supervisors, stated in 1859, that there was in that year in Moreland 95 township bridges; a greater number than perhaps any one would have supposed. The rolling character of its surface and its being watered by so many small

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

streams will account for it. Scarcely a stream can be found in the township where crossed by a public road but is now bridged.

NICHOLAS MORE .- Among the early and distin- guished settlers of Pennsylvania we may mention the subject of the present sketch, after whom, as its first proprietor, William Penn named the manor of More- land. It is probable that he was a native of London ; for the earliest we know about him is that he was a practicing physician there, styled in the documents of that period a "medical doctor." He embarked about October 1st in the new ship "Geoffrey," of near five hundred tons burthen, Thomas Arnold, master,

SEAL OF NICHOLAS MORE, NOV. 28, 1682.

which made the voyage in the remarkably short time of twenty-nine days, landing only a couple of days after the arrival of Peun.

On the 22d and 23d of the previous March the pro- prietary conveyed to Dr. More and eight others twenty thousand acres of land, called the "Manor of Frank," which was afterward located in Bucks County. These parties constituted a company called "The Free Society of Traders in Pennsylvania," the object being the purchase of lands, with a view to ag- ricultural settlement and for the establishment of manufactories and for carrying on the lumber trade and whale fisheries. At the first meeting Dr. More was elected president for seven years at a salary of one hundred and fifty pounds per annum. The charter was granted by Penn April 4, 1682, and may now be seen in the county records at Doylestown. The presi- dent and treasurer were required to hold in their own right not less than one hundred pounds of the stock, besides five thousand acres of land in the province.

A warrant, in consequence, was given to him the 5th day of January, 1682, for nine thousand eight hundred and fifteen acres, located, and a deed given August 7, 1684. This tract then comprised very nearly all of what was known as the " Manor of More- land," in Philadelphia County down to the organiza- tion of Montgomery in 1784, when much the larger portion was taken into the limits of the latter. The survey had been made only five days previously by the surveyor-general's order, and from the boundaries mentioned in the patent lay entirely in the wilder- ness, for not even a single land-owner is mentioned as adjoining it. It is stated therein as "called by the name of Moreland," and granted from " William Penn by the Providence of God and the King's authority,

Proprietary and Governor of the Province of Penn- sylvania and the territories thereunto belonging."

By the conditions of his patent Dr. More, his heirs and successors, were required to pay forever a silver English shilling for every one hundred acres annually as quit-rent. About 1685 he commenced the erection of buildings on the eastern part of this tract near the present village of Somerton, and also a mansion- house, which it is likely formed the first settlement in Moreland, and called it Green Spring, where he con- tinued to reside till his death. Judging by his pur- chase and the improvements he made, he must have been a person of some means, having more wealth than was generally possessed by the other early emigrants. We find that he was chosen chairman or speaker at the meeting of the first Provincial Assembly hekl at Chester, December 4, 1682; which, though in session only three days, passed important laws. At a council held at Lewes the 2d of May, 1683, we ascer- tain that Penn made him secretary of the same, and in the following September deputy for settling the boundary line with George Talbot, of Maryland.

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History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 210

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