History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 28

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 28

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100

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Orphans' Court Act of 1701 was repealed in England, and the Intestate Act of 1705 stood, so to speak, alone, and this continued for eight years. Then in 1813 was passed ' An Act for establishing Orphans' Courts,' under which and its supplements we acted until the revised statute of 1832. Reciting the ex- istence and repeal of the former laws, and that thereby orphans and persons concerned for them or intrusted with their estates labored under great inconveniences, the Orphans' Court, composed of the judges of the Court of Quarter Sessions in each county, was estab- lished as a court of record, and jurisdiction given over all persons who, as guardians, trustees, tutors, executors, administrators, or otherwise, should be in - trusted with or accountable for lands, tenements, goods, or estates belonging to any orphan or person under age. The register was ohliged to transmit to the Orphans' Court copies of all inventories, accounts, etc., power was given to the court to dismiss adminis- trators in certain cases, and to exercise all the juris- diction granted to the Orphans' Court by the Intestate Act of 1705; and so things remained until after the Revolution. Since then various supplements to the act of 1713 and other acts have greatly enlarged the power of the Orphans' Court, and in the Constitutions of 1776 and 1790 the Orphans' Court was enumerated as one of the courts of the Commonwealth. Still, however, its precise position was less settled and de- fined than that of any court therein. Though ex- pressly created a court of record, and as such coming within the rule of all English-speaking countries, that its judgments could not be inquired into collaterally, cases were decided in which the rule was applied, and others in which it was not. The reasons for this were clearly given by the revisers of our code when, in 1830, they were expressly directed, such was the urgency of the case, to give their first attention to the several statutes relating to the settlement of ac- counts before registers and proceedings in the Orphans' Courts. 'The peculiar structure of that court,' said they, 'its extremely ill defined sphere of jurisdiction, the magnitude of the interests upon which it operates, the uncertainty of the code of law by which it is reg- ulated, and its equally uucertain and insufficient practice and process serve to snrround with difficul- ties every attempt to frame a regular system for it.'

" The act reported and passed brought harmony and symmetry to the subject, although the court was still composed of judges of the Courts of Common Pleas. Finally, by the Constitution of 1874, the Orphans' Court was erected into a separate and independent tribunal, the separate Registers' Courts were abolished, their jurisdiction given to the Orphans' Court, and the register himself made the clerk of the court. Its jurisdiction and that of the register may be thus briefly summed up :

"1. The register has the old jurisdiction of the ordinary in England as to the probate of wills aud

the granting of letters testamentary and of adminis- tration, and in his office are filed the accounts of executors, administrators, guardians, and testament- ary trustees ; there liis power ceases.

"2. The Orphans' Court has the power of dismissal of executors and administrators and the appointment of others in their place, the settlement of their ac- counts and the distribution of the personal estate, and so far its jurisdiction is in analogy to that of the Ecclesiastical Courts. But, above and beyond this, its large and extended jurisdiction, including every case in which the estate of a decedent or the care of infants aud their property is involved, is in anal- ogy to the jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery, and is exercised substantially in the same manner. Mean- while, in England, it was not until our own time that any substantial change was made, and the jurisdiction of the Ecclesiastical Courts continued as for centuries it had until the year 1857, when by the act of 20 and 21 Victoria, c. 77, the jurisdiction and authority of all ecclesiastical and other courts in the probate of wills and granting administration were given to the Court of Probate. And now by virtue of the Probate Court is exercised hy the Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty Division of the High Court of Jus- tice." 1

Penn's work of preparation for his departure from England was completed by August, 1682. The " Welcome," under command of Robert Greenway, had shipped her stores, her crew was in service, and the "jolly tars" waited with impatience for the "Governor of the Colony" and the adventurous people who were to cross the ocean with them to come on board.

August 30th, he wrote his " valedictory epistle to England" and his affectionate farewell to his wife and children.

September 1st, he was ready to sail, in the posses- sion of a charter for a province and future State, protected by the flag of his native land, his system of government prepared for submission to the free men of Pennsylvania. His Deputy Governor Mark- ham, Surveyor-General Thomas Holme, and Special Commissioners Nathaniel Allen, John Bezar, and William Crispin were busy in preparing the minds of the settlers and the watchful Indian chiefs for. his coming. Surrounded by the hundred and more con- fiding souls that had taken passage with him, he keenly felt the responsibility of the hour and situa- tion ; but, with settled purpose and convictions deep- ened by years of painful experience, he sought con- solation and repose of mind in the hopefulness of a near and still more eventful future among a free people and in a new country. As the time of Penn's arrival approached, expectancy was intense among the settlers on the Delaware. The sale of lands by his agents, over five hundred thousand acres, with ships

1 William Hoary Rawle, Esq. : Pennsylvania and English Law.

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MATERIAL IMPROVEMENTS.

accommodations for Masonic lodge and post-office ; Western Market-House and Hall, at Kohn and Mar- shall Streets. Conspicuous among Norristown's latest public improvements is the great State Hospital for the Insane. The fire department of the borough con- sists of the Norris, Humane, and Montgomery Hose and Steam Fire-Engines, and the Fairmount Hose or Hook-and-Ladder Company. All of these associa- tions have erected large three-story brick engine- houses with capacious halls; the first especially is one of the stateliest edifices in the town, and it is not an over-estimate to valne the apparatus and real estate of all the firemen of Norristown at near a hun- dred thousand dollars.

Pottstown .- Very soon after the completion of the Norristown Railroad, which started the villages of the lower Schuylkill, the great Philadelphia and Reading was opened to the public along and through the whole southwestern border of the county, fur- nishing another rapid way to Philadelphia market.1 The opening of this road started Pottstown from its sleep of nearly a century, a place which enjoys the rare distinction of being the first laid-out town in the county, having been surveyed and designed for a city by John Potts in 1753, thus antedating Norris- town over thirty years. Like his great exemplar, William Penn, he placed the streets at right angles and in line with the cardinal points, and High or Main Street, like Market Street, Philadelphia, was laid out near a hundred feet wide. But notwith- standing its site, almost level as a floor, seemed formed for a city far above the line of overflow from the river, and in the midst of rich bottom land, above and below, it improved little until the railroad broke in upon its rural slumber, about 1842. It was, how- ever, incorporated as a borough in 1815, and for many years from that period justly sought to become a county-seat of adjoining parts of Chester, Berks, and Montgomery Counties, under various names, but finally "Madison." That enterprise failed through purely selfish and political motives among the people of the opposing county towns; but Pottstown ad- vanced, nevertheless, through the new-born energy already described. Since 1845 its three churches have increased to ten, including the following : Episcopal, 1833; Methodist Episcopal, 1839; St. Aloysius' (Catholic), 1850; Presbyterian, 1853; First Baptist, 1859; Salem Church (Evangelical Associa- tion ), 1870; African Methodist Episcopal Church, same year. During this period also Friends' Meeting was rebuilt (1875), and the Reformed and Lutheran

Churches erected separate edifices, which were fin- ished 1870 and 1872.

The manufacturing industry of the borough has rested on a solid basis for many years, there being several corporations combining very heavy capital, and in matters of town improvements, such as gas, hydrant-water, markets, and the like; the first was secured by a company, which erected works in 1858; the second by another corporation, 1869; and the last by another, still earlier, which also furnisbes a public hall, with additional lodge-rooms above.

The fire department of Pottstown is now well or- ganized, having two steam fire-engines, the com- panies being named "Good-Will" and " Philadel- phia"; they have hose-carriages annexed, and all their apparatus is of the most efficient description.

The school department has two or three large houses, including the former academy building. Like Norristown, the borough has passed its original barriers two or three times, there being extensive ad- ditions of laid-out and improved streets on the north, and especially eastward, now being rapidly covered with buildings. The large blast-furnace just over the Manatawny, added to the immense iron-works and other manufactures of iron in the borough proper, gives Pottstown a fair claim to contest with Consho- hocken the title of "iron-clad." Pottstown has founded two public cemeteries, a little out of town,- " Pottstown" and "Edgewood." The town maintains two or three well-conducted newspapers, and from its grand site, and public-spirited, wealthy inbabitants also, we infer that at no distant day it will become a considerable city. Population (by census 1880), 5305.

Conshohocken .- The manufacturing town of Mont- gomery County is Conshohocken, which at the open- ing of the era under consideration hardly had a place on any printed map; its population now cannot be less than five thousand souls. When Plymouth dam and the aqueduct over the creek of that name were being built by the Navigation Company, a few acres of land adjoining were purchased by it for conveni- ence in prosecuting its work at that place, which, after the canal was finished, were sold to John Freedley and James Wells, of Norristown. The latter built a hotel and store on the line of the rail- road (site of present station), and the former erected below the canal on the river bank a mill for sawing marble, which was run by water-power for some years by Freedley & Heebner, the senior partner supplying much of the stone from quarries worked or owned by him in Massachusetts. A few years later they sold the residue of their purchase in lots to improvers, which was the beginning of the town. David Harry erected also a flouring-mill on the bank of the river (site of the present print-works), and just above it, driven also by water-power of the canal company, James Wood erected, 1832, a mill to manufacture I spades, saws, and other tools, as also sheet-iron.

1 The author recalls an incident worth recording here to show how the railroad broke iu upon settled notions and habits of farmers of the upper townships: An enterprising Philadelphian, about 1845, passed up to Pottstown, and thence came downward to Norristown, soliciting far- mers on the way to contract for daily supplies of milk, deliverable at the stations, for consumption in Philadelphia, without securiog a single contract, although he offered cash on delivery. Farmers had not thought of it, and were afraid to try what has now grown into an iui- mense trade.

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

These mills were the nucleus from which the present immense mannfactures of the place have sprung. It is needless to add more, as these will be treated of elsewhere. The further extension of streets and building improvements was promoted by sales of land eastward of the town by Isaac Jones, along Hector Street, and later by Benjamin Harry, who sold nineteen acres along Fayette Street, on the rear centre of the town. That main avenue, turnpiked in 1847 (which was the township line between Plymouth and White Marsh), is already adorned by numerous palatial mansions, and by a handsome Episcopal Church, chapel, and adjacent rectory, which last property in completeness would do credit to any city. The borough has also a Presbyterian, Catlı- olic, Baptist, Methodist, and an African Methodist Church, as also a handsome public hall, with market and lodge-rooms combined, the last three stories and a Mansard roof, built by a company, 1872. Two other corporations, chartered a few years ago, have erected water- and gas-works. The Washington Hose and Steam Fire-Engine Company erected in 1878 a handsome and substantial building for their steamer and hose-carriage, which, with the superior apparatus, is valued at twelve thousand dollars. In addition to a substantial open iron bridge over the river, Con- shohocken has two large public school buildings, and another owned by the Catholics. Considerable atten- tion has been given recently to grading, curbing, and paving the sidewalks, and the population is increasing quite as rapidly as any town of the county. It was chartered May, 1850.

West Conshohocken .- This new borough, formerly called by an Indian name, Baligomingo, now just en- tering its second decade as a corporate town (char- tered 1874), owes its chief importance to the valuable water-power of Gulf Creek and to the extensive woolen manufactures of George Bullock and others near by, as also the extensive blast-furnace of Moore- head & Co. The latter works are established on territory taken from Lower Merion, and the former belonged to Upper Merion, the borough limits as in the case of East Conshohocken being taken from two ad- joining townships. Population (1880), 1462. Most of the manufactories of the borough line the ravine of Gulf Creek, and being so situated the town offers little opportunity for street improvements, and yet its one or two avenues, as also the upper ones, are kept in superior condition. Here, in this mountain-like glen, fifty years ago, Bethel Moore successfully carried on the manufacture of woolen cloths, the first in our county. The borough coutains a number of mills, a church, and some school buildings, as also a reservoir on the hillside to provide water for extinguishing fires.

Bridgeport .- This is the fourth borough of the county in order of incorporation, being one year younger than Conshohocken, its charter dating Feb. 27, 1851. It was in its early history called Evans-

ville, after its then owner, Elisha Evans. It possesses a number of manufactories of textile fabrics, a paper- mill, market-house and hall combined, a Baptist and a Presbyterian Church, and the extensive depots of the Reading and Chester Valley Railroads. It also has a number of stores, and just below its corporate limits perhaps the largest manufactory of mixed woolens on the line of the Schuylkill, owned by the Lees Brothers. The population of Bridgeport is 1802.

Hatborough .- The name of this lower end borough comes down to us from colonial times, said to have been named from a manufactory of hats established there before the Revolution, though the village was as often called "The Billet," or "Crooked Billet," from a tavern sign which bore that name or symbol, no doubt of English importation. The place is one of the oldest settled districts of the county, and is full of historical and legendary remains. It was the residence of Col. Robert Lollar, of Revolutionary fame, and Hon. Nathaniel B. Boileau, both distin- guished and active business men in the early days of our county. It contains a public library, the oldest and most extensive in our bounds, an academy, with many handsome residences and churches. Hatbor- ough is no exception to the rule that our recent bor- oughs owe their corporate existence to the railroad, as the locality was densely settled for years past, but only erected into a municipality in 1871, when being opened to railroad travel. The borough contains also two or three schools, which occupy the academy ; it has a weekly paper, and a handsome monument to commemorate the resting-place of soldiers killed by the British during the Revolution. Population (1880), 586.

Jenkintown .- This younger sister of Hatborough was chartered 1874, also made up mainly of old set- tled families in Abington township, and organized into a borough to provide local improvements. It has one of the oldest Presbyterian Church buildings, and near by one of the oldest Friends' in the county. It contains also an Episcopal, a Catholic, and a Meth- odist Church, and numerous fine buildings of the olden style, as also some of modern elegance. There have been recently built a bank, a large school build- ing, and a Masonic Hall. Population, 810.

Lansdale .- This young thriving borough, which only dates its charter from 1872, owes its rare distinc- tion as a manufacturing place to the North Pennsyl- vania, the Stony Creek and Doylestown Branches of that railroad, which intersect at that point. Heeb- ner's agricultural machine-works are famous all over the Union, as also known in places abroad. It is taken from Gwynedd and Hatfield townships, is fully surveyed and carefully laid out, and for a town of its age is wonderfully improved. It lies over a plain on both sides of the North Pennsylvania Railroad; it has two or three public schools, a Reformed and a Methodist Church, a bank, and a weekly newspaper.

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MATERIAL IMPROVEMENTS.

It is destined to be a place of great importance, and its population, at present 798, is growing rapidly. For the purpose of supplying pure water it has put down an artesian well.

North Wales .- This is the elder sister of the bor- ough just described, being distant from it about two miles, and chartered in 1869. It was taken from Gwynedd township, and is situated on the Sumney- town and Spring House turnpike, on elevated ground, and beside the North Pennsylvania Railroad. Like its neighbor, it has grown up within little over a decade. It contains a Reformed, Baptist, Lutheran, and Methodist Episcopal Church, two or three school buildings, and a fine seminary, a steam-flouring mill, bell foundry, and other manufactures, as also a weekly newspaper. The town has been carefully sur- veyed and laid out into streets, and active means have been employed to place its avenues and walks in good condition ; population (1880), 673.

Green Lane .- This is one of the latest boroughs, chartered 1875, and has been surveyed and laid out into streets and building lots. It is situated on Per- kiomen Creek, in Marlborough township, on the Sumneytown and Spring House pike, and covers one hundred and fifty-four acres of ground. It is the old locality of Schall's Forge, which was famous in its day, and as it is adjacent to the Perkiomen Railroad, it will doubtless grow rapidly. Population, last census, 187.

East Greenville .- This borough is taken out of Upper Hanover township, and is also situated near the Perkiomen Railroad; it was incorporated 1875, and contains considerable improvements, consisting of a seminary for both sexes, one or two churches, schools, cigar manufactories, and other industries. It is on Green Lane and Goshenhoppen turnpike. Popu- lation, 331.

Royer's Ford .- This youngest of the boroughs was chartered 1879. It is a thriving manufacturing town, taken out of the lower corner of Limerick township, and is situated on the Schuylkill, where the river was formerly crossed by a deep, dangerous ford. There is a substantial bridge here now, connecting it with the borough of Spring City, in Chester County. Some years ago an extensive stove foundry was established there, which, with other manufactures, have caused an influx of population. There have been recently erected two or three churches, and a fire company has been organized. The streets are being graded and rapidly improved. Population, 558.

Schwenksville, Iron Bridge, Gilbertsville, and Sum- neytown; Valley Forge, Port Kennedy, Swedesburg, Spring Mill, Pencoyd, and West Manayunk, on the line of the Schuylkill; Barren Hill, Marble Hall, Plymouth Meeting, Flourtown, Edge Hill, Chelten- ham, Ashborne, Kulpsville, and Centre Square, in the centre; Ardmore, Bryn Mawr, Merion Square, and the rural seats (almost rivaling the outlying villas which once stood around ancient Rome) now spread- ing over the plateau beside the Pennsylvania Rail- road, in Lower Merion.

But new ideas and methods of living are not con- fined to towns aud villages, they extend to the re- motest farm-house. Free schools and improved land, with ready access to market, have excited all over the county a desire for more easy and efficient methods of farming and other production. Years ago farmers threw aside sickles, scythes, and hand- rakes, resolving to keep abreast of the times by using horse-power implements to cultivate, gather, and pre- pare farm products for market. Thus by improved tillage upon limed land, with use of other fertilizers, crops have been nearly doubled ; and now, instead of spending two months of exhaustive labor, as formerly, to gather and store a harvest, it is done in a fortnight. Thus, also, increased profit in agriculture excited a desire for more comfortable dwellings, capacious barns, more elegant equipages and attire, as also handsomer churches, and more roomy and convenient school-houses.

Travelers on the continent of Europe inform us that in many parts, especially in rural departments of France, the people are seen using the rude imple- ments of husbandry and wearing the same style of attire that their fathers and mothers wore almost cen- turies ago; while here, on the contrary, observant people of advanced years express wonder and aston- ishment on visiting hardware-stores and other depots of merchandise, at beholding new, handy, inge- nious, and often almost unimaginable contrivances for farmers', householders', and mechanics' uses. And no well-filled grocery is without manufactured viands, syrups, and cauned edibles without number, showing to what a prodigious stretch of activity the industrial mind of the country is brought in this labor-saving or rather labor-combination era.

No sooner did the railroad get into operation across our territory than the telegraph wire followed it, thus putting us into instantancous communication with the outside world. Now, poles and wires pass along many leading highways, as along all railroads; and still again the telephone, which enables us to con- verse with friends or correspondents in distant places, is also established in most of our chief towns; but, more wonderful than all, the electric light is coming, which will nearly actualize the Bible expression, " There shall be no night," for the sun or its reflex, electricity, almost turns night into pure daylight.

The foregoing hasty review of the boroughs was not undertaken or designed as a full exhibit of the material development of large centres of population, but only to show how corporate towns spring up as by magic in this labor-saving, railroad age. But to complete the picture we must name in order the other villages of the county which are on a like career, such as Trappe, Freeland, Collegeville, But the two grandest elevators-we might say insti-

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

tutions-of society in this last quarter of the century are the reaping- or mowing-machine of the farmer and sewing-machine of the household. By their use the man or woman who employs either has quadru - pled his or her productive power, thus approximating the philosophic principle of the machine itself,-" an instrument that produces, but consumes nothing."

Our proximity to the great cities and large manu- facturing towns has also nearly revolutionized agri- culture in another particular. The farmers of Mont- gomery County, instead of raising beef, pork, and mutton for Philadelphia market, as formerly, have to some extent come to consuming meat grown and fattened on the great plains of the far West, and it is no unusual thing to see beef-cattle driven through our streets bearing the brands of herders of Texas or Ari- zona. Thus transformed, husbandry in our county largely takes the exclusive type of "the dairy," boys and men doing the milking, while the product is worked into marketable shape at "creameries," now recently built and furnished all over the county, the latter worked also by men and boys, while many of our mothers and sisters only ply the needle and sewing-machine, or perhaps finger the piano or harp.

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History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 28

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