History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 32

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 32

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Before 1802 a line was running over the Old York road to New York, passing through Jenkintown, Hatboro', or Crooked Billet, Coryell's Ferry, now New Hope, and Lambertville. It started from Mann's inn daily at eight o'clock in the morning. This coach was drawn by four horses, and carried the mail on down to the completion of the Belvidere and Dela- ware Railroad. John M. Jones, of Hatboro', was long a popular driver on this line. In proceeding from Philadelphia they breaktasted at the " Red Lion," Willow Grove, where the Easton stage also stopped and changed horses.

It is known that a stage for Pottsgrove passed through Norristown in 1802, leaving Hay's inn, Philadelphia, every Wednesday at sunrise. In 1804, William Coleman drove his stage through the place from the city to Reading, making two trips a week. These were evidently distinct lines, as the latter started from the White Swan, in Race Street. We possess no earlier knowledge of a stage terminating its journey at Norristown until in August, 1808, when Hezekiah Jeffries established one, starting from Jesse Roberts' inn, sign of the Rising Sun, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings at six o'clock, returning on the intervening days at 2 P.M. from the White Horse, kept by John |

Haines, on Fourth Street below Race. The fare through was one dollar, allowing fourteen pounds of baggage ; way passengers, six cents per mile; one hundred and fifty pounds of baggage was rated the same as a passage. The following year Jesse Roberts & Co. assumed the proprietorship, leaving the city from Alexander McCalla's sign of the Green Tree. Packages under ten pounds were chargeable six cents. In the beginning of 1812, Daniel Woodruff became the proprietor, who in the spring of the fol- lowing year changed it into a daily line, starting for the city at 7 o'clock A.M., and returning at 3 P.M., thus making now at least two daily lines for the con- veyance of passengers to Philadelphia. Lewis Shrack became the owner in 1824, and announced its start- ing from John Brauch's tavern, and returning from Robert Evans' inn, Race Street. He commenced tri- weekly trips the following 8th of November, leaving Norristown at 8 o'clock A.M., and arriving at Robert Evans' inn at 12, returning at 1 o'clock P.M., thus showing that the distance of about eighteen miles was accomplished in four hours, evidently in oppo- sition now to the packets on the canal. In the fall of 1827, Henry Styer and Levi Roberts established a daily line to the city and a copartnership in the liv- ery business, keeping " horses, gigs, and dearborns to hire at all times." By their advertisement they now made the distance through in three and a half hours. The aforesaid daily mail line in 1829 was owned by John Crawford & Co., who announce it to start from Levi Roberts' Rising Sun Hotel every morning at seven and a half o'clock, and to pass through Yerkes', Freas' Store, Barren Hill, Hagey's, Manayunk, Falls, and Robin Hood ; leaving John Hunter's hotel, sign of the Wagon, in Race above Fourth, with the fare reduced to seventy-five cents.

The railroad was opened from Philadelphia to Nor- ristown in August, 1835, and on the opposite side of the river through to Pottsville in 1842. These sev- eral improvements of course now greatly lessened the amount of travel by stages over their old and long established routes, and necessarily had to with- draw more or less where opposition would have been useless. Yet to our surprise, with the growth and prosperity of Norristown and the country around, it really in 1860 became quite a considerable centre for staging in various directions. A line proceeded tri-weekly to Sumneytown, passing through Centre Square, Skippackville, Lederachsville, and Salford- ville, from the Pennsylvania Farmers' Hotel, on the north side of Main Street above Markley. For Mil- lerstown tri-weekly, by Perkiomen Bridge, Zeiglers- ville, Pennsbury, Treichlersville, and Shimersville. For Pottstown tri-weekly, by the Trappe and Limer- ick. For Boyerstown tri-weekly, by Limerick Square and New Hanover. A daily line for the Trappe, leaving at 4 o'clock P.M., via Jeffersonville, Eagle- ville, and Freeland ; also a daily line for Phoenix- ville by way of Shannonville, and a tri-weekly still

132

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

running on the pike to Philadelphia at 1 o'clock P.M. The advantages derived from carrying the mail contributed materially to the encouragement of the several lines, but the building of additional rail- roads since, for instance along the Perkiomen and Stony Creeks, has again lessened the number of stages, until we have almost ceased to wonder at the marvelous changes going on. A writer in the Penns- bury Valley Press, on the completion of the railroad there in 1874, stated that "the old stage-coach has disappeared, and instead of taking three days to go from Pennsburg to Philadelphia and return, as it did a few years ago, the people of the former place can now go by train in the morning and return early in the evening, after having spent the full business part of the day in the city."

The earliest line probably from Doylestown to the city was established in the fall of 1813, making two trips weekly, the fare each way being seventy-five cents. In 1815 tri-weekly trips were made, and the price advanced to oue dollar and twenty-five cents. This stage in 1820 made the Buck Tavern, 130 North Second Street, its stopping-place, starting from there during the summer at 8 o'clock A.M., and in the win- ter at 9, making then one trip less. In 1831 the Doylestown stage was announced to start from the Camel Tavern, in Second Street above Race. About 1846 two daily lines were running on this route in opposition to each other for several years, with the fare reduced as low as seventy-five and fifty cents, and yet from the number of passengers they carried the proprietors did not lose money. One was termed the High Grass Line, driven by Benjamin T. Clark, and the other by Joseph Lewis, succeeded by John Servis. The proprietors of the former were Charles H. Mann, Jacob E. Buck, and Joseph Hamett. The proprietor of the latter was Daniel Shelmire, of Ab- ington. On Mondays and Saturdays during the sum- mer season these coaches were generally drawn by four horses and sometimes six. The aforesaid fare for a distance of twenty-five miles is quite a contrast to what the Norristown liues charged, ranging from one dollar and twenty-five cents to seveuty-five cents for only eighteen miles. In October, 1856, the branch from the North Pennsylvania Railroad to Doylestown was completed, which of course now tended to greatly reduce the amount of travel over the hitherto well-worn turnpike to the city, when the coaches were withdrawn.

In 1820, Flourtown became a noted terminus for several lines passing through Rising Sun, German- town, and Chestnut Hill; a stage leaving the Cross Keys, in Fourth Street above Market, daily at 8 A.M. and 2 p.M., and another, the Old Rotterdam, at 3 P.M .; from the White Swau a line left daily at 9, 10, and 11 A.M., returning at 3, 5, and 6 P.M. From this it would appear that these several lines made no less than six daily trips to and from the city, thus show- ing more than sixty years ago a great amount of travel

along this route. Jacob Acuff had a daily mail line running from the Broad Axe tavern in 1828, starting every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday morning at 5.30 o'clock, arriving at Evans' tavern, Race Street, in three hours ; returning on the same days at 3 P.M. This line proceeded from the Broad Axe to Kutz- town on Thursday morning at 5 o'clock, returning on the following day. This route lay through Nicetown, Germantown. Chestnut Hill, Flourtown, White Marsh, Broad Axe, Pigeontown or Blue Bell, Ceutre Square, Zeiglersville or Skippack, Sumneytown, and Trex- ler's Furnace.

A new mail route having been formed by the Post- Office Department in the spring of 1828 over the Gulf road, a stage left the city on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays at 4 o'clock A.M., passing the Gulf Mills, breakfasting at the Bird-in-Hand, thence through Valley Forge and Kimberton, arriving at Lancaster next morning. In consequence of this contemplated line a meeting of the citizens of Upper and Lower Merion was called at the house of Joseph King, sign of the Bird-in-Hand, January 19th, previous to fur- ther improving this highway so as to render its travel easier, "it being the only free road from the Cones- toga Valley to Philadelphia," thus intimating that now all the other prominent roads in that direction had been turnpiked. At this time a stage line was also established from Pottstown to meet this line at Kimberton, when the passengers could either proceed to Lancaster or Philadelphia; the starting-place in the city being from Van Buskirk's hotel, 244 Market Street, arriving at the Union Hotel, Pottstown, in time to dine; fare through, two dollars and twenty-five cents.

To show what importance staging had assumed, it may be stated that James Reeside owned in the business in 1825 above one thousand horses. Through his extensive business in this direction he had be- stowed on him the title of " admiral." The credit is due him for the introduction of the more comfortable and stylish Troy coaches, a decided improvement over the earlier "stage waggon." Elliptic steel springs did not come into general use for the pur- poses of conveyance nntil after 1835. The noted White Swan, in Race Street, was long kept by Jacob Peters, who was also widely known as a stage pro- prietor. Even down to 1854 the Willow Grove had still five daily lines stopping there for Philadelphia. The line from Easton was established in 1792, and from New York at least in 1802, besides the two Doylestown lines, and one from Hartsville, now re- duced to but one, carrying the mail between said village and Doylestown.

The business of staging, directly and indirectly, gave employment and support to a number of per- sons in Montgomery County, among whom could be enumerated the proprietors, the drivers, grooms- men, inn-keepers, smiths, and coach-makers, besides the toll arising therefrom for the turnpike companies

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139

THE WELSH.

CHAPTER XII.

THE WELSH.1

ALTHOUGH the present territory of Montgomery County within the Schuylkill valley may have been pretty well explored by the Dutch, Swedes and Eng- lish, in the pursuit of beaver and other peltries from the Indians, for forty years before the arrival of Penn, yet no evidence exists of any permanent settlement having been made within said time by Enropeans upon this soil. Those engaged in the traffic were actuated entirely by a love for gain, and in no way concerned for the improvement or material develop- ment of the country. As the supply of furs dimin- ished through the activity of the pursuit, these adventurous spirits, in consequence, had to seek new fields, and thus one section would be abandoned for another. True, along the valley of the Delaware, south of the present city of Trenton, the Swedes had seenred a foothold by attaching themselves to the cultivation of the soil, but it was hardly ever beyond the landing of their canoes. To them great honor is due for the peaceable relations that they so long maintained here with the Indians, thus making it a comparatively easy task, by the example set him, for William Penn in continuing the policy that Queen Christiana had so long before strictly enjoined should be carried out with the natives for their lands,-that they should be treated with justice and moderation, and, a step further, that they should be instructed in the Christian religion, for which purpose schools were established and catechisms and portions of the gospels and doctrines translated into their language, the evidences of which exist unto this day.

In securing his province from the British King, the chief aim of William Penn was to insure an asylum or refuge for the persecuted of his denomination, and of all others that professed faith in Christianity. For these liberal views he deserves credit, although they had been carried out for some time previously by Roger Williams and Lord Baltimore. From the circum- stances of his position he could not do otherwise. In palliation for persecution, it was their resistance to the established laws of the land that in many cases brought the earliest immigrants hither, no matter whether from the British Isles or along the whole course and valley of the Rhine,-namely, the refusal to bear arms or do military dnty and the non-payment of church-rates or tithes. To the former our own government has even not yielded, as shown in the late great Rebellion, and as to the latter, is still enforced by almost every na- tionality in Europe. However unjust the compulsory payment may be to an established church, this was certainly avoided in coming to Penn's distant colony, and was no small gain, when one-tenth of the farmer's

products were required. It was probably as much the resistance to the two aforesaid enactments that led to fines and imprisonments as in promulgating or join- ing new doctrines that were regarded by those in power at variance with their own long-established principles. It was these several causes that chiefly led to early immigration hither from Wales, the larger proportion of which were Friends, the Bap- tists being next in number. A few, it appears, were Episcopalians, who in some cases, were induced to follow from a relationship existing with those who left on account of persecution or conscientious seru- ples.

In this county the date of settlement appears very close with the English in Cheltenham, but the honor of priority appears due to the Welsh. These people before the arrival of Penn had purchased in England from him forty thousand acres of land, which was subsequently located in Merion, Haverford, Goshen and extending partly into several adjoining town- ships. Under this encouragement, the ship "Lyon," John Compton, master, arrived with forty passengers, in the Schuylkill River, August 13, 1682, almost two months preceding Penn's arrival, on board of which was Edward Jones, " chirurgeon," with his family, who on the following 26th, sent a letter to John Ap Thomas, residing near Bala, in North Wales, wherein he states, "The Indians brought venison to our door for sixpence ye quarter. There are stones to be had enough at the Falls of Skoolkill, that is where we are to settle, and water power enough for mills, but thou must bring mill-stones and the irons that belong to it, for smiths are dear. They use both hooks and sickles to reap with." We have the authority of John Ilill's map of the environs of Philadelphia, published in 1809, that the aforesaid made "the first British settlement, 18th of 6th month, 1682," being only five days after his arrival in the Schuylkill. The place designated thereon is now the estate of his descendant, the late Colonel Owen Jones, near the present Libertyville, in Lower Merion, and is certainly an early claim, for Philadel- phia had not then been founded.

In the following November, Dr. Thomas Wynne arrived with his family in the ship "Welcome" with William Penn. He settled beside his son-in- law Edward Jones. From him originated the name of Wynnewood. John Roberts came from Penny- chlawd, Denbighshire, in 1683, a millwright by occu- pation, and is supposed to have erected the third mill in the province. Among those who followed and settled early in Lower Merion may be mentioned Robert Owen, John Thomas, Thomas Owen, Hugh Roberts, Rowland Ellis, Robert Jones, John Cadwal- lader, Benjamin Humphreys and others. William Penn, by an order dated T'ennsbury, 13th of First Month, 1684, directed Thomas Holmes, his surveyor- general to lay out the tract to which reference has been made. He therein states, "1 do hereby charge

1 By Win. J. Buck.

140

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

thee and strictly require thee to lay out ye sd tract of Land in an uniform manner, conveniently as may be, upon the West side of Skoolkill river, running three miles upon ye same, and two miles backwards, and then extend ye parallel with the river six miles and to run westwardly so far as till the said quantity of land be completely surveyed unto them." This sur- vey is known to have been made before the end of the aforesaid year. Owing to the continued immigration from Wales this tract within the first forty years was pretty well taken up and settled upon.

One matter caused them considerable uneasiness. They had expected, and no doubt were promised that by thus locating together, they should all be under one municipal government, which would enable them the better to manage their own affairs. When the division line was run between Philadelphia and Chester Counties by order of the Governor's Council, passed 8th of Second Month, 1685, the said tract be- came divided, and only that portion since known as Lower Merion township retained in Philadelphia and the balance left to Chester. This gave rise to a great deal of dissatisfaction, in which they proceeded almost to the verge of rebellion. The inhabitants of Radnor and Haverford refused to recognize the validity of said line, and in 1689 cast their votes for members of Assembly in Philadelphia. These were set aside as invalid. The result was that Griffith Owen and other inhabitants of the Welsh tract sent a long statement of their grievances to the commissioners the 13th of Tenth Month, 1690,-

" We the Inhabitants of the Welsh tract1 in the Province of Penn- sylvania, in America, being descended of the Antient Britains, who always in the land of our Nativity, under the Crown of England, have enjoyed that liberty and privilege as to have our bounds and limits by ourselves, within which all causes, quarrels, crimes and titles were tryed and wholly determined by officers, magistrates, juries of our own language, which were our equals. Having our faces towards these Countries, made the motion to our Governor that we might enjoy the same here, which thing was soon granted by him before he or they were ever come to these parts, and when he came over he gave forth his war- rant to lay out 40,000 acres of land to the intent we might live together here, and enjoy our liberty and Devotion in our own Language as afore in our Country, and on the 40,000 acres was surveyed out and by his own warrant Confirmed by several Orders from the Commissioners of ye Proprietary, and settled upon already with near four score settlements."

In the aforesaid extract we see a strong, prevailing sentiment-the pride of ancestry-and an uncommon zeal evinced for the due preservation and perpetua- tion of their ancient language. Those that had settled so early in the townships of Upper and Lower Merion, it would appear, belonged chiefly to the Society of Friends. In the latter district they erected, in 1695, the first house of worship in the county, a temporary structure of logs. This, in 1713, was supplanted by a substantial stone edifice, which is still standing, and therefore ranks now as one of the oldest buildings used for the purpose in Pennsylvania. The popula- tion of the Welsh had increased so by continuous im- migration and settlement in the two townships that

out of eighty-four resident taxables in 1734, sixty - eight were actually of that nationality, being consider- ably over three-fourths the whole number.

About the beginning of 1698, William, John and Thomas Ap Evan purchased of Robert Turner, a mer- chant of Philadelphia, seven thousand eight hundred and twenty aeres in the present Gwynedd, being the larger portion of the township. The last-named pur- chaser settled on this tract, and was soon after joined by his brothers, Cadwallader, Owen and Robert Ap Evan. In July of said year more Welsh immigrants ar- rived in the ship " Robert and Elizabeth," among whom were William John (since changed to Jones), Hugh Griffith, Ellis David, Robert Jones, Edward Foulke, John Hugh and John Humphrey. All these, except- ing the last two, were originally Episcopalians, who afterwards joined the Friends. Edward Foulke came from Merionethshire, North Wales. He embarked at Liverpool with his wife, four sons and five daughters, and arrived in Philadelphia July 17, 1698, where he was kindly treated and entertained by his former ac- quaintances who had preceded him. Having purchased a tract of seven hundred acres in Gwynedd, he removed thereon the beginning of the following November.

Having become sufficiently numerous, the Welsh Friends, in 1700, erected in Gwynedd a small log build- ing for worship in the centre of the township. There is a tradition that William Penn, accompanied by his daughter Letitia and a servant, came out on horse- back to visit the settlement shortly after its erection, and that he preached in it, staying, on this occasion, over night at the house of his friend, Thomas Evans, the first settler, who resided near by. His return to England in November, 1701, will nearly determine the time that he made this visit. Owing to the influx of more Welsh settlers, a larger stone building was determined on, which was erected in 1712. In a petition from this settlement, which is therein called North Wales, dated June, 1764, praying for a road through Germantown to Philadelphia, it is stated that they then numbered thirty families. The list of 1734 gives Gwynedd forty-eight resident taxables, of which number thirty-nine bear Welsh surnames.

Immediately adjoining Gwynedd on the north is Montgomery township, which, according to the re- port of Rev. Evan Evans bore this name at least as early as 1707. Ilere John Evans, William James, Thomas James, Josiah James, James Lewis, David Williams, David Hugh and James Davis settled before 1720. In this year they built the first Baptist Church in the county, above the present Montgomeryville, in which preaching in the Welsh language was main- tained down to the Revolution. In the list of 1734, out of twenty-eight residents in Montgomery, nine- teen bear Welsh surnames. Before 1703, David Mer- edith, Thomas Owen, Isaac Price, Ellis Pugh and Hugh Jones, all from Wales, had settled in Plymouth township, where in 1734 they numbered nine out of its sixteen residents. Abraham Davis and David

1 See Penn. Archives, i. p. 108.

141

THE WELSH.

Williams had settled in Whitemarsh before 1703. Stephen Jenkins, in 1698, purchased four hundred and thirty-seven acres adjoining the present borough of Jenkintown, after whose descendants the place has been called. Before 1710, Robert Llewellyn and Evan Hugh had settled in Upper Merion. The Rev. Malachi Jones, from Wales, organized at Abing- ton, in 1714, the first Presbyterian congregation in the county, and here five years later, a church was bnilt. Evan Lloyd, who settled in Horsham in 1719, was one of the first ministers there of the Friends' Meeting, whose original membership was probably one-third Welsh.

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History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 32

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