USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > Local sketches and legends pertaining to Bucks and Montgomery counties, Pennsylvania > Part 16
USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > Local sketches and legends pertaining to Bucks and Montgomery counties, Pennsylvania > Part 16
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Through that summer the people rejoiced to see the blackbirds less numerous and annoying, but even that satisfaction proved of short duration. For the following spring brought with it whole living clouds, who no doubt thought as they gazed over the promis- ing landscape, that Round Meadow had just as many attractions to them for a summer's sojourn as could
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be well found elsewhere, and so accordingly settled down here for a renewal of their former labors as they again supposed in the greatest security. But time, who is constantly working wonders, as I have already stated, has sadly for their welfare now greatly reduced its area. At considerable expense many ineffectual attempts have been made within a comparatively re- cent period, from the increased value of land, to thoroughly drain it, but that day I think is yet dis- tant, to the great solace of our blackbirds and their friends the muskrats and croaking frogs.
As years fled away, those who so valiantly strug- gled in the mire and so victoriously won the battle of Round Meadow, became old and venerable men. Tradition has it, that when they occasionally visited their children or grand-children and found them bus- ily at their work in the fields of Indian corn, they would relate to them that the blackbirds at that day were no circumstance as to their depredations and numbers to what they had been when they were young. Next would follow, but more in detail, the tragedy of Round Meadow, as now introduced to the reader, and of which each narrator, as is usual, was the greatest hero.
Horseheaven.
This is the name given to one of the highest eleva- tions in the immediate vicinity of Willow Grove, and is situated on the east side of the turnpike to Philadelphia, with Round Meadow run washing its northern boundary. Approach the village from what- ever course you may, it looms boldly before you in all its majestic grandeur. Its northern and eastern sides are still covered with forest, and a portion of its summit is crowned with the perpetual verdure of the red cedar. A strip of cultivated land extends over its centre from south to northeast, giving it the appear- ance of two parts, with a woods at each end. I can therefore say that it is of tolerably steep ascent, with a somewhat level summit, elevated probably about three hundred feet above the waters of the Pennepack, a mile distant.
As might be expected it affords a magnificent view of the surrounding country. The eminences of Valley Forge, Germantown, Trenton and Whitemarsh, re- vive patriotic recollections. The blue hills of New Jersey can be traced towards the northeast, cast and southeast for thirty or forty miles. Buckingham mountain, though twelve miles off, appears quite near.
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The hills of the Delaware, the Schuylkill and the Neshaminy can be traced for a considerable distance, while nearer at hand are the lesser eminences of Edge Hill, Camp Hill, Church Hill and Huckleberry. Hill. Among the towns and villages readily discernable are Frankford, Germantown, Chestnut Hill, Barren Hill, Flourtown, Jenkintown and Hatboro. The river Delaware for several miles above Philadelphia, with its steamboats and sailing vessels, can be seen on any clear day with the naked eye. In consequence of some of the woods on the northern end of the summit having been cut down, on a visit up here in Septem- ber, 1882, I was agreeably surprised at the magnifi- cent view of Doylestown, twelve miles distant, and seven miles beyond it of the extended range of the Plumstead hills, distinctly traceable from the Delaware across the entire width of Bucks county.
But how about so singular a name, that many at present residing in that vicinity may have never heard thus applied! For an answer I will now have to delve a little into history and tradition. Willow Grove, being thirteen miles from Philadelphia, made it from an early period a suitable and convenient stop- ping and exchanging place for the several lines of stage coaches running to Easton, New York, and later Doylestown, New Hope and Lambertville. We know that John Nicholas started his Eastern line in 1796, and that two years later he had to encounter opposition. Even as recently as 1850, for the want of railroad facilities, five daily lines were
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still passing through Willow Grove, from Philadelphia to Doylestown, Easton, Hartsville and New Hope, four of which changed horses here. The turnpike was not completed from the city thus far until 1804, and to Doylestown only in 1840, and up the York road in 1850. Now in this long period or interval of no turnpikes, especially during the winter and spring, through bad roads, must necessarily cause for the several stage lines and heavy teams a considerable wear and tear or rather destruction of horses, the carcasses of which would be generally consigned to the woods near the summit of the hill. Hence the origin of the name-the long wearied had gone to this their final resting place. Nearly forty-five years ago I knew several aged men who had lived all their days around here to universally call it Horseheaven. With the disappearance of the many four and six- horse teams and stage coach lines, the name has be- come as it were forgotten or rather obliterated. Whe- ther for my painstaking for this resuscitation, with the glorious memories I shall recall, a leather medal will be awarded me, remains to be seen. However, to earn it I shall certainly strive.
Several fine springs of water gush from out the sides of Horseheaven. In Willow Grove they furnish an unfailing supply to three. fountains. On the north, northeast and west sides these flow into Round Meadow run, which in less than two miles distance flows into the Pennepack. On the southeast side they give rise to Tearwood run, another branch of the latter stream.
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Sandy run has its origin from several springs on the south side. This is a trout stream and a branch of the WVissahickon. It will be hereby observed that this hill forms a sort of dividing ridge, and that its waters flow into the Delaware and the Schuylkill.
On the bold summit of Horseheaven, in the sum- mers of 1840 and 1841, Ferdinand Hassler, superin- tendent of the United States Coast Survey, and his as- sistants were encamped. They had here a superior collection of instruments and a signal station, commu- nicating with similar ones at Mount Holly, Woodbury, Attleboro, Girard College, and one or two in Delaware county. To facilitate these communications several openings had to be cut here through the woods in several directions. These remained visible for a num- ber of years. The following anecdote was related con- cerning the cutting down of this timber. Mr. Hassler directed his assistants to cut away those trees wherever
$ › they were found to interfere with the progress of the work, and as for damages the land-holders must look to him. There then resided in the neighborhood two farmers whose lands and wealth were chiefly acquired by inheritance. They were both regarded as among the most respectable, upright and virtuous citizens. When Mr. Hassler had made every arrangement for his final departure he waited on these men and asked the amount of damages they claimed. Each one, strange to say, said it should be left to his judgment. As he thought their damages were about the same, he awarded to each a similar sum. When one of them
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received it he declined taking more than one-half, saying that certainly amply remunerated him; the other complained of his award, desiring double the amount, which was paid.
Henry D. Rogers, afterwards Professor of Natural History in the University of Glasgow, but now for some time deceased, while engaged in the geological survey of the state, at his request in the summer of 1851 I had the honor of accompanying in his investi- gations of this hill and the neighboring country. In the first volume of his work may be seen a sectional view of its structure and stratification, and he mentions therein that the primal rocks lean at a moderate angle upon the gneiss. "Here," he says, "upon the north- ern slope and end of this hill the fragments of the sand- stone contain numerous vestiges of Scolithus linearis, the fossil characteristic of the white primal sandstone." He informed me that the stone here were identical 'with those at Edge Hill, and of course belonged to the same formation. Fragments of quartz are found scattered more or less over its surface. Near Round Meadow run, on its northern declivity, are several min- cral springs, indicating the presence of iron ore, which of late years has been obtained in abundance at about the distance of half a mile to the west.
To the student of nature this hill offers a number of attractions. Gray squirrels, ground squirrels, weasels, rabbits and opossums abound. Once in my rambles in the woods here, about 1848, I found a small oak that was dead at the top. I struck my hand carelessly
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against its trunk, which caused it to vibrate. As I looked up, a beautiful flying squirrel peeped out of what had been a woodpecker's hole. As I continued to strike he at length reluctantly came out and clam- bered up the trunk for several feet. When I desisted he returned to his nest in the tree. After this, in my rambles, for several years I repeatedly visited the squirrel, who at my knocking would be sure to take a look out. I remember well in dull and rainy weather how inoffensive and sleepy he looked, and how I re- gretted my intrusion. On one occasion after this, as I came along here to renew my acquaintance, to my surprise and mortification both the tree and squirrel were gone, the stump alone remaining to indicate the spot. The woodman's axe had been there, and he no doubt, if living, is ignorant to this day of the intimacy that had so long existed between me and the inmate of that trunk which he had cut down.
The wood robin, the brown thrush, the chewink, the catbird, the scarlet tanager, and the jay, are partial to its woods, but above all the crow, who will form a sub- ject for the next number. The golden-crown thrush, a shrill little songster, with a speckled breast, is a reg- ular inhabitant. He builds on the ground, commonly among the leaves near the root of a tree. He is not a shy bird, and can be approached within a few yards. In size he is less than a bluebird, and while singing has a peculiar manner of nodding his head. In the spring of 1852 it was supposed a pair of cagles had a nest somewhere in the vicinity of the rocks. They were
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seen hovering in the air and about here for several months. The male bird was shot on the 31st of May of that year by William Thomas, a young man then residing near by, and measured six feet and a half in - the expanse of its wings and two feet five inches in length. The female, which was much the larger, af- terwards disappeared. Wild pigeons formerly resorted to this hill and bred here in great numbers; this was particularly the case previous to the year 1810. In the spring and fall sometimes so many would be caught in nets as to require horses and wagons to haul them away. To my knowledge the last thus caught in this section of country was about 1844, and but few were taken.
The northern slope of the hill is remarkable for the size and number of its ant hills. My observations in- cline me to believe that these belong to some four or five species, varying in size and color. In my visits these have offered me much entertainment and instruc- tion. To the uninitiated it must be curious to witness the aversion that the ants of these various hills have to each other. Naturalists frequently mention in their works that they sometimes meet in desperate conflict and assail and capture each other's strongholds. I do not know that I have ever witnessed this, but I have frequently conveyed them to other hills, when their presence by some unaccountable means would soon become known and a fierce encounter would ensue, which would finally appear to agitate the whole garri- son. In the proper preparation of anatomical speci-
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mens, especially of small birds and reptiles, these little workers can render invaluable aid when such objects are presented for their operations. .
To a lover of botany this hill invites attention. Here grow indigenous the white, red, black, chestnut, Span- ish, pin and post oaks, black and white walnuts, several kinds of hickory, maple, elm, gum, poplar and dog- wood, besides beech, sassafras, mulberry, wild cherry, Juneberry, red cedar and witch hazel. Chestnuts I have known to bear nuts an inch in diameter, and a tree of which, eighteen feet in circumference, is still standing. Whortleberries of different kinds abound, bearing red, black and blue fruit. The laurel in June is seen whitened over with its magnificent flowers. Dit- any or mountain mint flourishes abundantly, from which in the olden times the people made tea. Spicy wintergreen or teaberry also grows here, a somewhat rare plant in this section of Pennsylvania. The moun- tain spikenard luxriates amid the crevices of the rocks. In the beginning of June, 1861, a plant was found here bearing a beautiful small jet black flower, with serrated leaves, which still adorns a lady's herbarium, and cer- tainly is a novelty. As respects its vegetable treasures, it would take up too much space were I even inclined to go into detail.
My first acquaintance with this hill and its neigh- borhood began in 1842, and since that time has be- come sufficiently endeared to me by its memories as to thus record a few of my observations. Heretofore our writers have been too much led to believe, through
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the influence of European authors, that our local scen- ery is too barren in historical and traditionary asso- ciations to be invested with the additional charms that literature could bestow. Would that I could wield a - pen that would forever dispel this delusion. When- ever I stand on the summit of Horseheaven and gaze over the beautiful prospect, there is something arises within me that denies the charge. Near me I see Round Meadow, Huckleberry Hill, and the valley of Southampton run where John Fitch first tried his model of the steamboat. Then around here dwelt the Indians, by yonder stream wandered the Swedes, on the hills and in the valleys of Northampton and South- ampton settled the Dutch, in Warwick the Irish, in Gwynedd the Welsh, in Germantown the Germans, in Horsham Sir William Keith and his Scotch associates, and in Abington and Moreland the English Quakers. I see, too, many spots and eminences in view men- tioned in the beginning of this article, that have wit- nessed the valiant struggles and sufferings of a people in the cause of freedom-of a Washington and his brave co-patriots. Are all these, with the associations that linger around each, devoid of interest?
Although this subject has been lengthened consid- erably beyond what was contemplated, I still find un- said much respecting Horseheaven. Most of my best years have been spent within its sight, and many are the rambles during the heats of summer that I have made over its summit while the cool and invigorating breezes were playing around. Often, too, from my
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abode in early spring, have I impatiently watched the swelling buds and blossoms of its forest trees and meditated on the resumption of their foliage. Again, in autumn, would I observe them in their various hues, as they stood at last divested of their summer robes. But, like myself, Horseheaven is getting older and changed, his top, though it was once well covered, is getting bald, the furrows on his brow are becoming more numerous and deeper, and his former life is im- perceptibly leaving him. Across his northern slope since 1872 the iron horse prances daily several times, and his shrill snortings betoken the changes still go- ing on.
The Crows of Horseheaven.
The crow, so renowned for his sagacity and cun- ning, is worthy the observations and study of a New- ton or a Franklin, requiring a philosopher's depth of mind even to partly understand. He is, too, a choice morsel for the historian. His family antiquity here must date back many centuries before the existence of either Greece or Rome. Who will dispute his nativ- ity when he is likewise an aborigine? With all their cunning the wolf and the fox have disappeared, but the crow still remains I really believe more numerous and certainly a greater pest than ever. Reader, can you predict when his career may terminate? This, I apprehend, will not come any sooner than repentance for his numerous misdeeds, as murder, robbery, theft, fraud, cruelty, wiles, stratagems and deceptions num- berless-in fact a catalogue of crimes can be exhausted on him. For ages he has destroyed in the bud, as it were, the tender young Indian corn in the spring and the wheat in winter. The women know well his pro- pensities for young poultry, for eggs, for cherries, and other fruits. And then also are fellow-sufferers the boys and girls who so numerously resort to Horseheaven every autumn for the chestnuts that grow there so
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abundantly, and who find too often only empty burrs though ever so fiercely armed, he having previously secured the contents on the tree top. Then there are besides the common fowls, the turkeys, guineas and partridges that wander over the fields, and also the numerous birds that build in the trees, as well as rab- bits, to charge him as guilty of all the crimes enumer- ated. Oh, how I would that they could be revenged !
The black rascal! How often have I heard that ex- clamation. To think that though wearing so plain an exterior and possessing so grave and sedate a counte- nance, there could possibly be so much wickedness within. Oh, that some Peter the Hermit may arise to start a crusade and deprive him of all his old estab- lished haunts and possessions, even unto his utter ex- tinction, to the great rejoicing of millions of patient sufferers of all ages and kinds to be benefited thereby. Hold, ye ignorant 'and only advocates, who are but ', closet farmers and desk heroes, given to writing in ag- ricultural journals :to "spare the crow," who early in the spring for want of other food is known to eat a few grubs and earth-worms in the furrows, providing they are turned up for him by the farmer, for he is too dig- nified and lordly to scratch for his food like poultry. To such I would say, do no longer convict yourselves, if you are sincere, to except the crow, who spares no birds he can possibly overcome, especially their un- fledged young and all the eggs he can obtain. I state this now from my own country observations for more than forty years.
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What thought our wise forefathers of the crow? They did not obtain their knowledge or information respecting him in the closet or at the desk, but out in the pure air and in the open fields, the latter of which they tilled and were the owners, and had besides grain, poultry and fruit to lose. In 1701 an act was passed by the Assembly of Pennsylvania for the special destruc- tion of the crow by a bounty of threepence each. By the law of 1724 the aforesaid bounty was continued, with a slight change as to the mode of its operation, no party to bring in less than six crow heads at one time to a magistrate, who was then to give the party an order on the County Treasurer for the amount. On giving the order the magistrate was further required to cut off their bills as a check to prevent any further bounty being paid for the same. I find in Montgom- ery county by the annual statement that bounties con- tinued to be paid for their destruction down to at least 1809 and in Bucks to 1818, making considerably over a century. We thus see that, though a bird, they re- garded the crow as no better than the wolf and the fox, even worse in consequence than the rat, the mouse, and all other birds of rapine combined. And in this I say they were right.
Though the payment of bounties has for some time ceased, yet in spite of fire arms, traps, mirrors, whirli- gigs, fish-hooks, horse hair, twine, scare-crows, strych- nine, arsenic, and even whisky, as well as other means of destruction or fright, the crow still lives, flourishes, grows fat, and attains a hearty old age, to the loss of
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many thousands of dollars worth of property belong- ing to our laboring country people. Unlike the black- bird, he is with us summer and winter, and the only time he can suffer is in severe winters of deep snows of long continuance; but even then in thickly set- tled communities he is favored by the offal he gleans on the highways. Further, if necessity compels, he can make a temporary retreat to the sea-coast or south- wards. I verily believe if he would live a century he would have no need for spectacles to aid him in his business affairs nor never a feather of his head turn gray for anxiety.
This highly favored bird, according to those veri- able traditionists, the Kriers and the Walkers, from the earliest period of settlement, has made Horse- heaven his favorite home and resort, and not without good reasons. Those tall woods and dense thickets offer secure retreats at all seasons, as well as advan- tages for breeding places. From its commanding position, when perched on the top of a tall chestnut or oak, the whole neighboring country for many miles can be readily surveyed, not only as respects food but to signal any danger arising from man's intrusion or invasion. How many marauding expeditions may have been thus planned here and executed by their experienced captains and. generals. Either by a sin- gle warrior, a squad or corporal's guard, a company, a regiment, up to the grand army corps of the main body, depending only on the emergency and the amount of plunder to be secured. After the breeding
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season is over in August, being no longer involved in the care and burthen of a family, they begin to collect into flocks and companies, recruits also coming in from the neighboring colonies, till into the middle of December, when many thousands may be seen under- going their exercises and evolutions, making towards evening a noise that may be heard at over a mile's distance, sometimes keeping it up till darkness causes them to descend on the highest tree-tops in the mid- dle of the forest to take their rest and lodgings for the night.
A belief has long prevailed around here that the crows through immemorial custom entertain a sense of right to all bodies of animals dying of disease; hence originated their partiality for the woods of this hill, and that they keep by heart all the old family traditions, especially those relating to the glorious days of revelry and feasting held over the carcasses of the defunct stagers and team horses. To appease them and secure their good will, which is certainly no small favor, some of the people in consequence to this day consign all such from their barn yards to this place. In illustration, a shrewd, money-making farmer moved into the neighborhood about the year 1844, on a large farm situated about half a mile to the northwest of Horseheaven. He had not resided here long when a cow sickened and died. When asked by one of his hands what to do with her he replied, "Why, take off her hide and bury her body in the compost." He was told of the custom that had been heretofore practiced
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and of the consequences that might follow. He scorn- ed such ideas. For him all crows should perish, and the sooner the better, before he would offer them tribute or that his compost heap should lose so bene- ficial a manure.
The result now was a perpetual feud between him and the sable tribe. Scarcely a turkey or a guinea of his could go to set before every egg would be stolen ; his young ducks and chickens were continually snatched up and hurried off-all he tried was vain, for experience was only making them the wiser. Well do I remember when on a dull, drizzly day in the latter part of May, when they could work at nothing else, he mustered all his hands and led them with loaded guns up the steep side of Horseheaven to where was a lofty nest of sticks on the topmost fork of a forest tree, where some seventeen of his young ducks and chickens had been recently carried. A circle was ', formed near the foot of the tree and at command all shot together, when four half-fledged younglings stretched themselves forward and plunged headlong to the ground. These were brought away as trophies to be suspended near his coops and furrows as a warn- ing to his enemies.
With a knowledge of leaving much unsaid respect- ing the wonderful sagacity of the crows of Horse- heaven, I shall conclude with three anecdotes in proof. According to my journal, on the 20th of May, 1859, I observed two crows flying over me direct from the farmer's house I have spoken of for the top of the
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