USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > The history of Bucks County, Pennsylvania : from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time > Part 10
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7 The survey made in 1708, gives the contents 105g acres.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
In the spring of 1712 Joseph Satterthwait and Hannah Albertson sustained a loss of £500 by a fire, and the council gave them license to ask charity of the public, to replace it. This was one of the earliest fires recorded in the county.
The Croziers, who came into the township at a later day than the pioneer settlers, are descended from Huguenot ancestors, reared in the Presbyterian faith. They immigrated from France to Scotland, about 1700; thence to county Antrim, Ireland, and about 1723, five brothers, Andrew, Robert, James, John, and Samuel, came to America. Andrew, the immediate head of the Bucks county family, settled near Columbus, New Jersey, where he married Jane Rich- ardson, about 1744. He removed to Falls in 1758, and settled on a farm on the north side of Welcome, now Scott's creek, where he died in 1776; and his wife 1783. They had nine children, the eldest son, Robert, inheriting the manor farm, whose grandson Wil- liam P. is the present owner.
Robert Crozier, of Morrisville, is the grandson of the first Andrew. The descendants have intermarried with a number of Bucks county families. Of the other brothers who came to America, Robert settled in Philadelphia; and James, John and Samuel, in Delaware county, where John P., a grandson of James, lately deceased at the age of seventy-five. This family fur- nished four soldiers to the Federal army, in the late civil war. J. Howard Cox entered the two hundred and fourteenth Pennsylvania regiment ; William Morton, an Illinois regiment ; John B. Bunting, thirty-fourth Ohio, and William C. Crozier, the one hundred and fourth Pennsylvania. The first Andrew left a large number of descendants.
The family of Kirkbride is one of the oldest in the township. As we have recorded elsewhere, the first ancestor was Joseph, who came to the county in 1682, at the age of twenty ; married in 1683, and in 1687 bought five hundred acres in Falls of Thomas Atkinson, for £35. His wife was a daughter of Mahlon Stacy, the proprietor of the site of Trenton. He became a minister among Friends ; was an active land surveyor and business man, and at his death left thirteen thousand four hundred and thirty-nine acres to be divided among his children. His wife received twelve hundred acres from the will of her brother Mahlon, who died in 1731. His son Joseph got his three negroes, Isaac, Cuffee and Tehmacl. The homestead farm, in Falls, one hundred and one acres and forty-six perches, remained in the family until 1873, when it was sold at public sale to Mahlon
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
Mocn, for $210 per acre. A small dwelling, with cellar underneath, and now used as a tool and wood-house, stands on the tract, a monu- ment of "ye olden time," and is said to have been built by the first purchaser of the land.
Falls was the birthplace of Jacob Brown, commanding-general of the army of the United States in the last war with England. He was a descendant of George Brown, who came from Leicestershire, England, in 1679, and settled on the Delaware, near Biles' creek, on the farm owned by Benjamin P. Brown, in 1871. He brought with him his intended wife, Mercy, whom he married on their arri- val. He died in 1726, aged eighty-three years. They had a large family of children. His son Samuel, who married Ann Claim in 1718, became a member of the assembly, and died 10th month, 3d, 1769, aged seventy-five years.
Samuel, son of John Brown, also a member of assembly, was very fond of the sport of fox-hunting, then much indulged in, and kept a large number of hounds. He was known as "Fox-hunter John Brown," and died 1st month, 1st, 1802, aged seventy-seven years. He had a large family, among whom was Samuel Brown, the father of General Jacob Brown. Samuel also served in the assembly, but afterward left Bucks county with his family, and settled the town of Brownsville on the Black river, Jefferson county, New York. The descendants of George Brown are very numerous in the lower part of the county.
General Jacob Brown was born in the house now occupied by William Warner, about three and a half miles below Morrisville, on the Delaware, May 9th, 1775, where his father lived until the gen- eral was grown, and they removed to New York at the close of the century. After the war of 1812-15 had begun, and then but a plain citizen, he presented himself to General Armstrong, the secretary of war. He said his name was Jacob Brown ; that he was a full- blood Bucks county Quaker, but had an inclination to enter the military service, which he would do if the secretary would give him the command of a brigade ; that he knew nothing of military, but believed he possessed every other requisite for a soldier and an officer. The secretary, without hesitation, offered him the command of a regiment, which he declined, saying: "I will be as good as my word ; give me a brigade, and you shall not be disgraced ; but I will accept nothing less." He afterward received the commission of brigadier-general from the governor of New York, and from that
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
rose to be commanding-general of the army of the United States. He died at Washington city, February 24th, 1828. The following inscription appears on the monument to General Brown in the Con- gressional burial-ground at Washington, D. C .:
"Sacred to the memory of General Jacob Brown. He was born in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, on the 9th of May, 1775, and died at the city of Washington, commanding-general of the army, on the 24th of February, 1828.
"Let him who e'er in after days Shall view this monument of praise, For honor heave the patriot sigh And for his country learn to die."
The father of General Brown died at Brownsville, New York, September 24th, 1813.
About 1773, Anna Lee, with her embryo sect of Shakers, eight or ten in number, passed through Falls, and stopped at the house of Jonathan Kirkbride, while himself and wife were at yearly meeting, Philadelphia. The children seeing a number of friendly-looking people ride up, invited them in to spend the night. Anna took pos- session of a chamber and the others of the kitchen where they commenced to iron a quantity of clothing they took from their saddle-bags. At a given signal all dropped their work, to the astonishment of their young hosts, and falling into ranks went round and round the room in measured tread, shouting
" As David danced before the Lord, So will we, so will we; There was a woman sent from God, Her name is Anna Lee."
This was several times repeated during the evening, resuming their work meanwhile. The next morning they quietly rode away in single file.
About 1790 the Reverend Peter Wilson, of Heightstown, New Jersey, organized a small Baptist congregation in the manor ; but we do not know at what point, nor whether a house was ever erected. He supplied them several years. In 1798 the Reverend Alexander Magowan, licensed to preach in 1784, was called to the manor, where he labored seven years, and baptised one hundred and ten persons. When he left, in 1805, the field appears to have been abandoned, and nothing more is heard of the congregation. It was probably
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
absorbed by the First Baptist church, of Trenton, which was organ- ized about that time. The society owned a lot at Fallsington, but never built upon it. Mr. Magowan was killed in June, 1814, by the upsetting of his wagon, while on his way to Ohio.
The Falls library company was organized, and the constitution adopted, November 26th, 1800, but it was not incorporated until 1802. The constitution is signed by Daniel Trimble, Malılo'n Kirk- bride, John Mott, John Kirkbride, Stephen Comfort, and John Palmer, secretary. The first article of the constitution prohibits the introduction of any book into the library "which shall have been written with an intention to discredit the Christian religion, or bring into disrepute any society or denomination thereof." Among the earliest patrons of the library are found the names of Allen, Burton, Brown, Buckman, Carlisle, Comfort, Clymer, Crozier, and Cadwal- lader. The number of volumes is nineteen hundred. In 1874 Isaiah V. Williamson, a merchant of Philadelphia, gave $5,000 to the library.
In Falls township are three old graveyards, one of which, the Pemberton graveyard, has become historic. It is situated near the bank of the Delaware, opposite the lower end of Biles's island, and in Penn's time was known as "The Point," where Henry Gibbs, "the governor's carpenter," was buried in 1685. There appears not to have been more than twelve or fifteen persons buried there, and of all these only two stones could be found in modern times to tell who sleep beneath. They consisted of two pieces of slate, about ten by sixteen inches, and half an inch thick. On one were the letters P. P., and on the other Phe. P. The two graves are close together, and we have no doubt are the resting places of Phineas Pemberton and his first wife, Phoebe, the daughter of James Harri- son. Probably his immediate family were all buried in this yard. The Watson graveyard, on the road from Attleborough to Tully- town, about half a mile from Oxford Valley, is on the farm of Joseph H. Satterthwait. . It was given by the Watsons, large land-owners 8 in that neighborhood in early times, as a public burial place, but no burials have taken place for about a quarter of a century. It con- tains less than half an acre, and is surrounded by a strong stone wall. The little yard is nearly filled with graves, mostly without stones. The oldest date is 1732. It is held in trust by the Friends,
8 Thomas Watson owned a tract of three hundred and fifty-seven acres in Falls, by the re-survey.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
who keep it in repair. There was formerly a graveyard, two miles from Tullytown on the same road, on what is known as the "old Burton tract," in which slaves were buried. A road has run through it for more than half a century.
The old Cooper homestead, on the Trenton turnpike, half a mile above Tullytown, was built by Thomas, son of Samuel Cooper, of Philadelphia, in 1789, the timbers being sent upin a sloop to Scott's wharf. He died there at the age ef forty-five, leaving four sons and one daughter. His son Thomas lived sixty-nine years at the home- stead, and died there in 1866, at the age of seventy-two. He raised eleven children, and on the 15th of February, each year, the eight survivors have a re-union at their mother's home in Bristol. During the war of 1812 Thomas Cooper hauled his wheat to New Brunswick, and got $3.00 a bushel for it. He was the grandfather of John S. Cooper, of Philadelphia. This family claim to be descen- dants of William Cooper,9 of "Pine Point," from whom J. Fenimore Cooper, the great novelist, is descended.
A century and a quarter ago a considerable trade in boards, shingles, lime, etc., was carried on with Bordentown, through Falls. They were brought down on this side from some twenty-five miles above, and crossed over at the Bordentown ferry, which was then reached by a private road through the fields from the River road. In 1761 it was made a public road on petition of the inhabitants.
Falls township was the birthplace of Charles Ellet, jr., one of the most distinguished Federal officers in the late civil war. He was born January 1st, 1810; adopted the profession of engineer, and went to France at the age of nineteen with a letter to Lafayette. He finished his education in Paris, and afterward traveled over Europe on foot, studying bridges, canals and other improvements. He constructed several railroads, and the wire-suspension bridges at Fairmount, Niagara and Wheeling. He married a daughter of Judge Daniels, of Virginia. He was the first to recommend the use of steam-rams on the western waters, and proved their efficiency by destroying the enemy's fleet, the 12th of May, 1862, at the cost of his life. He was buried from Independence Hall with civic and military honors. At his death his brother Alfred M. took command, and when he was given the Marine brigade, his nephew, Charles Rivers Ellet, succeeded to the Ram fleet. The latter died suddenly
9 The only Thomas marked on the Pine Point tree was a son of JAMES COOPER, born 1736 and whose wife was Sarah Erwin.
S
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
in 1863. Three other members of the family served with the Ram fleet, and behaved with conspicuous gallantry, Lieutenant-colonel John A., and Lieutenants Richard and Edward C. Ellet.
Joseph White, a distinguished minister among Friends, was born in this township, in 1712. He became a minister at twenty ; traveled extensively and preached in this county, and about 1758 made a religious visit to England. He removed to Lower Makefield to- ward the close of his life, and died there in 1777, from the effects of a paralytic stroke in Falls meeting while preaching on Sunday. Richard Major, equally distinguished in the Baptist denomination, was born in Falls in 1722. He was brought up a Presbyterian, but became a Baptist in 1744. Although without scholastic learning, his vigorous mind rose above all impediments, and he became an able and effective speaker. He removed to Loudon county, Virginia, in 1766, where he labored in the ministry, and died at the age of eighty. It is related that on one occasion a man made a violent attack on him with a club, when Mr. Major, who possessed great presence of mind, said, in a solemn tone of voice, "Satin, I com- inand thee to come out of the man," when the ruffian dropped his club, and became as quiet as a lamb.
In the first letter Penn wrote to Logan, after his return to Eng- land, in 1701, is this paragraph : "There is a swamp between the falls and the meeting-house ; I gave the Falls people, formerly, leave to cut the timber in it for their own use, which they have almost spoiled, cutting for sale, coopery, etc., which now, or in a little time, would be worth some thousands. Phineas Pemberton knows this business ; let all be forbid to cut there any more, and learn who have been the wasters of timber, that hereafter they may help to clear the rubbish parts that may be fit for use, or give me tree for tree, when I or my order shall demand it." What about this swamp at the present day ? Is it still a swamp," or long since drained ?
Near Pennsbury was the "Indian field," where the Indians dwelt after they had generally left the vicinity of the settlements. It was the custom of the Indians to burn the underbrush, which made it easier to travel through the woods; and no doubt "Indian fields" were only localities where the timber had been burnt off.
Our treatment of roads in a separate chapter, under a general head, leaves but little for us to say of local roads in the respective townships. They were opened as called for by the necessities of the inhabitants. In Falls were the earliest roads opened, there being a
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
thoroughfare through the township long before Penn's arrival, although it was neither well opened nor kept in repair. In 1703 the inhabi- tants of "Middle-Lots," now Attleborough, petitioned for a road from Falls meeting-house to Bristol, via Anthony Burton's. In 1709 a road was opened from the main road to the river, below the falls, to enable people to cross the river to Mahlon Stacy's mill. The road from the river, opposite the falls, to Attleborough, then called "Cross lanes," was opened in 1710. In 1723, at the instance of Sir William Keith, a road was laid out from the ferry below the falls, to Sir William's plantation. This was probably the upper river road, as it led to Thomas Yardley's mill. In 1744 the inhabitants of Makefield and Wrightstown petitioned to have this road re-opened, as it had been closed in several places. To the petition was the name of John Beaumont. In 1752 a lateral road was opened from the Yardley's mill road across to the one that ran via Falls meeting- house to Bristol, and in 1769 it was extended across to the road from Newtown to the meeting-house.
Falls has four villages, none of them of any size, but all pleasant hamlets. Fallsington, in the northern part of the township, on the road from Kirkbride's ferry to Hulmeville, is designated a village in Scott's Gazetteer, of 1795. Tullytown lies in the southwest corner of the township, on the turnpike, and close to the Bristol line. It was called after a man named Tully, 10 who owned land there. It was laid out in lots in 1816, one being reserved for a church and another for a school-house, and is subsequently described as "a small town on the westermost side of the manor, near and adjoining Martin's lane end." In 1870 the population of Fallsington was 211, and of Tullytown 150. Tyburn, on the Bristol turnpike, about the middle of the township, was laid out in building lots more than half a century ago, and no doubt was named after Tyburn, in England, where all executions took place in olden times. It is thought that the first man executed in this county was hanged at Tyburn. Ox- ford Valley, on the road from Fallsington to Attleborough, lies partly in Falls and partly in Middletown. A notice of it will appear in the latter township. In a petition to the court, nearly an hundred years ago, mention is made of a "late settlement at Penn's manor," but what reference this had is not known.
The surface of the manor portion of the township is level, while the residue has a gentle declivity toward the Delaware. The north-
10 John Tully was an original settler in Bristol township on the line of Falls.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
ern part is somewhat broken by the Edge Hills, which cross the county from the Delaware to the Schuylkill, and in the southwestern part is Turkey liill, a slight elevation above the surrounding level country. It is watered by Mill, Scott's, and other creeks. It has a river front of ten or twelve miles, which affords several valua- ble fisheries, and lying on tide-water, it has all the facilities given by river navigation. No township in the county has a richer or more productive soil, or less waste land. Of late years the farmers are turning their attention to the cultivation of tobacco, of which large and productive crops are raised. Biles's, Moon's, and Savage's islands belong to Falls.
In the olden time Falls and the neighboring townships must have been a good range for crows, judging from the number killed and paid for by the county. In 1816 the county-treasurer paid out the large amount of $264.88 for crow-scalps, taken in Falls and Lower Makefield, which, at the rate of three pence per head, makes the number killed seven thousand nine hundred and forty-six. An article on the subject at that period, concludes thus : "Those who annually receive considerable sums from the county-treasury, are in a state of alarm, lest the Breeders should have been all destroyed."
When Congress had in contemplation the locating of the seat of government on the west bank of the Delaware at the falls, in 1789, the proposed Federal district fell mostly in this township, covering the site of Morrisville. The plat was surveyed by William Harvey and Isaac Hicks.
Falls is among the most populous townships in the county, but we are not able to give the population earlier than 1784, when it was 908 whites and 61 blacks, nor can we give it at each decade since that time. In 1810 it was 1,649; 1820, 1,880 ; 1830, 2,266, and 397 taxables ; 1840, 2,068 ;1 1850, 2,271 ; 1860, 2,316 ; 1870, 2,298,12 of which 194 were of foreign birth.
But few, if any, agricultural districts in the state have a more in- telligent and cultivated population than Falls township. The post- offices in Falls are Fallsington, established in 1849, and James Thompson appointed postmaster ; Tullytown in 1829, and Joseph Hutchinson postmaster; and Oxford Valley, established in 1849, when Jolin G. Spencer, who still holds the office, was appointed postmaster.
11 We cannot account for this falling off compared with 1830.
12 In 1870 the census of Tullytown was taken separately from the township.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
Biles's island, in the Delaware, a mile below the falls, and con- taining three hundred acres, was sold to William Biles about 1680, by Orecton, Nannacus, Nenemblahocking, and Patelana, free native Indians, in consideration of £10, but was not actually conveyed by deed. The 19th of March, 1729, Lappewins and Captain Cum- bansh, two Indian "Sackemen" and heirs, and successors of the Indians above named, confirmed the said island to William Biles, jr., son of William Biles the elder, now deceased, in consideration of seven pounds in Indian goods. The deed contained a warranty against the grantors, their heirs, and all other Indians.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
CHAPTER VIII.
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MAKEFIELD.
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1692.
First named in report .- Origin of name .- Macclesfield .- Falls of Delaware objective point .- Order of settlers on river .- William Yardley's tract .- Richard Hough .- Old marriage certificate .- Briggs family ; Stockton; Mead .- Friends meeting. -Old graveyard .- Two Makefields one .- Daniel Clark .- Livezey family .- Three brothers Slack .- Reverend Elijah and General James Slack .- Edgewood .- Dolington .- Yardleyville .- First store-house .- Wheat Sheaf .- First lock-tender. -Negro killed .- Yardleyville of to-day .- Stone quarries .- Oak Grove school- house .- Area of township .- Taxes and population.
MAKEFIELD is the first township named in the report of the jury that subdivided the county in 1692. We give it the second place in our work because Falls is justly entitled to the first. It was the uppermost of the four river townships, and not only embraced what is now Lower Makefield, but extended to the uttermost bounds of civilization. All beyond was then an "undiscovered country," whose exploration and settlement were left to adventurous pioneers. Lower Makefield is bounded, on the land side, by Falls, Newtown and Upper Makefield, and has a frontage of five miles on the Dela- ware.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
There has been some discussion as to the origin of the name "Makefield" which the jury gave to this township, and which it bore until Upper Makefield was organized many years afterward. There is no name like it in England of town, parish, or hundred. When John Fothergill, minister among Friends, of London, visited the township in 1721, he wrote the name "Macclesfield " in his journal. It is just possible that Makefield is a corruption of Mac- clesfield, or that the latter was pronounced Makefield by the early English settlers, and the spelling made to accord with the pronunci- ation. In the will of Henry Margerum, an early settler, the name of the township is written " Maxfield," but one remove from Mac- clesfield. But all this is mere conjecture, in face of the fact that the jury, which laid off the township, spelled the word, plain enough, Makefield.
The "falls of Delaware" was an objective point to Penn's first immigrants, for a little colony of English settlers had gathered there several years before, whither many directed their footsteps upon landing, and whence they spread out into the wilderness beyond. Several settlers pushed their way into the woods of Makefield as early as 1682. Richard Hough, in his will made in 1704, gives the following as the order of the land-owners along the river from the falls up : John Palmer, Richard Hough, Thomas Janney, Richard Vickers, Samuel Overton, John Brock, one thousand acres ; John Clows, one thousand acres ; William Yardley, five hundred arces ; Eleanor Pownall, Thomas Bond, James Harrison, Thomas Hudson, Daniel Milnor, two hundred and fifty acres; Joseph Milnor, two hundred and fifty acres ; Henry Bond and Richard Hough, five hun- dred acres, warrant dated September 20th, 1685, patent July 30th, 1687. Harrison owned in all five thousand acres here and else- where, and Bond was a considerable proprietor. The usual quantity held by settlers was from two hundred and fifty to one thousand acres. The parties named held nearly all the land in the township in 1704. The tract of William Yardley covered the site of Yardley- ville, and after his death his son Thomas established a ferry there, called "Yardley's ferry," which the assembly confirmed to him in 1722. This soon after became an important point, and later in the
The following were the land-owners in Makefield in 1684: Richard Hough, Henry Baker, Joseph Milnor, Daniel Milnor, Thomas Hudson, JAMES HARRISON, Thomas Bond, Henry Sidwell, Edward Luffe, Eleanor Pownall, William Pownall, John Clows, John Brock, Samuel Overton, Thomas Janney, Richard Vicker ?.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
century, when the three great roads leading to Philadelphia via the falls, Attleborough and Newtown terminated there, the ferry became a thoroughfare of traffic and travel of a large section of East Jersey. Part of the original purchase remained in the Yardley family down to 1854, one hundred and seventy-two years. In a previous chapter is a brief notice of William, the ancestor of the Yardleys, but I have not been able to trace the descent of the family. Among the earliest of the name is William, son of Thomas and Ann, born 1716; mar- ried two wives, Anne and Sarah, and was the father of twelve children. The late John Yardley was a direct descendant of William, who came here in 1682. The warrant to William Yardley was dated October 6th, 1682, and the patent January 23d, 1687.
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