USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > The history of Bucks County, Pennsylvania : from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time > Part 20
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taken down, and erected a new dwelling on their site. The Long- streth family retain the metal-moulds in which Bartholomew run his pewter spoons, like other farmers of that day, and have also the iron old John Dawson used to smooth beaver hats. Bartholomew Long- streth was a man of influence in his generation. He first opened the York road from the Neshaminy down to Hatborough. The Long- streths owned land in other townships.
The land located by John Rush was probably not confirmed to him, or he may have sold it to Bingley, to whom it was patented, for the tract of the latter covered what is in Rush's name on Holme's map. Henry Comly, who came with wife and son from Bristol, England, in 1682, located five hundred acres in the north-west cor- ner of the township, between the county line and Street road, and adjoining Warrington. The grant was made to him by William Penn before leaving England. Comly died in 1684, and his wife who re-married in 1685, died in 1689. His son Henry married Agnes Heaton in 1695, and soon afterward purchased five hundred acres in Moreland, near Smithfield, where he died in 1727, leaving eleven children. He is thought to have been the ancestor of all who bear the name of Comly, in this state. Sarah Woolman's tract of two hundred and fifty acres joined that of Henry Comly, but we do not know what year she came into the township, but before 1684. Nathaniel Allen was also a large land-owner in Bristol township, but probably never lived in Warminster.
The Nobles were among the very earliest settlers in Bucks county. We find Richard Nobles on the Delaware in 1675, where he held a local office under the Duke of York. He settled in Bristol township, and took up a tract of land on the river above the mouth of Ne- shaminy, and was a surveyor. His son Abel was an original pur- chaser in Warminster, where he owned six hundred and ninety-five acres at the re-survey in 1702. The original Noble tract lay on both sides of the York road, that on the upper side running up the county line, and not reaching the Street road, and that on the lower side extending down it to within half a mile of Johnsville. In 1743 Abel Noble conveyed one hundred and sixty-five acres to his son Joseph, who in turn sold it and a few acres more in 1763 to Harman Yerkes, the first of that family in Warminster. Abel and Job Noble, sons of the first purchaser, were owners of considerable of the
5 He came from England in the Joseph and Mary, Captain Mathew Payne, the first vessel that landed passengers at Salem, New Jersey, May 13th, 1675.
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ancestral tract at that time. Job was a man of many peculiarities. He left the grain ungathered in the corners of his fields for the birds. At the family mansion, in English style, with hip-roof, on the site of the dwelling of the late Andrew Yerkes, on the York road, he built a stone apiary with the back to the road, and intended to have cut upon it the ten commandments, but it was never done. The story is told of one of his Irish servants, who, discovering a tortoise in the field, ran breathless to the house and reported that he had found "a snake in a box," nor would he return to his work until some one went out to " demolish the craiture." He died in 1775, leaving two daughters, one of whom married a Gilbert and the other a Moland. Job Noble was a Seventh Day Baptist. The remains of the Noble family burying-ground is below the York road, and near the county line, on the farm now owned by Justice Mitchell, on a knoll that overlooks a meadow in front. Half a dozen graves, with a few feet of the old wall, are all that mark the final resting- place of these Warminster pioneers.
Jolin and Isaac Cadwallader were in the township quite early. John bought two hundred and fifty acres on the county line. Isaac died in 1739. Warminster had a sprinkling of Hollanders at an early day, who probably came from Long or Staten Island instead of direct from Holland. Among them we find the Cravens, Van- sants, Garrisons, Corsons, and other families. The Cravens probably came first, and James was an owner of land in the township as early as 1685, for we find that the 9th of April, 1740, he paid to James Steel, receiver of taxes for the Proprietaries, "four pounds, two shillings and six-pence, in full for fifty-five years" quit-rent due on one hundred and fifty acres of land in Warminster. The Cravens were living in the township in 1712, and James and Thomas were there in 1730 and 1737. In 1726 one of the name came into Warminster from Richmond county, Staten Island. In January, 1725, he bought a farm of one hundred and fifty acres of William Stockdell, adjoining lands of Peter Chamberlain and Bartholomew Longstreth, for £290. Possession was given the 1st of June, 1726. The Corsons came from Long Island, the first of the name being Benjamin, whose receipt of July 1st, 1723, states that he had re- ceived £7. 6s. of one Wessells, "on account of Jacob Kraven." Harman Vansant was brigade-inspector in 1821, afterward brigadier- general, and died September 13th, 1823, aged sixty-six years.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
The Yerkes family made their appearance in Bucks county and settled in Warminster about an hundred and fifty years ago, when Harman Yerkes bought one hundred and eighty-one acres of the Noble tract on the Street road.6 About 1700 two brothers, Her- man and Anthony Yerkes, came from Germany and settled on the Schuylkill. Anthony was one of the three burgesses of German- town, December 28th, 1703, and the two brothers were naturalized by act of assembly in 1729. Herman, or Harman, as the name was pronounced, settled on the Pennypack, in Moreland township, Mont- gomery county, near Shelmire's mill.7 He had two sons, Harman and Anthony, and the former added eight sons to the tribe, An- thony, the eldest, adding four sons and three daughters more. One son, Joseph, married Sarah Purdy, who descended from the com- mon ancestor of the Southampton family of that name. Most of the descendants of Anthony Yerkes, with some of the Purdys, removed to Seneca county, New York, in 1799, and thence to Michigan. Our Warminster family have descended directly from Harman, a grandson of Harman the first, through two Harmans and Stephen to the present generation. The last Stephen married Amy, daugh- ter of the Reverend Thomas B. Montanye, and was the father of Harman Yerkes of the Bucks county bar. The family furnished number of soldiers to the Revolution, and on the rolls are found the names of John, Silas, Herman, Elias, George, Anthony, Jonathan and Stephen from Philadelphia county, which then included Mont- gomery county, and Edward and Henry from Bucks. Seven out of the eight sons of Harman entered the military service, judging from the names they bore. In 1769 Thomas Banes owned two hundred acres on the north side of the Street road, extending from Johns- ville upward.
The celebrated John Fitch, to whom justly belongs the honor of propelling boats by steam, spent several years of his life in Warminster, and this was his home until he finally took up his residence in Kentucky. Fitch was of Saxon descent, and born in Connecticut January 21st, 1743. He inherited a fondness for reading and study from his father, who had a genius for
John Fitch
6 The name is of German origin, and has been variously spelled Jerghes, Gerjlies, Gerches, Yerkas, Jerghjes, Sherkes, and otherwise.
7 One account says in 1720.
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astronomy, mathematics and natural philosophy. He learned clock making after he was eighteen, married a woman older than himself at twenty-four, whom he deserted in 1769, and came to Trenton, New Jersey, where he established himself as a silversmith. On the breaking out of the Revolution he turned his talents to gunsmithing. The British destroyed his tools and other property, valued at £3, 000, when they took possession of Trenton, in the fall of 1776. He after- ward made his home in Bucks county, following the trade of a silver- smith, frequently traveling through the country. He was a patriot, an officer of the first company raised at Trenton, and held the same rank in the army at Valley Forge, and was aftewards a sutler in the army in the west. At one time he served as armourer or gun- smith. He led an unsettled life. He went to Kentucky in 1780, to survey public lands, where he located a large tract, but afterward lost the title to it, and was captured by the Indians in 1782, while preparing to make a trip to New Orleans with flour. He visited London in 1793, and died in Nelson county, Kentucky, about 1798. In person Fitch was tall, six feet two inches, straight and spare, with tawny complexion, black hair and piercing eyes. His counte- nance was pleasing, and his temper quick. He was a man of good morals, and truthful and honorable in all his dealings. He was the father of two children, a son and daughter; the former, Shaler Fitch, died in Trumbull county, Ohio, in 1842, and latter, Lucy, married Colonel James Kilbourne, of Franklin county, Ohio.
When John Fitch was driven from Trenton by the British, in 1776, he came into Bucks county, first to the house of Jolin Mitchell, Attleborougli, and afterward to Charles Garrison's, in Warminster, half a mile west of Davisville. During his sojourn in this township he earned a livelihood by repairing clocks and silversmithing, making his home at Garrison's or in the neighborhood. He was recognized as a man of genius, and associated with the most intelligent people. He was on intimate terms with Reverend Mr. Irwin, the pastor at Neshaminy, who took much interest in his mechanical contrivances, and encouraged him. Fitch frequently walked four miles to hear him preach. One of his intimates was Cobe Scout, a man as eccen- tric as himself, a wheelwright, gunsmith and silversmith, who was
" Everything by turn, But nothing long."
It was at Scout's shop Fitch suddenly appeared one rainy Saturday afternoon, on his return from his captivity among the Indians.
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After a glance of recognition, they rushed into each other's arms, in tears, and the next day they went together to church where public thanks were returned for Fitch's safe delivery. While living at Charles Garrison's he engraved a map of the "Northwestern part of the United States," in Cobe Scout's shop, and printed it on Mr. Garrison's cider press.
The first model of a steamboat that ever floated was made by John Fitch in Warminster, in a log shop where Sutphin McDowell car- ried on weaving, on the farm lately owned by Mitchell Wood, four hundred yards east of the county line. He said the idea of a steam- hoat first occurred to him as he and James Ogilbee were walking home from Neshaminy meeting, and were passed by Mr. Sinton and wife, of Hatborough, in a riding chair, at the intersection of the York and Street roads. 8 After pondering the matter a few days, he made a model, and submitted it to his friends Daniel Longstreth, Reverend Nathaniel Irwin, and others. The machinery was of brass, the paddle wheels of wood, made by the late N. B. Boileau, who lived on the county line near by, then a student of Princeton col- lege, at home. From the late Abraham McDowell we have the particulars of the trial-trip of the model, on the mill dam of the Watts farm,9 just over the line in Southampton. Then a lad, four or five years old, he carried some of the parts to and from Boileau's house, while the boat was being constructed. He accompanied the party, consisting of Fitch, Cobe Scout, Abraham Sutphin, An- thony Scout, John McDowell, William Vansant and Charles Garri- son, to the dam to try the model. At the dam they were joined by Arthur Watts and his son William. This event made a lasting im- pression upon the mind of Mr. McDowell, who took pleasure in relating it to the author nearly seventy-five years after it occurred. He stated they were stationed around the dam to catch the boat when it came ashore, and turn it back. The fire was lighted, the boat put in the water, and after a few moments delay she started, puffing away, up the dam. A couple of hours were spent in the experiment, and at the end of the time the little steamboat was declared a success. It made several trips across and up and down the dam, and when these were done Fitch carried it home under his arm, delighted. The problem of propelling boats through the water by steam was solved on that day and that occasion, and this almost
8 The late Daniel Longstreth, jr., thinks this was in April, 1785.
9 Now owned by John Davis.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
untutored mechanic has the honor of an invention that has revolu- tionized the commerce and naval warfare of the world. About 1788 Fitch built a steamboat that made several successful trips on the Delaware between Philadelphia and Burlington.
PROBASCO=PHILA
FITCH'S STEAMBOAT ON THE DELAWARE.
Cobe Scout, mentioned in connection with Fitch, his friend and intimate companion, was an eccentric character in Warminster, a century ago and later, who made his home part of the time at Charles Garrison's. Fitch taught him the art and mystery of silversmithing, to which he added that of gun-maker. Occasionally a few of his spoons, or one of his long rifles turns up in some old homestead. Half a century ago, the good housewives of Warminster held Cobe Scout's silver spoons in higher estimation than any other make, and not a few of them have been handed down from mother to daughter as precious heir-looms. His rifles were equally celebrated, one of which he carried in the Revolutionary war. While the American army lay on the west bank of the Delaware in 1776, and the enemy occupied Trenton, Scout shot a Hessian dead, across the river. This added greatly to his reputation. He died in 1829, aged ninety years.
There is a private graveyard near Johnsville, on the farm lately owned by Eliza Vansant, to whose family it belonged. In it lie
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
buried the remains of the early Holland settlers of that section, the Vansants, Garrisons, Cravens, Sutphins, McDowells, Vandykes, and others, the relations or immediate friends. The oldest stone marks the resting place of Harman Vansant, who died in 1769, at the age of eighty-four, and Giles Craven, died September 8th, 1798, in his eightieth year. A handsome marble slab is erected to the memory of Doctor William Bachelor, a native of Massachusetts, and surgeon in the army of General Gates, who died September 14th, 1823, aged seventy-five years. His wife was a daughter of Silas Hart, of War- minster. Doctor Bachelor lived in Hatborough, and had an exten- sive practice. On one occasion he was called upon to visit a man whose leg was badly hurt. The doctor wanted rum to bathe it, and a quart was sent for. After the limb had been duly dressed, the patient, who was fond of a drop, was told by the doctor that he might take a little internally, whereupon he smiled his blandest smile and said, "Doctor, I always did admire your judgment."
The famous "Log college" was in Warminster, on the York road half a mile below Hartsville, on the fifty acre tract given by James Logan to William Tennent, his cousin, in 1728. When Mr. Tennent first went there Mr. Logan was obliged to purchase and send him provisions from Philadelphia, which argues that his congregation provided him a slim living. He lived on the property that lately belonged to Cornelius Carrell, and the college was on the lot now owned by George Hanna. In the fireplace of the old Carrell house 10 is a fire-crane used by William Tennent. Part of the old wall, two and one-half feet thick, runs across the end of the kitchen. A few years ago three English pennies, bearing dates from 1710 to 1719, were found on the premises. Mr. Tennent, who died May 9th, 1746, left by will all his movable estate to his wife "Kathren," and at her death his real estate was to be sold and the proceeds divided among his heirs.
Warminster has two villages, Johnsville, at the junction of the Newtown and Street roads, a mile from the lower line of the town- ship, and Hartsville on the York road where it crosses the Warwick line. Johnsville had its foundation laid in 1814, when James Craven · built a store-house for his son John, on the only corner not covered with native forest trees, and in which a store is still kept. It took its name from John Craven. The village contains about twenty dwellings. Twenty-five years ago Robert Beans established an
10 Now owned by J. W. Gwyn.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
agricultural implement factory there, which employed a number of hands, principally engaged in making mowing and reaping machines. It was burnt down within a few years and not re-built. Hartsville lays along the York and Bristol roads, the major part of it being in Warminster. The old name was "Cross Roads," and it was only called Hartsville within the present generation, after a family of Harts which lived there a number of years. It contains a store, tavern, Presbyterian church, which came of the division at Ne- shaminy in the war of "schools," forty years ago, a hall for public lectures, and twenty-five dwellings. The Hartsville Presbyterian church is known as the "Neshaminy church of Warminster," and the constituent members were originally members of the Neshaminy church in Warwick. In consequence of the choice of Reverend James P. Wilson by a small majority of this congregation as their pastor, in November, 1838, one hundred persons withdrew from this church in a body, on Saturday, February 10th, 1839, and held worship in the school-house at the graveyard, claiming to be "the Neshaminy church and congregation." On that day Reverend Mr. Howard preached for them as a supply. They worshiped for a time in private houses, and then in a temporary frame structure, called the " Tabernacle," erected in the woods at the top of Long's hill, on the Bristol road. The question of title to the original church property was tried in the court of Bucks county, but finally decided by a compromise in the winter of 1841-42. It was sold and bought by the congregation now worshiping there. The pas- tors, in their order, have been Reverends Thomas B. Bradford, installed April 29th, 1839, and resigned March 9th, 1841, Henry R. Wilson, from 1842 to his death in 1849, Jacob Belville, from 1850 to 1860, and Alexander M. Woods, from 1860 to 1870. The Reverend Gersham H. Nimmo followed Mr. Woods, and is the present pastor. The church edifice was erected in 1842. The congregation is large and flourishing.
The tavern at Hartsville, in Warwick, was kept for many years, at the close of the last and beginning of the present century, by William Hart, who had for his sign the human heart, and probably he gave the present name to the village. He was one of the captors of the Doans, and died in 1831, aged eighty-four years. A post- office was established there in 1826. The old stone bridge over the Neshaminy on the York road, above the village, built in 1793, had a heart cut on the date-stone. Hartsville was an educational centre
-
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going back to the days of the Log college, an hundred and forty years ago. The schools of the Reverends James P. Wilson and Robert Belville, and the Messrs. Long enjoyed a wide reputation for many years, and laid the foundation of the education of many prominent and useful men. Samuel Long, at one time principal of one of the schools, met a sad fate in being killed by the limb of a tree falling upon him on a Saturday afternoon, after the boys were dismissed, in December, 1835. A new village, at the present ter- minus of the Hatborough branch of the North Pennsylvania railroad at the Bristol road, called Ivyland, has sprung up within a few years, which consists of a few dwellings, a tavern, and a store. A Friends' meeting-house, erected thirty years ago, stands on the Street road, half a mile above Johnsville.
So far as we have any means of knowing, Warminster has never liad more than one public house, and probably the site of the earliest was on or near where the present one stands. As early as 1730 one Thomas Linter petitioned the court for a recommendation for license "to keep a house of entertainment for man and horse." In this le states that he is an inhabitant of Warminster, "county de Bucks," and owns a house and good plantation on the York road, near the cross roads, and not far from " ye forks." In 1732 Thomas Davids, of Northampton, attorney-in-fact for Thomas Linter, sold his farm of an hundred acres to David Howell, of Philadelphia, whereupon he removed to New York. In more modern times the Warminster hostelry, located near the junction of the York and Street roads, has been quite noted. Half a century ago, when horse-racing was much more common than now, it was frequented by those who indulged in this sport. It was then kept by Thomas Beans, a famous horseman. At elections and militia trainings a half-mile track was cleared upon the Street road, where favorite nags were put upon their speed. Mr. Beans had a fine circular half-mile track laid out on his farm, back of the buildings. The death of a rider at one of the races down the Street road did much to break up the practice, which was wholly discontinued many years ago. Warminster is the only township in the county without grist-mills, nor is it known that it ever had one. This arises from its surface being so generally level, that there are no streams of sufficient size and fall to drive a mill. Many years ago there was a saw-mill on the farm of Robert Darrah, near Hartsville, but now long out of use. The west branch of Ne- shaminy cuts across its north-east corner, near the Warrington line,
15
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
and affords a good mill site in the latter township, where a mill was built nearly a century ago.
Warminster is well provided with roads, having one on each of its four rectilineal sides, three of them, the Bristol and Street roads and the Montgomery county line, part of Penn's system of great highways laid out on north-west lines. These are intersected by lateral roads, laid out and opened as they were required. Of these cross-roads that between Warminster and Warrington was opened about 1785, by one of the Longs who had lately built a grist-mill, and was then building a saw-mill where this road crosses the Ne- shaminy. The road that crosses the township half a mile above Johnsville, and at that time the line of travel between Horsham and Wrightstown, was opened in 1723, and the one on the Southampton township line in 1769. As early as 1709 a road was viewed and laid out to allow the inhabitants of Warminster to reach the new mill on the Pennypack.11 The road across by Johnsville was prob- ably opened about 1724.
An institution for the education of male orphan children of African and Indian descent is located in Warminster, on a farm of one hun- dred acres on the Street road, a mile below the Warrington line. It is known as the Emlen institute, and was founded about thirty- five years ago by Samuel Emlen, of Burlington, New Jersey, who gave $20,000 to trustees for this charity. The institution was first organized in Ohio, soon after the founder's death, but was afterward removed to a farm of fifty-five acres, in Solebury. In 1872 it was again removed, to Warminster. By careful management the original fund has been increased to $30,000, several thousand of which have been expended on the present property, improving the buildings, etc. The pupils are instructed in the mechanic arts, and other use- ful pursuits. The income is sufficient to maintain and educate about twenty pupils.
The earliest return of the inhabitants of Warminster that has met our notice was made over a century ago, but the exact date is not given. It comprises a list of housekeepers and single men, with the quantity of land owned by each, the acres in with corn, with the cattle, sheep, etc. There were then but fifty-eight housekeepers and twelve single men in the township. Joseph Hart was the largest land-owner, four hundred and thirty-five acres, with three hundred acres cleared and sixty in with corn. He owned twenty-four cattle,
11 Gwin's mill, below Hatborough.
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eight horses and thirty-five sheep. Daniel Longstreth was the next, who owned four hundred and ten acres, two hundred cleared and forty-four in with corn. He was the owner of thirteen cattle, three horses and twenty-three sheep. This return gives two thousand eight hundred and one acres of cleared land, of which six hundred and seven were planted with corn. The whole number of domestic animals was two hundred and thirty-six cattle, sixty-five horses, sixty-seven mares, and two hundred and seventy-eight sheep. There were but eleven negro slaves in the township. In 1784 the town- ship contained 368 white inhabitants and 28 blacks, with 66 dwell- ings. The population at stated periods since 1784 was as follows : 1810, 564 ; 1820, 695; 1830, 709, and 155 taxables ; 1840, 934; 1850, 970 ; 1860, 987 ; 1870, 840, of which 32 were of foreign birth.
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