USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > The history of Bucks County, Pennsylvania : from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time > Part 29
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308
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
versville was known as Joseph Pryor's. Besides these there were Phillips's mill in 1765, Canby's in 1762, and Jacob Fretz's fulling- mill in 1789. The Ellicotts owned the mills at Carversville several years. The Armitage mill, on the Cuttalossa, was among the early mills in the township, built by Samuel Armitage, who immigrated from Yorkshire, England, to Solebury before 1750. It is still standing and in use, but it and the fifty acres belonging passed out of the family in 1851, into the possession of Jonathan Lukens, of Horsham. Two hundred acres adjoining the mill property are still in possession of the family. Samuel Armitage died in 1801, at the age of eighty-five. The first mill at Lumberton was built in 1758 by William Skelton, who continued in possession to 1771, when he sold it to Jacob Kugler. He re-built it between that time and 1782, when he sold it to George Warne. It was subsequently used for a store, dwelling, and cooper-shop, and taken down in 1828.
KUGLER'S MILL, LUMBERTON.
In Solebury, as elsewhere, the early settlers clung to the bridle paths through the woods until necessity compelled them to open roads. We cannot say when the first township road was laid out. There was a road from the river to Barcroft's mill, and thence to the York road, in 1730. About the same time a road was laid out from Coryell's ferry to the Anchor tavern in Wrightstown, where it united with the Middle or Oxford road, thus making a new continu- ous highway from the upper Delaware to Philadelphia. It was re-viewed in 1801. In 1756 a road was laid out from John Rose's
309
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
ferry, now Lumberville, to York road, and from Howell's ferry, now Centre Bridge, in 1765, and from Kugler's mill, at Lumberton, to Carversville, and thence to the Durham road, in 1785. Although the Street road between Solebury and Buckingham was allowed about 1702, it was not laid out by a jury until September 2d, 1736.19 It was viewed by a second jury August 6th, 1748. In 1770 it was extended from the lower corner of these townships to the road from Thompson's mill to Wrightstown. The road from the river, at the lower end of Lumberville, to Ruckman's, was laid out and opened in 1832. Owing to the opposition an act was obtained for a "state road" from Easton to Lumberville, thence across to Ruckman's, and down the York road to Willow Grove, which gave the local road desired, with but trifling alteration in the old roads. The late James M. Porter, of Easton, was one of the jurymen, and Samuel Hart the surveyor. The "Suggin" road is probably the oldest in the town- ship, and was originally a bridle path, along which the settlers of Plumstead took their grain to the Aquetong mill, above New Hope, to be ground. It left the Paunacussing creek at Carversville, and ran north-east through William R. Evans's and Joseph Roberts's, crossing the present road near Joseph Sacket's gate, thence through Aaron Jones's woods to meet the present road near Isaac Pearson's, and by Armitage's mill, Centre Hill, and Solebury meeting-house to New Hope.
The villages of Solebury are, Lumberville and Lumberton lying contiguous on the Delaware, Centre Bridge below on the river, Centre Hill in the interior of the township, Carversville on the Pau- nacussing, Cottageville, and New Hope, an incorporated borough.
About 1785 the site of Lumberville was owned by Colonel George Wall and William Hamilton. We know but little of Hamilton, but Wall was an active patriot of the Revolution, and a man of influence. He built two saw-mills and carried on the lumber business, was jus- tice of the peace, and followed surveying and conveyancing. His dwelling and office stood on the site of Lukens Thomas's new house. At one time he kept a school to instruct young men in surveying, and died in 1804.20 Hamilton's dwelling was opposite Coppernose,
19 The jury were Robert Smith, Francis Hough, John Fisher, John Dawson, and Henry Paxson, and it was surveyed by John Chapman.
20 George Wall was one of the most prominent men in the county during the Revo- lutionary struggle. In 1778 he was appointed lieutenant of Bucks with the rank of colonel, and his commission is signed by Thomas Wharton and Timothy Matlaek.
.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
at what was called " Temple bar," probably from a gravel bar in the river, and it was taken down in 1828, when the canal was dug. He died about 1797, leaving his estate to his son Thomas, who sold it in 1807. The place was known as Wall's saw-mill and Wall's landing as late as 1814, when the name was changed to Lumber- ville, by Heed and Hartly who then carried on the lumber business there. In 1810 there were a few dwellings, a store and tavern, and other improvements were made in subsequent years. The road then ran near the river, with the houses on the upper side, but the canal destroyed it and the present road was laid out. The tavern was burned down about 1828, and was re-built. Since then several new buildings have been erected, including a Methodist church, and a substantial bridge across the river. The church was built in 1836, and re-built on the opposite side of the road in 1869, with a frame basement, thirty by fifty feet. The bridge was commenced in 1854, and finished in 1857, built by Chapin and Anthony Fly, at a cost of $18,000. The Lumberville library was founded in the fall of 1823, the first meeting on the subject being held at the Athenian school- house near the village, which William L. Hoppock, Samuel Hartly, Aaron White, Joseph Heed, and Cyrus Livezey attended, among others. The shares were five dollars each. Mr. Hartly was the first librarian, and the library was kept in his office. The books were sold at public sale in 1833, because there was no place to keep the three hundred and fifty volumes that had accumulated. During its short existence it did considerable to improve the literary taste of the neighborhood. The post-office was established in 1835, and William L. Hoppock appointed postmaster.
Lumberton, less than a mile below Lumberville, was known as Rose's ferry 21 before the Revolution, when there was a grist and saw- mill belonging to William Skelton. Jacob Painter and Reuben Thorne became the owners in 1796. The latter kept the ferry, and the place was called Painter's ferry, and had a tavern and a store. It was a favorite crossing for persons going from upper Jersey to Philadelphia, who fell into the York road at Centre Hill. Painter, who died in 1805, probably built a new mill, and the subsequent owners were Joseph Kugler, John Gillingham, Jeremiah King, Thomas Little and John E. Kenderdine. The canal covers the site of the first mill, a long, low and narrow stone building. Gilling-
21 The right of landing was reserved to John Rose in the deed of William Skelton to Kugler in 1771.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
ham re-built the tavern in 1816 or 1817, about which time it had fallen into bad repute, and was called "Hard Times."22 A tavern has not been kept there since 1842. When Mr. Kenderdine en- larged his mill, in 1834, he pulled down the old Pike dwelling. Lumberton contains but three dwellings and a grist-mill. Here is a valuable quarry of light-colored granite, owned and worked by a company, developed when the canal was constructed, and the stone were used to build abutments and wingwalls of bridges. The new locks at New Hope were built of it. The quarry was bought by John E. Kenderdine in 1833, and sold by his administrator in 1868. Mr. Kenderdine gave the place the name of Lumberton. The In- dian name of the island in the Delaware opposite Lumberville was Paunacussing, which it retained until 1721, when John Ladd and R. Bull bought a large tract in that vicinity, which soon fell into the possession of Bull, and it was then called Bull's island. Paxson's island, lower down the river, took its name from Henry Paxson, an carly settler in the township. His nephew, Thomas, purchased two hundred and nine acres along the Delaware, including the island, which contained one hundred acres. The island was the cause of much trouble to the Paxsons, the Indians claiming the title to it on the ground that they had not sold it to Penn. About 1745 they offered to sell it to Paxson for £5, but he refused to buy with the Proprietary's sanction. In the first deed it is called a "neck," and in 1745 was an island only about three months in the year.
Centre Bridge, four miles below Lumberville, was called Read- ing's ferry soon after 1700, from John Reading, who owned the ferry-house on the New Jersey side, and afterward Howell's ferry, from the then owner. It was so called in 1770. It was known as Mitchel's ferry before the present century. In 1810 it had but one dwelling, in which John Mitchel, the ferryman, lived, who kept t tavern there for many years, and died in 1824. At one time he rep- resented the county in the assembly. The bridge was built across the river in 1813, when it took the name of Centre Bridge, half way between Lumberville and New Hope. Since then several dwellings and two stores have been erected. The post-office was established at Centre Hill in 1831, and John D. Balderson postmaster, but changed to Centre Bridge in 1845.
22 The sign blew down and the landlord put up a whitewashed window shutter in its stead, on which he wrote with tar the words "Hard Times," and times did look hard enough thereabouts.
312
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
Carversville was originally called Milton, which name it bore in 1800. At the beginning of the century it contained a grist-mill, store, smith-shop, etc. About 1811, Jesse Ely built a woolen fac- tory, oil-mill, and tannery; the factory was burned down in 1816, and re-built. Isaac Pickering built a tavern in 1813 or 1814, which he kept to his death in 1816, when it, and the property of Jesse Ely, were bought by Thomas Carver, who carried on business to his death, in 1854. A post-office was established in 1833, and the place called Carversville. Since then the village has considerably im- proved, several dwellings, Free and Presbyterian churches, a large school building, a store, etc., erected, and a cemetery laid out. The Presbyterian congregation was organized about 1870, and the church, a pretty Gothic structure, that will seat about three hundred, was built in 1874, at a cost of $4,500. In 1811 a woolen factory was built at Fretz's mill on the road from Carversville to the Delaware, and run until about 1819 or 1820. A clover-mill was afterward built, and burned down in 1833, when a grist-mill was erected on the site. Centre Hill, known as the " Stone school-house" a cen- tury and a quarter ago, contained only a store, one dwelling, and an old school-house in 1810, but within the last thirty years several dwellings have been erected, an additional store opened, and me- chanics established. Cottageville has several dwellings, and a school- house. The Solebury Presbyterian church was organized in 1843, mainly through the efforts of Mrs. Rebecca Ingham, Mrs. Johanna Corson, and Mrs. Elizabeth Neeley. It has about an hundred mem- bers, and the yearly collections amount to nearly one thousand dollars. The church was lately repaired by William Neeley Thomp- son, of New York, but a native of Bucks, and is now one of the most beautiful in the county. It is now known as the "Thompson memorial church," after Thomas M. Thompson, in whose memory it was re-built by his son. It contains four very fine memorial win- dows, to commemorate the virtues of two men and two women, one of the former a loved pastor, the Reverend Doctor Studiford. The Solebury Baptist church grew out of a meeting of twenty-one per- sons of this faith held at Paxson's Corner, now Aquetong, the 6th of March, 1843. They resolved to organize a Baptist church, and it was constituted the 28th of the same month with thirteen members. The constituent members were, Charles F. Smith, Joseph Evans, Leonard Wright, Ann Walton, Catharine Naylor, George Cathers, Nelson H. Coffin, Jacob Naylor, David R. Naylor, Ira Hill, Marga-
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
ret Smith, and Susan Smith. The membership was increased to thirty-one by the middle of the following May. The Reverend J. P. Walton was the first pastor, who served the church to 1845, when it was supplied until 1849, by Reverend W. B. Srope, of Lambert- ville, New Jersey. The Reverend Joseph Wright was now called as pastor, and remained until 1854. In 1851 an addition was built to the church. The pastors in succession afterward were, Joseph N. Folwell 1854, W. W. Beardslee 1856, Samuel G. Kline 1859, Martin M. King 1860, and Silas Livermore 1863. The church was closed in September, 1866, on account of the reduction in member- ship by death and removal, and was not re-opened for worship until October 10th, 1869. In November of that year George H. Larison, M. D., a deacon of the First Baptist church of Lambertville, was called to the pulpit, and has served the church to the present time. He was ordained pastor in 1872. Under his pastorate ninety-three have been added to the church by baptism, and many others by letter. The house was repaired in 1871, at an expense of $2,000, and is now a commodious place of worship.
On the bank of the Delaware, at the lower end of Lumberville, rises a headland, fifty feet high, called Coppernose. Local antiqua- rians say it was so called because copperhead snakes were found there in olden times, and William Satterthwaite, an eccentric poet and schoolmaster of the township, has the credit of being the author of the quaint name. From the top of this bold promontory is ob- tained a fine view up and down the river, with the islands, the bold shores on either side, with the hamlets of Lumberville and Lumber- ton nestling at the declivity of the western highlands. Half a mile below, the Cuttalossa, in a tortuous course of three miles from its source on Margaret Selner's farm, empties into the Delaware, after turning several mills. It is a romantic stream, and its beauties have been heralded in both prose and poetry.23 John G. Whittier, the poet, lived on the banks of the Cuttalossa during parts of 1839 and 1840, on the premises now owned by Watson Scarborough.
Opposite the old grist-mill, and in hearing of the patter of its
23 Tradition, not of the most reliable character, says it received its name from a strayed Indian child, named Quattie, meeting a hunter in the woods and crying " Quattie lossa," meaning that Quattie was lost, and from that the name was gradually changed to its present, Cuttalossa. It is called "Quatielassy " and "Quetyelassy " in a deed of 1702. William J. Buck has written and published a full and interesting account of this stream.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
dripping wheel, a beautiful fountain that bears the name of the stream has been erected. A never-failing spring gushes out from underneath the roots of a large tree, on the summit of a wooded knoll thirty yards west of the woods, and twenty feet above the level of the creek. Years ago the late John E. Kenderdine placed a wooden trough to catch the water after it came down the gully, and utilized it for the traveling public, and in the summer of 1873 a few liberal persons in and out of the neighborhood contributed money to erect the beautiful stone fountain that now adorns the locality. A leaden pipe conveys the water down the hill and under the road to the fountain where it falls into a marble basin four feet square. A figure stands in the middle of the basin surmounted by a shell through which the water escapes in threadlike jets to the height of twelve feet, and an iron-fence protects it from intruding cattle. At the roadside near the spring is a substantial stone water- ing trough, flanked by a wall. At the two extremities of the wall are columns, two feet square and six high, with a marble slab set in each. On one is the inscription : " Cuttalossa fountain, erected 1873, by admirers of the beautiful," and on the other :
" Are not cold wells, And crystal springs, The very things, For our hotels?"
A flight of steps ascends the steep, wooded bank at each end of the wall, and graveled paths lead to the grounds surrounding the spring. On the slope, water, from other fountains supplied by branches from the main pipe, leaps up from the ground and falls into miniature basins, and a rustic bridge spans the stream just above. The grounds about are pleasantly laid out, seats are placed in inviting spots, and hitching-posts for horses. During the summer it is a great resort for croquet and other parties, which spend pleasant hours in the shades of the romantic Cuttalossa.24 The beauties of this locality have been sung by Solebury's sweetest poet.25
" While Cuttalossa's waters Roll murmuring on their way, 'Twixt hazel clumps and alders, Neath old oaks gnarled and gray,26
24 We have the authority of William J. Buck for saying that there was an Indian village called Quatyelossa about the present dam of Armitage's old mill as late as 1705, and it probably gave the name to the stream.
25 Thaddeus S. Kenderdine.
26 Referring to the upper end of the valley.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
While just across the valley From the old, old grist-mill come The water-wheel's low patter, The millstone's drowsy hum.27
Here sparkling from its birthplace, Just up the rifted hill, In tiny cascades leaping Comes down a little rill, Till in a plashing fountain It pours its crystal tide
Just where the road goes winding To the valley opening wide.
Thy beeches old and carven With names cut long ago; Thy wooded glens, dark shadowed, Beside thy murmuring flow ; Thy spice-wood fringed meadows, The hills that sloped beyond,
The mills that drank thy waters From many a glassy pond.28
Thy rivulets, laurel-shaded, Thy hemlocks, towering high ; My home beside thy waters, The river rolling by, All crowd into my memory, Called up by the conjuring Past. Oh, I'll forget them, never ! While life and memory last."
At the middle of the last century there were three taverns in the township, at each of the three ferries, Rose's, Howell's and Cor- yell's, of course, principally to accommodate foreign travel. The hostelry at Ruckman's was opened at a later day, but a public house has not been kept there for many years. At what time it was first licensed we do not know, but it was kept by one David Forst in 1789, and probably several years earlier.
Some years ago accident led to the discovery of an old mine on the farm of John T. Neeley, two and a half miles below New Hope, . the mouth covered with a large flat stone. The drift, with an opening through solid rock, seven feet by four, runs into the hill- side about sixty feet, where it meets a chamber fifteen feet square and eight or ten feet high, with a pillar in the centre hewn out of solid rock. Here is a shaft about forty feet deep, and to the right
27 Alluding to the old mill, built in 1758.
28 Referring to the fountain near the mill.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
of the chamber is an oblique shaft, about ten feet wide and from thirty to forty high, which opens further up the hill. The drift terminates in the solid rock. There are no other evidence of mining operations, and no minerals found except a few pieces of copper picked up among the debris. There is no tradition as to when, or by whom, the excavations were made, but it must have been at the early settlement of the country, for large trees are now growing over the old excavations. The Proprietaries sold the tract to William Coleman, and by him, about 1750, to James Hamilton, Langhorne Biles, Joseph Turner, William Plumstead, William Allen and Law- rence Growden. Three years afterward they sold it to Robert Thompson, reserving to themselves the right to dig and search for metals. As these gentlemen were interested in the Durham works, no doubt they purchased the property to secure the supposed min- erals, and caused the excavations to be made. Many years ago the late John Ruckman leased the property, and employed an engineer of New York to superintend the excavations. He uncovered the passage and shafts mentioned, but did not find copper in sufficient quantities to justify working it. The engineer decided that the original excavations had been made by German miners. The loca- tion is on the west side of Bowman's hill.
Among the physicians of the past and present generations, of Sole- bury, worthy of notice are, John Wall, probably the son of Colonel Wall, who was born in 1787, and studied with Doctor John Wilson. He appeared to be a physician by intuition, and would prescribe for the most difficult case and conduct it successfully, without being able to tell why he used this or that remedy. He had a large practice, and was popular and successful, but drank to excess, and died at Pittstown, New Jersey, in 1826, at the early age of forty ; David Forst was the son of the host at Ruckman's, born in 1789, was a fellow student of Doctor Wall, located at Kingwood in 1807, and died in 1821, aged thirty-five years; Charles Cowdric was born in 1833, studied with Doctors D. W. C. and L. L. Hough, practiced at Red Hill and Frenchtown, and died at the latter place, December 31st, 1871, when he bid fair to become a physician of eminence. We have alluded elsewhere, to the Doctors Ingham, father and son, who ranked among the first physicians of their day, both born in Solebury.
When the Solebury Friends separated from Buckingham, in 1808, and built a meeting-house, the joint school fund was divided, the
JN.
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$ 30
6.
Mitchel's Ferry - 4 Miles.
River.
20
34.
2%.
28.
york
Road.
: 26 .-
22.
15
17
6
3. Jag
16 2 Acres
19.
1
Updyck's Ferry - 4.M.
Trenton Road.
Delaware
--
10
9
Coryell's Ferry.
21
Barry.
Bought of Martha Lodd. 82 Acres. Bought of Jno Coryell.
St Map of NEW HOPE. 1798.
29
PhillipSon Will.
13.
14
33
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
former township getting $4,500 as her share. Since the establish- ment of public schools this fund has lain idle. Before 1791 Samuel Eastburn conveyed a lot to John Scarborough and others for a school-house, but we do not know where it was situated.
The Great spring, likewise called by the names of Logan and Ing- ham, three miles from New Hope, is one of the mnost remarkable in the State. It pours a volume of cool, pure water from a ledge of redshale and limestone, which flows down to the Delaware in a stream that turns several mills. It was a favorite resort of the In- dians, and is said to have been the birthplace of Teedyuscung. The small-pox broke out among the Indians at the spring soon after the country was settled, and great numbers died. Not knowing it was infectious, many Indians visited the sick, contracted the disease, and carried it home with them. Their treatment was sweating, which was fatal. Believing it was sent by the whites, for their ruin, it came ne ir breaking Indian confidence in the white man. The last Indian children in the township, and in Buckingham, went to school at the Red school-house on the Street road in 1794, with the father of the author, then a small boy. The late Charles Smith, of Solebury, disputes with James Jamison, of Buckingham, the honor of inventing a lime-kiln to burn coal in. He is said to have built the first coal burning kiln, and that all others were fashioned after his invention. .
We know but little of the population of Solebury at early periods. In 1761 there were 138 taxables. In 1784 there were 980 whites, but no blacks, one hundred and sixty-six dwellings and one hundred and fifty outhouses. In 1810 the population was 1659; 1820, 2,092; 1830, 2,961,29 and 503 taxables ; 1840, 2,038; 1850, 2,486 whites, 148 colored; 1860, 2,875 whites, 139 colored ; 1870, the population was 2791, of which 156 were of foreign birth, and 125 blacks.
The map of New Hope, the largest village in Solebury township, drawn and engraved from one of 1798, gives the names of all the . owners of real estate in it at that time. We insert it in this chapter, with the following explanation of the numbers upon the map, viz : No. 1, mills of B. and D. Parry ; 2, stables, ditto ; 3, store and stone tables, ditto ; 4, cooper shop, ditto ; 5, orchard, ditto ; 6, house and garden, ditto ; 7, ditto, ditto ; 8, Beaumont's hatter-shop ; 9 and 10, Beaumont's tavern and barn ; 11, house of Cephas Ross ; 12, house
29 The heavy increase over 1820, is evidently an error in the census figures.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
of O. Hampton ; 13, house and barn of J. Pickering ; 14, house of J. Osmond; 15, Vansant's saw-mill ; 16, house ; 17, house of B. and D. Parry ; 18, house of B Parry ; 19, Vansant's house ; 20, house and shop of A. Ely ; 21, B. and D. Parry ; 22, Martha Worstall ; 23, D. Parry's shop ; 24, house, ditto ; 25, Eli Doan's house ; 26, Enoch Kitchen's house ; 27, John Poor's house ; 28, barn, ditto ; 29, Oliver Paxson's house ; 30, barn, ditto ; 31 and 32, Paxson's salt store and stable; 33, Coolbaugh's house ; 34, William Kitchen's house. In a subsequent chapter will be found a lengthy account of the settlement of New Hope, with its present condition.
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