USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > The history of Bucks County, Pennsylvania : from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time > Part 38
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
who died there were buried in a field near by. Judge Huston, when a boy, went to school in the old meeting-house, his father at the time keeping the tavern at Gardenville. On a handrail in- side the building is dimly seen, written in chalk, the name of David Kinsey, the carpenter who did the wood work. The old building was partly torn down and re-built in the summer of 1875: From the yard one obtains a beautiful view down into the valley of Pine run and of the slope beyond.
On the corner of the farm now belonging to Andrew Shaddinger, at the intersection of the River and Durham roads, two miles from Smith's corner, there stood a small log church an hundred years ago. It is spoken of as the "Deep Run church," the name of an older and larger congregation in Bedminster. Its history is wrapped in much mystery. It was probably an offshoot of the Bedminster congregation, and the division is said to have been caused by some disagreement among the Scotch-Irish members on doctrinal points. We have tradition that some held to the tenets of the Kirk of Scot- land, which others of the congregation did not assent to, and hence the separation. The Plumstead congregation was caled "Seceders," and when there was a division in the church this organization joined the New Brunswick Presbytery. This little church was probably organized before, or about, 1730, and held together for half a cen- tury, but the names of only two of its pastors have come down to us. In 1735 Reverend Hugh Carlisle preached there and at Newtown, and two years afterward he refused a call to become the pastor at Plumstead, because these two churches were so far apart. How long he served them, and by whom succeeded, is not known. Car- lisle came from England or Ireland, and was admitted into the New Castle Presbytery before 1735. He removed into the bounds of the Lewes Presbytery in 1738, but is not heard of after 1742. The last pastor was probably Alexander Mitchel, and when he left, the sur- viving members probably returned to Deep Run. Mitchel was born in 1731, graduated at Princeton in 1765, was licensed to preach in 1767, and ordained in 1768. It is not known when he was called as pastor, but he left about 1785, and went to the Octoraro and Doe Run churches, in Chester county, where he preached until 1708. Mr. Mitchel did two good things while pastor at Octoraro, intro- duced stoves, and Watts's psalms and hymns into his churches, both necessary to comfortable worship. On one occasion his congregation took umbrage at a sermon against a ball held in the neighborhood,
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and on Sunday morning the door was locked and the Bible gone. Nothing daunted, he sent his negro servant up a ladder to get in at a small window over the pulpit. As he was about to enter, the negro stopped and said to his master : "This is not right, for the good book saith, 'He that entereth not by the door into the sheep-fold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.'" Some remains of the Plumstead meeting-house are still to be seen ; a portion of the foundation can be traced, and a few gravestones, - without inscription, are lying almost buried in the earth. The house was about twenty-eight by seventeen feet, and the lot contained near half an acre. John L. Delp, of Norristown, remembers when the log house was standing.
A Mennonite meeting-house stands on the Black's Eddy road, a mile south-west of Hinkletown, where a branch of the Deep Run congregation assembles for worship once a month. The pulpit is supplied from Deep Run, Doylestown, and New Britain. The first house, stone, twenty-four by twenty-seven feet, was erected in 1806, on an acre of land given by Henry Wismer and wife. It was en- larged in 1832, and is now twenty-seven by forty-three. It was occupied by English and German schools for twenty-five years. The graveyard is free to all outside the congregation who wish to bury there, and the remains of several unknown drowned are lying in it.
On the old Newtown road, at the top of the hill after passing Pine run, a mile above Cross Keys, is an ancient burial-ground, in the corner of the fifty acres that Christopher Day bought of Clement and Thomas Dungan in 1708. By his will, dated September 1st, 1746, and proved March 25th, 1748, Day gave "ten perches square for a graveyard forever." It is now in a ruined condition, but some forty graves can still be seen, with few exceptions marked by un- lettered stones. The donor was the first to die and be buried in his own ground, March ye 6th, 1748. Another "C. Day," probably his son, died in 1763. The other stones, with inscriptions, are to the memory of J. Morlen, 1749-50, Abraham Fried, December 21st, 1772, aged thirty-two years, and William Daves, " a black man," who died February 22d, 1815, aged sixty-eight years. Fried and Daves have the most pretentious stones to mark their resting-places, both of marble. The owner of the adjoining land has ent the tim- ber from this ground, and laid bare the graves of the dead of a cen- tury and a quarter. Is there no power to keep vandal hands from the spot reserved for a burial-place " forever"? The early Welsh
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
Baptists of New Britain probably buried their dead in this graveyard until they established their church, and opened a burial-place of their own, a tradition handed down from the early settlers.
Charles Huston, jadge of the supreme court of Pennsylvania, and one of the most distinguished jurists of the country, was born in Plumstead in 1771. His grandfather came from Scotland, and he was Scotch-Irish in descent. He probably finished his studies at Dickinson college, Carlisle, where he was professor of Latin and Greek in 1792. He was studying law at the same time, and while there he completed his legal studies, was admitted to the bar in 1795, and settled in Lycoming county, cut off from Northumberland the preceding winter. Among his pupils, in the languages, was the late Chief Justice Taney, who placed a high estimate on the charac- ter of Judge Huston. In his autobiography the chief justice says of him : " I need not speak of his character and capacity ; for he after- ward became one of the first jurists of the country. He was an accomplished Latin and Greek scholar, and happy in his mode of instruction. And when he saw that a boy was disposed to study, his manner to him was that of a companion and friend, aiding him in his difficulties. The whole school under his care was much at- tached to him."
Judge Huston was commissioned justice of the supreme court April 7th, 1826, and retired from the bench in January, 1845. The last time he sat on the supreme bench at Pittsburgh he boarded pri- vately with the sheriff, who kept house in jail. He was much an- noyed by a correspondent writing to one of the newspapers, "one of our supreme judges (Huston) is in jail," which put him to the trouble of writing to his friends and explaining how he happened, on that particular occasion, to be on the wrong side of the bars. With a rough exterior, he was as gentle as a child with all its truthfulness and fidelity. After he retired from the bench he wrote a work "On Land Titles in Pennsylvania," which was published in 1849. He left his finished manuscript on his table, by the side of a candle, one evening while he went to tea. It caught fire, and when he re- turned he found his labor of years nearly consumed. But, with his accustomed determination, he re-wrote the work, almost entirely from memory. Judge Huston died November 10th, 1849, in his seventy-eighth year. He left two daughters, one of whom married the late James Hale, member of Congress and judge of the Clear- field district, Pennsylvania, and the other is the wife of General Sturdevant, of the Luzerne county bar.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
Indians remained later in Plumstead than in most other parts of the county, and their settlements can be traced by their remains. There was probably a village near Curly hill, and within the last half century a number of flint arrow-heads, bottle-green, blue and white, have been found there. They were two or three inches long, narrow, sharp and well-shaped, and appear to have been made by a people somewhat advanced in the arts. Indian axes, well-finished, of hard stone, not now to be found in that vicinity, have been picked . up there. Also, a large stone, hollowed out, and probably used for cooking. An arrow-head, of white flint, four inches long, was found near Plumsteadville. Tradition tells us there was a village of nine huts, or lodges, of Indians near the headwaters of the south-east branch of Deep run, who remained there long after the township was settled by whites. They went to the Neshaminy to catch fish, then abundant in that stream, and paid frequent visits to the houses of the settlers on baking days, when the gift of pies and cakes con- ciliated their goodwill. They often dropped in on "grandmother Hill," the ancestor of the late William Hill, of Plumstead, who lived on the farm now owned by Samuel Detweiler, on such occasions, and hardly ever went away empty-handed. The shape of arrow-heads found in Plumstead differs from those of the valley of the Schuyl kill, and are better fashioned. At Lower Black's Eddy, near the hotel, between the canal and river, the Indians probably manufac- tured their stone weapons and implements. Here are found chip- pings of flints, hornblend and jasper from which they were made, and by careful search an occasional spear and arrow-head, in perfect condition, is picked up. It was probably the site of an Indian vil- lage.
The last wolf killed in Bucks county was caught in Plumstead about 1800. John Smith, then a small boy, set a trap to catch foxes, but it was gone in the morning. Believing some animal had carried it off, he followed the trail and found it caught in a neigh- boring fence, with a large gray wolf fast in it. He went to the honse and told his father, who fetched his rifle and shot him. The trap is now in possession of Charles R. Smith, of Plumstead.
The extension of what is now known as the Easton road from the county line to Dyer's mill, in 1723, was probably the first road opened in Plumstead. In 1726 Ephraim Fenton, James Shaw, Alexander Brown, John Brown, Thomas Brown, jr., William Michener, Israel Doane, and Isaac Pennington, inhabitants of the
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
township, petitioned the court to lay out a road "from the north- east corner of Thomas Brown's land," now Gardenville, in the most direct line to the York road, which it met near Centreville. This was a section of the Durham road, and gave the inhabitants of the upper end of the township an outlet to Newtown and Bristol. The road was probably laid out about this time. In 1729 a road was petitioned for from the upper side of the township to Dyer's mill, which now gave a continuous road to Philadelphia. In 1741 an- other was laid out from the Easton road above Danborough, via Sands' corner, to Centreville, coming out on the Doylestown turn- pike half a mile west of Centreville, and is now called the Street road. Before that time the inhabitants of the lower part of Plum- stead and the upper part of Buckingham had no direct road down to Newtown. In 1762 this road was extended to Plumsteadville, then known as James Hart's tavern. A road was laid out from Dyer's road, (Easton road,) at the Plumstead and Bedminster line, to Henry Krout's mill on Deep run, in the latter township, and thence to the Tohickon, in 1750. In 1758 a road was opened from the Easton to the Durham road. About 1738 a road was laid out from Gardenville across the country to Butler's, late Shellenberger's, mill near Whitehallville, which has always been known as the Ferry road. That from Danborough to lower Black's Eddy was laid out in 1738. The first road from the Easton road to the Delaware, at Point Pleasant, was laid out in April, 1738, on petition of the in- habitants of Plumstead. It ended at the river at the mouth of Tohickon creek, on the land of Enoch Pearson, who then kept the ferry. The viewers were William Chadwick, William Michener, Robert Smith, and Cephas Child, and it was surveyed by John Chapman. The road was not put on record until 1770. It left the Easton road at Gardenville. The turnpike to Point Pleasant leaves the bed of the old road about a mile east of the Friends' meeting- house. It is still open, but not much traveled.
The villages of Plumstead are, Gardenville, Danborough, Plum- steadville and Point Pleasant. Seventy-five years ago Gardenville was known as "Brownsville," after one of the oldest families in the township. Its tavern swung the sign of the "Plow" as early as 1760, which year William Reeder petitioned the court to recom- mend him to the governor for license to keep it, but the application was rejected. The old tavern-house was burned down, Sunday night, April 9th, 1871, and a new one built on the spot. Abraham
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
and Mahlon Doane were buried from what was the first tavern in the place, but then a private dwelling, occupied by their aunt. It had been kept as a tavern many years before that, first by a woman named Poe, some hundred and forty years ago. The second tavern was built by William Reeder, and is now occupied for a dwelling by Lewis Summers. It was kept in the Revolution by William Mc- Calla, and was made a depot for forage collected from the surround- ing country. A picket was stationed there. This village, situated at the crossing of the Danborough and Point Pleasant turnpike and Durham road, contains a tavern, store, mechanical shops, and about a dozen dwellings. Danborough, on the Easton road, is made up of a tavern, store, the usual outfit of mechanics, and a few dwellings. It was named after Daniel Thomas, an early resident, who was twice sheriff of the county, and died early in the century. Before the post-office was established there it was called Clover hill, and also Danville. On the Point Pleasant turnpike, in the neighborhood of Danborough, is Nicholas's graveyard, so named after Samuel Nicho- las, son of the man who ran the first stage-coach from Philadelphia to Wilkesbarre. Samuel kept the Danborough tavern many years, and in company with John Moore, father of Daniel T., was pro- prietor of the stage-coach between Philadelphia and Easton.
Plumsteadville is the most flourishing village in the township. In 1762 it was known as James Hart's tavern, and was but a cross- roads hostelry. Fifty years ago it had but one dwelling, owned and occupied by John Rodrock as a public house, who was the proprietor of about three hundred acres of land in that immediate vicinity. The house, a low, two-story, was recently torn down by John Shis- ler. After the decease of Mr. Rodrock the property was sold in lots, some of it bringing but eight dollars an acre. Forty-five years ago all tlie corn and fodder raised on a ten-acre field, adjoining the Rodrock farm, was hauled home at two loads. The village contains about twenty-five dwellings, with tavern, store, and a brick church, Presbyterian, built in 1860. It is the seat of the extensive carriage factory of Aaron Kratz, which employs about fifty men. Point Pleasant, which lies partly in Tinicum and partly in Plumstead, will be noticed in our account of the former township.
The oldest house in the township is supposed to be the two-story stone dwelling called " Stand alone," on the Durham road between Hinkletown and Gardenville. Tradition says it was the first two- story house in the township, and that when first erected people came
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
several miles to look at it, and is thought to be from one hundred and thirty to one hundred and forty years old. In its time it has undergone several vicissitudes ; has been more than once repaired, occupied and then empty, but no one has lived in it for many years. Next in age is the two-story stone dwelling of John F. Meyers, oc- cupied by Reuben W. Nash, a mile from the north-east corner of the township. It was built by Samuel Hart, great-grandfather of Josiah Hart, of Doylestown, about 1764, and in it he kept tavern and store during the Revolutionary struggle. The third oldest house is probably that of Samuel Meyers, a mile east of Plumstead- ville, a two story stone, built by John Meyers, and for the past cen- tury it has been occupied by the father, son, grandson, and great- grandson.
Plumstead having been the birthplace and home of the Doanes, and the scene of many of their exploits, a lively recollection. of them lias been landed down from father to son. Their rendezvous was in a wild, secluded spot on the south bank of the Tohickon, two miles above Point Pleasant, where Moses was shot by Gibson, be- cause " dead men tell no tales." It is said that Philip Hinkle put the body of the dead refugee across the pummel of his saddle, and rode with it, in company with others, to Hart's tavern, where he tumbled the corpse down on the piazza floor. 6 After they had taken a drink all round, the dead body was again put on the horse and carried to the residence of his parents. That was a sorrowful funeral. It is related that the little dog that belonged to Doane came for- ward and looked down in the grave after the coffin had been lowered into it, seemingly bidding a last farewell to his master. When Ab- raham and Mahlon Doane were hanged in Philadelphia, their father went alone to town, and had their bodies brought up in a cart, he walking all the way alongside of it. They were buried from a house that stood near Nathan Fretz's dwelling, on the east side of the Durham road at Gardenville, and interred in the woods opposite Plumstead meeting-house, then belonging to the meeting, but now to John Shaffer. When Joseph Doane came back to the county, forty odd years ago, he related that he escaped from Newtown jail by unlocking the door with a lead key he made, and then scaled the yard wall.
Until within the last half century, Plumstead did not have a good reputation for fertility. The north-east and east end of the town-
6 See subsequent chapter for another version of this transaction.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
ship in particular, were noted for sterility, and although the farms were generally large, many of the owners could not raise sufficient bread for their families, nor provender for their stock. Other parts of the township were nearly as unproductive, and it came to be called " Poor Plumstead." Strangers in passing through it, laughed at the barren fields. Within fifty years, hundreds of acres of land have been sold for seven, eight, ten, and fifteen dollars per acre. The farmers commenced liming about forty-five years ago, and since then the land has rapidly improved in fertility, until the farms are the equal of those of any township in the county.
Plumstead and the neighboring townships of Hilltown, Bedmin- ster and Tinicum have sent a considerable number of immigrants to Canada in the last ninety years, principally Mennonites. The im- migration commenced in 1786, when John Kulp, Dillman Kulp, Jacob Kulp, Stoffel Kulp, Franklin Albright and Frederick Hahn left this county and sought new homes in the country beyond the great lakes. Those who had families were accompanied by their wives and children. These pioneers must have returned favorable accounts of the country, for in a few years they were joined by many of their old friends and neighbors from Bucks. In 1799 they were followed by Reverend Jacob Moyer, Amos Albright, Valentine Kratz, Dillman Moyer, John Hunsberger, Abraham Hunsberger, George Althouse and Moses Fretz; in 1800 by John Fretz, Law- rence Hipple, Abraham Grubb, Michael Rittenhouse, Manasseh Fretz, Daniel High, jr., Samuel Moyer, David Moyer, Jacob High, Jacob Hausser, John Wismer, Jacob Frey, Isaac Kulp, Daniel High, jr., Philip High, Abraham High, Christian Hunsberger and Abraham Hunsberger. In 1802 Isaac Wismer and Stoffel Angeny went to Canada from Plumstead. The latter returned, but the former re- mained, and his son Philip is now a resident of that country. Shortly afterward, Reverend Jacob Gross followed his friends who had gone before. A number of the Nash family immigrated to Canada, among whom were the widow of Abraham Nash, who died near Dan- borough in 1823, with her three sons Joseph, Abraham, now a jus- tice of the peace, and Jacob, and four daughters. They went about 1827 and 1828. The Bucks county families generally settled in what is now Lincoln county, near Lake Ontario, some twenty miles from Niagara Falls, but their descendants are a good deal scattered. They are generally thrifty and well-to-do. The year after the im- migrants arrived is known in Canada as the "scarce year," on ac-
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count of the failure of crops, and there was great suffering among them. Some were obliged to eat roots and herbs. The first im- migrants are all dead, but some of them have left sons and daugh- ters who were born here. Among the relics retained of the home of their fathers is a barrel churn of white cedar, made eighty years ago in this county by John Fretz and his daughter, and now owned by his grandchild. In addition to the names already given we find those of Gayman, Clemens, Durstein, Thomas and Zelner. Fre- quent visits are made between the Canadian Mennonites and their relatives in Bucks county.
Plumstead was the birthplace of John Ellicott Carver, an archi- tect and civil engineer of considerable reputation, where he was born November 11th, 1809. He learned the trade of a wheelwright at Doylestown, and when out of his time, about 1830, he went to Philadelphia. Not finding work at his own trade, he engaged as carpenter and joiner, and soon after was working at stair-building, a more difficult branch. As this required considerable mechanical and mathematical ability, and feeling his own deficiency, he com- menced a course of study to qualify himself for the occupation. He devoted his leisure to studying mechanical and mathematical draw- ing, and kindred branches. His latent talents were developed by persevering effort, and it was not long before he commenced to give instruction in these branches in a school established for the purpose. Later he devoted his time to the study of architecture and engineer- ing, and we next find him in the practice of these professions, at a time when their attainment was difficult, and support more precari- ous than at present. Mr. Carver continued the practice of his profession in Philadelphia for several years with success. He was engaged in the erection of some of the best public and private build- ings of that time, and was the author of plans for one or more of the beautiful cemeteries which adorn the environs of the city. He erected gas-works in various parts of the country. His death, April 1st, 1859, closed a useful career. Mr. Carver was one of the pioneers in architecture in Philadelphia, and he occupied an honorable posi- tion in the profession.
The Brownsville Persistent Horse company, for the detection of horse thieves and other villains, is a Plumstead institution. It is probably the oldest association of the kind in the county or state. It was organized at a meeting held in the township in 1808, and the headquarters were fixed at Brownsville, now Gardenville. In a few
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
years the company grew to be too large for convenient management, when it was divided into the Eastern and Western divisions, and both sections of the society are now in a flourishing condition.
The earliest enumeration of the inhabitants of Plumstead that we have seen is that of 1746, when the population is set down at 130. Other years are given as follows : 1759, 125; 1761, 118; 1762, 153. It is probable these figures stand for taxables, instead of population, as they do not appear high enough for the latter. In 1784 the town- ship contained 946 white inhabitants, 7 colored, and 160 dwellings. We are not able to give the census of 1790 and 1800, but have the population of each decade from the latter year to the present time, as returned to the census bureau : In 1810, 1,407 ; 1820, 1,790 ; 1830, 1,849, and 402 taxables ; 1840, 1,873 ; 1850, 2,298; 1860, 2,710, and in 1870, 2,617. If this enumeration be not incorrect, it shows a decrease of nearly one hundred from 1860 to 1870.
Among the early settlers of Plumstead, who died at an advanced age, beside those already mentioned, the following may be named : November 1st, 1808, Mrs. Mary Meredith, aged one hundred years, widow of William Meredith ; September 13th, 1805, Mrs. Dorothy Lindenman, aged ninety years and three months, leaving two hun- dred descendants ; November 16th, 1819, John Jones, aged eighty- four ; July 13th, 1812, Hannalı Preston, aged ninety-four years.
Plumstead had a Union Library company in 1807, with Adam Foulke as secretary. We have not been able to learn when it was established, or anything of its history.
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