USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > The history of Bucks County, Pennsylvania : from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time > Part 51
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By the spring of 1742 the inhabitants of Nockamixon thought themselves numerous enough to be organized into a township. At the June term twenty-five citizens, who styled themselves " inhab- itants of the adjacents of Plumstead," whose names we have already given, petitioned the court, praying them to allow a township "to be laid out joining Durham, then descending the river to the London tract," with the following boundaries : "Beginning at a black oak on the bank of the Delaware river, being a corner of Durham tract; thence by the said tract, and land of Thomas Blair, south seventy degrees, west one thousand and forty perches ; thence by land of William Ware, south-east two hundred and forty perches ; thence south-west, five hundred and forty perches to Haycock run ; thence down said run to Tohickon creek; thence down the said creek to a tract of land laid out to James Sterling; thence by that and the London company's land, north-east, two thousand one hundred and forty perches to the river Delaware; thence up the same to the place of beginning-containing by computation six thousand acres." The boundaries have never been changed that we are aware of, and the area is now computed at twelve thousand five hundred acres. The court, at the same term, ordered the township laid out in accordance with the prayer of the petitioners. It was surveyed the
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
9th of September, 1743, by Nicholas Scull, and confirmed at the April term, 1746. Like Tinicum, the name of Nockamixon is of Indian origin, which has been retained, much to the credit of our name-changing race. Heckewelder says that "Nockamixon" sig- nities, in the Delaware language, the place at the three houses ; but what connection there is between "three houses" and the township's name is not explained. On the back of the petition to the court, asking to have the township organized, is written the following couplet :
" As rocks in Nockamixon mate the skies, So let this town to Nockamixon rise,"
which fails, however, to throw any light on the subject. In a deed of 1762, the township is spelled " Noximinson."
Among the settlers, who came into the township soon after it was organized, were Thomas and Patrick McCarty, brothers, from Ire- land, who settled on Haycock run about 1748, where they pur- chased two tracts of the Proprietaries. June 4th, 1753, seventy-nine and three-quarter acres were surveyed to William Dixon, on warrant of November 9th, 1752, and one hundred and four acres and forty- nine perches to Abraham Goodwin, by warrant dated December 8th, 1749. Two tracts, containing one hundred and seven acres and forty-one perches, were surveyed to Peter Young, June 1st and 2d, 1753, by virtue of warrants dated 1749-50, and the 3d of December, 1754, eighty-nine acres and allowances were surveyed to Herman Younghon. Adam Meisser was an early settler at the Narrows. In the spring of 1746 thirty acres were surveyed to him, adjoining lands of Matthew Hughes, by Robert Smith by virtue of a war- rant of Surveyor-general Lukens. The same year John Praul, already a land-owner in the township, obtained a warrant for forty acres and one hundred and seven perches, adjoining John Meisser at the Narrows, but the land was not surveyed to him until Decem- ber 17th, 1753. In May, 1748, ninety and one-half acres were sur- veyed to David Maynes, and in June, 1754, one hundred and forty-two acres were patented to Michael Meisser, and other lands were surveyed to him in 1766. In 1749 Peter Michael, perhaps Mickley now, took up twenty-five acres in Nockamixon and Peter Young thirty acres. Among the early Germans who settled in this section of the county, about this period, the township is not men- tioned in several instances. Of these we find the following : Chris- tian Fry, at Tohickon, 1738, Casper Kolb, 1738, Frederick Kraft,
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
on Tohickon, 1741, Solomon Ruchstuhl, one hundred acres near a branch of Tohickon, 1742, and George Hartzell, one hundred acres adjoining the above, same year Christopher, twenty-five acres at Tohickon 1749, and Valentine Nichola, 1749. All of these hardly settled in Nockamixon, but as the Tohickon and one of its branches formed its southern boundary, some of these early German immi- grants made their homes in this township. There was considerable unseated land in the township years subsequent to this. It is prob- able that the numerous family of Keyser, now living in Nockamixon, are descended from Peter Keyser, who was constable of the town- ship in 1750. In 1785 there was a re-survey of some of the lands in Nockamixon, when a tract of Benjamin Williamson was re-sur- veyed under a warrant of April 1st, 1768, by Samuel Preston, deputy-surveyor of the county. It was found to contain five hun- dred and fifteen acres and one hundred and thirty-one perches, fifty-five acres and fifty-seven perches more than the warrants called for. In 1751 William Deil and Daniel Mench bought land in the township, the former fifty acres.
Among the old German families of Nockamixon are those of Stover, Kintner, Trauger, Oberbeck, Deemer, Buck, and Franken- field. The Stovers, originally spelled Stoefver, came to the state at its foundation. Ludwig, or Lewis, settled at or near Germantown in 1684, and his grandson William died at Valley Forge in 1778. John George Stover, from Saxony, a miller by trade, arrived in 1752, and settled in this county. He had three sons, Jacob, Ulrick, and Henry. The sons of Jacob were Matthias, Henry, who owned a mill at Erwinna, in Tinicum, and Jacob, who lived at the Narrows, in Nockamixon. John Stover, miller, at Tohickon, in Haycock, was a son of Ulrick, and from Henry are descended the Stovers of Bedminster, namely: Abraham, miller at Tohickon, whose son, John S. Stover, still occupies the old mill property. In 1776 David and Daniel Stover, brothers, immigrated from Saxony and settled in the upper end of the county. David had three sons, among whom was Abraham, father of William S. Stover, cashier of the French- town bank. Daniel likewise had three sons, Henry, Jacob, and Daniel. Of these sons, Henry died without children, Jacob had a large family, and his descendants are living in Philadelphia, North- ampton county, and in New Jersey. Daniel had three sons, one of which was the father of John N. Stover, of Nockamixon. David Stover, Daniel, the great-grandfather of John N., of Nockamixon,
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
and his son Daniel, were all teamsters, and hauled goods from Phil- adelphia to Pittsburg, Easton, and other interior towns. Down to the completion of the Delaware Division canal all the goods re- quired for the Easton, Bethlehem, Allentown, Manch Chunk, and Wilkesbarre markets were transported through this county in what were known as Conestoga wagons. They were generally six-horse teams, fed from a trough fastened on the tongue. One of the finest teams driven in the last century was owned by Michael Butz, who resided in New Jersey, above Belvidere, of six large, black horses of equal size, and were much admired. Among others who drove fine teams were Zelner, Klotz, Sumpstone, Bewighaus, Meyers, Fretz, Joseph and David Stover, and others. Many of these teams traveled the Easton road through Doylestown. Their occupation was gone when the canal was opened, and they have passed into history.
There are but three families of original settlers in Nockamixon, the Purcels, Keysers, and Traugers. The Purcels are very numerous about Bridgeton, and on the eastern side of the township, while the Traugers are scattered over it, and are found in other parts of the county. The family is numerous and wields a good deal of local influence. There is not a descendant living in the township of many of the first settlers, as the Moyers, Brills, Campbells, and others, all having left years ago or died. John Purcel, the grand- father of Brice N., immigrated from Ireland about 1750 and settled at Bridgeton, and bought of the Penns about three hundred acres on the Delaware in the south-east corner of the township. He died about 1810, and was buried in the old graveyard back of the Narrows, leaving four sons, of whom Brice, the father of Brice N., was one. Brice was born about 1776, and died in 1830, at the age of fifty-four. The other sons were Thomas, John, and Dennis, who went west. The old homestead was divided into three farms and occupied by the three sons of Brice. All the Purcels in the county are descended from John, the first Nockamixon ancestor.
The family name of Kintner was originally Gintner. George Gintner, the grandfather of Hugh Kintner, came from Wurtemberg, Germany, before the Revolution and settled in Nockamixon. He served throughout the war as a captain of cavalry, and at its close he turned his Continental money into hollow-ware at the Durham iron works, which he exchanged for a farm in Monroe county near the Delaware Water Gap. He lived there the remainder of his life, and was drowned in the Delaware while driving the river for
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
fish. He left two sons, Joseph, who died young, and Jacob, the father of Hugh, who lived and died in Bucks county, and who was elected sheriff in 1824-and a daughter, Mary, who married a Smith and settled in Walpack, Sussex county, New Jersey. Jacob was bound out among strangers when young, and the spelling of the name was changed from Gintner to Kintner. This change defeated his effort to recover the pension due his father for his Revolutionary services.
Nicholas Buck, the founder of Bucksville, was the third son of Nicholas Buck, of Springfield, where he was born the 20th of March, 1767. He married Mary, the daughter of John Eck, of Upper Salford, Montgomery county, and in the fall of 1792 he purchased of Christian Klinker sixty-four acres on the Durham road, in Nock- amixon, the site of Bucksville. Here he erected a dwelling, wheel- wright and blacksmith-shops, and made other improvements. He built a tavern-house, sign of the " White Horse," in 1808, licensed the following year, and opened a store in 1818. About the beginning of the century Mr. Buck raised and organized a good troop of vol- unteer horse, to the command of which his son Nicholas succeeded at his death. He died at Bucksville, August 28th, 1829, his widow surviving him until 1858, at the age of ninety-one, leaving ninety- five living descendants. She was a native of Skippack, in Mont- gomery county, was familiar with a number of Revolutionary events, and frequently saw Washington and his army. She lived at Bucks- ville in this county sixty-five years, and at her death left several de- scendants of the fifth generation. He had six children, Elizabeth, Nicholas, Sarah, Mary, Jacob E. and Samuel E., who married into the families of Kohl, Malone, Conner, Shaw, etc. Mrs. Malone and Mrs. Conner are living at an advanced age in Philadelphia, both re- ceiving pensions for the services of their husbands in the war of 1812-14. Jacob E. Buck, of Hatborough, is the only surviving son. At the death of Nicholas Buck, sr., his son Nicholas suc- ceeded him in business at Bucksville, where he died in 1871, at the age of seventy-nine. He had a post-office established there in 1828. For more than half a century the line of stages running between Easton and Philadelphia changed horses at the Bucksville inn.
The Lutheran congregation of Nockamixon was organized about 1755, and the first church edifice, an humble log building, stood north-east of Rum Corner. The only names of early trustees which have come down to us, are Michael Schick, and Frederick Eberhart,
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
in 1766. The Nockamixon church is properly the child of Spring- field, or rather grew up within its bounds, out of the membership of which three generations have grown up in adjoining neighborhoods. These two churches have the same pastors, but who the earliest Lutheran pastors were is not known. The Reformed congregation was organized as early as 1773. As the records have been lost, or not regularly kept, it is difficult to arrive at a correct history of the church. The first minister in the log house was the Reverend Casper Wack, who resided in Hilltown, and left in 1782. His suc- cessors, as near as we can arrive at it, were the Reverends Frederick William Vondersloot, 1787, John Mam, 1792, Mr. Hoffmeyer, 1796, Jacob William Dechant, 1808, Samuel Stahr, 1811, in connection with the congregations of Durham, Springfield, and Tinicum, and William F. Gerhart, 1844, with Durham and Tinicum. The present pastor, Reverend W. D. Rothrock, was elected in 1859, and ministers to this congregation and Durham, which make one charge. The Lutheran congregation have worshiped in the same building since the brick church was erected in 1813, which was the joint work of the two congregations. It was consecrated June 12th, 1814. The same year the Lutheran congregation purchased one- half the Bible and hymn-book for ten shillings, for which the Re- formed gave £1. 6s. in 1792. The German and English languages are used alternately in worship. In May, 1875, the old brick church was torn down and a handsome new edifice of the same material, erected during the summer and fall on its site. The last sermon was preached in the old church by Reverend William S. Emery.
Instruction in music was probably given earlier in Nockamixon than in any of the surrounding townships. In 1814, through the assistance of Nicholas Bnck, Charles Fortman, a graduate of one of the German universities, raised and successfully taught, a class on the piano, one of Buck's sons and several of his nephews being among the pupils. This was, probably, the earliest piano class in the county. The piano nsed by him was sold at the public sale of Jacob E. Buck, and bought by the late Enos Morris, of Doyles- town, in whose family it was several years. Fortman taught vocal music in three languages. His instruction books, all in manuscript, written by himself, were models of penmanship, and several of them are preserved among the descendants of his pupils. Singing-schools were quite common in the upper townships before 1820, mannscript books being principally used. The early Germans were the pion- eers in musical culture in this county.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
In the north-west corner of the township, three miles fromn Kintnerville, in a piece of timber on the farm of Frank Campbell, is an old graveyard, in which interments have not been made for many years. Most of the graves are marked by rough, unlettered stones, a few only revealing the names of the silent sleepers. The oldest is that of Elizabeth, wife of John Brown, who died October 3d, 1757, aged thirty-six years ; Thomas Little, died March 14th, 1787, aged fifty-five years ; and Patrick Hines, died November 11th, 1813, aged sixty-four years. Near the road is a walled enclosure, some eight by fifteen feet, which appears to have been the burial-place of the Long family, probably of Durham. There lie the remains of Thomas Long, esquire, who died February 22d, 1810, aged seventy years, and his two children, Thomas and Rachel, who died in 1781 and 1782. There are other graves inside the enclosure, on two of which we made out the initials and figures : S. I. E. 79, and W. I. So far as known these early settlers were of the English-speaking race.
Nockamixon has no more attractive locality within her borders than the Narrows, so called because here the Delaware, a stream of considerable magnitude, has forced itself through a rocky barrier. The distance across the river is not more than a thousand feet. On the west side it is hedged in by beettling clifts of perpendicular red- shale rock, from one to three hundred feet high, which begin a short distance below Kintnerville and extend down the river about a mile, with barely room for the road and canal at some points. In the past these clifts have extended up the river as high as Unionville, but time and the elements have crumbled them away until now they have forms of well-rounded river hills, covered with a pretty dense growth of vegetation. No doubt at one time the ledge of rocks at the Narrows extended across the river and dammed up the waters, but the tooth of time, by the many agencies well-known to this old destroyer, gradually ate an opening through the soft red-shale, and let the pent-up waters flow to the sea. These rocky ledges are par- ticularly rich in their Flora. Here are several northern plants, some of which are found nowhere else in the county, and at only one or two other points south of the province of New Brunswick. The Seedum Rhodiola is found at only one other locality in the United States, in Maine. It is an interesting fact, that this plant is not seen growing where clifts have mouldered away, and are now covered with soil, but it prefers to cling to the native rock. Among
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
other plants of this character found here are the Creeping fern, Canada violet, Rosa Canina, Blue-hair bell, Red-berried elder, Mountain maple, Ginsang, Trillium, the Great Saint John's Wort, Spiræa, Tomentosa, or Hard-hack, Dwarf cherry, Blue Lupine, the Round-leaf gooseberry, and Canada water-leaf.
On the eastern side of the township near the river, on the farm of a Mr. Lippincott, is a peculiar geological formation known as " Ringing rocks," occupying a space of about four and a half acres, of irregular shape, branching out, as it were, from a common centre, in four directions. The rocks vary in size from a few pounds to several tons in weight, and when struck give out a peculiar metallic sound, the tone of each differing from the other. They are, doubt- less, of igneous origin. The eastern part of the formation is several feet higher than the western. The rocks are piled upon each other to an unknown depth, not a particle of earth being found between them, nor is a tree, bush, or speer of grass to be seen. A moderate- sized dog could easily creep down among them to the depth of ten or fifteen feet. The formation inclines to the west and north, but rocks of the same kind are not to be found in the neighborhood. About three hundred yards east from the ringing rocks is a beautiful water-fall, thirty feet high and fifty feet wide. The course of the creek for a short distance above the falls, is north twenty-two de- grees thirty minutes west, but changes at the falls to due north and continues in that direction some distance.
If the reader puts faith in tradition he may believe that Nocka- mixon in early days, had a celebrated Indian doctor, an ex-king from the Susquehanna. He is credited with all the virtues of a "great medicine," and among other things to his reputation, he is said to have cured the bite of a rattlesnake, and to have actually restored his own daughter after she had been seized with hydro- phobia, with a decoction of seneca snake-root. Of course we vouch for none of these wonderful cures.
Three main roads run through Nockamixon from north to south- the River road, which follows the winding of the Delaware, the Durham road, which runs through its western end, nearly parallel with Haycock run, and is intersected at many points by lateral roads, and an intermediate road starting at the River road, near Kintnerville, following the course of Gallows run, and thence via Kintner's down into Tinicum. The earliest local road that we have found on record dates back to 1750, from the river to Durham road,
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
to " begin at the plantation of Richard London's ferry, and ending at the plantation of Theodore Todd, which did belong to John Mitchel." The road from the old Harrow tavern, on the Durham road, by Kintner's and down Gallows run, to the intersection of the road from Purcel's ferry,1 was laid out in 1793. This was one of the earliest connections across the township from the Durham road to the river. Nockamixon is watered by two branches of Tin- icum creek, Gallows run, Falls creek, and other small streams. Haycock creek runs along its western border, but the map shows only one small tributary emptying into it on the Nockamixon side. A ridge of cliffs follows the river along the eastern edge of the township, a large rock opposite the Narrows rising up to the height of three hundred and sixty feet, from the top of which a magnificent view up and down the river is obtained. "Boatman's hill," in the north-east section of the township about a mile from the river, is an isolated elevation a couple of hundred feet high, without distinctive features. The surface of Nockamixon does not differ materially from Tinicum, except that it is not as hilly. The soil is generally fertile and there are many fine farms in the township. The villages of Nockamixon are Bridgeton and Kintnerville, on the Delaware, Bucksville, on the Durham road, all post-villages, and Narrowsville, on the high ground above the river. A few years ago Bridgeton was made a separate general election district which, with the terri- tory included in it, contained a population of nine hundred and forty-four at the census of 1870, and only fourteen less in 1860, showing a small increase. The name of the post-office is Upper Black's Eddy, which was established in 1830, and David Worman appointed its first postmaster, and that at Kintnerville in 1849, with Samuel Boileau the postmaster. These villages deserve no especial notice, as they have but the usual features of country hamlets, made up of tavern, store, and a few dwellings. Bridgeton, the most important and populous, is connected with the New Jersey shore of the Delaware by a wooden bridge. There is but one island in the river opposite this township, at the north-west corner, which was confirmed to Nockamixon in 1786.
We have not seen any enumeration of the inhabitants of Nock- amixon earlier than 1784, when the population was 629, with 116 dwellings. In the next twenty-five years it had almost doubled, for at the census of 1810 it contained 1,207 inhabitants; 1820, 1,650 ;
1 The Narrows.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
1830, 2,049, and 407 taxables ; 1840, 2,055 ; 1860, 1,630, Bridgeton district meanwhile having been created, and the population taken from the township enumeration, and in 1870, 1,528, of which 110 were of foreign birth. Nockamixon has become a German township to all intents and purposes, and the descendants of the early English settlers have been pushed out by the advancing Teutonic column or Germanized.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
CHAPTER XXXV.
BEDMINSTER.
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1742.
Bedminster included in Plumstead .- Location .- William Allen's tract .- John Hough .- Ralph Ashton et al .- Scotch-Irish settlers .- Founding of Deep Run church .- Early tombstones .- Francis McHenry .- Charles McHenry at Paoli .- The Griers .- Humphrey and John Orr and descendants .- James L. Orr .- The Darrahs .- William D. Kelley .- William Armstrong and descendants .- Jacob Wismer, Samuel Ayres, F. A. Comly .- Township organized .- Names of peti- tioners .- German settlers .- Mennonite church founded .- The ministers and deacons .- The old church .- John Eckel .- Tohickon church .- Pastors and graveyard .- Keller's church .- The Keichlines .- George Piper .- Roads .- The Scheetzes .- Mills .- Old school-house .- Peaches .- Pigeons .- Villages .- Popu- lation .- Decease of aged persons .- Map of upper end.
BEDMINSTER, which was included in Plumstead from its first set- tlement down to the date of its organization as a township, lies wedged in between Plumstead, Hilltown, Rockhill, Haycock, and Nockamixon, having the tortuous Tohickon for its north and north- east boundary. All the surrounding townships, except Haycock, were organized prior to Bedminster, and afterward this township was formed of part of Plumstead.
William Allen, of Philadelphia, was one of the largest land- owners in this section of the county, and his possessions lay in sev- eral townships. When settlers began to enter Bedminster he and
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
the Proprietaries owned all the land in it. His was called the Deep run tract, and as late as 1800 twenty-two hundred acres, divided into convenient-sized farms, were put up at public sale at the tavern- house of John Shaw. The Proprietaries opened their lands for set- tlement about 1725-30, and soon settlers began to come in and purchase. In 1734 John Hough purchased two hundred acres on Deep run, and John Brittain one hundred and fifty on the same stream. August 6th, 1741, one thousand and one acres were pat- . ented by Ralph Ashton for the use of Richard Hockley, and the survey was made by virtue of a warrant dated March 20th, 1734. This tract lay "near Tohickon above Deep run." Settlers came in quite rapidly, and in a few years there was considerable population along the Deep run, which name the settlement bore until the town- ship was organized. These first-comers were from the north of Ireland, and belonged to that sturdy race known as Scotch-Irish, which played such an important part in the settlement of both the county and state. Although the township is now German, this race settled there at a subsequent period, and their descendants have gradually pushed out the English-speaking people and become dom- inant.
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