USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > The history of Bucks County, Pennsylvania : from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time > Part 60
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
house lately owned by Ambrose Rauch, on Main street, west of the Sun inn, and torn down in 1872.
During the British occupancy of Philadelphia the country between the Schuylkill and the Delaware was debatable ground, and was traversed by armed parties of both armies. The enemy made fre- quent incursions into Bucks. On the night of the 18th of February, 1777, the cavalry companies of Hovenden and Thomas, both Bucks county tories, made a raid on Newtown, where they captured a consid- erable quantity of cloth being made up for the Continental army, and made prisoners of Major Murray, three other officers, and twenty- six soldiers of the guard, besides killing and wounding nine. On another occasion, hearing of a drove of cattle en route for the hungry Continentals at Valley Forge, the enemy's horse pounced upon them and captured the whole herd, and in April a party of horse went up to Bristol and captured Colonel Penrose and several other officers. They made frequent excursions in armed barges up the Delaware to plunder. In one of these they threw a six-pound shot into the house of Peter Williamson, father of the late Mahlon Williamson, of Phi- ladelphia, which stood on the site of Beverly, New Jersey. It passed just over the cradle of the infant Mahlon and rolled harm- lessly on the floor. On another occasion they came up the river and burnt the handsome mansion of Colonel Joseph Kirkbride, of Falls, a warm friend of the colonies. This debatable ground was entrusted to the command of General John Lacey, but he never had sufficient force to protect it from the incursions of the enemy, or to prevent the disaffected going into the city. The high price paid by the enemy for all kinds of produce appealed strongly to the cupidity of the tories, who crossed the lines with their wallets filled with butter, eggs, etc., at every opportunity. Many were caught in this disreputable and illegal traffic, and among them is mentioned one Tyson, of Bedminster, whose horse and marketing were confiscated, while he was tied to a tree, still standing near Branchtown, and battered with his own eggs.
General Lacey frequently had his headquarters at Doylestown, and this was his depot of stores. We find him here the 19th of March, 1778, and copy the following from his order-book : "Parole, Salem ; countersign, Wilmington ; officer of the day to-morrow, Major Mitchel; detail, three captains, three sergeants, four cor- porals and forty-eight privates. Officers of all grades are cautioned not to quarter out of camp." Lacey and his men did not want for
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
the good things of life while soldiering in Bucks county. The re- ceipts of the purchasing commissary cover payments for veal, beef, flour, mutton, whiskey, not a rifled article, turkeys and fowls. His troops, while encamped at the Crooked-Billet, now Hatborough, were surprised by the British at daylight the 1st of May, 1778, and it was only by boldness and good management that he was able to prevent the capture of his entire force. Spies, well-acquainted with the situation, had given General Howe full information, who sent out strong detachments of cavalry and infantry. They took pos- session of all the roads, and closing in upon Lacey, his camp was almost surrounded before their presence was known. Extricating his command he retreated across Warminster toward the Neshaminy. When it became evident that the enemy intended to evacuate Phila- delphia, Washington requested the militia of Bucks county to hang upon his flanks in his march through New Jersey, and General Lacey ordered the battalions of Colonels Keller, Roberts, Toms, and McIlvain to turn out for this service.
Washington put the Continental army in march from Valley Forge, after a six months' residence upon its bleak hills, the 18th of June, to pursue the enemy in his retreat toward New York. Gen- eral Lee, with six brigades, led the advance, via Doylestown to New Hope, where he crossed the night of the 20th, and Washington en- camped at Doylestown the same evening with the main body. The weather was very stormy, and the army remained here until the next afternoon, occupying three encampments: on the south side of State street, west of Main, on the ridge east of the Presbyterian church, and along the New Hope pike east of the borough mill. Washing- ton pitched his tent near the dwelling of Jonathan Fell, now John G. Mann's farm-house, and General Lafayette quartered at the house of Thomas Jones, New Britain, whose best bed was a little too short for the tall young Frenchman. The armny was accom- panied by some warriors of the Seneca nation, seeking the release of a captured chief, and attended by some friendly Oneidas and Tus- caroras. The army resumed its march for the Delaware the after- noon of the 21st, and crossed at New Hope the next day. While passing Paxson's corner a soldier shot the button from the top of a young pine, and the wound can still be seen.
From this time forward the stirring and active scenes of the war were removed to distant parts of the country. General Lacey was still in command in this county, keeping a watchful eye on the dis-
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
affected, now and then making an important arrest. In the sum- mer of 1780 Bucks county sent her quota of militia to the camp at Trenton, in view of an attack upon New York, and the following year, when Philadelphia was again threatened, there was a concen- tration of troops at Newtown, under General James Irvine. In September, 1781, the French and American armies, in march to meet Cornwallis in Virginia, passed through the lower end of the county. They crossed the Delaware at Trenton and the neighbor- ing ferries on the morning of the 1st, and the same afternoon passed the Neshaminy at the rope ferry, encamping at the Red lion in Ben- salem that evening, and the next day marched through Philadelphia. The robbery of the county-treasury at Newtown by the Doanes and their confederates, in the fall of 1781, was one of the exciting events of the day. John Hart, then treasurer, lived in the house that lately belonged to Abraham Bond, in the lower part of the village. Early in the evening Moses Doane rode through the town to see if the situation were favorable, and about ten o'clock the house of the treasurer was surrounded, and Mr. Hart made prisoner. While sentinels kept watch outside, and over the treasurer, others of the gang ransacked the house. Then, obtaining the keys of the treasurer's office, and one of them putting on Mr. Hart's hat, and carrying his lighted lantern, as was the treasurer's wont, the rob- bers went to the office, where they stole all the public money to be found. They got, in all, £735. 17s. 19}d. in specie, and £1,307 in paper. That night they divided the spoils at the Wrights- town school-house.
The marines on board Commodore Barry's ship, the Hyder Ali, were Bucks county riflemen, who behaved in the most gallant man- ner in the desperate action with the General Monk, the 26th of April, 1782. The life of the Commodore, written by his widow, says : "One of these brave fellows, who was much better acquainted with the use of his rifle than with the rules of subordination, called out to Captain Barry, with a coolness of tone and familiarity of manner that evinced anything but intended disrespect, 'Captain, do you see that fellow with the white hat ?' and firing as he spoke, Captain Barry saw the poor fellow 'with the white hat' make a spring at least three feet from the deck, and fall to rise no more. 'Captain,' continued the marksman, 'that's the third fellow I've made hop.' It was found that every man of the enemy who was killed by the small-arms was shot in the breast or head, so true and deadly was the aim of the Bucks county riflemen."
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
The story of the Doanes is both romantic and tragic. They were the sons of respectable Quaker parents, of Plumstead, and during the war became celebrated for their evil deeds. These five brothers were men of remarkable physical development, tall, strong, athletic, and all fine horsemen. Before the war they were men of good reputation, and it is said proposed to remain neutral. Living in a Scotch-Irish settlement, faithful, to a man, to the cause of Independ- ence, the young Doanes were not allowed to take a middle course, . and soon they espoused the cause of the crown, which engendered a bitter feeling between them and their Whig neighbors. They began their career of infamy by robbing and plundering in the neighborhood, gradually extending their field of operations into this and neighboring counties. They finally became outlaws, with a price upon their heads. They were the terror of the country, and occupied themselves in stealing horses, plundering houses, etc., but we believe the crime of murder was never imputed to them. They had many narrow escapes, and now and then some one of them fell into the hands of the authorities, but generally managed to escape. Joseph broke jail while awaiting trial at Newtown, and escaped to New Jersey, and after teaching school awhile fled to Canada. Near the close of the war Abraham and Mahlon were apprehended in Chester county, and hanged in Philadelphia. Moses, the leader of the outlaw brothers, met a more tragic end. In the latter part of the summer of 1783, the Doanes went to the house of one Halsey, living in a cabin on Gallows run, Plumstead, and asked for some- thing to eat, and Halsey sent his son to a neighboring mill to get flour. On the miller hesitating, the boy said the Doanes were at his father's house and they would pay. The miller sent word to a vendue in the neighborhood, that the Doanes were at Halsey's, when a party of fourteen armed and mounted men led by William and Samuel Hart, and Major Kennedy, started to capture them. The cabin was surrounded. The two Harts, Kennedy, and a Grier were selected to enter it, and on approaching saw through the chinks of the logs, the Doanes eating at a table, with their guns standing near. William Hart opened the door, and commanded them to surrender, when they seized their arms and fired. One of their bullets knocked a splinter from Grier's gun, which struck Kennedy in the back giving him a mortal wound. Hart seized Moses Doane, threw him down and secured him, when Robert Gibson rushed into the cabin, and shot Doane in the breast killing him in-
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
stantly. The other two brothers escaped. Colonel Hart carried the body of the dead outlaw to his residence, and laid it on the kitchen-floor until morning, when he sent it to his unhappy father. Joseph Doane spent the balance of his life in Canada, where he died at an advanced age. Forty years ago he returned to the county to claim a small inheritance, when he met, and became reconciled with, the Shaws and other families who had felt the wrath of him- self and brothers during the troublous days of the Revolution.
A number of persons in this county joined the British army and drew their swords against their country. Among these were Ed- ward Jones, of Hilltown, who raised a company of cavalry in that township and New Britain; Evan Thomas, of the same township, commanded a company in Simcoe's Rangers, was in the attack on Lacey at the Crooked-Billet, went with Arnold to Virginia in 1780, and was among the prisoners at Yorktown. After the war he re- moved his family to New Brunswick, where he died. Joseph Swift, who was known as handsome but stuttering Joe Swift, son of John Swift, of Bensalem, who was an officer of the British army before the war, re-entered the service as captain of horse in the Pennsyl- vania Loyalists. He lost his estate, and died in Philadelphia in 1826. Thomas Sandford, who commanded a company of Bucks county dragoons, was a captain in the British Legion, and Wal- ter Willett, of Southampton, was also a lieutenant of cavalry in the same corps. Enoch, a son of Cadwallader Morris, and Thomas Lewis, of New Britain, joined the British army in 1778, and settled in Nova Scotia. A number of others entered the military service of the enemy, but they did not reach distinction enough to be re- membered in history. Joseph Galloway, of this county, one of the most prominent men in the province, joined the enemy, but never took up arms against his countrymen.
Under the confiscation act of March 6th, 1778, a number of per- sons in this county lost their estates for remaining loyal to the British crown. Among these may be mentioned Gilbert Hicks and Joseph Paxson, of Middletown, John Ellwood and Andrew Allen, of Bristol, Samuel Biles and Walter Willett, of Southampton, Rich- ard Swanwick, John Meredith, and Owen Roberts, of New Britain, Evan Thomas, Jonathan Jones, and Edward Jones, of Hilltown, Peter Perlie, of Durham, and John Reid and John Overholtz, of Tinicum. Some of these estates were valuable, that of John Reid containing one thousand four hundred and twelve acres. A con-
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
siderable amount of money was realized to the treasury from these sales. A record in the surveyor-general's office, Harrisburg, con- tains the names of seventy-six Bucks countians who were required to purge themselves of treason to prevent confiscation, but prob- ably only a few of them were proceeded against. The commis- sioners for this county under, the confiscation act, were George Wall, jr., Richard Gibbs, John Crawford, and Benjamin Siegle.
The war bore with great severity upon those who would not take up arms, or submit to all the unjust exactions of the period. Among others, Joseph Smith, a son of Timothy, of Buckingham, the inventor of the iron mould-board, and a consistent Friend, was com- mitted to Newtown jail. He whiled away his prison hours in whittling out models of his iron mould-board plows, which he threw over the jail wall. They excited so much interest among the military officers, to whom they were shown, that they asked to see the inge- nious prisoner, and were much interested in his explanations of the benefits the iron mould-board would confer upon the farmer. He lived to see his anticipations fully realized. The case of Thomas Watson, a Friend, of Buckingham, was one of still greater hardship. Hay had become exceedingly scarce in the winter of 1778 and 1779, by reason of some detachments of troops being encamped in his vicinity. He saved a stack which he intended to distribute among his less fortunate neighbors, but which the landlord at Centreville wanted to buy with worthless Continental money. Mr. Watson refused to sell, but told the landlord if he would come the day the stack was opened he would receive a share of it without price. This did not suit this pretended patriot. Finding out the price of the hay, he offered it to Mr. Watson, who refused it. The landlord immediately caused his arrest, on the charge that he had refused to sell his hay for paper money, and he was confined in the Newtown jail. He was tried by court-martial, sentenced to be hanged, and all efforts to obtain his pardon failed. At last Mr. Watson's wife appeared before Lord Sterling, then in command, at a time when his nature was softened by good cheer, provided purposely by the landlady of the tavern where he boarded, and her appeal was more successful. He withstood her eloquence as long as he could, when he raised her to her feet and said, " Madam, you have conquered, I must relent at the tears, and supplication of so noble and so good a woman as you. Your husband is saved."
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
CHAPTER XLI.
DURHAM.
-
1775.
Settled early .- Minerals .- Iron discovered .- Purchase by Durham company .- Quan- tity of land .- Richard Mitchel .- Constable in 1739 .- First attempt to organize a township .- Caleb Todd overseer .- Second petition for township .- Organized in 1775 .- Names of petitioners .- The area .- Roads .- Place of Indian treaties .- Company formed and furnace built .- First shipment of iron to England .- Present furnace .- Scarcity of labor .- First Durham boat .- Company dissolved .- Gallo- way's interest confiscated .- Richard Backhouse .- George Taylor .- Different owners .- The Fackenthalls .- The Longs .- John Pringle Jones .- General Daniel Morgan .- Durham cave .- Attempt to annex township to Northampton .- Dur- ham creek .- Monroe .- Rieglesville .- Churches and pastors .- Population.
DURHAM, at the extreme north point of the county, and the last of the original townships to be organized, was one of the earliest in the upper end to be settled. Attention was drawn to this sec- tion at an early day. In the description of New Albion, published at London in 1648, there is mention made of "lead mines in stony hills," ten leagues above the falls of Delaware, which probably had reference to the iron ore in the Durham hills, where a little lead has been found from time to time. The information must have been received from the Indians, who would not permit Europeans to explore the river above the falls, or from white men who had pene- trated to that point without the knowledge of the Indians. Prob-
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
ably the search for lead 'discovered the valuable deposit of iron ore at Durham.
The Proprietary government knew of the deposit of iron ore in the Durham hills as early as 1698, but there is no reliable record as to how and when it was discovered. It is stated in a letter from James Logan to George Clark, dated August 4th, 1737, that when the Shawonoe Indians came from the south, in 1698, one party of them "was placed at Pechoqueolin, near Durham, to take care of the iron mines." Their village was probably on the high ground back of the lower end of Rieglesville and near the furnace, where traces of an Indian town are still to be seen, and where arrow- heads and other remains of the red man are picked up. The chief in charge of the village near Durham, in 1728, was called Ka-kow- watchy. In 1715 there was an Indian town, called "Pahaqualing," above the Water Gap, on the New Jersey side of the Delaware. As one of the leading objects of the Free Society of Traders was the manufacture of iron, their attention was early directed to this region ; and in 1701 Jacob Taylor, the surveyor-general of the province, surveyed five thousand acres for this company, and called the tract Durham.1 On the 8th of September, 1717, a patent was executed to Jeremiah Langhorne and John Chapman for three hundred acres, situated on "Schook's," now Durham, creek.
We have seen a statement that what is known as the Durham tract was purchased as early as 1718, but can find no confirmation of it. There were a few settlers about where the iron-works were first located, in 1723, but scarce any above it. The discovery of iron ore, no doubt, led to the permanent settlement of Durham sev- eral years before it would otherwise have been settled; nevertheless, we are just as certain that the ownership of all the land in the town- ship being in a rich company, retarded its settlement and pros- perity. There was not the same general distribution of land as was the case in other townships. Those who purchased had to buy of the Durham company at their own price. We are not informed just what year the tract was purchased of the Proprietaries, but it must have been prior to 1727, which year the first furnace was erected, up near the ore beds. The company must have included in their purchase the five thousand acres owned by the Free Society of Traders. The tract originally contained six thousand nine hun- dred acres, but was added to afterward, and at its division and sale,
1 Henry.
41
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
in 1773, the area was eight thousand five hundred and eleven acres and one hundred perches.2 Down to this time the title to but little of these lands had passed out of the company, which was the land- lord of the tenants. As the history of the furnace goes far toward making up the history of the township for the last hundred and fifty years, we shall give a more particular account of it before this chapter is concluded.
No doubt the sparseness of the population was the cause of the long delay in organizing the township, and it is just possible that the company opposed the efforts of the inhabitants to obtain local government. But however this may be, the Durham tract was recognized as a township many years before the court authorized its organization. We find that Richard Mitchel, of Durham, was commissioned a justice of the peace, and Richard Cox constable, in 1738. In 1739 Daniel Bloom was appointed constable for "Durham and Allen's town." This seemed necessary on account of its remoteness from the county-seat. The inhabitants made several efforts for a township before they were successful. As early as June 16th, 1743, the settlers " adjoining Durham" peti- tioned the court to be " comprehended in a new township," and the same month and year eighteen families in "Durham township" petitioned to be included in Springfield.3 In March, 1744, the owners of the Durham iron works petitioned the court to lay out a township "that may include all the land between Lower Saucon township on the west, the west branch of the river Delaware on the north, the river Delaware aforesaid on the east, and the southern boundary of Durham tract on the south." On the back of the peti- tion is endorsed, "Read and allowed, and Peter Roke appointed constable." Here the effort ended. These limits would have em- braced all of Durham and Springfield, and what is now Williams township, in Northampton county. In 1745 Caleb Todd was appointed overseer for Durham township. The 14th of March, the samne year, Robert Ellis, of Durham, wrote to Lawrence Growden to petition the court on behalf "of the owners of Durham works" for a township of Durham. Ellis was probably a justice of the peace, for in a letter written to him by Lynford Lardner, who had purchased a plantation near the Lehigh, the following November,
2 One map of the tract gives the area eight thousand four hundred and eighty-four acres and fifty-two perches, but the difference is not material.
3 The same year that Springfield was organized.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
he is spoken of as being on the bench. In spite of these efforts, the township of Durham was not organized until 1775. The 13th of June of that year some of the inhabitants living on the Durham tract, namely, Jacob Clymer, Henry Houpt, George Taylor, + George Heinline, Wendell Shank, Thomas Craig, Michael Deemer, William Abbott, Francis Wilson, Daniel Stillwell, and two others whose namnes cannot be deciphered, petitioned the court to organize the township of Durham. This attempt was successful, and it was prob- ably laid out with its present boundaries. Enough of the territory of the old Durham tract was excluded, and fell into Williams town- ship, to make one tier of farms. The area is five thousand seven hundred aud uiueteeu acres.
Having the river as a great highway to and from the furnace, there was not the same urgent necessity for an early opening of roads as in most of the other townships. In 1732 the "Durham company" petitioned the court for a road from thence to join the Wrightstown road at the Pines, now Pineville, which was granted and laid out on the Indian path from the lower country to the Lecha or Lehigh. This was not a link in the Durham road, which was already opened above Buckingham, but the road that now crosses the mountain below Greenville, and thence to Pineville, known, we believe, as the Mountain road. The road from the furnace down to the Tohickon, to meet the Durham road, which had been extended to that point some time before, was opened about 1745, and the road from the furnace up to Easton in 1755. An outlet to the west was opened about the same period. Before 1747, although we do not know the year, a road was opened from the furnace through Springfield and Richland, to the New Beth- lehem, then Provincial, road over which pig-iron was hauled to May- berry forge, near Sumneytown. This was probably the road which now runs up the south bank of Durham creek, through Springtown to Quakertown. In 1748 a road was laid out from the furnace to Bethlehem. Meanwhile a few local roads were opened, but most of them were to accommodate the inhabitants getting to and from the furnace, where all the business of that region of country centred. How many roads had been opened we do not know, but in 1767 the inhabitants petitioned the court not to allow any more through the township, because " they had enough already."
Durham was early celebrated as a place for holding treaties with
+ The Signer.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
the Indians, and the Penns often resorted thither to meet their red brethren. The place of meeting was in the meadows, about the centre of the township, near where the old furnace was built, where one Wilson,s an Indian trader, had established himself. The treaty which led to the celebrated Walking Purchase of 1737 was begun at Durham in 1734, adjourned to Pennsbury, and concluded at Philadelphia, August 25th, 1737. Casper Wister, an early land- holder in Springfield, owned six hundred and fifty-one acres on Cook's creek in Durham in 1738.
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