USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > The history of Bucks County, Pennsylvania : from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time > Part 66
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88
Doylestown remained a simple cross-roads until 1807, when Court
1 William Watts Hart, uncle of the author.
698
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
street was laid out thirty-three feet wide, on the line of New Britain and Warwick, "beginning at a stone, a corner of land of Nathaniel Shewell and Barton Stewart, in the public road leading from Phila- delphia to Easton," now Main street. The land-owners along Court street at that time were, Barton Stewart, Nathaniel Shewell, the Union academy, Jonathan and Daniel McIntosh, Asher Miner, Doc- tor Hugh Meredith, and John Pennington on the east side, and Na- thaniel Shewell, who owned the Ross property and the court-house grounds, John Black, Samuel Wigton, John Shaw, John Worman, Uriah DuBois, Septimus Evans, Josiah Shaw, Israel Vanluvanee, and John Pennington on the west side, who owned all the land bor- dering the street or road out to its end. In 1818 Court street was extended to the south-west from Main to intersect State street at the corner of Clinton. Broad street was laid out in 1811, fifty feet wide, and confirmed at the April term, on the line of lands of Sep- timus Evans, the academy ground and Reverend Uriah DuBois on the north side, and the site for the public buildings, Nathaniel Shew- ell, and Isaac Hall on the south. Court street was called Academy street in 1816. There were no additional streets opened until after the village was incorporated, in 1838. Among the later streets opened were, Clinton, in 1869, Afton, Maple, and Linden avenues, in 1870, and Cottage street, from Court to Linden, in 1871.
Among the earliest schools in the borough after that held in the academy, was the one kept by George Murray, in the stone house on State street, now owned by Alfred H. Barber, which was quite noted in its day. Mr. Murray was born in the parish of Keith, Scotland, February 20th, 1781, graduated at New Aberdeen, and came to America in 1804. After teaching near Morristown, New Jersey, in Bensalem, at Hatborough, Hulmeville and elsewhere, he came to Doylestown in 1821, and taught in the academy until 1829. He then opened a boarding-school in his dwelling, which he continued until 1842, when he removed it to his farm in the township, where it was kept up to 1850. He is still living, hale and hearty, in his ninety-fifth year. He taught school fifty-five years, and is one of the oldest educators living. In 1838 the legislature, at the instance of several prominent gentlemen, incorporated the " Ingham female seminary," named after the Honorable Samuel D. Ingham, and in- tended as a boarding and day-school. It received a small annual appropriation from the state, which was discontinued after a few years. A frame building was erected at the corner of Broad and
699
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
Mechanic streets, and Doctor C. Soule Cartee, of Boston, was called to take charge. After he left, in 1843, no further attempt was made to maintain a boarding-school. The building is still standing, and is occupied by a school for small children.
The removal of the county-seat to Doylestown in 1813, assured its prosperity and future growth. At that time it was a hamlet of hardly two hundred inhabitants. Attempts had been made for years to push the village ahead, and some of the inhabitants saw promise of future greatness in its beautiful location on the great highway between Philadelphia and Easton, for at that day railroads were not dreamed of, and the town that stood on an artery of travel was thought to possess advantages. In 1800 the first newspaper was published here, and the first in the county, the Farmer's Weekly Gazette, printed at the "Centre house," and in 1804, Asher Miner estab- lished the Pennsylvania Correspondent, which still survives in the Bucks County Intelligencer. In 1805 Doylestown had a portrait painter, one Daniel Farling, who had his studio over Asher Miner's printing-office, then in the old frame building on Main street, lately torn down by Nathan C. James. Farling was a versatile genius, for the year before he announced himself a painter, glazier, and paperhanger, " from the cities of New York and Philadelphia," and "orders left at Enoch Harvey's inn," would receive his attention. He probably pursued the limner's art during his leisure hours. The first attempt to sell town-lots was made February 8th, 1806, by John Black, " on main road through said village, from Norristown to Coryell's ferry." Doylestown held her first 4th of July celebra- tion in 1806, at the academy, marked by three orations, the reading of the Declaration, and drinking seventeen toasts. The senior class of students, with a number of their friends, took dinner at Mr. Worman's inn,2 where more toasts were drunk. Samuel Fell was president of the day, and John N. Thomas, vice-president. Doyles- town was patriotic in the war with England in 1812-15, and the village and country about sent a volunteer company to the field, under Captain William Magill, the uniforms being made in the court-house by the young ladies of the neighborhood. Several hundred volunteers and militia from the upper end of the county, en route for camp, staid over night in the town, and Magill's old tavern, Main and State, was filled with them. The 7th of July, 1814, a company of United States infantry, under Lieutenant Mann,
2 Where Lenape building stands.
700
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
accompanied by Colonel Clemson, encamped at Doylestown over night.
An effort was made to incorporate Doylestown as early as 1826, but the bill failed in the legislature because the boundaries were not ascertained. We do not know that anything further was done in this behalf before 1838, when an act was passed the 16th of April of that year, which erected the village into a borough. The charter has been altered and amended from time to time, but the corporate powers have not been materially changed. The local affairs of the little municipality are governed by a council of nine persons, three of whom are elected annually, and a chief and assis- tant burgess, with nominal duties. The incorporation had but slight influence upon the prosperity of the borough, and for a quarter of a century it was doubtful whether it did not retrograde. In the last ten years there has been more improvement, in the opening of streets and the erection of buildings, than all the previous years since its incorporation. Its growth has been gradual, and its history is with- out eventful episodes. The town was visited by Governor Hiester, in 1823, on his way from Philadelphia to Reading, when he staid all night, was called upon by the citizens, and visited the public build- ings, the only attractions in the place. Since then Doylestown has been visited several times by the executive of the state, by Governor Shunk, in 1844, and more recently by Governors Curtin and Hart- ranft. The town had a lodge of Masons as early as 1824, Benevo- lent, number 168, as well as a brass band, and a fire engine.
The oldest families of Doylestown, some represented in the male, and others in the female, line, are the Harveys, Stewarts, McIn- toshes, Vanluvanees, Halls, Magills, and DuBoises, whose residence · antedate the county-seat. The Chapmans, Foxes, Rosses, Pughs, and Morrises came up from Newtown with the seat of justice, and the Rogerses, Mathews, Brocks, and others, came at a still later day. The Harveys came from Upper Makefield, where Thomas Harvey was settled about 1750, and, dying in 1779, left two sons, Joseph and Matthew. Joseph had six children, Enoch, the immedi- ate ancestor of our Doylestown branch, being born December 1st, 1769. He settled here between 1785 and 1790, and married a daughter of Charles Stewart, of Warwick. By 1800 he was the owner of three lots of about fifty acres in Warwick and New Britain, which included where the Fountain house and the National bank stand, which had been confiscated in the Revolution. He kept the
701
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
Fountain house several years, and died in 1831. Joseph and George T. are sons of Enoch Harvey.
The Stewarts were among the earliest settlers in this section. Between 1720 and 1730 Charles Stewart, a young man of culture and some means, immigrated from Scotland, and bought a farın near Doylestown. He married a Miss Finney, whose sister was the wife of Doctor Todd, the mother of Mrs. Hugh Meredith. Charles Stewart was a captain in the French and Indian war. He had two sons, Charles and George. The latter married a Parthenia Barton, and was the father of Barton Stewart, whom some of our older citi- zens remember, while Sarah, the daughter of Charles, married Enoch Harvey. Mrs. Delphine Bissey and her sister are descend- ants of Charles Stewart, the elder, in the fifth generation. But few male descendants are living.
About 1800 John, Jonathan, and Daniel McIntosh came to Doylestown, when it was a hamlet of half a dozen houses, from Martinsburg, Virginia, where they were born. The two former died here at an advance age, leaving descendants. The Shaws came from Plumstead, where they were early settlers. The Du- Boises we have already mentioned. .
The Chapmans are descended from John and Jane Chapman, English Friends, of Stanhope, in the valley of the river Wear, county af Durham. The parish records show that he was baptised Novem- ber 3d, 1626, and he probably joined the Friends after he reached manhood. Subjected to many persecutions, including confinement, both in the common jail and the castle of Durham, on account of luis religious belief, he and his family immigrated to Pennsylvania to escape them, settling in Wrightstown in 1684. The church at Stan- hope possesses the richest living of any in the north of England, and has had for its rectors many distinguished divines, including Butler, the author of the celebrated "Analogy." During the time he offici- ated some of the Chapmans were church wardens. The interior of the church contains a mural memorial commemorative of a valuable legacy bequeathed by one of the Chapmans to the poor of Stanhope and Frosterley. Few churches in the north of England have associ- ated with their early history more interesting incidents. It is among the oldest in Durham county, and may be classed among the most beautiful, though plain and unpretending. In recent days it has undergone some renovation, but enough of the ancient structure still remains to give it an antiquarian interest. Its beauty is partly
702
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
owing to its situation, being almost in the centre of the town, nearly surrounded by an ample yard, and well-supplied with large and vener- able trees. In the graveyard may be found the names of members of many families well-known in this country, namely : The Pember- tons, Emmersons, Bainbridges, Madisons, and others.
The Rosses are descended from Thomas Ross, born in county Ty- rone, Ireland, of Episcopal parents, in 1708, who immigrated to Bucks county at the age of twenty, and settled in Upper Makefield. Thomas Ross probably brought a sister to America with him, for Elizabeth Ross was married to Thomas Bye 9th month, 1732. He joined the society of Friends at Wrightstown February 12th, 1729, and became a distinguished minister. He took an interest in the welfare of the young, and was active in giving them sound advice. He married Kesiah Wilkinson in July or August, 1731, Abraham Chapman and James Harker being appointed to attend the wedding and "see it decently accomplished." He passed his long life prin- cipally in Bucks county, devoting considerable of his time to religious affairs. In June, 1784, Mr. Ross sailed for England on a religious visit, in company with several male and female Friends, in the ship Commerce, Captain Truxton. They were anxious to reach their destination in time for the yearly meeting, but the captain said it was impossible. It is related, that one day while Mr. Ross was seated beside Rebecca Jones he turned and said to her, " Rebecca, canst thou keep a secret ?" She replied that she could, when he added, "We shall see England this day two weeks." Land was seen by one of the Friends on the morning of that day, and the captain acknowledged, that had not the passenger been able to see what the officers and sailors could not, the vessel would have gone on the rocks and suffered shipwreck. After attending the yearly meeting at London, and traveling in Ireland and the north of Scot- land, where he attended many religious meetings, Mr. Ross reached the house of Lindley Murray, at Holdgate, near York, where he died the 13th of June, 1786, in his seventy-eighth year. The letter announcing his death to his widow, written by John Pemberton, speaks of the deceased in high terms. Among his last words were, " I see no cloud in my way, I die in peace with all men." Among his descendants were the late Judge John Ross, of the supreme court, Honorable Thomas Ross, late of Doylestown, and Judge Henry P. Ross, of Norristown. William Ross, probably a grandson and native of the county, was a merchant of Philadelphia, and died on the island of Saint Domingo in 1807.
703
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
The Foxes have not been residents of the county three-quarters of a century. The father of the late Judge John Fox was the son of an Englishman, but born in Ireland, and came to this country when young, but the date of his arrival is not known. General Carleton, in an official letter to his government in 1783, and found in the secret archives of Great Britain a few years ago, in describing the officers of the state government, when Joseph Reed was presi- dent of Pennsylvania, writes thus :
" Auditor-General, Mr. Edward Fox. This young gentleman is a native of England or Ireland, I cannot say which, but believe the first. He came to this country some time since, and carried on business in the mercantile line. His present office was conferred upon him since Mr. Morris came into administration, and has a sal- ary of $1,700 per year. He is a young man of good abilities, especi- ally in his present line."
Mr. Fox afterward acquired a large fortune, but lost it by loans to, and endowments for, Morris, Nicholson, and Greenleaf. His wife was a sister of Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant, and aunt of John and Thomas Sergeant. John Fox, after his admission to the bar, settled at Newtown, and moved with the seat of justice to Doyles- town in 1813. He married Margery, a daughter of Gilbert Rod- man, of Bensalem, in 1816. He was deputy attorney-general of the county in 1814, and left his business to serve on General Worrill's staff with the rank of major. He was president-judge of the court of common pleas from 1830 to 1840, and died in 1849, leaving five children, Mrs. Jolın B. Pugh, of Doylestown, being the oldest daughter. Edward J., a brother of Judge Fox, fell in a duel with Henry Randall, at Washington, in 1821. They were fellow-clerks in the treasury department.
John B. Pugh is a descendant of Hugh Pugh, who was born in Wales, received a good education, came to this country about 1725, and settled in Chester county. He married Mary Harris, a daugh- ter of the family which gave the name to the state capital. They had eight children, four sons and four daughters. Later in life he removed with his family to the east bank of the Schuylkill, near Norristown, whence their son Daniel, born January 17th, 1736, went to Hilltown, and settled about 1750. He married Rebecca, the daughter of Reverend William Thomas, January 23d, 1760, and died in 1813, and she in 1819. Their oldest son, John, father o. John B. and Mrs. Rogers, of Doylestown, was born June 2d, 1761,
704
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
and died in 1842. His first wife was Rachel Bates, and after her death, in 1782, he married Elizabeth Owen, of Hilltown, in 1800. He became prominent in the county, was elected to the legislature in 1800, and three times re-elected, and to Congress in 1804 and 1806, but was defeated at the third election by five votes. In 1810 he was appointed register of wills and recorder of the county, which offices he held fourteen years. He was commissioned a justice of the peace as early as 1796, and the last office he held was that of justice under a commission of Governor Hiester, dated August 23d, 1821.
Matthias Morris, a member of the bar, who was born in Hilltown, in 1787, and died at Doylestown in 1839, at the age of fifty-two, was a great-grandson of Morris Morris, the first of the name who settled in this county. Forsaking the faith of their fathers, they connected themselves with the Hilltown Baptist church, where Isaac Morris was an elder many years. Matthias studied law with his cousin, Enos Morris, and was admitted to the bar at Newtown in 1809. He came to Doylestown with the removal of the county- seat, then practiced in Philadelphia until 1819, when Governor Hiester appointed him deputy attorney-general for Bucks county, and he returned to Doylestown, where he spent the remainder of' his life. He served a tour of duty at camp Marcus Hook in 1814, was elected to the state senate in 1828, and afterward elected to Congress for one term. In 1829 he married Wilhelmina, daughter of Abraham Chapman. Stephen Brock, the first of the name at Doylestown, was probably a descendant of John Brock, who came to the county in 1682, and settled in Lower Makefield. He was a famous landlord in his day, and his popular manners made him a power in the county. He was a great lover of fun, and some of his anecdotes are not yet forgotten. He was twice sheriff of the county. William T. Rogers was the son of William C. Rogers, of Connecti- cut, but born in Philadelphia, in 1799, and his father subsequently removed to Warrington township. William learned the printing trade with Asher Miner, and was several years proprietor and editor of the Doylestown Democrat. He became prominent in politics, and was active in the militia. He served two terms, of four years each, in the state senate, and was speaker the last two years. He was brigade inspector of the county, and subsequently elected major-general. He was a friend of public improvement. He died at Doylestown, in 1867, and was buried in the beautiful cemetery which was mainly
705
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
laid out by his efforts. Doctor William S. Hendrie, thirty-five years a resident of Doylestown, was born in Sussex county, New Jersey, in 1798. His father was a Scotchman, and a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, but came early in life to America. The doctor studied with Doctor Wilson, of Buckingham, and after practicing at Springtown and Hilltown a few years, came to Doyles- town in 1840, and spent his life here. He was appointed associate- judge in 1849, and served two years. He was one of the captors of Mina, the murderer of Doctor Chapman, when he escaped from jail just previous to the time fixed for his execution.
New Doylestown, as our county capital may properly now be called, is a town of two thousand inhabitants, with streets well- shaded, paved, and lighted with gas, and altogether is one of the most pleasant villages in the state. The location, which is especially fine and remarkably healthy, is on a somewhat elevated plateau, the ground descending from the middle of the town in every direction but one, which makes drainage an easy matter. Around the base of the plateau wind charming valleys with gentle hills beyond, dotted with well-cultivated farms, woodlands, and comfortable dwellings, and in the distance the South mountain can be plainly seen on a clear, bright day. The court-house and jail occuppy a well-shaded lot of two and three-quarters acres in the centre of the town, with a stone wall on two sides and a handsome iron fence on the third. The public buildings were up to the times when they were built, in 1812, but are not now equal to the growing wants of the county. It is stated in a newspaper of the period, that on the evening of Septem- ber 5th, 1816, a large sea eagle, six feet from tip to tip, was shot from the vane of the court-house, by a citizen of Dyerstown. The town contains eight churches and a Friends' meeting-house. The Presbyterian, the oldest, was founded in 1815, of which an extended account is given elsewhere, the Methodist, built in 1838, and re- paired in 1873, and the Episcopal in 1847. The Reformed con- gregation was organized by the Reverend W. C. Yearick, with twenty members, in March, 1861, and the church erected in 1864. The Catholic church is the third oldest in the town, but we have not the date of its erection. Lately a parish-school, in charge of three sisters, has been opened under the auspices of the church. The Baptist church was erected in 1869, at a cost of eighteen thousand dollars, and is just now being finished complete, with the addition of a cupola. The Lutheran church, erected within a
45
706
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
few years, has a small congregation. The Buckingham monthly meeting gave the Friends of Doylestown and vicinity permission to hold an indulged meeting on First-days, in 1834. The meeting- house was built the following year, at a cost of one thousand six hundred and fifty-four dollars and fifty cents, and a meeting first held in it December 30th, 1836. Among the institutions, industrial establishments and business carried on in the town may be men- tioned the following: A National bank, which began its existence as a state bank in 1832, a private bank, and a Masonic hall, in which building the Doylestown lodge, number 245, holds its regular meet- ings. The Benevolent lodge, chartered in 1819, was the first in the town, but it was dissolved during the anti-masonic times. There are three English and three German newspapers, three board and coal- yards, two planing-mills, a spoke-factory, an agricultural implement manufactory, with a machine-shop and foundry attached, a carriage- factory, a full complement of mechanical trades, two lodges and one encampment of Odd Fellows, two building associations, a Ger- man Aid society, lodges of American Mechanics and Patrons of Husbandry, and a village library containing a well-selected col- lection of books, three drug-stores, several for the sale of dry goods, groceries, hardware, and fancy articles, five hotels, several physicians, etc., etc. The dwellings of Doylestown are neat and handsome, if not elegant and expensive, and nearly every house has a well-kept front yard. In May, 1829, the "Bucks County Aca- demy of Natural Sciences" was organized in a room of the academy, and was kept up until 1838. During its existence quite a taste was fostered for scientific investigation, and a number of lectures were delivered and essays read. A small African Methodist Episcopal church was erected on the edge of the borough within three years.
In 1855 William Beek, a resident of Doylestown, projected an exhibition, and erected a handsome building on the western edge of the borough. It drew an immense crowd of visitors at the fair in August, at which Horace Greeley delivered an address, but, un- fortunately for the permanent success of the enterprise, the building blew down in the fall. In 1866 a company, chartered as the "Doylestown Agricultural and Mechanics' Institute," purchased the old grounds and erected thereon a large and convenient brick build- ing for exhibition purposes, in which an annual fair is held in Octo- ber, embracing a display of farm produce, implements and domestic articles of all kinds, and horses and cattle. On the ground is a level,
707
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
half-mile track, where fast horses are put to their speed. The fair attracts thousands, and cash premiums give rise to lively compe- tition.
Doylestown is fortunate in the possession of complete water- works, which supply the town with good, pure water. The project was put on foot as long ago as 1850, when a mill property on the eastern edge of the borough was purchased, and a reservoir parti- ally constructed in the cemetery. A change in the council put a stop to the work, and nothing further was done for many years. Things being again favorable to the project, in 1869 the work was resumed and completed by the borough, under authority of an act of assembly, at a cost of $32,000. Water is collected from several springs into a storage reservoir, and raised, by steam, one hundred and fifty-seven feet in the distance of three thousand two hundred, into a basin in the cemetery, whence it is distributed through the town in iron pipes. Fire-plugs are placed along the streets at the distance of six hundred feet apart for the safety of buildings in case of fire. The enterprise has been a complete financial success to the borough, as the water-rents more than pay the interest on the cost of construction and the running expenses.
Doylestown has greatly increased her educational facilities of late years. In 1866 a building for an English and classical seminary was erected in a beautiful grove on the western edge of the borough, and enlarged in 1869, for the education of both sexes, with accom- modations for one hundred and fifty boarders and day scholars. At the eastern end of the town, on a site that overlooks the surrounding country for several miles, a large building for a female boarding and day school was erected in 1871, with accommodations for about seventy-five pupils. It is known as Linden seminary, and is well patronized. The gas-works were erected by parties from Philadel- phia about 1856, but re-built and enlarged in 1873. The hand- somest improvement, as well as one of the most useful, in the borough is Lenape building, at the corner of State and Main streets, erected in 1875, by a stock-company at an expense, lot and furnishing in- cluded, of over $50,000. Its features are a market-house and six stores on the first story, a handsome and convenient hall that seats nearly eight hundred persons, and a stage equipped with beautiful scenery, four offices and dressing-room, on the second, and a beauti- ful lodge-room on the third. The building is of brick, with stone trimmings, and is surpassed in beauty and convenience by but few
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.