USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > The history of Bucks County, Pennsylvania : from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time > Part 67
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
LENAPE BUILDING, DOYLESTOWN.
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of the kind in the state. The old "potter's field," where several persons were buried, including one Blundin, of Bensalem, hanged for murder about 1838, was at the corner of Court and East streets, but was sold several years ago by authority of an act of assembly, and now belongs to a private owner. The first telegraph office in Doylestown was in Shade's building, corner of Main and State streets, in the room on the latter street now occupied by Hughes' tailor-shop. This was in the winter of 1845 or 1846, and belonged to a line from New York to the south or west. In the fall of 1848 the line from Philadelphia to Wilkesbarre was constructed through Doylestown, with an office in the second story of Harvey's brick building, opposite the Fountain house.
In the spring of 1868, a handsome monument, of American white marble, was erected in the centre of the town, by their late colonel, to the memory of the dead of the One hundred and fourth Penn- sylvania regiment, at a cost of three thousand one hundred dol- lars. One-half the amount was appropriated from the regimental fund, and the balance raised by individual subscriptions and the accumulation of interest. It is a beautiful and appropriate ornament to the town.
Doylestown has outlet to the great outside world by a branch of the North Pennsylvania railroad, uniting with the main line at Lansdale, which was opened to travel in 1856, and several lines of stages. The first stage through Doylestown was that from Easton to Philadelphia, which John Nicholaus commenced running April 29th, 1792, which made weekly trips, down on Monday and up on Thursday, fare two dollars. Nicholaus was succeeded by his son Samuel, who moved down to Danborough to take charge of the stages. In 1822 he was succeeded by James Reeside, the great " land admiral," who formed a partnership with Jacob Peters, and subsequently with Samuel and James Shouse, of Easton. He placed new Troy coaches on the road, the first in this section of country.
This line was continued down to the completion of the Belvidere- Delaware railroad, in 1854. In the spring of 1794 Lawrence Erb, of Easton, advertised that he would run a stage between there and Philadelphia. It was to start every Monday morning at five o'clock, from the sign of the Black horse, near the court-house, Easton, and to return on Thursday, starting from the sign of the Pennsylvania arms, in Third street, between Vine and Callowhill, stopping over night at John Moore's, Jenkintown, going down, and at Adam
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Driesback's, now Stony Point, returning. The fare was two dollars for each passenger, with ten pounds of baggage. The charge for one hundred and fifty pounds of baggage was the same as a passenger. The stage ran through Doylestown, but stopped at Thomas Craig's, Newville, four miles below. It was hardly an opposition to Nicho- laus, as the fare was the same. As early as 1800 a semi-weekly stage ran from Philadelphia to Bethlehem, through Doylestown, fare for passenger two dollars and seventy-five cents. A line of daily stages was running from Philadelphia through Doylestown to Easton, Bethlehem and Allentown in 1828. During these sixty-two years of staging a number of stages were run between Doylestown and Philadelphia. In October, 1813, the " Doylestown coachee" was advertised to carry passengers between these points for seventy- five cents, starting from Hare's tavern, 1 making two trips a week. The same year Israel Michener and Alexander McCalla put on a daily stage, called " Doylestown pilot," which started from the In- dian Queen. In 1815 the "coachee" made trips to and from Phil- adelphia every other day, fare one dollar and twenty-five cents. Smith and Kirk, coachmakers, Doylestown, ran a coach to Phila- delphia several years, commencing about 1820. Stages from Doyles- town to Philadelphia continued to run, down to the opening of the branch of the North Pennsylvania railroad, in 1856. Our older citizens will call to mind Benny Clark's "Highgrass line," which was afterward driven by John Servis, who used to assure timid pas- sengers by calling out to his horses, "Now run away and kill another driver, won't you ?"
In 1820 the population of Doylestown was but 360, and about 500 in 1829. One account tells us the population was 800 in 1830, when the first two brick houses were built, of bricks from a kiln burnt by Doctor Charles Meredith. According to the census of 1840 the population was 906; 1850, 974 white and 32 colored ; 1860, 1,416, and 1,601 in 1870, of which 139 were of foreign birth. The actual population is about 2,000.
1 In April, 1815. Hare moved to the Ross mansion, which he kept as a hotel under the name of "Indian Queen tavern." Stephen Brock succeeded him in 1816, and William McHenry in 1818. About 1812 the Clear spring in "Germany " was called "Bucks County Farmer," and in 1815 it was occupied by Jacob Overholt, and owned by John L. Dick.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
CHAPTER XLVI.
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CLEARING LAND; FARMING; DRESS; MODE OF LIVING, &c.
County heavily timbered .- Land cleared .- Labors of men and women .- Primitive farming .- Horse trains .- Meadow land .- Golden age .- Grand religious festival. -Indian corn .- Produce carried to Philadelphia .- Privit-hedge .- Settlers lived well .- Luxuries introduced .- Professor Kalm's account .- Costume .- The fash- ions .- Social customs .- Marriage .- Manners .- Spinning-wheels .- Price of land and produce .- Wages.
BUCKS COUNTY was heavily timbered 1 at its settlement, and a good deal of the land was cleared by co-operative labor. On a given day a number of neighbors would assemble, armed with grubbing-hoes and other implements, the ground was staked off, and at a signal they fell to work with a spirit, grubbing up the saplings with great skill. They were felled with the tops together, so that they could be more easily fired. The trees were girdled and left to fall in course of time, when the trunks were rolled together and burned. The bodies and branches of the saplings were hauled off, but the ground was plowed with the trees standing. The log-rolling was made another season of fun and frolic. At these times the amount of labor done was prodigious, which the descendants of the early settlers are hardly equal to. A great deal of the other hard labor of that day was done by companies, which made the heaviest job
1 De Vries, who sailed up the Delaware in 1631, says the trees on the banks were not close together, and there was very little underwood. At that early day the Indi- ans cultivated corn, peas, and beans, and grapes grew wild along the river.
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light. While the fathers and sons cleared the land and made the crops, the mothers and daughters attended to in-door work. They picked, carded, and spun the wool for clothing, and swingled, hatch- eled, and spun the flax, quilted, and did many other things that fell to the lot of woman in a new country, besides frequently assisting the men in their farm work. The beginning of the last century saw the children of the first settlers entering upon the stage of life. They were accustomed to hardship, and were noted for their strength and vigor. In that day there were few or no barns, the grain was stacked and threshed with the flail on the ground.
For many years, while it was a question of bread for themselves and families, our Bucks county ancestors farmed in a primitive way. Wheat was the main crop, which was carried a distance on horse- back to mill through the woods along Indian paths. The horses traveled in trains, tied head and tail, like the pack-mules among the Andes, with a man riding or leading the foremost mule. Wheat was the only article for market until there was a demand in Phila- delphia for butter, cheese and poultry. By 1720 most of the origi- nal tracts were settled, and to some extent improved. The farms were divided into large fields, and pretty well fenced. Low and swampy ground was always cleared for meadow, but the plow was seldom used to prepare new land. But little grass was raised for years, and then red and white clover were propagated to the exclu- sion of all other kinds. All their domestic animals were so badly housed and fed in winter that by spring they were in almost a starv- ing condition. In the summer they lived in the woods, and in the spring were not infrequently lost in the bogs hunting for early pas- ture. Cows were scarce and high for a number of years, selling for thirty or forty dollars a head when wheat was only thirty cents a bushel. The horses used for all purposes were of the " Wood breed," raised from those brought originally from New England, gentle, hardy, and easy keepers. The English horse, introduced at a later day, was larger and more elegant in carriage.
During the quarter of a century from 1735 to 1760, times were so prosperous that it was called the " golden age," and was decreed the happiest period since the settlement of the province. Industry, fertile fields, and favorable seasons blessed the farmer's labors with large increase, but while riches sensibly increased, the people lived without any appearance of luxury. Good dwellings and comfort- able barns had been built, and comforts and conveniences were
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
added by degrees, but dress and furniture were plain. The wooden trencher and pewter spoon were used by the most wealthy, and simplicity prevailed everywhere. For pastime men hunted and fished, while the women, who married young and raised large fam- ilies of children, were principally occupied with household duties. During the "golden age" a grand religious festival, lasting three days, was held at the Wrightstown meeting-house, to give thanks for the bounties of Providence. People came to it from a long distance, and were known to travel ten or twelve miles on foot to attend it. The intercourse with Philadelphia was then limited, and the luxuries of the cities had not found their way into the country.
There was no rivalry in dress, nor did the people strive to acquire money to purchase superfluities, but as fashions and luxuries gra- dually spread into the country, manners and customs changed. Indian corn was not raised in large quantities before about 1750, when it became an article of trade, and the grain-cradle and grass- scythe were introduced about this time.
Down to the Revolution much of the transportation was done on horseback, and that was the most frequent way of traveling. Pro- duce was carried to Philadelphia market in wallets, or panniers, slung across horses, and in early days jurymen attending court at Newtown carried forage for horses and rations for self in the uni- versal wallet. Carts were in general use by the middle of the cen- tury, and a few had wagons, for one and two horses. There were wagons in the north-west part of the county in 1739. Their intro- duction did much to increase the wealth and comfort of the early farmers, as they were enabled to do their work with greater conve- nience, and the labor of going to market was decreased. John Wells was the only person in Buckinghamn and Solebury at that day who possessed a riding-chair, said to have been the first in the county, a vehicle that remained in use about an hundred years.2 John Wat- son tells us that the building of the new stone meeting-house in Buckingham, about 1731, stimulated the erection of a better class of dwelling-houses in that section of the country, and several of the old log houses gave way to stone, or frame and clapboard, and an occasional one is standing to this day. At the settlement of the county many of the farmers planted the privit-hedge around their fields, like their ancestors in England, but in the summer of 1766,
2 At this time there were only eight four-wheeled carriages in the province, one of which was owned by Lawrence Growden of this county.
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from some unexplained cause, it all died, and was never re-planted. The old Watson property in Buckingham had upward of two miles of this hedge planted upon it.
The early settlers lived well in their log cabins, as soon as the era of necessity had passed. They were both well-fed and well- clothed, but not in fine garments. The women manufactured the clothing of the family from wool and flax, and milk, butter and cheese became plenty for domestic use when fodder could be pro- cured to keep stock through the winter. Hogs were raised and fattened, and the forest furnished game. Mush and milk were an universal dish. Pancakes, made of a thin batter of flour and eggs and other ingredients, baked in a pan over the fire, were in every house. The housewife, or maid, prided herself on the dexterity with which she could turn the cake, by tossing it up the wide chim- ney and catching it in the pan again as it came down. But little tea and coffee were drunk for the first seventy years, and they did not come into common use until between 1750 and 1760. At first they were only used by the wealthy, and that on Sunday. In their stead a tea was made of garden herbs, and a coffee of rye and wheat burned to a brown. Children went barefooted half the year, and farmers through the summer. Indian meal was first exported to the West Indies, and wheat to France, about 1767, which stimulated their production. About this period potatoes began to be raised in quantities, and were fed to both cattle and hogs. The destructive Hessian fly made its appearance about 1780, previous to which the wheat crop was seldom if ever known to fail.
The war between France and England, in 1754, changed the situation of things in several respects. A more plentiful supply of money stimulated trade and improvements, and raised prices. Wheat went up to a dollar a bushel. Taxes were raised to pay off the war debt, but the burden was not felt, because of the increased ability to pay. The importation of foreign goods was largely increased, and many luxuries were brought into the country, among which were calicoes and other expensive articles for women and men's wear. Fashion now intruded itself among the rural population, to change with each year, and household furniture was increased in quantity and improved in quality. With this improved style in living and taste in dress, was introduced the distinction between rich and poor, which grew up almost insensibly, and was maintained with considerable rigor in colonial times. Those who had the means
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
now bought foreign goods, and homespun was discarded. Habits of luxury were thus introduced, and the simple, but virtuous, society of our ancestors split upon the rock of fashion.
From the accounts that have come down to us, this county at the middle of the last century was a land literally "flowing with milk and honey." A distinguished foreigner,3 who traveled through the lower part of it between 1748 and 1750, and elsewhere in the pro- vince, gives a glowing account of what he saw, and the picture is a delightful one to contemplate at this day. He says : "Every coun- tryman, even a common peasant, has commonly an orchard near his house, in which all sorts of fruit, such as peaches, apples, pears, cherries, and others are in plenty." Peaches + were raised in great quantities and of delicious flavor, which were cut and dried for win- ter. The stock had greatly degenerated, and the professor men- tions that there was great decrease in the water in streams, because the country had been cleared of so much of the timber. Seed-time and harvest were the same time of year as now, and the manner of putting in crops the same where machinery is not used. Land be- ing plenty and not manured, it was cultivated until the virtue had gone out of it, when another piece was seized upon and the former was allowed to lay fallow to recuperate. In the fall of 1748, the professor traveled through the river townships, en-route from Phila- delphia to New York. He crossed the Neshaminy by ferrying, paying three-pence for each person and his horse, and continuing up the river, he says : "About noon we came to New Bristol, a small town in Pennsylvania, on the bank of the Delaware, about fifteen English miles from Philadelphia. Most of the houses are built of stone, and stand asunder. The inhabitants carry on a small trade, though most of them get their goods from Philadelphia. On the other side of the river, almost directly opposite to New Bristol, lies the town of Burlington. We had now country-seats on both sides of the roads. Now we came into a lane enclosed with pales on both sides, including pretty great cornfields. Next followed a road, and we perceived for the space of four English miles nothing but woods and a very poor soil. In the evening we arrived at Trenton, after having previously passed the Delaware in a ferry." The Professor described, with minuteness, how the farmers trailed the water of springs upon their meadows to raise grass, a practice followed seventy-
3 Professor Peter Kalm, of Sweden.
4 Kalm tells us the peach was introduced by Europeans, while Mr. Bartram says it is an original American fruit.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
five years later. Hay was not then raised upon upland, and the value of farms was rated according to their quantity of meadow land.
The first settlers of the county brought with them the costumes prevailing in England at that day, each according to his station, but their hard life in the wilderness obliged them to change their dress to suit the circumstances, and they adopted coarse and strong clothing There was but little alteration in the first fifty years. Buckskin and coarse tow-cloth were in universal use for trowsers and sometimes for jackets, hemp and tow-cloth for shirts, wool hats, and strong shoes, with brass nails in them, made up the common dress, and in winter linsey jackets and leathern aprons and trowsers were added. Among the wealthy, and in the towns, the style was more pretentious. Cloth was the material in use by them, while velvet, silk and satin, with embroideries, were reserved for great oc- casions. The men wore the square-cut coat and long flap waistcoat ; wigs were universal, and those who wore their own hair were con- sidered mere nobodies. There were various styles of beaver hats, much trimmed with gold lace, with the wide brims looped up on both sides, and knee-breeches, long stockings, and shoes with broad buckles. The skirts were wadded almost as stiff as a coverlet, to keep them smooth, and the cuffs, open below, reached up to the elbow. Ladies wore hoops. The silk gown was much plaited in the back, the sleeves double the size of the arm, and only coming down half way to the elbow. The rest of the arm was covered with a fine Holland sleeve, nicely plaited, with locket buttons, and long- armed gloves. Aprons were fashionable, and much worn, large or small, according to the taste of the wearer.
About 1750 a fashionably-dressed lady carried an elegant snuff- box with a looking-glass in it, wore a watch, bracelets, chains and necklace, and black patches were worn upon the face as beauty- marks. The hair, an object of great care, was elaborately done up over a framework of wire, with mountains of curls, flowers, feathers, etc. Cloth bonnets and caps were in vogue. A bride wore a long black veil without the bonnet. Fashionable people wore articles, the very names of which, with the material they were made of, have long been forgotten.5 Breeches made of plush, were worn in the
5 Here are the names of some of these almost forgotten materials : "Paduasoys, ducapes, colored persian, pins and nuns, nonsopretties, scarlet, lettered and rose garters, alopeens, camlets, camblettes, durants, florettas, silk saggathies, and hair- bines."
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country until after the Revolution, and buckskin breeches in Phila- delphia as late as 1760. Horse jockeys wore gold binding on their hats. The country people began to adopt Philadelphia fashions about 1750, when women indulged in silk and linen handkerchiefs, silk for gowns, and fustions and cotton-velvet for coats. Those who could afford it, wore silver shoe-buckles. Men carried muffs to keep their hands and wrists warm, and among the coats in fashion about the middle of the last century, we find the names of Shamo- kums, Hussars, Surtouts, and Wraprascals. The bonnets were monstrous, high, silk affairs, called wagon bonnets, from their re- semblance to a Jersey wagon. Prior to the Revolution, people dressed according to their position, and classes could be distinguished by their costume. Hired women, and the wives and daughters of tradesmen, wore a short-gown and petticoat of domestic fabric, and other parts of their dress to correspond. This period called ped- lers into use, who traveled the country to sell the more expensive goods now required. Between 1750 and 1760, society had under- gone a revolution almost without the knowledge of those who were affected by it. The traveling costume of a minister among Friends, an hundred years ago, consisted of a coat with broad skirts reaching below the knees, and low, standing collar, waistcoat without collar, coming down on the hips, with broad pockets and pocket-flaps, breeches with an opening a few inches above and below the knee, closed with a row of buttons, and a silver buckle at the bottom, shoes with silver buckles, and woolen yarn stockings, and boots to the knee in the winter. On the head was worn a black beaver, with broad brim turned to a point in front, and rolled behind. Now place him on horseback, with a pair of leathern saddle-bags contain- ing his wardrobe slung at the back of his saddle, oiled-silk cover for his low-crowned beaver, oi !- cloth cape over his shoulders reach- ing nearly to the saddle, and stout overalls to protect his breeches and stockings, and one has a good idea of a traveling Friend as he went about the country preaching.
Among the early settlers of this county, which is the case with the inhabitants of all newly-settled countries, great social intercourse was kept up. The old and young ,of both sexes met together in frolics to pull flax, gather grain and hay, and to husk corn. When all the grain was cut by the sickle, it was the custom for a large company to assemble in the field and contend for victory. Women sometimes became dexterous in the use of that implement and strove
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
in competition with the men. John Watson tells us, in his History of Buckingham and Solebury, that about 1741 twenty acres of wheat were cut in Solebury, by sickle, in a half day. In imitation of the custom in England weddings were made the occasion of great festivals, a large number of guests were invited, and a good dinner and supper provided. The festivities were frequently continued the next day, and plays and sports of various kinds were practiced. Some of them were rather rough, but were sanctioned by the social customs of the day. For many years from the settlement of the county, persons about to be married were obliged to put a notice of it upon a meeting-house door for thirty days before it was to be consummated, in the presence of three witnesses, and the marriage was to be performed by a justice of the same county. This applied to marriages out of meeting. The bride rode to meeting on a pillion behind her father, or a near friend; but after the ceremony the pillion was transferred to the husband's horse, behind his saddle, and with whom she rode home. The coffins of the dead were carried to the grave on the shoulders of four men, swung on poles so that they could travel more easily along narrow paths. The birth of children was likewise made the occasion of festival, and the guests were served with wine and cordials. The tender infant was loaded down with clothing, and when sick spirits and water, stewed with divers spices, were administered to it. The manners of the period were rough, and often lewd, and fist-fights were of common occurrence-but the inhabitants grew up a healthy and vigorous race, with few diseases, and those but little understood. At that day tailors and shoemakers traveled around among their customers and worked at their houses. The farmers laid in a stock of leather for shoes, and stuffs for clothing, which these wandering tradesmen came twice a year to make up, boarding with the families they worked for. There was scarce a house in town or country that did not contain a spinning-wheel. It was the boast of the women of the Revolution, that without foreign aid they kept the whole population clothed, while their husbands, fathers and sons fought the battles of the country. No young lady's marriage outfit was complete without a big wheel and foot-wheel, and it was the pride of all, that they knew how to use them. Now these wheels are unknown unless found in a museum of curiosities, or stowed away in some old garret as useless relics of the past.
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