USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > The history of Bucks County, Pennsylvania : from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time > Part 70
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1 Probably Bordentown.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
over Poquessing by Bucks and Philadelphia. This road was turn- piked to Poquessing in 1803-4, and finished to Morrisville in 1812, at a cost of two hundred and nine thousand three hundred dollars. The milestones were set up in 1763, by an insurance company, at a cost of thirty-three pounds. The bed of this road was probably changed before it was piked.
In 1693 a road was laid out from the falls to Southampton, and the same year was continued to Frankford and Philadelphia-no doubt the origin of the road from Morrisville, via Fallsington, Attle- borough and Feasterville to Bustleton, and Holmesburg, to the city. This afforded an outlet to market for the farmers who lived in the upper part of Middletown, and the lower parts of North and Southampton. It was turnpiked, by authority of an act of assemn- bly of March 5th, 1804, as far up as the Buck tavern, in Southampton township. Two years later a road was laid out from Richard Hough's plantation, near Taylorsville, via the falls and Cold spring, to the Bristol ferry, marked by blazed trees through the woods. It may have followed the line of the back River road part of the distance, although that is not known definitely, and was opened in 1695, but had a jury on it in 1692. In the summer of 1696 a road was laid out from Newtown township to Gilbert Wheeler's, near the falls, by the way of " Old man's" or " Cow creek," and " Stony hill," no doubt the original road to the falls, via Summerville, and Falls- ington, striking the Bristol turnpike near Tyburn. The road laid out by the council in 1697, from the Poquessing to Neshaminy, and thence to Bristol, turned at right angles near Galloway's house, then crossed the creek, and after passing Langhorne's mansion, turned to the left and went on through Attleborough and Oxford to the falls. At one time it was the stage-road from Philadelphia to New York, the stage being advertised to leave Philadelphia in the morning, and breakfast at Four Lanes Ends. The eighteen-mile stone is on Galloway's hill, and the nineteen stone at the top of Langhorne's hill. A road ran along by Langhorne's house and mill, meeting the Bristol road at the foot of the hill, on the road from Attleborough to Newportville. The part of this road to Galloway's ford was vacated about 1839, and the Bensalem part about 1851 or 1852.2
The Durham road, in olden times, was one of the most important highways in the county. It was begun in 1693, when the court, at
2 Doctor Buckman.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
the June session, appointed a jury to lay out a road from Newtown to the Bristol ferry. In 1696 the grand jury presented the necessity of a road from Wrightstown to Bristol, which was opened in 1697 by Phineas Pemberton, and that became another link. From Attleborough it ran to Joseph Growden's, where it branched, one branch running to Duncan Williamson's, at Dunk's ferry. About 1703 the inhabi- tants of Buckingham and Solebury petitioned for a road from Wil- liam Cooper's, in Buckingham, to Bristol, which was opened about 1706, but the streams were not bridged. It was in tolerable order to the west end of Buckingham mountain. In 1721 it was opened up to Fenton's corner, being surveyed by John Chapman, and in 1726 the bed of the road was somewhat changed up to Thomas Brown's plantation, in Plumstead. These were all sections of the Durham road, opened as the wants of the people required. In 1732, on the petition of the owners of Durham furnace, the road was ex- tended up to the ford on Tohickon, near John Orr's, in Plumstead. It was laid out to the furnace in 1745, and ten years afterward ex- tended to Easton. This gave a continuous highway from Bristol, up through the best settled portions of the county, to the Lehigh. But it was far from being a good road, and jury after jury was sum- moned to re-view, straighten and widen it. Round the western base of Buckingham mountain there were two roads for a time, the peo- ple refusing to travel the one the court laid out. In 1797 a jury re-surveyed and changed that portion from Newtown to Bristol, and in 1798 the bed of the old road between Newtown and the line of Plumstead and Buckingham was somewhat changed, and recom- mended to be opened forty feet wide. That portion of the road from the Plumstead and Buckingham line to the line of Northamp- ton county was re-viewed in 1807. In 1733 a road was laid out from the Durham road, in the upper part of Buckingham, down through Greenville and across the mountain, falling into the Dur- ham road again at Pineville. It met a violent opposition from the inhabitants of the township, but it was asked by the proprietors of Durham furnace to give them a more convenient way down to Wrightstown.
The York and Easton roads, which branch from a common trunk at Willow Grove, were opened to connect the upper Delaware with Philadelphia, and give the inhabitants a more direct route to the city. Like our other great roads, they were opened in sections. That part from Cheltenham to Philadelphia, and to extend up to
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
Peter Chamberlain's, about the county line, was granted and con- firmed by council in August, 1693, but we do not know how soon afterward it was opened. The 27th of January, 1710, the inhabi- tants of Buckingham and Solebury petitioned the council for a con- venient road, "to begin at the Delaware opposite John Reading's 3 landing; from thence the most direct and convenient course to Buck- ingham meeting-house; and from thence through the lands of Thomas Watson, by the house of Stephen Jenkins, and Richard Wells, and so forward the most direct and convenient course to Philadelphia." The jury, composed of Thomas Watson, John Scarborough, Jacob Holcomb, Nathaniel Bye, Matthew Hughes, Joseph Fell, Samuel Cart, Stephen Jenkins, Thomas Hallowell, Griffith Miles, Job Good- son, and Isaac Norris, were to lay out the road and return their re- port to the secretary in six months. It was twice re-viewed in the next two years, and some alterations made. Sarah Eaton, of Ab- ington, protested against the road, because it "mangled" her plan- tation. The whole distance was set down at thirty-one miles. Down to 1740 five miles of the road next the Delaware were not in a con- dition for travel, and the court refused to put it in order. The road from New Hope, then Wells' ferry, to Buckingham meeting-house was opened a few years afterward. After the York road was laid out and opened, it was several times re-viewed for the purpose of changing the bed, widening and straightening. Juries were on it in 1752, 1756, 1790, 1811, and 1820. Before this road was opened the people of Solebury and Buckingham went to Philadelphia down the Durham road and crossed the Neshaminy at Galloway's ford, a mile above Hulmeville.
The Easton road begins at the Willow Grove. In 1721, Sir William Keith, governor of the province, purchased eight hundred acres on the county line, in Horsham and Warrington, where he built a country house, still known as Græme park, and a mill. In March, 1722, he asked the council to open a road through the woods from his settlement to Horsham, and from there down to the bridge at Round Meadow run, now Willow Grove, which was laid out April 23d, confirmed the 28th of May, and surveyed by Nicholas Scull. In 1723 a road was laid out from Dyer's mill, now Dyerstown, two miles above Doylestown, down to Governor Keith's plantation, making the second link in the Easton road.+ An effort
3 Reading's landing was on the New Jersey side of the river opposite Centre Bridge, and now the flourishing village of Stockton.
+ In 1753 there were beaver dams along the Dyer's mill road.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
was made in 1736 to have the course of the road changed between the Neshaminy and alms-house hill, because it ran through the mid- dle of John Beuley's farm, but it was not successful. In 1738 the Dyer's mill road was extended through Plumstead, commencing at Danborough, to which place it had already been laid out, to the Delaware at Enoch Pearson's landing, now Point Pleasant, to meet a road coming to the river on the New Jersey side. The road to Point Pleasant was afterward extended westward to Whitehallville to meet the Butler road, and is known as the Ferry road. It was sur- veyed by John Chapman. This was called Dyer's mill road for many years, and was only changed to Easton road when it was extended to the Lehigh. It was turnpiked from Doylestown to Willow Grove in 1839 or 1840, and some years subsequently the turnpike was con- tinued up to Plumsteadville under a new charter. After the York and Easton roads were opened, the want of a road from the Dela- ware across the county toward the Schuylkill was felt. This was met in 1730 by opening one from what is now Centreville, although it is said to have commenced at Buckingham meeting-house, to the Montgomery line, at Ross Gordon's corner, to which point a road had already been opened from the Schuylkill. When the state road was opened from New Hope to Norristown in 1830, it was laid on the bed of the old road as far as it extended, and is now known as the upper state road.
The Street road, through Southampton, Warminster, and War- rington, was to start at Bensalem and run on a north-west line, and land was reserved for it. Nevertheless it was commenced at the Delaware, and the first section was laid out in 1696 from Dunk's ferry landing up to the Bristol turnpike, less than a mile long, and sixty feet wide. This was opened at the request of Governor An- drew Hamilton, of New Jersey, postmaster-general, in order that the mail might be able to get from the ferry to the King's highway. The justices of the peace of the county were directed to have the road opened, and it was probably the post-route from New York to Philadelphia at that time. For convenience a ferry was established on the Jersey side of the river, and the mails, passengers and goods here crossed the river for Philadelphia, and then followed the king's great road. The 10th of June, 1697, the council directed William Biles and Phineas Pemberton to "discourse" the people of New Jersey about laying out a post-road from that side of the river for New York. Like other roads this was laid out in sections and at
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
various times. The lower part, as far as Feasterville and probably higher up, was opened early. In April, 1737, a jury laid it out from the Buck road nearly its entire length, although portions of it had been laid out before, as between Johnsville and York road in 1731. The jury of 1737 deflected the road to the left to the Ne- shaminy after it crossed the Easton road, up which it was laid until it crossed the county line. This part has been vacated many years. The names of the land-owners, on the line of the road in South- ampton and Warminster, in 1737, were, Jones, Jackman, Duffield, Vandike, Leedom, Banes, Morris, Watts, Longstreth, Scout, Cra- ven, Rush, Dungan, Todd, William Tennent, Cadwallader, Ingard, R. Gilbert, S. Gilbert, and J. Comly, who owned three-quarters of the land in the two townships. As the road was not originally laid out on the land reserved, a jury was appointed in 1793 to re-view it, but their action is not known. In 1807 the portion from Feasterville down to Dunk's ferry was re-viewed and confirmed. The Street road was projected four polls wide, but was laid out two polls, the road crossing the line at Davisville. In 1794 it was re-surveyed and confirmed thirty-three feet wide from Warrington to the Bensalem line.
The Bristol road, the line between Southampton, Warminster and Warrington, and Northampton, Warwick and Doylestown, is another north-west line road. It, too, was laid out at various times, and in sections. The first jury on it was in April, 1724, on petition to have the road continued from Robert Heaton's mill, in the lower corner of Southampton, probably on Neshaminy, up " to ye upper inhabitants." It was viewed and laid out to the Warrington line, and in May, 1737, another jury continued it to the upper part of Hilltown, but if opened it was not on the north-west line. There were several subsequent juries on it before it was made straight from end to end as we now see it, in 1766, from the Philadelphia and Attleborough road to Hartsville, and in 1772, from Warrington to the Butler road which straightened and confirmed it thirty- three feet wide.
The Montgomery county line road, also on a north-west line, was opened by piecemcal between 1722 and 1752. From the Easton road to four miles above, it was opened in 1722, apparently to ac- commodate Governor Keith. It was laid out to Jacob Chamber- lain, at the York road in 1731, and above that to the extent of the two counties in 1752. The opening was objected to because it was
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
not needed, as there was a road on either side about a mile distant. It was improved by subsequent juries. That part of it from the Byberry and Wrightstown road, up to the Middle road, was probably not opened until 1773, and the stretch from Craven's corner to the York road in 1774.
The Old Bethlehem road, another of the arteries of travel and traffic, was for years the great highway from the Lehigh to Phila- delphia, and to which numerous roads led on either side. It was gradually extended northward as settlements reached up the country, and in 1738 it terminated at Nathaniel Irish's stone-quarry in the Hellertown road at Iron hill, Saucon township. It was continued to Bethlehem and Nazareth, in the summer of 1745, and beyond the latter point it had connection by bridle-paths, with De Pui's settle- ment at the Minisink. The road crossed the Lehigh a short dis- tance below Bethlehem, at the head of the island now owned by the Bethlehem iron company. From the Minisink the bridle-paths tapped the Mine road, which led to Esopus on the Hudson. The Bethlehem road was turnpiked, the second in the county, in 1805-6, and the books were opened for stock at the taverns of George Weaver and William Strawn, at Strawntown, the 11th and 12th of June of that year. The first settlers at the Lehigh traveled the well-trodden Indian paths that led northward from Philadelphia, crossing the river a mile below Bethlehem, the route of the Minsi Indians in re- turning from below to their homes beyond the Blue mountains. When Daniel Nitchman led his company of one hundred Moravians to Bethlehem in 1742, they traveled this path on foot, with pack- horses carrying the necessary implements to commence the new settlement. This mode of travel was retained some years after public roads were laid out. The Old and New Bethlehem roads unite at Line Lexington, the former via Hellertown, Pleasant Hill, and Applebachsville, and the latter via Coopersburg, Quakertown, and Sellersville. The New Bethlehem road leaves the county line at Reiff's store, and the trunk road below Line Lexington to Phila- delphia is the bed of the Old Bethlehem road. An old road ran through the upper part of the county, from North Wales to Allen- town, via Trumbauersville and Milford Square, and is called the Old Allertown road. It was the "King's highway," but all trace of the royal road has disappeared.
The road along the river bank above the falls at Trenton, and known as the River road, had its origin in the order of court at April
747
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
term, 1703, when, by order of council to the justices, a jury was ap- pointed "to lay out a road leading from the King's road, ending at. the falls of Delaware, to the upper plantations situate higher up and near the said river." Under this order the upper River road, as it is called, was probably laid out, for the road on the river bank from Trenton ferry was not laid out up to Yardleyville until 1794. It was met by a road from New Hope many years later, while the up- per River road between the same points was laid out in 1773. From New Hope up to Mitchel's ferry it was laid out in 1803, and from Williams's through the Narrows to Purcel's ferry in 1792.
The road from Philadelphia to Oxford, the first link in the Mid- dle, or Oxford, road, was granted about 1693. Some years after- ward it was extended to the Delaware at Yardleyville, via Newtown. It was next opened up to the Anchor, from Addisville, to inter- sect the Durham road, and to give those who traveled down it a nearer and more direct route to Philadelphia. In 1803 it was re- surveyed from Newtown to the Montgomery county line, eight and one half miles. It was called the Middle road, because it lay about midway between the road that led to the Trenton ferry and the York road to Wells' ferry, now New Hope.
No road in the county has led to so much controversy as the Street road between Solebury and Buckingham, and it was not per- manently laid until 1825, after a century and a quarter of dispute. This is one of the north-west line roads, and was projected at the time the lands along it in the two townships were first surveyed. The surveyor-general marked off, on the return of surveys, a strip of land four polls wide for the road, and on the return of Cutler's re-survey, in 1703, a road is located between the two townships. The land along this road was surveyed as early as 1700 by Phineas Pemberton, and it was all taken up by 1702. The road has been surveyed and re-viewed a number of times.
It will be observed that the great highways, namely : the road from the falls at Trenton, and the Middle, Durham, York, Easton, and the two roads from Bethlehem, led toward Philadelphia, the great objective point of the province, whither the wealth, produced by labor and capital, flowed in its course to the sea.
We do not know when the first post-road or mail-route was estab- lished in or through this county, but at the beginning of the present century the mail facilities were very much extended. At the ses- sion of Congress of 1805 post-routes were established from Bristol
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
to Quakertown via Newtown and Doylestown, and from New Hope via Doylestown to Lancaster, there and back once a week. These routes appear to have been arranged to facilitate the distribution of Asher Miner's paper, and the mails were carried for several years by the late John McIntosh, of Doylestown. In addition to the turn- pikes already mentioned in these pages, we have the Byberry and Bensalem pike, which was chartered March, 1848, and opened for travel in 1852. The length is five and a quarter miles, and it cost $11,442. The Byberry and Andalusia turnpike, two miles in length, was chartered in 1857. The road-bed is composed of gravel eight inches in depth, and the cost was $5,000. The turnpike from the Easton road, half a mile north of Doylestown, to Dublin, in Bed- minster township, about six miles long, was completed in the fall of 1875, and cost about $25,000.
The first railroad to traverse the county was the Philadelphia and Trenton, chartered the 23d of February, 1832, and was commenced to be built shortly afterward. The first rails were flat iron bars, laid on wooden string-pieces, and it was not infrequent that the bars got loose and run up through the cars. killing a passenger. Cars, drawn by horses, were put upon the road in the latter part of 1833, and they were the motive power until steam was introduced, the first locomotive being put upon the road in the early part of 1836. This road has been greatly improved since then, and now, under the management of the Pennsylvania railroad, with its three tracks, is one of the best in the country, and an immense amount of transpor- tation is carried over it. More than twenty years now elapsed be- fore another railroad was opened to travel in Bucks county, although meanwhile several roads had been surveyed, but failed to be built for want of funds.
The building of the North Pennsylvania railroad, between 1853-7, from Philadelphia to the Lehigh at Bethlehem, gave a lively impetus to the upper section of our county through which it runs. The main line enters the county at Telford and leaves it at Hilltop, the dis- tance between these points being about fourteen miles-the towns on this part of the line being Sellersville, Perkasie, Telford, and Quakertown. The construction was begun in June, 1853, and the road was opened through to the Lehigh the first of January, 1857, and trains ran regularly the whole length of the main line the 8th of July. It was opened to Gwynedd July 2d, 1855, and to Lans- dale, twenty-two miles from Philadelphia, and the branch road to
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
Doylestown, ten and two-thirds miles, October 9th, 1856. The entire length of the main line is fifty-five and a half miles. The tunnel near Perkasie is two thousand one hundred and sixty feet long. The entire cost of the road, including equipments, to October 31st, 1874, was $8,733,120.09. The earnings for the fiscal year ending same time, were $1,424,463.18; and 1,052,859 passengers, and 902,322 tons of freights were carried. The company controls and works two branch roads, built under other charters-the North-east railroad, nine and eight-tenths miles long, from Abington to the Bristol road station, and the Stony Creek road, ten and three-tenths miles from Lansdale to Norristown. About eight miles of the Doylestown branch and two and a half of the North-east road are in Bucks county. About twelve miles of the Delaware river branch of the North Pennsylvania, from Jenkintown station to a point on the Delaware one mile below Yardleyville, are in Bucks county. The distance is twenty and a half miles, very straight, and of a maximum grade of thirty-seven feet to the mile. This road, connecting with the Delaware and Bound Brook and Central railroad of New Jersey, is an important link in a new through road between Philadelphia and New York, eighty-eight miles in length. The road was completed in 1876, and was opened to travel the first day of May. The Philadelphia and Newtown railroad is now in working order to the Fox Chase, about eight miles from the city.
Bucks county had been settled many years before there was any public conveyance running through it or on its border. The county was new, the roads bad, and the few travelers rode on horseback along Indian paths. For several years public conveyance was con- fined to the river, up and down which boats plied with passengers and goods. When transferred to the land, the route of travel mainly lay along the west bank of the Delaware, over the thoroughfare that crossed at the falls, and thence to New York, running through our river townships. Many of these earlier conveyances were dig- nified with the name of "flying machines," but judging from the time they made they did not fly at a very rapid rate.
About 1732 a line of stage-wagons was run between Burlington and Amboy and return, once a week, by Solomon Smith and Thomas Moore, connecting at each end of the line with water com- munication to Philadelphia and New York. In 1734 a line ran to Bordentown, where passengers and goods were transferred to
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
"stage-boats " for Philadelphia. A new line was put on in 1750 which promised to make the distance between the two cities in forty-eight hours less than any other line. In 1752 passengers were carried between these points twice a week. The success of this line started opposition from Philadelphia, which promised to make the trip in twenty-five or thirty hours less time, but failed to keep it. In 1753 Joseph Borden, jr., started with his " stage-boat" from the " Crooked-Billet wharf," in Philadelphia, every Wednesday morning, and proceeded to Bordentown, where passengers took a " stage-wagon " to John Clark's house of entertainment, opposite Perth Amboy. This route was claimed to be ten miles shorter, and was announced to arrive at New York twenty-four hours earlier than by any other conveyance.
The first stage-coach between Philadelphia and New York was set up in 1756, by John Butler, who had kept a kennel of hounds for some wealthy gentlemen of that city fond of fox-hunting. When the population became too dense to indulge in this sport the hounds were given up, and the old keeper established in the business of staging. The stages ran up and down the west bank of the Dela- ware, crossing at the falls, and three days were required between the two cities. Three years later Butler ran his stage-wagon and stage-boat twice a week, setting out from his house "at the sign of the Death of the Fox, in Strawberry alley," on Monday morning, reaching Trenton ferry the same day. He received the return pas- sengers at the ferry, and took them to Philadelphia on Tuesday. In 1765 a new line was started to run twice a week, but the speed was not increased. The following year a third line of stage-wagons was put on. They were improved by having springs under the seats, and the trip was made in two days in summer and three in winter. They, too, were called " flying machines." They struck the Delaware at the Blazing Star ferry, a short distance above Trenton bridge, where the old ferry-houses are still standing. This ferry was the thoroughfare down to the building of the Trenton bridge in 1805. The fare in Butler's flying machine was three pence per mile, or twenty shillings for the whole distance.
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