THE HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, CHAPTER XLIV, NEW HOPE, 1837. from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time by W. W. H. Davis, A.M., 1876 and 1905* editions. Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Donna Bluemink. dbluemink@cox.net USGENWEB NOTICE: Printing this file by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. _____________________________________________________________________________ Transcriber's note: Liberty has been taken with numbering footnotes so as to include all footnotes from both the 1876 and 1905 editions, plus any additional text and pictures in the 1905 edition. All 1905 material will be noted with an asterisk. Note: Where names differ, the 1905 edition spelling is applied. _____________________________________________________________________________ CHAPTER XLIV or CHAPTER XIV (Vol. II), 1905 ed. NEW HOPE. 1837. Site of borough. -Important point. -John Wells. -[Ichabod*] Wilkinson. -Old medal. -Coat-of-arms. -Settlement of Lambertville. -Emanuel Coryell. -First mill in New Hope. -Canby's forge. -Henry Dennis. -Joseph Todd. -Origin of name. -Parry family. -Benjamin Parry. -He settles in New Hope. -Parry mansion. -Bridge across Delaware. -Heavy freshet. -Oliver Parry. -Major Parry. -Thomas F. Parry. -Lewis S. Coryell. -His character and life. -William Maris. -Redwood Fisher. -Garret Meldrum. -New Hope in 1784. -Joseph D. Murray. -Dr. Richard Davis Corson.* -Joseph D. Murray settles in New Hope. -The oldest house. -Paxson homestead. -Village incorporated. -Mills and factories. -The situation. -Population. -Revolutionary reminiscences.* The site of New Hope was covered by the grant of 1,000 acres of Robert Heath in 1700. The surveys were dated 1703 and 1704, and the patent of April 11, 1710. This purchase included the Great Spring tract, on the stream of which he agreed to erect a "grist or corn-support mill," in consideration of having the exclusive right to use the water. The mill was built in 1707, the first in that part of the county. The crossing of the Delaware at this point became an important place at an early day in the history of the county. After the York and North Wales roads were opened, in 1730, the ferry at New Hope was on the great route of travel from East Jersey to the Schuylkill. Who was the first actual settler on the site of the borough is not known, but a fulling-mill was built on the Heath tract about 1712. John Wells was the first ferryman that we have an account of, who probably settled there about 1715. About 1719 the Assembly passed an act granting him the ferry for seven years, and at its expiration the Lieutenant-Governor renewed his license to keep the ferry seven years longer. When this had expired, in 1733, John, Thomas and Richard Penn, Proprietaries and governors of the province, granted the ferry to Wells for an additional seven years, to him and his heirs, excluding and prohibiting all other ferries for four miles above and four miles below. He was to pay an annual rent of 40 shillings on the first day of March, at Pennsbury. In 1734 Wells bought 100 acres of what had been the Heath tract, lying on the river, and on which the fulling-mill had already been erected. The will of John Wells is dated July 16, 1748, in which he left his farm of 105 acres to William Kitchen, probably his son-in-law. In 1753 part of the mill tract was bought by [Ichabod, son of John and Huldah (Aldrich) Wilkinson, who came from Providence, Rhode Island, in 1742, married Sarah Chapman, and had a son Joseph, and four daughters.*] The boundaries of the property, with the Delaware, Great Spring creek road to the ferry and across the creek, with dwellings, including ferry house and woods, are neatly and accurately cut on a powder-horn, with the name "Joseph Wilkinson, 1776," now in the possession of Torbert Coryell. [From Joseph Wilkinson the farm came into the possession of Joshua Vansant, and thence to the late Lewis S. Coryell. (1)] The Wilkinsons caused to be erected in the present limits of New Hope a rolling and slitting-mill that stood about where the canal aqueduct crosses the Great Spring creek. The foundations were laid bare by a great freshet in the creek in 1832, and were pointed out to our informant by the late Mr. Coryell and others. The iron and iron ore were brought down the river from Durham in boats. The [late*] Martin Coryell, of Lambertville, had Wilkinson's brass button moulds, made by himself, with his name and date cut upon them - "Joseph Wilkinson, 1778." Mr. Coryell had also in his possession, now unfortunately lost, a curious copper medal - on one side is cut the profile of a man of fine, bold features, in military coat, with queue and ribbon, the date of which is not remembered. On the reverse was "Sir George Wilkinson, ironmaster." Mr. Coryell has likewise in his possession the Wilkinson coat-of-arms, confirmed to Richard [Lawrence*] Wilkinson, one of the chancery clerks, by William Camden, Clarencieux, September 14, 1605. On the coat-of-arms is the following: "He beareth Gules, a Fess, vaire between three unicorns, Parsent or by the name of Wilkinson." The wife of the late Lewis S. Coryell was a daughter of Joshua Vansant, whose wife, Mary Wilkinson, was a granddaughter of Sir George [Ichabod*] on the paternal side. We are told that Jemimah Wilkinson, the prophetess, and Joe Smith, the Mormon, both claimed descent from the same ancestry. (1) Not included in 1905 edition. (See illustration of Wilkinson Coat-of Arms.) The eastern bank of the Delaware, at this point, was not settled at as early a day as the Bucks county side. The first settler where Lambertville stands was Emanuel Coryell, a descendant of one of two brothers who immigrated from France, on the confines of Germany and Switzerland, to America soon after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. They landed at Perth Amboy, and took up a tract of land on Scotch plains, near the present town of Plainfield, and in the course of time a portion of the family made their homes on the eastern bank of the Delaware. The family have become numerous and scattered. Emanuel Coryell located on the river in 1732, coming from Somerset county, New Jersey. He took up a large tract of land, including the site of Lambertville, and built his hut close to the river and near the eastern end of the bridge that spans the stream. The Quakers of New England, on their way to Penn's colony of Pennsylvania, where there was neither let nor hindrance in religious matters, struck the river at this point, and soon Coryell established a ferry on the New Jersey side, but it was several years after John Wells had leased the ferry of the Penns on the Pennsylvania side. [The ferry on the New Jersey side was called "Coates' ferry," to about 1733, when Coryell received the patent for the tract. It was dated January 7, 1733, whereby George II granted to his loving subject, Emanuel Coryell, "the sole privilege of keeping a ferry" at a place called Coates' ferry, opposite to Wells' ferry, the Pennsylvania side, and three miles up and three miles down the said river Delaware, and to his heirs and assigns forever."*] [In 1785 Coryell's ferry was sold by Sheriff Samuel Dean to John Beaumont, the tract containing 72-1/2 acres, part of an original tract of 500 acres known as the "Ferry Tract." When the New Hope Delaware Bridge Company came to erect their bridge across the Delaware at that place in 1813 it was valued by a jury, which awarded Beaumont $11,000 for his ferry rights and $100 for the lot to build the abutments on, on the Pennsylvania side. After the great freshet of 1840 had destroyed a portion of the bridge on the New Jersey side, and while being rebuilt, the company landed its boats on Andrew J. Beaumont's shore and he sued them for damages. The referees were Daniel Longstreth, Lemon Banes and Isaac Parry, who met July 27, 1841, and awarded "No cause of action."*] [The act incorporating the New Hope Delaware Bridge Company passed the Legislature December 23, 1812; work was begun April 13, 1813, and the first carriage crossed September 12, 1813. The length is 1, 050 feet, width 33, and the cost of building, $69,936. A portion of the original bridge was carried away by the great freshet, 1841. (2) This was the second bridge spanning the Delaware, that at Trenton the first. Among the subscribers to the capital stock of the New Hope bridge were Benjamin Parry, who headed the list with $2,000; Samuel D. Ingham, $1,000; and Commodore Charles Stewart, United States navy, $1,000. The receipts for the year ending March 15, 1818, were $6,450. expenses, $1,596, leaving a profit of $4,854. After paying a dividend of 3 per cent. on $161,236.47 - $4,836 - a balance of $17.22 was left to the credit of profit. The first president of the bridge company was the Hon. Samuel D. Ingham, and among the directors at that date, 1812, were Benjamin Parry, Cephas Ross and David Heston. At the annual meeting of the stockholders, May 13, 1899, Richard Randolph Parry, was elected president; Charles Crook, James S. Studdiford, John S. Williams, Carroll R. Williams, Maurice A. Margerum and A. B. Holcomb directors; and John S. Williams, secretary and treasurer. The same board of directors and officers were re-elected in 1900.*] (2) In the 1905 edition there seems to be conflicting dates of the great freshet, giving both 1840 and 1841. There was also an earlier one in 1832. Emanuel Coryell was shortly followed by John Holcomb, from what is now Montgomery county, who took up a tract about half a mile higher up the river, whose will was proved in 1743, one of the witnesses being Benjamin Canby, of Bucks county, and Emanuel Coryell the other. The next settler was Joseph Lambert, whose family was destined to give the name to the town of Lambertville. A few years after his settlement Mr. Coryell built a tone tavern, now used as a dwelling, just below the bridge. In 1748 he sold a lot of land to Job Warford, on Main street, who built a tavern on it, when Mr. Coryell closed his at the ferry. His son George, who kept the ferry during the Revolutionary war, had been a provincial officer in the French and Indian war. Emanuel Coryell died before 1760, leaving real estate of 1,503 acres adjoining the town site. The lot on which the Lambertville Presbyterian church is built and the burying-ground were the gift of Mr. Coryell, and the only title the church holds to the real estate is a transcript of the settlement of his estate, dated October 10, 1760. The estate was settled and divided among the heirs by Langhorne Biles, Jonathan Ingham, Peter Prall, Azariah Dunham, and Pontius Stelle, and the award, which includes the church lot and burying-ground, is now filed in the archives of the church. The ferry lot, of 75 acres, with the buildings and ferry-house, was awarded to Abraham Coryell. Cornelius Coryell, son of the first Cornelius, died at Lambertville, July 6, 1831, in his 99th year, having been born June 27, 1733. In 1795 Lambertville had but four houses. It was first called by this name in 1812, when a postoffice was established there, and John Lambert appointed postmaster. The erection of the bridge across the Delaware between New Hope and Lambertville, in 1816, gave the first impetus to improvement; streets were laid out and houses erected. A street from the bridge was opened to what is now Main street, which was widened and straightened, and a new tavern was built on Bridge street, whither the license was transferred from the ferry-house. In this latter building the first postoffice was kept. The first Presbyterian church was built in 1817. The further growth of Lambertville was stimulated by the opening of the Belvidere-Delaware railroad in 1853, and it is now a thriving and prosperous town of some 6,000 [7,000 in 1905*] inhabitants. Emanuel Coryell had three sons: Emanuel, who lived and kept the ferry on the Pennsylvania side of the river for many years, Cornelius, who performed the same office on the New Jersey side, and Abraham, who lived at Kingwood. George, a son of Emanuel, was a captain in the Revolutionary army, and Cornelius's son George, who was learning the carpenter trade in Monmouth county, New Jersey, witnessed the battle of that name. He built Benjamin Franklin an elaborate fence and gateway in Philadelphia. He removed to Alexandria, Virginia, at the request of General Washington, was a member of the same Masonic lodge [as his patron*], and his last surviving pall-bearer. [Some of the Coryell family went west. About 1785 Lewis, son of Joseph, born at, or near, the ferry, 1768, emigrated with his father and mother, Jemima, to Mason county, Kentucky, where the parents died about 1815. James S. Coryell, son of Lewis, was Probate Judge of Adams county, Ohio, 1877. (3)*] (3) The Coryell family was one of the most patriotic in the county. In the Revolution, John Coryell, grandfather of the late Lewis S., was captain of the Solebury Associators, 1775. He was especially active during the winter of 1776-77. In the fall of 1777, after the British had taken Philadelphia, he collected the boats in the Delaware and had them taken up to Coryell's ferry, by order of General Mifflin. In the winter of 1778 he was ordered to remove them to Easton to prevent their falling into the hands of the enemy. He sold flour and other provisions to the troops, but was only partially paid and that in worthless continental money. We have a copy of John Coryell's letter to Washington, of May 10, 1784, reminding him of this indebtedness, but could get no relief. His sacrifices for the cause finally ruined him financially. He was obliged to leave his farm in Solebury, and removed to Hunterdon county, New Jersey. John Coryell was born in 1730, and died 1799.* The water privileges afforded by the stream flowing from Great Spring made New Hope and the immediate vicinity an important point for mills and forges. We have already stated there was a fulling-mill on the Heath tract about 1712, built by Philip Williams. The first saw-mill was built about 1740, and before 1745 Benjamin Canby built a forge on this stream, on which were now a grist, saw, and fulling-mill, and a forge. The forge was sold by the sheriff in 1750 or 1751, after Canby's death. Before 1770 Henry Dennis owned the forge and a stamping-mill. The forge was on a ten-acre tract above the village, but he owned a 95 acre farm on the river below the mouth of Spring Creek, and it was bounded on the north by that stream. The southwest line ran 213 perches to the manor of Highlands, and along that land 180 perches to the manor of Highlands, and along that land 180 perches to the river. [Ichabod*] Wilkinson, who married Sarah, daughter of John Chapman, built a forge at New Hope, above the Parry mills, in 1753. His [cousin*] John became a prominent and wealthy man in Wrightstown, and was a member of Assembly during the Revolution. The forge went down soon after the war, when a fine saw-mill, that cut 1000 feet of lumber a day, was built on the spot. About 1767 Dr. Joseph Todd, a physician of some note from Montgomery county, moved to Coryell's ferry, where he died about 1775. He owned what was afterward known as the Parry mill, which was in the possession of the government about three years of the Revolution and was used as a forage storehouse. Joseph Todd had a son, Charles F., born about 1758, who arrived home from boarding-school at Bustleton on Christmas-day, and saw the Continental troops march from New Hope to attack the Hessians at Trenton. He studied medicine during the war, at Doylestown, probably with Dr. Hugh Meredith, and afterward lived in Cumberland county. He traveled through the southwestern part of the country, and along the Mississippi, and was absent from home for several years. In 1771 Thomas Smith kept store at or near New Hope, when the Ichabod Wilkinson land was known as the "Forge tract." New Hope has borne its present name over three-quarters of a century, and probably longer. It is said that the name was given to it by Joseph Todd, who, it will be remembered, moved there in 1767, and died about 1775, but we think this is doubtful. Down to near 1770 it was known as Wells' ferry, after John Wells, who kept the ferry on this side, but the name was afterward changed to Coryell's ferry, after George Coryell, who kept the ferry on the New Jersey side. This name was retained until the present one was given to the place. Mr. Martin Coryell, a native of the borough, accounts for the name in this wise: He said that after the slitting-mill was abandoned other mills were erected for grinding grain, sawing lumber, and were called the Hope mills, that they were afterward burned, and when re-built were called the "New Hope mills," and from that the name of the town. This must have been before the close of the last century, for in 1800 the place was called "New Hope, lately Coryell's ferry." The Parrys are descended from an ancient and honorable family of the name, long resident in Caernarvonshire, North Wales. (4) The celebrated Lord Richard Parry, bishop of Saint Asaph from 1604 to his death in 1623, and Sir Love P. J. Parry, baronet, formerly member of Parliament, who lost a leg at Waterloo, were of this family. Their coat-of-arms - the crest a war charger's head, and the device upon the shield, a stag trippant - shows their lives in early times to have been passed amidst the sports of the chase and the excitement of the battlefield. Thomas Parry, the founder of the family in America, was born in Caernarvonshire in 1680, and came to this country about the close of the 17th century, settling in Philadelphia county, now Montgomery, and in 1715 he married Jane Morris. They had ten children, Thomas, Philip, John, Stephen, Edward, David, Mary, Jacob, Isaac, and Martha - the first child being born in 1716, and the youngest in 1739. The immediate progenitor of our Bucks county family was Benjamin Parry, the third son of John, and Margaret Tyson, his wife, who was the third son of Thomas the elder, born in the manor of Moreland, March 1, 1757. (4) The family was established in North Wales in the 12th century, and, in 1188 Madryn Castle is mentioned by Giraldus Cambrensis as the seat of the head of the house. The estate is still in possession of an elder branch of the family.* (See illustration of Parry Mansion, New Hope.) The coming of Benjamin Parry from Philadelphia county to New Hope gave a fresh impetus to the business interest of that section. In 1784 he purchased the Todd property of the widow and heirs, and took immediate possession, although the actual conveyance was not made until 1789. He was an active business man, and acquired a large estate for that day, owning several farms, and mills for the manufacture of linseed-oil and lumber. Shortly after 1800 he purchased a mill property on the Delaware, in Hunterdon county, New Jersey, which he called "Prime Hope," which he conducted in connection with the New Hope mills. At the same time he was a member of the firm of Parry and Cresson, and interested with Timothy Paxson (afterward one of the executors of Stephen Girard) in the flour commission and storage business at Philadelphia. This was about 1803. In May 1790 the Parry grist and oil-mills at New Hope were burned down. An old tax receipt of 1802 shows that Benjamin Parry paid a sanitary tax that year, but true to his orthodox scruples he refused to pay his militia tax. In 1794 nearly the whole of what is now New Hope belonged to the Parrys. The stone mansion erected by Benjamin Parry soon after 1785, a view of which is given in this chapter, is still standing and occupied by the family as a summer residence. It was mainly owing to the exertions of Mr. Parry and Samuel D. Ingham that the act to build a bridge across the Delaware at New Hope was obtained from the legislature, and they were the committee appointed to superintend its erection. [The cost of the bridge, including ferry-rights, toll-houses, etc., was $67,936.37. (5)] Benjamin Parry married Jane Paxson, daughter of Oliver, of this county, November 14, 1787, by whom he had four children: Oliver, born December 20, 1794 Ruth, born 1797 Jane, born 1799 Margaret, born 1804. He remained in active business at Hew Hope until a few years before his death, in 1839, at the age of 83. Mr. Parry was a man of considerable scientific attainment, having patented one or more useful inventions, of varied and extensive reading, was public spirited, and took deep interest in all that would improve his neighborhood or the county. His death was a serious loss to the community. In the Parry papers there is mention of several great freshets on the Delaware, in the years 1788, 1800, 1807, and 1814. In 1788 and 1807 the breast of the mill-dam where the Great Spring creek empties into the Delaware, was washed away. There was then a row of lofty Lombardy poplars along the river front of the Parry property, close to the water's edge. (5) Information not included in 1905 edition. Oliver Parry, the eldest son of Benjamin, and born at New Hope, married Rachel, daughter of Major Edward Randolph of the Revolutionary army, May 1, 1827. They had issue twelve children, of whom eight are living. The fourth child, Edward Randolph Parry, born July 27, 1832, and died April 13, 1874, entered the United States army in May 1861 as first lieutenant of the Eleventh infantry. He served to the close of the war with credit. He was assistant adjutant general of the regular brigade, was captain in 1864, and promoted to a majority for "gallant and meritorious services," and was with army headquarters at the surrender of Lee, in 1865. He resigned in 1871, and died from the effects of hard service. Major Parry was not the first member of the family who did his country service in the field in the hour of need. Caleb Parry, a member of the Montgomery branch, was lieutenant colonel of Colonel Samuel Atlee's Continental regiment, and was instantly killed at the battle of Long Island in 1776. His mother was Hannah Dilworth. Edward Randolph, the grandfather of Major Edward Randolph Parry on the maternal side, was likewise an officer in the Revolutionary army. He served as captain in Wayne's brigade, and was major at the close of the war. He subsequently became a member of the Society of Friends, and died in Philadelphia in 1837.(6) The wife of Oliver Parry died in 1866, and he deceased in 1874, in his 80th year, and the remains of both lie in the Friends' burying-ground in Solebury township. Of the other children of Benjamin Parry, Margaret married Charles Knowles, but had no issue. Richard Randolph Parry, of Philadelphia, grandson of Benjamin, and son of Oliver, is the 5th in descent from Thomas Parry, the first American ancestor. Parryville, Carbon county, Pennsylvania, is named after Daniel Parry, grandson of the first Thomas. He owned large tracts of land in that and adjoining counties, part of which he purchased of the Marquis de Noailles of France. (6) Captain Edward Randolph commanded the outlying guard at the "Massacre of Paoli," and was desperately wounded. This portrait hangs on the walls of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and his biography appears in the "Lives of Eminent Philadelphians." He died in 1859. There are other Parry in the county who claim descent from Welsh parentage. The venerable [late*] Thomas F. Parry, of Attleborough, is the great-grandson of Thomas Parry, who came from Wales and settled in Moreland township, where he married Jane Walton, and died the father of ten children. Stephen the eldest of the ten left his children and a number of slaves. Thomas's eighth son, Philip, married Mary Harker, of Middletown, and moved into Buckingham. Thomas F. is the son of John, the second of nine children, and the brother of [the late*] David Parry, of Lahaska. In 1874 three of this family were living, two brothers and a sister, David, Thomas and Charity, whose united ages were 271 years - 96, 82 and 93, respectively. William Parry, president of the Cincinnati, Richmond and Fort Wayne railroad is [was*] a member of this family. Fifty [70*] years ago, Joseph Parry and family, of Horsham, immigrated to Indiana, and his descendants are now found in several states. Thomas F. Parry undoubtedly descends from a common ancestry with the New Hope Parrys. His great-grandfather, Thomas, we believe to have been the eldest son of the first Thomas, who came from Wales at the close of the 17th century, and settled in Moreland township. About a quarter [half*] of a century ago the heirs of Thomas and Jane Parry were advertised for in English and American newspapers, being claimed as the heirs at law of a Welsh gentleman named Parry, who died intestate, leaving a large estate. As the heirs here were well off in this world's goods, they made no claim to the estate, and it reverted to the British crown. There is some evidence to connect our Parrys with Sir Edward Parry, the famous arctic navigator, but we have neither time nor space to pursue the inquiry. (7) (7) Thomas Parry was the owner of 1,000 acres in Philadelphia county, of which he conveyed 200 to John Van Buskirk, September 2, 1725, and 300 to David Maltsby December 29, 1726. A large part of the rest descended to his son John, usually designated "John Parry of Moreland" to distinguish him from another of the same name. Upon this estate John Parry died November 10, 1789. In his day and generation New Hope had no more useful and enterprising citizen than the late Lewis S. Coryell. He was a son of Joseph Coryell, and descendant of Emanuel, the first of the name on the Delaware, and was born at Lambertville in December 1788. In 1803, at the age of 15, he apprenticed himself for six years and one month, to Benjamin Smith, house carpenter, of Buckingham. The indenture is an old-fashioned and stately document, which sets forth with great minuteness the rights and duties of both parties. At the end of three years and nine months he purchased the balance of his time for $40 and formed a co-partnership with Thomas Martin, an older apprentice. They established themselves at Morrisville, where they carried on business for several years. Mr. Coryell afterward engaged in the lumber business at Hew Hope, where he spent the remainder of his life. He was a man of extensive information on many subjects, and was one of the best practical engineers in the state. He was an early advocate of internal improvements, and in 1818 he was appointed one of the commissioners to improve the rafting and boating channels of the Delaware, and the work was placed under his charge, Although an active politician he never held office, but exercised large influence. He had extensive acquaintance with the statesmen of the country, and enjoyed their confidence. He was a favorite with President Monroe, and was a frequent guest at the White house while he occupied it. During what is known as the "Buckshot war" at Harrisburg, in 1838, Mr. Coryell assisted Thaddeus Stevens to make his escape from the back window of the House of Representatives. Under Mr. Tyler's administrations he was the secret agent employed by the government to bring Texas into the Union. He was an active supporter of the war of 1812, and served as baggage-master at camp Marcus Hook. Mr. Coryell was married to Mary Vansant, of New Hope, in 1813, and has three sons living, two of whom are engineers, one of them engaged in his profession in China. [Of the daughters, the elder was twice married, first to Simpson Torbert, a civil engineer, and on his death to Dr. Lilly, of Lambertville. The younger daughter, Rebecca, died single.*] Lewis S. Coryell died in 1865. William Maris (8) who came to New Hope from Philadelphia soon after the war of 1812, made considerable improvement in the quiet village. Among the buildings erected by him were the large yellow house at the top of the hill, where Richard Ely lives [lived*]; the brick tavern; two factories in the village, one for cotton and one for woolen, the latter being rented to Redwood Fisher and Lamar G. Wells, of Trenton. [Later*] a cotton-mill, a mile up the creek, now owned by Joshua Whitely, who is engaged in spinning yarn, which was burned down in 1836, rebuilt, and has been running ever since, and several dwellings. Maris was active in building the bridge across the Delaware, and when completed a bank, for which it was thought there was authority in the charter, was opened in the west end of the old tavern, now the Logan House. This was the old ferry-house. The improvements Maris made added greatly to the business of the town, which was continued for several years, and until it was overtaken by a financial crisis. The former prosperity has never returned. The opening of the Belvidere-Delaware railroad struck a heavy blow at New Hope. When Maris came to New Hope in 1812 there were but 15 or 20 dwellings in it. There was but one tavern, where Logan House stands, kept by Charles Pidcock, and there was no other until the Brick hotel was built. (9) The pole with the Indian on the top was planted February 22, 1828. They were made by Samuel Cooper. At that time Garret Meldrum kept the ferry on the Pennsylvania side, and Charles Pidcock on the New Jersey side. The place saw its most prosperous days when Parry, Maris, Coryell, and Joseph D. Murray were in the full tide of operations. In 1830 there were several factories, mills, and a foundry, all doing a large business. (8) William Maris was the son of Jesse Maris, the son of Joseph, the son of Richard, who was the son of George, the immigrant. William was born at Springfield, Delaware county, Pa., in 1781, married Jane Beaumont, 1803, was a merchant, Philadelphia, and a manufacturer in New Hope, went to the Madeira Islands, and died at Philadelphia, 1845. The elder sister of William Maris, Jemimah, 1775-1854, married John Welsh, Philadelphia, and became the mother of John and Samuel Welsh, merchants of Philadelphia, the former representing this country at the Court of St. James, London, during President Hayes' administration, where the author had the pleasure of meeting him. (9) The brick hotel at New Hope, was built 1820-21, and February 12, 1821, Meldrum announced in the Bucks County "Messenger," published at Doylestown, by Simon Cameron, that he had "removed from his old stand to the New Brick House in New Hope near the bridge." The landlord was probably the son of Garret Meldrum, who kept the ferry. About 1809 Samuel Stockton, born in Burlington county, New Jersey, in 1788, and died, 1853, settled in New Hope where he lived to his death. He married Mary, daughter of Foster Hart, of Trenton, had 12 children. New Hope was a very insignificant village when the Parrys settled there in 1784. Twelve years later we find the following residents there besides Benjamin Parry and his brother David, namely: Beaumont Cephas Ross O. Hampton, Jr. Pickering Joseph Osmond Vansant A. Ely Martha Worstall Eli Doane Enoch Kitchen John Poor Oliver Paxson Coolbaugh William Kitchen. There were 34 buildings in all, including swellings, stores, shops, barns, tavern, stables and a saw-mill. The tavern was owned by Beaumont in 1796, but we do not know who kept it. Garret Meldrum was the landlord in 1804, and that year the company of Captain Samuel D. Ingham, Thirty-first regiment, Bucks county brigade, celebrated the 4th of July at his house. The Brick hotel near the bridge was built in 1818, and in 1820-21 was kept by George Meldrum, the son of Garret. At that date Philip T. Tuckett [Philip T. Tonchette, a very estimable Frenchman*] and wife kept a boarding school in New Hope. Joseph [Dawson*] Murray, one of the few men who made New Hope the prosperous place it was [from 1820-1850*], came there from Edenton, North Carolina, [1785. His grandfather immigrated from the North of Ireland, with a Scotch colony, about 1716 and settled at Scotch Neck on the Roanoke river. Here his father married Rosamond Dawson*] and settled at Edenton, where Joseph D. was born. [His parents dying while he was young he was brought up by an uncle and at the age of 17 made a voyage to the Dutch West Indies, as companion for the son of the ship's owner. In a second voyage, as supercargo, the vessel was wrecked on the island of St. Kitts.*] We next find him keeping store in Philadelphia [previous to*] the war of 1812. [While there he married Margaret Sharp, Salem, New Jersey. At the close of the war he removed to New Hope*] and opened a country store in partnership with George Bozman, in [a building erected by the Free Masons in 1808. It was subsequently remodeled by Mr. Murray and occupied as a dwelling until his death, and by his son William until his death, 1905.*] He subsequently went into the lumber business with Lewis S. Coryell, which they carried on successfully for a number of years. The firm engaged in other branches of business at the same time. They built the canal through New Hope, about a mile, including all the locks and aqueducts, in 1829-30, and also the canal locks at Trenton and Bordentown, of stone from the Yardleyville quarries, which they then owned. [The most important part of Mr. Murray's business life was the completion of the contracts on the canal and railroads, 1833 to his death. He and Mr. Coryell dissolved their business connection in 1841. He was interested in the purchase of the Beaver Meadow and Hazleton coal lands, and assisted in the organization of the companies. He was also an active participant in the purchase of the extensive tracts of land of the Pine Forest Company, Luzerne and Monroe counties, of which he was president several years, erecting and operating two steam and five water mills. He was likewise interested in the purchase of large tracts of timber lands in Carbon county, in company with Samuel D. and James D. Stryker, Lambertville, New Jersey. On these lands villages were started, and the manufactured lumber sent to market in boats, and subsequently via the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company's and the Lehigh Valley railroads. In these extensive operations in developing the timber and coal interests of the Lehigh Valley, Mr. Murray bore a conspicuous part. He died at New Hope March 2, 1852, at the age of 64.*] [Seventy-five years ago Dr. Richard Davis Corson was a leading resident of New Hope, the contemporary of the Inghams, Parrys, Coryells, Elys and Marises. He was a descendant of the Coursons of Staten Island, a son of Richard Corson, born near New Hope, read medicine with Dr. Wilson, and graduated about 1812. Shortly afterward he made a voyage to India on a merchantman and practiced a year in Calcutta. On his return Dr. Corson settled in practice near Paxson's Corner, and, 1814, married Helen Stockton, daughter of Thomas Johnson, a distinguished lawyer of New Jersey, and brother of Samuel Johnson, Buckingham. He became an eminent physician with an extensive practice, students coming to him from a great distance. He had two sons, Dr. Thomas Corson, Trenton, New Jersey, and Col. Robert R., Philadelphia. His daughter Harriet married Dr. Charles Foulke, and was the mother of Dr. Richard Corson Foulke, New Hope. Dr. Richard Davis Corson was taken ill on his return from India, and, on the vessel's arrival at Charleston, South Carolina, was taken to an hotel, but Dr. Ramsey, the historian, hearing of it, had him fetched to his own dwelling where he remained several months and until his recovery. Several years afterward Dr. Corson took Dr. Ramsey's son into his office and family, and continued him at the university until he graduated. He now returned to Charleston and settled in practice, becoming a distinguished physician and surgeon. Such incidents make one think better of human nature.*] The oldest house in New Hope stands near the south end of the iron bridge that spans the Parry mill-dam. It was built by the Wilkinsons, among the early settlers about the ferry, on their tract which extended north to the creek, and was afterward owned by Joshua Vansant, the father of the late Mrs. Lewis S. Coryell. Some years ago, when a new roof was put on the house, a few grape shot were found imbedded in the old one, supposed to have been fired from a British battery on the opposite hills. The second oldest house in the borough is the frame hip-roof at the head of Ferry street, built by John Poor, the grandfather of the late Daniel Poor, and the third oldest is a stone on Bridge street, above Doctor Foulke's, built by George Ely, grandfather of Hiram Ely. The pointed stone house on Ferry street, by the canal, built by Garret Meldrum, before 1808, is the fourth or fifth oldest dwelling. Meldrum kept a tavern in it soon after it was finished. The Paxson homestead, at the head of Bridge and Ferry street, approached down a long shady avenue, was built by Oliver Paxson, the great-uncle of Oliver Paxson, the late owner. The date is not known. We are told, and the authority is a person who witnessed it when a lad, that Washington tied his horse to a tree at the end of the lane, while his army was crossing Coryell's ferry in 1778. The Murray dwelling was built in 1808 by one Coolbaugh. Near the head of Ferry street is one of the oldest frame houses, in which Rutledge Thornton, subsequently sheriff of the county, kept store 40 [65*] years ago. The first store in New Hope was probably that of Daniel Parry, brother of Benjamin, who erected the frame building in which it was kept, and is still standing, on the corner of River and Ferry streets, now owned by Peter Johnson. The ferry was at the foot of this latter street. New Hope was incorporated April 26, 1837. The first burgess was John Parry, constable, Jonathan Johnson, and councilmen, Joseph D. Murray, D. K. Reeder, Mordecai Thomas, Isaac M. Carty, and Sands Olcott. In May, just after the financial crash had taken place, the council authorized the treasurer of the borough to issue $1,000 in "shinplasters," of the denomination of one dollar, fifty cents, twenty-five cents, ten cents and five cents, which were put in circulation, and redeemed in 1841-42. The present New Hope academy was built about 25 [60*] years ago, but there was an institution there of that name before 1831 [bearing the same name, of which William H. Hough was principal. Three-quarters of a century ago New Hope was the lumber mart of Bucks and Montgomery counties, and the center of baseball playing for many miles around, but a different game from the present.*] [Although New Hope of the present day is not an active, thriving place, considerable business is transacted there. In addition to the usual store and mechanical trades, it contains a flour mill with modern machinery, a cotton factory for spinning yarn from the raw material, a factory that makes twine from flax and hemp, an agricultural implement factory, and a mill to make chemicals used in coloring calicoes, a paper mill, paper bag factory, silk mill, sausage and scrapple factory, the manufacture of harness, saddlery furnishings and tin goods; lumber and coal yards, a weekly newspaper, etc., with two hotels. There are two Methodist churches, white and colored, the former built, 1875; and Roman Catholic, the latter, formerly a mission of St. Mary's, Doylestown, which grew into a parish during the pastorate of Rev. Henry Stommel, and dedicated, 1885. The Methodist congregation was organized 75 years ago, occupied an old building standing at the lower end of the village on the private property of the late Lewis S. Coryell. The Presbyterians have a small congregation which worships in a chapel, and the Friends until recently held their services in the old Lyceum building near the Delaware bridge. The borough has a steam fire engine and a well organized company, and a hook and ladder company for protection against fire. A postoffice was established here, 1805, bearing its present name, with Charles Ross, postmaster. The first census, 1840, gave a population of 820; 1850, 1,134; 1860, 1,141; 1870, 1,225, of which 179 were foreign and 75 colored; 1880, 1,152; 1890, 1,142, and 1,218 in 1900. The borough is one the right bank of the Delaware a mile above Wells' falls. The Delaware Division canal, running through it, affords easy and cheap transportation to tidewater, while the Aquetong creek furnishes fine water power for manufacturing purposes. The site slopes down to the river bank, while the elevated ground, back of the village, gives an unobstructed view of the stream and valley for some distance up and down, of the flourishing little city of Lambertsville on the opposite bank and the hills that hem it in.*] [New Hope and vicinity are rich in Revolutionary lore. At the old ferry the Continental army, with Washington at its head, twice crossed the Delaware, once in 1777, and again, 1778. Here in the trying days of December 1776, Lord Sterling, with the left wing of the army, kept watch and ward against the anticipated attempt of the British to cross; occupying the hillsides just east and south of the present Yellow school house, and on the river's bank at the termination of the York road in Pennsylvania, both being located upon property subsequently a part of the old "Parry Mansion estate." This was shortly prior to the battle of Trenton. In "Washington and His Generals." Vol. I, page 175, Lord Stirling is mentioned as having "again signalized himself by his successful defense of Coryell's Ferry. " His headquarters was in the old hip-roof house, directly opposite the long avenue leading into the Paxson estate and near and west of the Presbyterian chapel, the new hip-roof house, owned and occupied by Phineas Slack, standing upon the old site and on part of its foundation. The collection of the boats to be used at the crossing was entrusted to Daniel Bray, a young captain in the Continental army, of Hunterdon county, New Jersey, who concealed them behind Malta Island, then densely wooded, at the Union mills, just below New Hope. More boats were collected here than at any other point. The story is told of the British capturing Captain George Coryell, and, placing him in the bow of one of their boats, and rowing over to this side of the river reconnoitering. At that day a famous chestnut tree stood on the Paxson estate a few yards north of the York road. It was known as the "Washington Tree," and was cut down in 1893 to make way for improvements. It stood a silent sentinel, on the river bank, for 150 years, and when measured, was found to be 22 feet in circumference. If blessed with the gift of speech, what tales it could have rehearsed - of "the times that tried men's souls." Twice the Continental army had passed in review before it, on its way to meet the enemy at Brandywine and Germantown, and after Valley Forge, and on the neighboring hills were erected the stockades and entrenchments and batteries to prevent the enemy crossing. Revolutionary annals show that General Benedict Arnold was at Coryell's Ferry, June 16, 1777, and Alexander Hamilton, July 29. On that night the Continental army reached the ferry, one brigade crossing before morning, and the army was put in march down the York road early on the 30th. (10) (10) The author is indebted to Mr. Richard Randolph Parry for many of the Revolutionary incidents mentioned here, and was the recipient of one of the canes manufactured from the butt of the chestnut tree, present by Mr. George A. Hicks, Philadelphia.* End of Chapter XLIV, or Chapter XIV, 1905.