THE HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, CHAPTER XLV, DOYLESTOWN BOROUGH, 1838, and CHAPTER XVI, VOL. II, BRIDGETON, 1890.
from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time by W. W. H. Davis, A.M., 
1876 and 1905* editions.

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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 XLV or

                           CHAPTER XV (Vol. II), 1905 ed.

                                DOYLESTOWN BOROUGH.

                                      1838.

Situation.  -Crossing of early roads.  -Edward Doyle.  -Negro Joe.  -William Doyle
    petitions for license.  -Probable location of tavern.  -Richard Swanwick.  -Old
    Barndt tavern.  - First mention of Doylestown.  -Its size in 1790.  -Town-site
    well wooded.  -Charles Stewart.  -Septimus Evans.  -The academy.  -Uriah DuBois. 
    -Presbyterian church.  -John L. Dick.  -Court street opened.  -George Murray.  
    -Removal of county seat.  -First newspaper.  -Fourth of July, 1806.  
    -Captain William Magill.  -Village incorporated.  -Governor Hiester.  -The 
    Medarys.*  -First telegraph office opened.*  -The Stewarts.  -Chapmans.  
    -Foxes.  -Rosses.  -Pughs.  -Mathias Morris, et al.  -New Doylestown.  - Churches.  
    -Public institutions.  -Beek's exhibition.  -Water-works.  -Schools.  -Lenape building.  
    -Monument.-Centennial of Doylestown.*  -Academy torn down.*  -Public school building 
    erected.*  -Stages, etc.  -Population.


                   (See map of Doylestown and Vicinity, 1775.)


    DOYLESTOWN, the seat of justice of Bucks, is situated within a mile of 
the geographical centre of the county. 
    We have already mentioned that the town is built on lands that belonged 
to the Free Society of Traders. It was a point of importance when the 
surrounding country was almost an unbroken wilderness, and years before a 
village was dreamed of, because the site was at the intersection of two 
great roads. The Easton road was opened from Willow Grove to the county 
line in 1722, to enable Governor Keith to reach his plantation of Graeme 
park, [extended to Dyerstown the following year, passing through*] 
Doylestown, and a few years afterward to Easton, thus giving a continuous 
highway from Forks to Delaware to Philadelphia. In 1730 a road was opened 
from New Hope, then Wells' ferry, across the country to the fords on the 
Schuylkill, leaving the York road at Centreville. These two highways 
intersected at what is now Main and State streets, and formed the earliest 
cross-roads at Doylestown. The future county-seat remained thus, and 
nothing more, for three-quarters of a century.
    The Doyles, (1) after whom the town was named, were early residents of 
the neighborhood, and owners of part of the land it is built on. Edward 
Doyle was on the New Britain side of the township line in 1730, when he 
purchased 150 acres of Joseph Kirkbride, on the north-west side of the 
town. In 1737 he bought 42 acres additional, a narrow strip of 21 perches 
front on west Court street, and running a mile to the northwest, on an 
annual quit-rent of ten bushels and two pecks of wheat. The Methodist 
church stands on this tract. On May 1, 1752, William Doyle, a son of 
Edward, purchased 19 acres and 28 perches of Isabella Crawford, part of 
the 155 acres she had bought of Jeremiah Langhorne's executors, and which 
embraced what is now the heart of the town, between Court and State 
streets, and extending from about the line of Hamilton to Church street. 
Negro Joe's land joined it on the east. Doyle likewise became the owner of 
the long and narrow 42-acre tract, and of 100 other acres purchased of 
Kirkbride. At one time Langhorne and Kirkbride owned the whole site of the town.

    (1)  For earlier mention of the Doyle family see chapter entitled 
          "Doylestown township."*

    Doylestown began its village life as a roadside inn for the accommodation 
of travelers, with a neighboring log house or two. We believe that an 
establishment to administer to the comfort of "man and beast" was the 
first human habitation erected at or near the cross-roads. A tavern was 
opened here as early as 1745. We find that at the March term that year, 
William Doyle was down at court at Newtown with a petition for license to 
keep a public house on the site of Doylestown, recommended by 14 of his 
neighbors and friends, namely, David Thomas, William Wells, Thomas Adams, 
Thomas Morris, John Marks, Hugh Edmund [Edmunds*], Clement Doyle, William 
Beal, Joseph Burges, Nathaniel West, William Dungan, Solomon McLean, David 
Eaton, and Edward Doyle. It is stated in the petition that there is no 
public house within five miles of where he lived, which was "between two 
great roads, one leading from Durham to Philadelphia, and the other from 
Wells' ferry toward the Potomack." The license was granted, and the 
hostelry set up. It was renewed in 1746, 1748, 1754, and Doyle continued a 
landlord for many years. From that day to this the site of Doylestown has 
never been without a public inn, and now there are five. 
    It would be interesting to know the exact spot where this pioneer 
hostelry stood, but that cannot be told at this day. That it was within 
the present limits of the borough there can be no doubt, for the "two 
great roads" mentioned in the petition are now Main and State streets. 
Doyle lived in New Britain, and if he opened the tavern at his own house, 
it must have been north and west of Court street, for that was the 
dividing line between New Britain and Warwick; but if a new house were 
erected for the purpose, it was probably located at one of the corners 
where the "two great roads" crossed, which would bring it "betwixt" them. 
It is only reasonable to suppose the tavern was very near the crossing of 
the roads, so as to command the travel on both. If it were not on the 
cross-roads from the first, it was probably opened there within a few 
years, for inn 1752 William Doyle bought 19 acres and some perches of 
Isabella Crawford on the north-east corner of State and Main streets. (2)  
Doyle left the tavern between 1774 and 1776 and removed to Plumstead, and 
in October of that year he sold two acres at the corner of State and Main 
to Daniel Hough, innkeeper, of Warwick. Hough also bought the long and 
narrow 42-acre lot for $575, and three weeks afterward he sold them both 
to Richard Swanwick, of Chester county, an officer of customs at 
Philadelphia, who joined the British in the Revolution, when his real 
estate was confiscated. (3) During all the time that William Doyle kept 
the tavern, near 30 years, the locality was but a cross-roads, and went by 
the name of "Doyle's tavern." It is possible that the old tavern on the 
south-east corner of State and Main was built by Samuel and Joseph Flack 
after their purchase of the lot in 1773, and that Doyle's tavern was not 
on that corner. There is a claim that the first tavern stood on the lot 
(4) on Court just west of Main, and near which, at Doctor Harvey's [John 
Hart's*] corner, is an old well, and a horse-block, both of which may have 
belonged to the earliest inn at Doylestown. That location would place the 
inn too far from the cross-roads and from either road. There was an early 
tavern where Corson's hotel stands, but that was later than Doyle's. The 
old Barndt tavern, torn down in 1874 to make room for Lenape building, was 
at that time probably the oldest in the borough, it having been kept as an 
inn for about 100 years. In removing it, it was found that the part 
farthest from Main street was built first. The west end wall showed the 
pointing in good condition, which proves that the addition was built up 
against it and the wall plastered over. In all probability it was not 
built for a tavern but for a dwelling, and the west end added when license 
was granted. The cellar of the old part was lathed and plastered, to 
deaden the sound of whatever was carried on in the room above. Samuel and 
Joseph Flack owned this property for 18 years, or until 1791. On May 1, 
1778, a child of Samuel was buried from this house, and the body taken to 
Neshaminy graveyard. It was the day the battle was fought at the 
Crooked-Billet between the British and General Lacey's troops. There was 
so much fear of the British that but four persons accompanied the corpse 
to the burial-ground, two young men and two young women, one of whom was a 
Miss Mary Doyle, afterward a Mrs. Mitchel, and mother of the late Mrs. 
Nathaniel Cornell, of Doylestown. They were mounted on fleet horses, the 
young men being armed and carrying the coffin. When they reached the 
ground the men dismounted and buried the body, while the women remained on 
horseback to be ready to fly at the first alarm. Afterward, they hurried 
home as rapidly as possible. Our information was obtained many years ago 
from a descendant of one of the party that rode to the graveyard, who said 
that Samuel Flack at that time kept tavern at Doylestown. We think there 
is no doubt that he kept the old hostelry lately torn down, as he was part 
owner of the premises. which fixes its age at 103 years when it passed 
away, and that humble funeral procession which started from our village 98 
[122*] years ago crossed the threshold of the old inn.

    (2)  Site of Lenape building.*
    (3)  Later investigation shows that William Doyle's tavern was on the 
         north-west corner of State and Main streets, the site of the present 
         Fountain House, but whether he kept there from the first, it is not so 
         clear. The 19 acres Doyle purchase of Isabella Crawford, 1752, extended 
         south-west along State to about where Hamilton street cuts it, and 
         included the Fountain House lot. Doyle left the tavern in 1774, renting it 
         to Daniel Hough, who got license at the June term same year, bought it of 
         Doyle in 1776, the deed bearing date October 1st. Doyle probably removed 
         his tavern to the site of the Fountain House, 1752, where he made the 
         purchase of Isabella Crawford, either erecting a new building or opening 
         in one already on the lot, for Hough says in his petition for license, 
         1774, that he, Doyle, "had kept tavern there this many years past."*
    (4)  Formerly Reuben F. Sheetz's, now owned by Wynne James.*

    Newspaper authority tells us that Doylestown, in 1778, contained but two 
or three log dwellings, one on the site of Mr. Scheetz's brick house and 
another where the old Mansion House stands, on the south-west corner of 
State and Main streets. The earliest mention of its present name that we 
have seen, is on a map of 25 miles around Philadelphia, drawn by the 
engineers of the British army in 1777 when it occupied that city. It was 
then spelled "Doyltown." When General John Lacey occupied the village, in 
1778, with a small body of troops, he addressed a letter to General 
Washington from "Doyle Town," the town of the Doyles. Even at that early 
day the village had its physician, Dr. Hugh Meredith, on Armstrong's 
corner, where he lived many years, and died there. In the "Farmer's Weekly 
Gazette, printed in the village in 1800, the word is spelled "Doyltown." 
About 1790 Doylestown contained some half dozen dwellings, besides a 
tavern or two, a store and smithship - a prosperous cross-roads. (5) One 
of these was a part of Mrs. Ross's dwelling, [the site of the new National 
Bank building*]  corner of Court and Monument place, where Joseph Fell 
lived, and blacksmithed, [across Main street, on the site of the old 
hay-scale. (6)]   George Stewart lived in a log house about where the 
"Intelligencer" office stands, and afterward known as Barton Stewart's 
shop. Dr. Meredith was still at Armstrong's corner in a stone dwelling, 
with a frame office attached. Going down Main street we find a small stone 
tavern on the site of Lenape building, probably kept by Christian Wertz 
who bought the property in 1791, with a little frame store-house adjoining, 
on State street, kept we believe by Nathaniel Shewell. Nearly opposite, 
on the west side of Main street, on the site of Shade's tin-shop [Keller's 
bakery*], was a small frame. A log house stood on the west side of State, 
on the ground afterward occupied by the old brewery. No one lived in it at 
that time, but it was occupied soon afterward by one Joseph Pool, who kept 
a groggery there. This was the extent and condition of Doylestown 86 
[109*] years ago, but mean as it was, it possessed the seed everywhere 
planted in this country where it is necessary to have a town - a tavern, 
store and smith-shop. In 1798 Charles Stewart kept a tavern where the 
Fountain House stands and "where the Bethlehem mail-stage stopped for 
dinner," Jacob Thomas was saddler, cap, holster and harnessmaker, "near 
the printing office," and Joseph Stewart carried on the same business "on 
the Swede's ford road, the first house below Doyltown."

    (5)  Samuel Fell is said to have been a store-keeper at Doylestown about 
         1791-92, and probably a member of the Fell family that owned and lived on 
         the Mann farm on the New Hope pike.*
    (6)  Not in 1905 edition.

    At this period the site of Doylestown was well-wooded. Timber extended 
from the corner of Broad on the west side, up Main street to the Dublin 
road, and reaching back some distance. There was likewise considerable 
timber along the east side of Main street, between the same points, on the 
north side of Court street out to the borough limits, and the Riale and 
Armstrong farms were heavily timbered. Robert Kirkbride owned all the land 
on both sides of Main street, from Broad to the Cross keys, and on the nort
h side of Dutch lane. One of the first houses built after those already 
named, was a log, on the knoll opposite the Clear Spring tavern, by Elijah 
Russell, which is still standing. Soon afterward a Canadian, named 
Musgrave, built a log house on the lot now owned by John Ott, on Main 
above Broad, and also a shop about where Mr. Cuffle's dwelling stands, in 
which his son carried on wheelwrighting. The father was a clock and 
watchmaker, the first in Doylestown. He got indignant because he was not 
allowed to vote before he was naturalized, sold out and returned to 
Canada. The end of Mr. Lyman's stone house, next to Broad street, torn 
down in 1873, was built by Zerick [Seruch*] Titus, who carried on saddle 
and harnessmaking in a shop that stood in Doctor James' yard, opposite. At 
a later day [about 1810,*] Septimus Evans built the [dwelling  on the 
northeast corner of*] [house of Mrs. A. J. LaRue (7)] Broad and Main, 
where he carried on watchmaking, [now the property of Mr. Grim, who has 
improved it.*] This house was kept as a tavern many years. (Evans) was the 
father of the late Henry S. Evans, [proprietor and editor*] of the 
"Village Record," [West Chester*] twice a state senator, and otherwise 
prominent, who was born in Doylestown. The older portion of the Fountain 
House, Main and State streets, now standing was built by Enoch Harvey, 
where he kept tavern many years, and as early as 1804. A little later this 
embryo county capital saw other new houses go up; the old Bryan stone 
house, now Henry Harvey's, on Main, the stone house of Jeremiah Gunagan, 
erected in 1808, by the late Josiah Y. Shaw, [lately owned by Phillip 
Keller,*] a one-story stone on the Magill property, Main and State, [long 
since taken down, the old McDowell residence, east side of north Main below 
Court,*] [the dwelling of Doctor Rhoads, on Main, built by Doctor 
Meredith, (8)] and the Ross [house, Monument Place, the site now occupied 
by the new bank building.*] The latter was kept as a hotel for several 
years, and among the landlords were Frederick Nicholas, William Watts, 
William McHenry, Stephen Brock, and Abraham Black, and it was a public 
house when the county-seat was removed here in 1813. At a later period, we 
have, among the old dwellings the stone house, late Jonathan McIntosh's, 
now owned by [Mrs.*] Henry T. Darlington, the old end of Samuel Hall's 
stone house, in which his father [and son*] lived, and was built by him in 
1800, soon after he came from New Jersey, the old stone of Mrs. 
Nightingale, on State street, [next door to the corner of Pine*] in which 
the Doylestown bank was first opened, [1832*] Doctor Harvey's dwelling 
[built 1813 on corner of North Main and West Court, now the property of 
John Hart, recently taken down and a handsome modern building erected on 
the site*] [, and the old stone dwelling next to Nathan C. James', on Main 
street. (9)] The old Mansion House was first licensed about 1812, before 
which time Henry Magill, uncle to William, kept store there. A few years 
ago the late Thomas Brunner, of Bridge Point, told the author, that he and 
the late Samuel Keichline counted the dwellings in Doylestown in 1821, 
which then numbered 29, including the Academy, in which a family lived. 
The Ross stable is probably the oldest building in the borough [when torn 
down a few years ago. It stood on the west side of North Main, just above 
the Monument house.*]

    (#7, 8 & 9)  1876 material (enclosed in brackets with #) not in 1905 edition.

    The Doylestown Academy was erected in 1804, partly by subscription and 
partly by lottery. For lack of funds to finish the building, the 
Legislature, by act of February 1805, authorized $3,000 to be raised by 
lottery, the commissioners being Andrew Dunlap, Christian Clemens, John 
Hough, Thomas Stewart, Hugh Meredith, Nathaniel Shewell, and Josiah Y. 
Shaw, and there was a drawing in May 1806. The advertised scheme announced 
16,000 tickets at $2.50 each, of which 4,635 were to be prizes, and 11,365 
blanks, the prizes to be paid within 30 days of the drawing, and all not 
called for within a year were to be forfeited. The prizes ranged from 
$3,000 to $4. How much was realized is not known, probably not a great 
deal, for in 1809 the friends of the academy asked the Legislature for an 
appropriation, and got it. The building was first occupied in July 1804. 
When ready for occupancy the trustees invited the Rev. Uriah DuBois, 
pastor at Deep Run, to become the principal, which he accepted, and the 
same year he removed from Dublin down to Doylestown to take charge of the 
school. He continued principal of the academy, having especial charge of 
the classical department, until his death, in 1821. In the first 
announcement of the academy being open for pupils, it is stated, as an 
inducement for parents to send their children there, that "the Bethlehem 
and Easton mail-stages run through the town twice a week." A notice in the 
"Pennsylvania Correspondent" invites those who intend continuing their 
children at the academy to meet there on Tuesday, October 28, 1806, to 
consult on a proper and certain plan of furnishing the school with wood. 
It was both a boarding and day-school, the boarders living in the family 
of the principal. At that early day there was the usual annual exhibition 
by the students, consisting or orations, dialogues, and other exercises. 
Since its foundation the Academy has been occupied for educational 
purposes, and at times boarding-school of considerable celebrity have been 
kept in it. Among the principals of these schools may be mentioned the 
Revs. Samuel Aaron, Robert P. DuBois, and Silas M. Andrews, LL. D. It is 
now occupied by the public schools of the borough. The Rev. Uriah DuBois, 
its first principal, was something of a politician, and was twice appointe
d clerk of the orphan's court. The first Sabbath school in the county was 
organized in the academy in 1815, and a congregational library in 1816. 
Mr. DuBois commenced to preach in a room in the academy soon after he took 
charge of it, and gradually a congregation was collected, which was the 
nucleus of the Doylestown Presbyterian church. Uriah DuBois, the ancestor 
of the family of this name in the county, was the son of Peter and Ann 
DuBois, and descended from Louis DuBois, a Huguenot, who immigrated to Ame
rica about 1660, at the revocation of the edict of Nantes, and with other 
refugees settled at Kingston, on the Hudson. Louis DuBois had another 
descendant in this county, Jonathan, his grandson, who was called to the 
Dutch Reformed church of North and Southampton about 1750, married Eleanor 
Wynkoop, an died in 1772. A son of Jonathan, and a second cousin of Uriah, 
was a captain of cavalry in the Revolutionary army. A grand reunion of the 
family took place at New Paltz, New York, August 25, 1875, to celebrate 
the 200th anniversary of the settlement of Louis DuBois at that place, and 
several hundred of his descendants were present. After the death of Uriah 
DuBois, Ebenezer Smith, of Connecticut, and a graduate of Yale, had charge 
of the classical department in the academy for several years. He removed 
to a farm in Warwick in 1828, where he died January 1, 1829.
    The Doylestown Presbyterian church grew out of the meetings held in the 
Union Academy, a room in this building being set apart for the free use of 
every denomination of Christians that might see fit to occupy it. Mr. 
DuBois preached there at stated periods. He was released from the care of 
the Tinicum congregation in 1808, from which time he held worship 
alternately at Deep Run and in the Academy. The removal of the county-seat 
to Doylestown, in 1813, and the want of proper accommodations in the 
Academy, coupled with a general desire for a church in the town, gave 
birth to the project of erecting a Presbyterian church. It was commenced 
in August 1813, and dedicated in August 1815. The building was of stone, 
55x45 feet, and cost $4,282.57. The lot was purchased of John Shaw, for 
$409. The money was principally raised in small amounts, Doctor Samuel 
Moore being the largest contributor, $200, and three other gentlemen gave 
$100 each. At its dedication there were present from abroad, the Revs. 
Jacob Janeway, of Philadelphia, and Robert B. Belville, of Neshaminy. At 
this time the united membership at Deep Run and Doylestown was but 30, and 
they had increased to but 48 [45*] in 1818. Thomas Stewart, James Ferguson 
and Andrew Dunlap had been ruling elders at Deep Run for several years, 
and, with the pastor, constituted the first session at Doylestown.
    The graveyard was open for interment several months before the church was 
occupied. The first person buried in it was John Ledley Dick, a young man 
much respected and lamented, who died at Doylestown, of typhus fever, 
February 18, 1815. A young member of the bar (10) his intimate friend and 
associate, who was with him in his last moments, in a letter written to a 
gentleman in the lower end of the county, the day of his death, speaks 
thus of the sad event: "My friend, John L. Dick, died today at two o'clock, 
P. M., of the typhus fever. How frail is man! Ten days ago he was in the 
vigor of health. Alas, how visionary our hopes of earthly happiness; but 
two months since he married Miss Erwin, the daughter of the richest man in 
the county. How soon their fondest anticipations of future bliss and 
domestic felicity were destroyed." The writer of the letter followed his 
friend Dick to the grave in a few days, and shortly afterward his mother, 
sister and cousin all crossed the dark river to the undiscovered country 
beyond, all dying in the same house, late the residence of Mrs. John Fox, 
Court street, in the space of about two weeks. The widow of John L. Dick 
was married to Thomas G. Kennedy in 1819. The Dicks, John L. and three 
sisters, came from Belfast, Ireland, to Doylestown before 1812. Their 
father is thought to have been a Presbyterian clergyman. One of the 
sisters married Doctor Charles Meredith, of Doylestown.

   (10)  William Watts Hart, uncle of the author.

    The church was incorporated in 1816. The building was enlarged and 
improved the summer of 1852, at an expense of $4,339.03, a trifle more 
than the original cost, and taken down in 1871, and a handsome brownstone 
church built on its site, at an expense of $25,000. The Female Bible 
society, auxiliary to the county society, was organized the same year as 
the Female Library society, 1816, both of which are still in a flourishing 
state. Since the death of Mr. DuBois the pastors of the church have been, 
Charles Hyde, in 1823, who resigned in 1829, and died in Connecticut in 
1871, and Rev. Silas M. Andrews, who was called to the pastorate in 1831, 
[died March 1881, shortly before completing his 50 years as pastor.*] At 
the close of his 40th year of service he had baptised 535 persons, 
received 651 into communion, officiated 940 funerals, married 848 couples, 
and delivered 6,875 lectures and sermons. [The next pastor was Rev. 
William A. Patton, 1882-91. He was succeeded by Rev. W. Hayes Moore, who 
resigned on account of ill health, and went to New Mexico, where he died. 
Rev. Robert B. Labaree was installed in May 1899, and in 1904 resigned and 
returned to Persia, where he was born, the son of a missionary. He was 
succeeded by Rev. John M. Waddell in 1905.*]
    Doylestown remained a simple cross-roads until 1807, when Court street 
was laid out 33 feet wide, on the line of New Britain and Warwick, 
"beginning at a stone, a corner of land of Nathaniel Shewell and Barton 
Stewart, in the public road leading from Philadelphia to Easton," now Main 
street. The land-owners along Court street at that time were Barton 
Stewart, Nathaniel Shewell, the Union Academy, Jonathan and Daniel 
McIntosh, Asher Miner, Doctor Hugh Meredith, and John Pennington on the 
east side, and Nathaniel Shewell, who owned the Ross property and the 
court-house grounds, John Black, Samuel Wigton, John Shaw, John Worman, 
Uriah DuBois, Septimus Evans, Josiah Shaw, Israel Vanluvanee, and John 
Pennington on the west side, who owned all the land bordering the street 
or road out to its end. In 1818 Court street was extended to the 
south-west from Main to intersect State street at the corner of Clinton. 
Broad street was laid out in 1811, 50 feet wide, and confirmed at the 
April term, on the line of lands of Septimus Evans, the Academy ground and 
Rev. Uriah DuBois on the north [east*] side, and the site for the public 
buildings, Nathaniel Shewell, and Isaac Hall on the south. Court street 
was called Academy street in 1816. There were no additional streets opened 
until after the village was incorporated, in 1838. Among the later streets 
opened were, Clinton, in 1869, Afton [Ashland*], Maple, and Linden 
avenues, in 1870, and Cottage street, from Court to Linden, in 1871.
    Among the earliest schools in the borough after that held in the Academy, 
was the one kept by George Murray, in the stone house on East State 
street, now owned by Alfred H. Barber [Ellison P. Barber*], which was 
quite noted in its day. Mr. Murray was born in the parish of Keith, 
Scotland, February 20, 1781, graduated at New Aberdeen, and came to 
America in 1804. After teaching near Morristown, New Jersey, in Bensalem, 
at Hatboro, Hulmeville and elsewhere, he came to Doylestown in 1821, and 
taught in the Academy until 1829. He then opened a boarding-school in his 
dwelling, which he continued until 1842, when he removed it to his farm in 
the township, where it was kept up to 1850. He taught school 55 years, and 
is one of the oldest educators living. (11) In 1838 the Legislature, at 
the instance of several prominent gentlemen, incorporated the "Ingham 
Female Seminary," named after the Honorable Samuel D. Ingham, and intended 
as a boarding and day-school. It received a small annual appropriation 
from the state, which was discontinued after a few years. A frame building 
was erected at the corner of Broad and Mechanic streets, and Doctor C. 
Soule Cartee, of Boston, was called to take charge. After he left, in 
1843, no further attempt was made to maintain a boarding school. The 
building is still standing, and is occupied by a school for small 
children. [The Presbyterian manse now occupies the site of the Ingham 
Female Seminary. (12)*]

   (11)  Mr. Murray died about 1880, nearly 100 years old.*
   (12)  Thomas Hughes, one of the oldest educators in the State at the time 
         of his death, long a resident of Doylestown, died here, 1877, at the age 
         of 86. He was born at Dundee, Scotland, came to America, 1819, and to 
         Doylestown, 1841-42. Himself and wife first opened a boarding school at 
         the Stuart farm, and subsequently moved into town, where he kept school as 
         long as age permitted. Mr. Hughes was an author of considerable repute.*

    The removal of the county-seat to Doylestown in 1813, assured its 
prosperity and future growth. At that time it was a hamlet of hardly 200 
inhabitants. (13) Attempts had been made for years to push the village 
ahead, and some of the inhabitants saw promise of future greatness in its 
beautiful location on the great highway between Philadelphia and Easton, 
for at that day railroads were not dreamed of, and the town that stood on 
an artery of travel was thought to possess advantages. In 1800 the first 
newspaper was published here, and the first in the county, the "Farmer's 
Weekly Gazette," printed at the "Centre house," and in 1804, Asher Miner 
established the "Pennsylvania Correspondent," which still survives in the 
"Bucks County Intelligencer." In 1805 Doylestown had a portrait painter, 
one Daniel Farling, who had his studio over Asher Miner's printing office, 
then in the old frame building on north Main street, lately torn down by 
Nathan C. James [on the site of N. C. James' stone dwelling.*] Farling was 
a versatile genius, for the year before he announced himself a painter, 
glazier, and paperhanger, "from the cities of New York and Philadelphia," 
and "orders left at Enoch Harvey's inn," would receive his attention. He 
probably pursued the limner's art during his leisure hours. The first 
attempt to sell town-lots was made February 8, 1806, by John Black, "on 
main road through said village, from Norristown to Coryell's ferry." 
Doylestown held her first 4th of July celebration in 1806, at the Academy, 
marked by three orations, the reading of the Declaration, and drinking 17 
toasts. The senior class of students, with a number of their friends, took 
dinner at Mr. Worman's inn, (14 ) where more toast were drunk. Samuel Fell 
was president of the day, and John N. Thomas, vice-president. Doylestown 
was patriotic in the war with England in 1812-15, and the village and 
country about sent a volunteer company to the field, under Captain William 
Magill, the uniforms being made in the court-house by the young ladies of 
the neighborhood. Several hundred volunteers and militia from the upper 
end of the county, en route for camp, staid over night in the town, and 
Magill's old tavern, Main and State, was filled with them. The 7th of 
July, 1814, a company of United States infantry, under Lieutenant Mann, 
accompanied by Colonel Clemson, encamped at Doylestown over night.

   (13)  An old map of Doylestown, drawn by George Burgess, in 1810, when the 
         county seat was located here, shows 20 dwellings and the Academy, occupied 
         by the families of Magill, McIntosh, Shaw, two by Morris, Gordon, Hall, 
         Enoch Harvey, a second Harvey, N. Shewell, G. Meredith, Isaac Hall, Asher 
         Miner, Saruck Titus, S. Wigton, Elijah Russell, Robinson, another 
         Meredith, Uriah DuBois, J. Wigton, and a family in the Academy, 20 in all. 
         Allowing an average of five to each family it would only make a population 
         of 100. It is possible all the houses were not put down on the map. *
   (14)  Where the Lenape building stands.*

    An effort was made to incorporate Doylestown as early as 1826, but the 
bill failed in the Legislature because the boundaries were not 
ascertained. We do not know that anything further was done in this behalf 
before 1838, when an act was passed the 16th of April of that year, which 
erected the village into a borough. The charter has been altered and 
amended from time to time, but the corporate powers have not been 
materially changed. The local affairs of the little municipality are 
governed by a council of nine persons, three of whom are elected annually, 
and a chief and assistant burgess with nominal duties. The incorporation 
had but slight influence upon the prosperity of the borough, and for a 
quarter of a century it was doubtful whether it did not retrograde. In the 
last 10 years [After the close of the Civil War... and next 10 years*] 
there has been more improvement, in the opening of streets and the 
erection of buildings, than all the previous years since its 
incorporation. Its growth has been gradual, and its history is without 
eventful episodes. The town was visited by Governor Hiester, in 1823, on 
his way from Philadelphia to Reading, when he staid all night, was called 
upon by the citizens, and visited the public buildings, the only 
attractions in the place. Since then Doylestown has been visited several 
times by the executive of the state, by Governor Shunk, in 1844, and more 
recently by Governors Curtin and Hartranft [and Hoyt*]. The town had a 
lodge of Masons as early as 1824, Benevolent, No. 168, as well as a brass 
band, and a fire engine.
    The oldest families of Doylestown, some represented in the male, and 
others in the female, line, are [named]
    Harvey
    Stewart
    McIntosh
    Vanluvanee
    Hall
    Magill
    DuBois
whose residence antedate the county-seat. [The families of]
    Chapman
    Fox
    Ross
    Pugh
    Morris
came up from Newtown with the seat of justice, and
    Rogers
    Mathews
    Brock
and others, came at a still later day. The Harveys came from Upper 
Makefield, where Thomas Harvey was settled about 1750, and, dying in 1779, 
left two sons, Joseph and Matthew. Joseph had six children, Enoch, the 
immediate ancestor of our Doylestown branch, being born December 1, 1769. 
He settled here between 1785 and 1790, and married a daughter of Charles 
Stewart, of Warwick. By 1800 he was the owner of three lots of about 50 
acres in Warwick and New Britain, which included where the Fountain House 
and the National  bank [Doylestown bank building*] stand, which had been 
confiscated in the Revolution. He kept Fountain House several years, and 
died in 1831. Joseph and George T. are [were*] sons of Enoch Harvey.
    The Stewarts were among the earliest settlers in this section. Between 
1720 and 1730 Charles Stewart, a young man of culture and some means, 
immigrated from Scotland, and bought a farm near Doylestown. He married a 
Miss Finney, whose sister was the wife of Doctor Todd, the mother of Mrs. 
Hugh Meredith. Charles Stewart was a captain in the French and Indian war. 
He had two sons, Charles and George. The latter married Parthenia Barton, 
and was the father of Barton Stewart, whom some of our older citizens may 
remember, while Sarah, the daughter of Charles, married Enoch Harvey. Mrs. 
Delphine Bissy and her sister are [were*] descendants of Charles Stewart, 
the elder, in the fifth generation. But few male descendants are living.
    About 1800 John, Jonathan, and Daniel McIntosh came to Doylestown, when 
it was a hamlet of half a dozen [15 to 20*] houses, from Martinsburg, 
Virginia, where they were born. [The brothers had originally settled in 
Northampton township, but we do not know how long they were there.*] The 
two former died here at an advanced age, leaving descendants. The Shaws 
came from Plumstead, where they were early settlers. The DuBoises we have 
already mentioned.
    The Chapmans are descended from John and Jane Chapman, English Friends, 
of Stanhope, in the valley of the river Wear, county of Durham. The parish 
records show that he was baptised November 3, 1626, and he probably joined 
the Friends after he reached manhood. Subjected to many persecutions, 
including confinement, both in the common jail and the castle of Durham, 
on account of his religious belief, he and his family immigrated to 
Pennsylvania to escape them, settling in Wrightstown in 1684. The church 
at Stanhope possesses the richest living of any in the north of England, 
and has had for its rectors many distinguished divines, including Butler, 
the author of the celebrated "Analogy." During the times he officiated 
some of the Chapmans were church wardens. The interior of the church 
contains a mural memorial commemorative of a valuable legacy bequeathed by 
one of the Chapmans to the poor of Stanhope and Frosterley. Few churches 
in the north of England have associated with their early history more 
interesting incidents. It is among the oldest in Durham county, and may be 
classed among the most beautiful, though plain and unpretending. In recent 
days it has undergone some renovation, but enough of the ancient structure 
still remains to give it an antiquarian interest. Its beauty is partly 
owing to its situation, being almost in the centre of the town, nearly 
surrounded by an ample yard, and well-supplied with large and venerable 
trees. In the graveyard may be found the names of members of many families 
well-known in this country, namely: The Pembertons, Emmersons, 
Bainbridges, Madisons, and others.
    The Ross family are descended from Thomas Ross, born in county Tyrone, 
Ireland, of Episcopal parents, in 1708, who immigrated to Bucks county at 
the age of 20, and settled in Upper Makefield. Thomas Ross probably 
brought a sister to America with him, for Elizabeth Ross was married to 
Thomas Bye 9th month, 1732. He joined the Society of Friends at 
Wrightstown February 12, 1729, and became a distinguished minister. He 
took an interest in the welfare of the young, and was active in giving 
them sound advice. He married Kesiah Wilkinson in July or August 1731. 
Abraham Chapman and James Harker being appointed to attend the wedding and 
"see it decently accomplished." He passed his long life principally in 
Bucks county, devoting considerable of his time to religious affairs. In 
June 1784 Mr. Ross sailed for England on a religious visit, in company 
with several male and female Friends, in the ship Commerce, Captain 
Truxton. They were anxious to reach their destination in time for the 
yearly meeting, but the captain said it was impossible. It is related that 
one day while Mr. Ross was seated beside Rebecca Jones he turned and said 
to her, "Rebecca, canst thou keep a secret?" She replied that she could, 
when he added,"We shall see England this day two weeks." Land was seen by 
one of the Friends on the morning of that day, and the captain 
acknowledged, that had not the passenger been able to see what the 
officers and sailors could not, the vessel would have gone on the rocks 
and suffered shipwreck. After attending the yearly meeting in Ireland and 
the north of Scotland, where he attended many religious meetings, Mr. Ross 
reached the house of Lindley Murray, at Holdgate, near York, where he died 
the 13th of June, 1786, in his 78th year. The letter announcing his death 
to his widow, written by John Pemberton, speaks of the deceased in high 
terms. Among his last words were, "I see no cloud in my way, I die in 
peace with all men." Among his descendants were the late Judge John Ross, 
of the Supreme Court, Honorable Thomas Ross, late of Doylestown, and Judge 
Henry P. Ross, of Norristown. William Ross, probably a grandson and native 
of the county, was a merchant of Philadelphia, and died on the island of 
St. Domingo in 1807. (15)

   (15)  This paragraph about the Ross family in the 1876 edition is replaced 
         in the 1905 edition by the following:

    [The Ross family are descended from Thomas Ross, Tyrone county, Ireland, 
who settled in Upper Makefield in 1720, and his grandson, John, came to 
Doylestown about a century later when he took his seat on our bench as 
President Judge of our courts. He was afterward appointed to the State 
Supreme Court. This is a family of lawyers and judges, among others, 
including Thomas Ross, a leading member of the bar, and two terms in the 
House of Representatives of the United States; his sons, Henry P. and 
George Ross, the former Judge of the Common Pleas of Bucks and Montgomery 
counties, the latter a leading member of the Bucks county bar. Here are 
four generations of lawyers in a single branch of one family, not very usual.*]

    The Foxes have not been [have been*] residents of the county 
three-quarters. The father of the late Judge John Fox was the son of an 
Englishman, but born in Ireland, and came to this country when young, but 
the date of his arrival is not known. [He was the father of the late Judge 
John Fox of Doylestown.*] General Carleton, in an official letter to his 
government in 1783, and found in the secret archives of Great Britain a 
few years ago, in describing the officers of the state government, when 
Joseph Reed was President of Pennsylvania, writes thus:
    "Auditor-General, Mr. Edward Fox. This young gentleman is a native of 
England or Ireland, I cannot say which, but believe the first. He came to 
this country some time since, and carried on business in the mercantile 
line. His present office was conferred upon him since Mr. Morris came into 
administration, and has a salary of $1,700 per year. He is a young man of 
good abilities, especially in his present line."
    Mr. Fox afterward acquired a large fortune, but lost it by loans to, and 
endowments for, Morris, Nicholson, and Greenleaf. His wife was a sister of 
Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant, and aunt of John and Thomas Sergeant. John 
Fox, after his admission to the bar, settled at Newtown, and moved with 
the seat of justice to Doylestown in 1813. He married Margery, a daughter 
of Gilbert Rodman, of Bensalem, in 1816. He was deputy attorney-general of 
the county in 1814, and left his business to serve on General Worrill's 
[Worrell's*] staff with the rank of major. He was president-judge of the 
court of common pleas from 1830 to 1840, and died in 1849, leaving five 
children, [the late*] Mrs. John B. Pugh, of Doylestown, being the oldest 
daughter. Edward J., a brother of Judge Fox, fell in a duel with Henry 
Randall, at Washington, in 1821. They were fellow-clerks in the treasure 
department. [Judge Fox's children are all dead. The sons read law and were 
admitted to the bar, two of them becoming distinguished lawyers, the thir
d, Louis, a Presbyterian divine. Of his grandsons, four are lawyers and 
one a Presbyterian clergyman of New York. No member of the family bearing 
the name now lives in this county.*]
    John B. Pugh is a descendant of Hugh Pugh, who was born in Wales, 
received a good education, came to this country about 1725, and settled in 
Chester county. He married Mary Harris, a daughter of the family which 
gave the name to the state capital. They had eight children, four sons and 
four daughters. Later in life he removed with his family to the east bank 
of the Schuylkill, near Norristown, whence their son Daniel, born January 
17, 1736, went to Hilltown, and settled about 1750. He married Rebecca, 
the daughter of Rev. William Thomas, January 23, 1760, and died in 1813, 
and she in 1819. Their oldest son, John, father of John B. and Mrs. 
Rogers, of Doylestown, was born June 2, 1761, and died in 1842. His first 
wife was Rachel Bates, and after her death, in 1782, he married Elizabeth 
Owen, of Hilltown, in 1800. He became prominent in the county, was elected 
to the legislature in 1800, and three times re-elected, and to Congress in 
1804 and 1806, but was defeated at the third election by five votes. In 
1810 he was appointed register of wills and recorder of the county, which 
offices he held fourteen years. He was commissioned a justice of peace as 
early as 1796, and the last office he held was that of justice under a 
commission of Governor Hiester, dated August 23, 1821.
    Matthias Morris, a member of the bar, who was born in Hilltown, in 1787, 
and died at Doylestown in 1839, at the age of 52, was a great-grandson of 
Morris Morris, the first of the name who settled in this county. Forsaking 
the faith of their fathers, they connected themselves with the Hilltown 
Baptist church, where Isaac Morris was an elder many years. Matthias 
studied law with his cousin, Enos Morris, and was admitted to the bar at 
Newtown in 1809. He came to Doylestown with the removal of the county-seat, 
then practiced in Philadelphia until 1819, when Governor Hiester 
appointed him deputy attorney-general for Bucks county, and he returned to 
Doylestown, where he spent the remainder of his life. He served a tour of 
duty at camp Marcus Hook in 1814, was elected to the state senate in 1828, 
and afterward elected to Congress for one term [1839-40*]. In 1829 he 
married Wilhelmina, daughter of Abraham Chapman. Stephen Brock, the first 
of the name at Doylestown, was probably a descendant of John Brock, who 
came to the county in 1682, and settled in Lower Makefield. He was a 
famous landlord in his day, and his popular manners made him a p0wer in 
the county. He was a great lover of fun, and some of his anecdotes are not 
yet forgotten. He was twice sheriff of the county. [The late*] William T. 
Rogers was the son of William C. Rogers, of Connecticut, but born in 
Philadelphia, in 1799, and his father subsequently removed to Warrington 
township. William learned the printing trade with Asher Miner, and was 
several years proprietor and editor of the "Doylestown Democrat." He 
became prominent in politics, and was active in the militia. He served two 
terms, of four years each, in the state senate, and was speaker the last 
two years. He was brigade inspector of the county, and subsequently 
elected major-general. He was a friend of public improvement. He died at 
Doylestown, in 1867, and was buried in the beautiful cemetery which was 
mainly laid out by his efforts.
    [The Lear family was the last of the period to come to Doylestown, that 
remained and reached a prominence in public and private life. George Lear, 
the father, one of the most prominent men in Eastern Pennsylvania, was the 
son of Robert and Mary Meloy Lear, of mixed Celtic descent, and born in 
Warwick township, Bucks county, February 16, 1818. He was brought up to 
work on the farm, and during his leisure, cultivated a taste for reading. 
He received his education at the country school, with a single term at the 
Newtown academy. At 19 we find him teaching school. He was next keeping 
store in Montgomery county and reading law in his leisure. Having made up 
his mind to make the law his profession, he came to Doylestown in the 
spring of 1844, entered the office of E. T. McDowell, the most eloquent 
advocate at the bar, and was admitted to practice the following November. 
He opened an office at once and entered upon his career. That fall Mr. 
Lear entered the field of politics and was a very picturesque stump speaker. 
He soon acquired a good practice and in time reached the head of the 
Bucks county bar. Being a fluent speaker, he had frequent calls to lecture 
and make speeches. He was an active politician, but was never a candidate 
for but one elective office, a member of the constitutional convention of 
1872-73, but declined to sign the constitution he assisted to form. He was 
twice appointed deputy attorney-general of the county, 1848-50, and filled 
the office of attorney-general of the commonwealth four years, during the 
administration of Governor Hartranft, 1875-79. In 1882 Lear presided over 
the Republican state convention, and was president of the Doylestown 
National bank from 1865 to his death. Mr. Lear was twice married, his 
second wife being Sidney Whyte. He died May 23, 1884, and was survived by 
his widow and three children, two daughters and a son. The latter is a 
graduate of Yale and a practicing member of the Bucks county bar.*]
    [The Medarys came to Doylestown early in the last century. The original 
name was probably Madeira and came from the island of that name. The 
family was settled in the Province of Estramadura, Spain, for many years, 
but during the persecution of the Protestants, in time of Charles V, 
removed to Holland. How long they remained there is not known, but removed 
hence to American, settling at Gwynedd, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. 
Isaac B. Medary, born June 11, 1790, and died January 27, 1853, came to 
Doylestown about the time it was made the county seat and spent a greater 
part of his life here. He was a tailor by trade, carrying on business in 
the stone house on the northwest corner of Main and Centre streets. He 
married Rebecca Child, or Childs, second daughter of Cephas and Agnes 
Childs, March 10, 1815, of Plumstead township. She was born February 11, 
1790. They were the parents of nine children, six sons and three 
daughters: 
    Anna Amelia, born November 15, 1815, and died, unmarried, October 17, 1832
    Louis B., the eldest son
    Mary Ross, the youngest child, born September 17, 1836.
The children were all born in Doylestown. The family removed to 
Philadelphia about 1840, where the oldest son, Louis, was a shipping 
merchant, and died in recent years.*]
    Dr. William S. Hendrie, 35 years a resident of Doylestown, was born in 
Sussex county, New Jersey, in 1798. His father was a Scotchman, and a 
graduate of the University of Edinburgh, but came early in life to 
America. The doctor studied with Dr. Wilson, of Buckingham, and after 
practicing at Springtown and Hilltown a few years, came to Doylestown in 
1840, and spent his life here. He was appointed Associate-Judge in 1849, 
and served two years. He was one of the captors of Mina, the murderer of 
Doctor Chapman, when he escaped from jail just previous to the time fixed 
for his execution. [Dr. Hendrie had a family of sons and daughters, two of 
the sons, James and Dr. Scott, serving on the Union side in the Civil war, 
the former as regimental quarter-master and the latter assistant surgeon. 
Both are deceased.*]
    New Doylestown, as our county capital may properly now be called, is a 
town of 2,000 [3,000*] inhabitants, with streets well shaded, paved, and 
lighted with gas (1876), and altogether is one of the most pleasant 
villages in the state. The location, which is especially fine and 
remarkably healthy, is on a somewhat elevated plateau, [600 feet above 
tide water*] the ground descending from the middle of the town in every 
direction but one, which makes drainage an easy matter. Around the base of 
the plateau wind charming valleys with gentle hills beyond, dotted with 
well-cultivated farms, woodlands, and comfortable dwellings, and in the 
distance the South mountain can be plainly seen on a clear, bright day. 
[No county in the State excels Bucks in her public buildings, nor better 
suited for their purposes. The court house, erected 1877-78, almost on the 
spot where that of 1812 stood, is a model of comfort and convenience. The 
style is pleasing, the space allotted to the court and the officials all 
that could be desired in arrangement, and a stately spire crowns the 
whole, from whose tops the eye sweeps the highly cultivated country that 
surrounds it for miles.*] It is stated in a newspaper of the period, that 
on the evening of September 5, 1816, a large sea eagle, six feet from tip 
to tip, was shot from the vane of the court-house, by a citizen of 
Dyerstown. [The jail, built a few years later, and occupying an equally 
eligible situation looking to the southwest, is unique in its 
construction, in that the cells are but one story high, and every door of 
the 52-cells can be seen from a single point in the central corridor.  The 
school building, in keeping with the other public improvements, occupies 
part of the lot on which the academy was erected, 1804, and is esteemed 
one of the handsomest in the State. The school is graded, the curriculum 
being adapted to advanced scholars. One of the handsomest buildings 
erected in the borough, in recent past, is that for the accommodation of 
the Doylestown National Bank, 1896-7, at an expense of $40,000. It 
occupies the site of the Ross mansion, an historic dwelling, and facing 
Monument Place at the crossing of Main and Court streets. The most recent 
improvement is the Hart block, on the former Harvey property, southwest 
side of North Main street, extending to the corner of Court. There are two 
buildings, erected at different times, but the architectural designs are 
so well blended and carried out in the finish, as to look like a single 
building. It is three stories high, the floor space being mainly devoted 
to offices with a handsome drug and other store room, on the ground 
floor.*] 
    [Doylestown is supplied with churches of the various religious 
denominations: Presbyterian, Friends, Methodist, Protestant Episcopal, 
Baptist, Roman Catholic, Reformed, Lutheran and African. Of the 
Presbyterian we have already spoken, the oldest (1815) in organization by 
many years. Next is the Friends meeting, 1834, by permission of the 
Buckingham Quarterly. (The meeting-house was built the following year, at 
a cost of $1,654.50, and a meeting first held in it December 30, 1836.) 
The Methodist Episcopal, 1838, twice improved, and in 61 years of its life 
has had 40 pastors; the Protestant Episcopal church, Saint Paul's, was 
organized, 1846, the first service held in the church building, April 23, 
1848, and twice remodeled at an expense of $7,200. Saint Mary's, Catholic, 
grew from a missionary station opened in 1850, and the first church 
dedicated the same year, is now a strong organization, with a parochial 
school in charge of the Sisters of St. Frances. The Baptist church took 
root from seed sown by the Rev. Samuel Nightingale in 1846; the 
congregation was started anew, 20 years later, and a church building 
erected, 1869, at an expense of $18,000. The Reformed church had its 
beginning as a missionary station , 1858, congregation organized (by Rev. 
W. C. Yearick with 20 members), 1861, first church built and dedicated, 
1865, and a new building erected, 1896-7. The Lutheran congregation, 
organized 1877, has grown to be a flourishing body with a comfortable 
church building.*]  (16)

   (16)  In this paragraph the information in parentheses is from the 1876 edition.


             (See illustration Doylestown Friends Meeting House.)


    [Doylestown possesses what is probably the tallest flagstaff in the 
United States, presented to the borough in the spring of 1898 by Dr. Frank 
Swartzlander. It stands 164 feet out of the ground, and is buried 11 feet 
in cement. The mainmast is a single stick of Oregon pine 106 feet long, 34 
inches in diameter at the base, and 18 inches at the top. The top mast is 
Norway pine from Michigan. The main mast came round Cape Horn and lay in 
the Delaware at Camden, New Jersey, seven years. It stands on the northe
ast corner of the court house grounds. The gift was accompanied with a 
large garrison flag that is raised on public occasions.*]
    Among the institutions, industrial establishments and business carried on 
in the town may be mentioned the following:
    A national bank, which began its existence as a state bank in 1832,
    Two trust companies,
    A Masonic hall, in which the Doylestown lodge, No. 245, holds its regular meetings,
    The Benevolent lodge, chartered, 1819, the first in the town, but 
dissolved during the anti-Masonic times,
    Three English and three German newspapers. [Four weekly papers and three 
dailies, in English, and one in German*],
    Three board and coal yards,
    (In 1876) a spoke-factory, and agriculture implement manufactory, with a 
machine shop and foundry attached, a carriage-factory,
    [In 1905, board and coal yards, planning mill, sash and door factory*],
    A full complement of mechanical trades,
    Two lodges,
    One encampment of Odd Fellows, 
    Two building associations,  [not mentioned in 1905 edition]
    A German Aid society,
    Lodges of American Mechanics and Patrons of Husbandry
    A village library containing a well-selected collection of books,
    Three [two*] drug stores,
    Several stores for dry good, groceries, hardware, and fancy articles,
    Five hotels,
    Several physicians, etc.
The dwellings of Doylestown are neat and handsome, if not elegant and 
expensive, and nearly every house has a well-kept front yard. In May 1829 
the "Bucks County Academy of Natural Sciences" was organized in a room of 
the academy, and was kept up until 1838. During its existence quite a 
taste was fostered for scientific investigation, and a number of lectures 
were delivered and essays read. [A small African Methodist Episcopal 
church was erected on the edge of the borough within three years. (17)]

    (17)    This church not mentioned in 1905 edition.


          (See illustration of Doylestown National Bank, 1897.)


    In 1855 William Beek, a resident of Doylestown, projected an exhibition, 
and erected a handsome building on the western edge of the borough. It 
drew an immense crowd of visitors at the fair in August, at which Horace 
Greeley delivered an address, but, unfortunately for the permanent success 
of the enterprise, the building blew down in the fall. In 1866 a company, 
chartered as the "Doylestown Agricultural and Mechanics' Institute," 
purchased the old grounds and erected thereon a large and convenient brick 
building for exhibition purposes, in which an annual fair is held in 
October, embracing a display of farm produce, implements and domestic 
articles of all kinds, and horses and cattle. On the ground is a level, 
half-mile track, where fast horses are put to their speed. The fair 
attracts thousands, and cash premiums give rise to lively competition.
    Doylestown is fortunate in the possession of complete waterworks, which 
supply the town with good, pure water. The project was put on foot as long 
ago as 1850, when a mill property on the eastern edge of the borough was 
purchased, and a reservoir partially constructed in the cemetery. A change 
in the council put a stop to the work, and nothing further was done for 
many years. Things being again favorable to the project, in 1869, the work 
was resumed and completed by the borough, under authority of an act of 
Assembly, at a cost of $32,000. Water is collected from several springs 
into a storage reservoir, and raised, by steam, 157 feet in the distance 
of 3,200 into a basin in the cemetery, whence it is distributed through 
the town in iron pipes. [In recent years the supply has been increased by 
sinking three artesian wells.*] Fire-plugs are placed along the streets at 
the distance of 600 feet apart for the safety of buildings in case of 
fire. The enterprise has been a complete financial success to the borough, 
as the water-rents more than pay the interest on the cost of construction 
and the running expenses.
    Doylestown has greatly increased [and improved*] her educational 
facilities of [following the close of the Civil war.*] In 1866 a building 
for an English and classical seminary was erected in a beautiful grove on 
the western edge of the borough, and enlarged in 1869, for the education 
of both sexes, with accommodations for 150 borders and day scholars. At 
the eastern end of the town, on a site that overlooks the surrounding 
country for several miles, a large building for a female boarding and day 
school was erected in 1871, with accommodations for about 75 pupils. It is 
known as Linden seminary, and [met with reasonable patronage for a few 
years, but soon ran its course, when the building was put to other uses. 
This was caused, in part, by the improved condition of the public schools 
of the borough.*]  The gas-works were erected by parties from Philadelphia 
about 1856, but re-built and enlarged in 1873, [but in recent years were 
largely supplanted by electricity for lighting purposes, and is used 
exclusively in the streets and public buildings.*]  The handsomest 
improvement, as well as one of the most useful, in the borough is Lenape 
building, at the corner of State and Main streets, erected in 1875, by a 
stock-company at an expense, lot and furnishing included, of over $50,000. 
Its features are a market-house and six stores on the first story, a 
handsome and convenient hall that seats nearly 800 persons, and a stage 
equipped with beautiful scenery, four offices and dressing-room, on the 
second, and a beautiful lodge-room on the third. The building is of brick, 
with stone trimmings, and is surpassed in beauty and convenience by but 
few of the kind in the State. [The market feature of the building was 
abandoned several years ago, and that portion of ground floor was used for 
postoffice and other purposes.*] 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 [by Keller's bakery and 
restaurant, formerly part of the Mansion House.*] This was the winter of 
1845-46, 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.


             (See illustration Lenape building, Doylestown.)


    In the spring of 1868, a handsome monument, of American white marble, was 
erected in the centre of town, by their late colonel, to the memory of the 
dead of the 104th Pennsylvania regiment, at a cost of $3,100. One-half of 
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. [The height of the 
monument is 32 feet with base of Vermont granite. The shaft is an exact pa
ttern of Cleopatra's needle, and on its face are cut the names of the 
battles it participated in, running round it from top to bottom.*]
    [The most interesting borough event of recent years was the celebration 
of Doylestown's centennial, March 1, 1878. This date was used as the 
village birthday because on that day, 1778, General John Lacey wrote an 
official order at "Doyle Town," the first time the village name is known 
to have been so spelled; hence there was propriety in fixing upon this day 
and year as its birth, and from it computing its age. The occasion was 
everything that could be desired. The day was warm and clear, more like 
May than March, and attendance large, the number of distinguished persons 
considerable, including Hon. Simon Cameron, Harrisburg; George W. Childs, 
John O. James, Count Dassi, Philadelphia; General John Davis, Davisville; 
Judge Henry P. Ross, Norristown; Hon. I. Newton Evans, Hatboro; Attorney 
General Lear, Doylestown, and many others. The private houses and places 
of business were handsomely decorated, and all work suspended. In the 
forenoon the streets were paraded by a procession representing the trades 
and occupations of the borough, with some quaintness to relieve the sober 
side of the picture. In the afternoon Lenape Hall was filled with an 
appreciative audience to listen to appropriate literary exercises, 
Attorney General Lear presiding. The program consisted of the following: 
An ode, Caleb E. Wright, Esq.; a poem, Miss Carrie Loeb; historical 
address, General W. W. H. Davis, and an oration by Judge Richard Watson, 
accompanied by vocal and instrumental music and religious exercises. The 
celebration was rounded out in the evening by a dramatic entertainment, 
the program embracing the "Maid of Croissey, or Theresa's Vow," a military 
drama in two acts, followed by the laughable burlesque tragic opera of 
"Bombastes Furioso." Brock's orchestra furnished the music. The affair was 
a success and a pointer for the Doylestown of 1978.*]


       (See illustration of Bucks County Trust Company's Building.)


    [The old academy was torn down in 1889-90, and a handsome public school 
building erected on part of the same lot, at a cost of $30,000, in which a 
graded school is kept, with all the modern appliances of education. Prior 
to its demolition a number of its friends, including former teachers and 
pupils, assembled in the large room on the first floor the afternoon of 
May 3, 1889, to pay a tribute to its memory and relegate it to history. 
The exercise opened with a prayer by the Rev. William A. Patton, consisted 
of an historical address by W. W. H. Davis, and short addresses by Rev. 
Levi C. Sheip, John L. DuBois, Elias Carver and William J. Buck, followed 
by the audience singing "Nearer My God to Thee." and the doxology, and the 
Rev. D. Levin Coleman pronouncing a benediction. A respectable audience 
was in attendance and the exercises were interesting.*]
    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, [and three trolley 
roads, one connecting with Philadelphia, another with Newtown and Bristol, 
another to Easton, and others are projected between other points.*] The 
first stage through Doylestown was that from Easton to Philadelphia, which 
John Nicholaus commenced running April 29, 1792, which made weekly trips, 
down on Monday and up on Thursday, fare $2. 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 overnight at 
John Moore's, Jenkintown, going down, and at Adam Driesback's, now Stony 
Point, returning. The fare was $2 for each passenger, with 10 pounds of 
baggage. The charge for 150 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 Nicholaus, as the fare 
was the same. As early as 1800 a semi-weekly stage ran from Philadelphia 
to Bethlehem, through Doylestown, fare for passenger $2.75. A line of 
daily stages was running from Philadelphia through Doylestown to Easton, 
Bethlehem and Allentown in 1828. During these 62 [70*] 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 75 cents, starting from Hare's tavern, (18) 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 Indian 
Queen. In 1815 the "coachee" made trips to and from Philadelphia every 
other day, fare $1.25. Smith and Kirk, coach-makers, Doylestown, ran a 
coach to Philadelphia several years, commencing about 1820. Stages from 
Doylestown 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 passengers by calling out 
to his horses, "Now run away and kill another driver, won't you?"

   (18)  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. [sic]

    In 1820 the population of Doylestown was but 360, and about 500 [400*] 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; 1870, 1,601 of which 139 were of 
foreign birth; [1880, 2,070; 1890, 2,519; 1900, 3034.*]
    [Among the industrial and artistic enterprises there is one which 
deserves more than passing notice. It is the Moravian Pottery and Tile 
Works at Doylestown, established and conducted by Henry C. Mercer, Esq. 
The circumstances which led to the development of this industry are quite 
interesting and invoke a brief sketch of the proprietor of the pottery.*]
    [Mr. Mercer, a grandson of the eminent jurist to whose memory this volume 
is dedicated, is a graduate of Harvard College. His taste in youth 
inclining to scientific and archaeological research, he abandoned his 
original intention to practice law, after having been admitted to the 
Philadelphia Bar, and pursued his scientific work with such success that 
he became, while a very young man, curator of the museum of the University 
of Pennsylvania. While engaged in archaeological research he conducted the 
Corwith Expedition to Yucatan. Upon his return from that country he 
employed a period of leisure in making the valuable collection known as 
the Tools of the Nation Maker, now in possession of the Bucks County 
Historical Society. (19)  It was during this period that he found and 
became especially interested in the old German stove plates made at Durham 
Furnace. He conceived the notion of preserving and reproducing in the form 
of tiles, the quaint decorations found upon the plates. This led to an 
exhaustive study of the potter's art, and so fascinating did it prove to 
the archaeologist that large kilns soon supplanted the experimental 
devices erected in his studio.*]

   (19)  Editorial note: Now in Mercer Museum built, built 1913-16, 
         Doylestown, administered by Bucks County Historical Society. Its seven 
         stories are constructed entirely of reinforced concrete and include 
         towers, gables and parapets.

    The manufacture of the stove plate tiles led to more general and detailed 
study of the subject, and ere long the Moravian Pottery was producing 
duplicates of the best examples of tiles found in the ruined churches and 
abbeys of England and the Continent, together with those obtained from the 
choice collections of the museums and private collectors of Europe. But 
the crowning triumph of Mr. Mercer's efforts was a discovery or invention 
of his own, known as the clay mosaic. We quote the following concise des
cription of this process published in his catalogue:
    "The Mosaics, made and set together by a novel process, patented in 1903, 
are adapted for the embellishment of pavements or walls on a much larger 
scale than the tiles. Patterns ranging from one foot to twenty feet in 
diameter, or even where the figures of men or animals might equal life 
size, consist of pieces of clay burned in many colors superficially or 
throughout the body, and either glazed or unglazed. The tesserae, not 
rectangular as in Roman or Byzantine mosaics, but cut in multiform shapes 
to suit the potter's process, and whose contours themselves help to 
delineate the design, are set in cement at the Pottery. After the manner 
of the leaded glass designs of the earlier stained windows, these novel 
weather and time proof clay pictures, burned in brown, gray, white, red, 
black, green, yellow and blue clay, and strongly outlined in their 
pointing of cement, serve to decorate a floor or wall in the richest and 
most lasting manner."*]
    [The modest reference quoted from the catalogue does not do justice to 
the subject. Here was a process altogether original, unique and beautiful, 
affording the widest latitude for the execution of artistic conception 
and, moreover, in a medium practically indestructible, and suited for 
either interior or exterior decoration, something even ancient cunning had 
never conceived of and yet, withal, perfectly simple and feasible.*]
    [The products of the Moravian Pottery have already been employed by 
America's foremost architects and artists in costly private dwellings and 
public buildings, but the prediction may be safely made that the mosaics 
invented and made at Doylestown will be judged by posterity as an 
achievement of great importance in the domain of industrial art. (20)*]

   (20)  Editorial note: Now also a museum in Doylestown.

END OF CHAPTER XLV or CHAPTER XV, 1905 edition


THE HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, CHAPTER XVI, VOL. II, BRIDGETON, 1890.
from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time by W. W. H. Davis, A.M., 
1876 and 1905* editions.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Transcriptionist's note: This entire chapter 1905 edition.  Bridgeton township
established after publication of the 1876 edition.

_____________________________________________________________________________


                           CHAPTER XVI (Vol. II), 1905 ed.

                                    BRIDGETON.

                                      1890.


The youngest township.  -When organized.  -The first step.  -Petition presented.
    -Names of petitioners.  -Reason for new township, boundary suggested.  -Names of 
    commissioners.  -Reports submitted with name.  -Action of court.  
    -Submitted to vote.  -First settlers not known.  _The Pursells, et al.  - 
    Only village.  -Oldest house.  -River freshets.  -Ringing Rocks.  -Bridge 
    over the Delaware.  -Population - Rafinesque, celebrated Swedish botanist.

    Bridgeton, the youngest township in the county, the child of Nockamixon, 
was organized, 1890, 148 years after the parent township was laid out and 
given municipal government, in so much as such power is conferred on any 
county subdivision. The first step toward the mutilation of Nockamixon was 
taken at the November term of the Quarter Sessions court in 1889, when a 
petition was presented asking that the parent township be divided into 
two. The following names were signed to the petition:
    G. W. Grim,
    H. H. Younken
    Nicholas Younken
    Oliver Kimmerer
    Clinton Scheetz
    Mathias Hier
    Enos F. Deihl
    J. H. Rupe
    John H. Nickel
    George D. Fox
    H. C. Ott
    Josiah Wolfinger
    William Rupe
    Llewellyn K. Anders
    Wilson Kiser
    D. R. Pinkerton
    B. S. Kohl
    Preston Rufe
    F. H. Grim
    Israel Metzger
    L. M. Althouse
    Levi Deemer
    John Gutekunst
    C. F. Schabinger
    William Kohl
    Edmund Goddard
    W. S. Gwinner
    William Williamson, all of Nockamixon.
    
    The reasons given for the mutilation of this old township, were the 
"safety of the public peace, the conditions of the public highways, and 
the proper administration of affairs of justice." The petitioners asked 
that the division be made on the line, separating the two election 
districts of Nockamixon, by virtue of an act of Assembly, passed April 27, 
1855; "commencing at the mouth of the creek emptying into the Delaware 
Division Pennsylvania Canal, at, or near, the Narrowsville hotel in said 
township, following the several courses of said creek to Boatman's Hill, 
along the eastern edge of the same to Beaver Creek, thence along the 
several courses of said creek to where the public road crosses said creek 
on the property formerly owned by Philip Nice; thence following the said 
public road to the line dividing said Township from Tinicum township at or 
near Daniel Rimer's. " The court appointed Daniel Gotwals, Jacob Hagerty 
and William Shepherd commissioners, or reviewers.
    The commissioners met at the public house of William Rufe, Nockamixon, on 
Saturday, November 30, 1889, having given public notice of the time and 
place of meeting. Before entering upon the discharge of the duties 
assigned them, the commissioners were duly sworn, or affirmed, whereupon 
they proceeded to inquire into the prayer of the petitioners, and the 
propriety of granting it. After due consideration they agreed to lay off a 
new township substantially on the lines given in the petition, which was 
duly set forth in a report to the court, accompanied by a plat or draft, 
saying, among other things, they "are of opinion the creation of a new 
township, according to the aforesaid lines, would be to the convenience of 
the inhabitants thereof; that the prayers of the petitioners should be 
granted, and said new township should be erected to be known as Bridgeton 
township." The report was signed by Jacob Hagerty and William Shepherd, a 
majority of the commissioners, confirmed "nisi," Dec. 4, 1889, and filed. 
At the same term of court Daniel Gotwals, the third commissioner, 
presented a minority report against a division of the township, basing his 
opposition on the testimony offered, "proving that all, or nearly all, the 
heavy taxpayers in Bridgeton district are opposed to a division on that 
line, it being shown by statistics, said to have been taken from the 
assessors' books, that the average wealth of the taxables in Bridgeton is 
$709, and in Nockamixon $1,102; for these, and other reasons, it would be 
unjust to the taxpayers in Bridgeton district to force a separation 
against their consent.
    At the following term of the Quarter Sessions, January 14, 1890, Michael 
McEntee, and other citizens of Nockamixon, by their attorneys filed eight 
exceptions to the confirmation of the commissioners' report. In order to 
reach the sense of the people, as to the division of the township, the 
court, on March 4, ordered a popular election to be held in both election 
districts of Nockamixon, on March 25, 1890, which resulted as follows: For 
division, 250, against division, 150, majority for division, 100. The 
result of this vote was filed March 26, 1890, and settled the question of 
the new township, and, on May 29, 1890, the court decreed the division of 
Nockamixon, and ordered elections for township officers to be held on 
Saturday, June 28, A. D., 1890, of which 15 days notice were to be given. 
The court also fixed the place for holding said elections: that for 
Bridgeton, in the school house at that place, and appointed Edward Twaddel 
judge, and David Hilbert and Sloan Lear majority and minority inspectors; 
for Nockamixon, at the public house of William Rufe, and Seymour Rufe was 
appointed judge, James H. Trauger, majority, and John S. Hager minority 
inspector.
    It is impossible, at this late day, to give the names, and time of 
settlement, of the pioneers who located in that part of Nockamixon now 
embraced within the boundary of Bridgeton. The Pursells were one of the 
earliest families to settle in the new township whose descendants remain. 
Recent investigations satisfy us the original name of the family was not 
Pursell, but "Purslone," and was among the earliest settlers in Penn's 
Colony. Among the arrivals in the Delaware in the Phoenix, Captain Shaw, 
August 1677, was John Purslone, a farmer from Ireland. He probably settled 
in Bensalem, although his name is not on Holme's map, where it would have 
been had he been a land owner. On the 9th of 7th month, 1685, he was 
appointed constable for the "further side of Neshaminah," which brought 
his residence in Bensalem. He appears as a witness at the court of Quarter 
Sessions 1 mo. 9. 1689, when his age is given as 60 years. His wife's name 
was Elizabeth. (1)  In the Quarter Sessions docket his name is written 
Purslone and Pursley. On May 12, 1726, Thomas Pursell, or "Pursley," 
Wrightstown, bought 225 acres in that township of John Cooper, on 
Randall's run. Prior to 1745 Dennis Pursell, or Pursley, father of John 
Pursell, appears in Musconetcong, Hunterdon county, New Jersey. His wife's 
name was Ruth, daughter of Henry Cooper, Newtown, married 1728, and her 
mother a daughter of William Buckman, also of Newtown. She was married 
twice, the first time to Henry Cooper, and upon his death, to Launcelot 
Strawhen. There were Pursells in Bristol township early, the will of John 
Pursell being proved April 8, 1732, leaving a daughter Ann, and the will 
of Mary, his widow, was proved April 7, 1786. We do not know at what time 
Dennis Pursell, or Pursley, died on the Musconetcong, but his son John 
removed to Nockamixon about 1775, and died there. The names of the 
children of the two generations of Pursells are about identical, as far as 
they go. All the Pursells of Bucks county are descendants of John the 
elder of Nockamixon, now embraced in Bridgeton.  

    (1)  The maiden name of John Purslone' wife was Elizabeth Walmsly, widow 
         of Thomas Walmsly, who died 1684, leaving sons Henry and Thomas.

    There is a difference of opinion as to the time the Pursells, or 
Pursleys, removed from the Musconetcong to Nockamixon, the date being 
fixed between 1750 and 1775, but we think the latter date the nearest 
correct. About 1773, John Pursell purchased of Dr. John Chapman 100 acres 
lying on the Delaware below Bridgeton for £450, the deed being witnessed 
by John Beaumont and Thomas Ross. He had four sons, John, Thomas, Brice 
and Dennis, and at least six daughters; Ruth, who married Daniel Strawhen, 
Elizabeth, Benjamin Holden, Ann, Margery, Jane, married John Houseworth, 
and Mary who married a Henry. John Pursell died 1805, and his wife, Anna, 
1820. Thomas Pursell, who located at Narrowsville in the last century, and 
had a ferry there, is thought to have been a brother of the first John. Of 
the sons of John, Thomas settled at Bridgeton and held the first Methodist 
service there. Brice M. Pursell, a man of influence in his day is well 
remembered by many friends. We regret we have not more reliable data 
concerning other settlers who came early into Bridgeton, for doubtless 
this part of Nockamixon had its pioneers when the country was a wilderness 
and their descendants are still with us, but we have no means of telling 
when their ancestors settled here. The first family we strike is that of 
Stull or Stoll, and of them but a single member has come down to us, the 
son Andrew Stull. His patriotism probably saved the name from oblivion. 
After the Revolution was under way he enlisted in the Continental army, a 
private in Captain John Davis' company, Colonel Nagle's regiment, 
Pennsylvania Line. He entered the service March 6, 1777, and was 
discharged at Philadelphia, June 1783, after serving more than six years. 
Among the historic battles he was in, were Brandywine, Germantown, 
Monmouth, and the siege of the British at Yorktown, followed by the 
surrender of Lord Cornwallis. This was October 19, 1781. He received a 
pension of eight dollars per month, and died in 1846. He lived in Haycock, 
at one time, and we believe died there. The author has a piece of his 
certificate of discharge, signed by the Adjutant of his regiment.
    The Williams family are said to have come into the township at a very 
early day and to have bought land of the Indians, the farm subsequently 
owned by Jacob Stover; while such purchase was possible he doubtless took 
title from William Penn when the colony came into his possession. The 
Anders, Smiths, McTerrents, Heavnors, Scheetz, Ruples, Rynard, Wimmers, 
Trumbores, Templetons, Coxes and Majors. Jacob Scheetz died in fifties and 
Hugh Major in the thirties. Jacob Stover, a successful farmer, was a 
member of the Stover family of Tinicum, and father of Albert, 
Kintnersville, and Lewis, attorney at law, Philadelphia. Peter Lear, who 
bought a farm of John Pursell, 1816, died on it, 1866. Peter DeRoche, a 
Frenchman, brother-in-law of Peter Lear, was drowned in Philadelphia, 
1836. A number of the early settlers on the Delaware front, were watermen, 
among them Henry Sigafoos and John Fisher. Jacob Harwick was a potter and 
lived to a very great age, dying in 1866. The disuse of the canal, and 
building of the Belvidere-Delaware railroad, have almost entirely 
destroyed the occupation of "watermen." In its day, quite a fleet of 
Durham boats and coal arks were seen on the Upper Delaware. The first 
public house licensed at Bridgeton was that owned by Thomas Gwinner, 
subsequently kept by Thomas Elton, who died 1834. John Adams was justice of 
the peace at Bridgeton for many years under the old order of things, first by 
appointment from Governor Wolf and subsequently elected 1840-45. The 
bridge across the Delaware was built 1842, the year after the great 
freshet. Tradition says the river road through Bridgeton was never laid 
out by order of court, but the Indian trial was only widened and constant 
use wore it into a highway.
    The only village in the township is the one it was named after, 
Bridgeton, on the bank of the Delaware, with a population of a few 
hundred. A post office was established here 1830, and David Worman 
appointed the first postmaster. It was called "Upper Blacks Eddy," (2) 
retaining that name until the new township was erected, when it was 
changed to the name it now bears. The oldest house in Bridgeton is the one 
occupied by William Gwinner, a half tone of which illustrate the chapter. 
The easterly frame end of the main building to the right in the picture, 
was built by John Pursell, who died 1808, over 100 years old. The stone 
part was built by his son Brice in the first decade of the last century, 
and the lower attached building to the right, 1853, by the late Brice M. 
Pursell. The figures in the photo are the late Brice M. and his wife, 
Martha Poor Pursell, standing outside the fence, and their niece, Ollie 
Poor Bachman, inside. This house, the home of three generations of the 
family, is one of the oldest dwellings in the upper end of the county. A 
member of the family was a remarkable mathematician, John M. Pursell, son 
of the second Brice. He worked out problems of the most complex character, 
and the calculation of time, latitude, eclipses and other astronomical 
phenomena, were common with him. It is said no solvable problem was ever 
given him of which he did not find the solution. The river freshet of 
January 8, 1841, was nine inches higher at Bridgeton than ever known 
before or since, except that of June 4, 1862; both were very destructive 
of property, the latter leaving the canal banks in such a condition that 
boating was not resumed until late in the fall. The "Pumpkin freshet," 
1808, was so destructive it was much talked about by people of that period.


    (2)  Today Upper Black Eddy.


                (See illustration of Pursell Homestead.)


    On the eastern side of the township, near the Delaware, on the farm 
formerly owned by a Mr. Lippincott, is a peculiar geological formation 
known as "Ringing Rocks," occupying a space of about 4-1/2 acres, of 
irregular shape, branching out as it were from a common centre in four 
directions. The rocks vary in size from a few pounds to several tons in 
weight, and, when struck with a hammer, give out a peculiar metallic 
sound, the tone of each differing from the other. They are doubtless of 
igneous origin. The Eastern part of the formation is several feet higher 
than the western. The rocks are piled on each other to an unknown depth, 
not a particle of earth being found between then, nor is there a tree, 
bush or a spear of grass to be seen. A moderate-sized dog could easily 
creep down among them to the depth of ten or fifteen feet. The formation 
inclines to the north and west, and no other rocks of the same kind are to 
be found in that vicinity. About 300 yards east of the Ringing Rocks is a 
beautiful waterfall 30 feet high and 50 wide. The course of the creek, for 
a short distance above the falls, is north 22 degrees, 30 minutes west, 
but changes at the falls to due north and continues in that direction some 
distance. Bridgeton township is connected with the New Jersey shore at 
Milford on the Delaware, by a wooden bridge built 1842. The following 
statistics relating to Bridgeton will be read with interest. The area is 
4,419 acres of which 4,068 are cleared land and 351 timber; assessed 
valuation of real estate, both houses and lands, $151,483; occupations at 
$36,400; horses and cattle, 251, and money taxed for state purposes, 
$70,520. The population of Bridgeton is about 1,100 and the voters, 222, 
or one in five; number of children between the ages of 6 and 16 years, 
194, and the township has five schools. The following was the vote of 
Bridgeton, beginning with its organization:
    1890, 179
    1891, 146
    1892, 181
    1893, 171
    1894, 154
    1895, 137
    1896, 170
    1897, 87
    1898, 125
    1899, 121.
    In 1836 Rafinesque, the celebrated Swedish botanist and naturalist, 
visited the river front of Bridgeton and Nockamixon, to study some of its 
remarkable plants and admire the beautiful prospects from the top of 
Prospect Rock, which he describes as follows: "But the greatest natural 
curiosity on the Delaware are Nockamixon Rocks in Pennsylvania, where they 
give name to the township. This ledge is nearly perpendicular, 2-1/2 miles 
long and 400 feet high. The base is red shell, or paleopasemite, but 
overcapped by a brown trap. They face the south and have a level top with 
only two fissures, made by rain falling in cascades. The road and canal 
have been made by cutting and banking. The river is full of little 
islands. Opposite in New Jersey there are gravel hills, the highest 700 
feet high. It is a romantic spot. I found here adoumia and many other rare 
plants."



END OF CHAPTER XVI, VOL. II, 1905 edition.