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ALDERMAN LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
CHAm-OTTESVlUA VIRGINIA
ALDBRMAN LIBRARY
LIFK HISTORIKS
DOCUMENTATION
FUND
L
•<^,.'
\
HISTORY
OF
Bucks County.
«
PENNSYLVANIA;
INOLXTDTSQ
AN ACCOUNT OP ITS ORIGINAL EXPLORATION ; ITS RELATION TO THE SETTLSBfENTS
OF NEW JERSEY AND DELAWARE ; ITS ERECTION INTO A SEPARATE COUNTY,
ALSO ITS SUBSEQUENT GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT, WITH SKETCHES OF
ITS HISTORIC AND INTERESTING LOCALITIES, AND BIOGRAPHIES
OF MANY OF ITS REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
EDITED BY J. H. BATTLE.
ILLUSTRATED.
PHILADELPHIA, PA., CHICAGO, ILL. :
A. WARNER & CO., PUBLISHERS.
1887.
F
57
OOPTBIGHT, 1887, BY A. WARNER & CO.
PHILADBLPHfA: OOLLllfS PBIMTINa B0U8B,
700 Jayne Street.
PREFACE
rilulS volume is offered to the public as a contribution to the history of Bucks county. The writer does not flatter himself that the subject has been exhausted. It has been his effort to present the essen- tial £Eu:ts pertaining to the development of the county in such relation to each other as to indicate the various motives and influences which have led to the present results. Pioneer life in the original counties of Penn- sylvania was not such as to afibrd opportunities for brilliant action. The peaceful precepts of the Friends precluded the thrilling experience of the border as well as the pomp and pageantry of glorious war, and the story of the origin and development of this portion of the state is significant in its moral rather than in its material aspects.
The "Book of Arrivals," often quoted from and the basis of all certain information regarding many of the f^ioneers of the county, is given in full, with lists of those who have served the county in a public capacity. The latter have been compiled at a considerable expense of time and labor, and are thought to be as complete as it is possible to make them. The sketch of the early history of the state, prepared by Prof. Samuel P. Bates, will be found in abbreviated form in the introduc- tory chapter. The biographical sketches, for the most part, have been arranged alphabetically under the several township headings in the latter part of the volume. This arrangement has been adopted as the best means of affording convenience of reference, and relieving the narrative portion of tedious digression. The large number of these sketches has necessitated as brief treatment as the circumstances would warrant, and
IV PREFACE.
the editor has been compelled to chiefly depend upon the members of the respective families for the accuracy of the facts set forth. No pains have been spared to make this department accurate, and it is believed that it constitutes an interesting portion of the work, which will increase in value with the lapse of years.
In the preparation of this book great assistance has been derived from the various newspaper contributions to the history of the county, none of which have been more useful than the writings of " Iron Mask," a nom de plume which only thinly veils the authorship of the present scholarly editor of the " Bucks County Intelligencer." The writer has been greatly aided by the use of the valuable historical library and collections of Judge Richard Watson, and of books from the libraries of other gentle- men of Doylestown; by the valuable suggestions and scrap-books of Judge Harman Yerkes and Mr. Henry D. Paxson, the files of the "Intelligencer," and the archives of the local historical society. The chapters on the townships were prepared by Mr. Herbert 0. Bell ; the chapter on geology by Charles Laubach, Esq., of Eiegelsville ; and the biographical sketches by Mr. F. L. Beers (assisted by Miss Anna Le Compte), to whose editorial supervision this difficult department was assigned. To each one of the many, to whose encouragement and aid the success of this enterprise is largely due, the editor wishes to express his indebtedness to, and appreciation of their kindness and assistance.
J. H. B.
PuiLADBLPHiA, Pa., September, 1887.
CONTENTS.
PAOB
Iktroductobt. — Origin of Provincial His- tory— Penn's Early IHfflcal ties— Experi- ment In Popular Goveroment — Black well Appointed Qovemor^Disfiensions in the Colony — Penn's Second Visit to the Prov- ince—Death of William Penn— The Hew Proprietaries — Accession of Governor Keith — French and Indian War — Frank- lin's Mission to England — The Boundary Line — Strangle for Independence — Re- sistance to Stamp Act-<-Campalj?n of 1776 — BatUe of Brandywine — Occupation of Philadelphia—British Retreat— The Con- stltation of 1790 ^ d-46
CHAPTER I.— Obnibal Topookafht and GsoLooT. — Location of Bucks County — Surface Character— Its Principal Eleva- tions— General Landscape — Connection of Topoffraphy and Geolof^ — Mesozoic For- mation— Trap Rock — The Upper Stratum — Southern Line of Mesozoic— Potsdam Sandstone — Mica Schists-^River Deposits — Crystalline Limestone — Character of Quarries — ^Trenton Gravel — Durham Hills — ^Durham Cave — Orij^n of Magncslan Limestone — The Iron Mines — Glacial Drift — The Course of the Moraine — Local Interest in the General Subject 49-80
CHAPTER n.— Eablt Sbttlbmbnts on THB Delaware. — The First Discoveries — Voyage of the Unrest — Dutch Occupa- tion— I^Vries' Colony — Advent of the Swedes — John Printz as Governor— Con- flicting Claims— Attitude of the Dutch- Early Contentionft— Swedish ThriiV— Tri- umph of the Dutch— The English Con- quest— NicoU's Administralion — Indian Hostilities — Dutch Conquest — Ree^tab- lishroent of the English — Andros' Ad- ministration— Effect of English Restora- tion-First Settlement of Friends— Earli- est Land Purchases East of the Poques- sing — Records of the Upland Court — Beginning of English Immigration — Up- land County Defined— Its Social Develop- ment— The Physical Attractions of the Countiy ^ 80-128
CHAPTER m. — Thb Nbw RioiMS.— Advent of Markham — " First Adven- turers" in Bucks — ** Conditions and Con- cessions"— Commissioners Dispatched — Plan of Sarvey — Quit-rents and Manors — Purchases of the Indians — Quieting Indian Land Claims — Holme's Purchase of 1686— Dissatisfaction of Indians->-Ag-
PAOB
gression of the Whites — The Lottery Scheme— Negotiations of ir34-7 — Tiie Walking Purchase — Course of the Walk —Charge of Trickery by the Indians — Immediate Results of the Walk — Attack on Pennsylvania Borders — Bucks Coun* ty's Contribution to the Defense — Char- acter of the Militiap-The Treaty of 1757
124r-174
CHAPTER rv.— Political Detslopmbnt or Bucks County. — Markham's Assump- tion of the Government— Arrival of First Emigrants — Penn's Voyage — Early Fam- ilies of Bucks — Erection of the County — First Court— The Juries— Roads and Fer- ries— Formation of Townships — Gradual Development — Minor Officials — County Officers — Phineas Pemberton — Under Fletcher's Administration — Character of the Early Records — The First Court- House— County Seat at Bristol — Removed to Newtown— The Public Buildings— Ex- pansion of Settlements — Demand for a Removal of the Seat of Justice — Details of the new Public Buildings — Agitation ,for the Division of the County — New
^^ourt-House at Doylestown — The new Jail — History of the Almshouse — The Cholera Plague — Extent of the County's
Charity 174-220
CHAPTER v.— The Bench and Bar— Origin of the Courts — Procedure and Ju- ribdiction — Provincial Court — Orphans' Court — Conflict between the Province and the Crown — Act of 172*^— Supreme Court of Law and Equity — Appeals — First Court In Bucks County — Court of Common Pleas — Early Practice of Quarter Sessions Court — Imprisonment for Debt — Penal I^aws — Trial and Execution of Claasen^ Admission of Lawyers — The Earlier Bar — Recent Development of the Judiciary — Judge Wynkoop — The Fox Contest — BurnsidCi Krausc, Smyser, Chapman, Ross, Roberts, Watson, Yerkes — The Bar Since 1790— Celebrated Causes— Cases of Mina, Blundln, Armbruster, Teufel
229-279
CHAPTER VI.— The Development op
Society. — Social Influence of the Friends — ^Welsh Friends and Baptists— Dutch Im- migration— Scotch, Scotch-Irish, Irish, German Settlements — Pioneer Life — Marks of Improvement — The County During the Revolution , 280-313
VI
CONTENTS.
PAQB
CHAPTER Vn. — Social Acttvtttks.— Rell^ous Organizations — Education — The Prew— Early Roads— The Postal Ser- vice— Navi^tion of the Delaware — The Delaware Canal— Railroads 318-349
CHAPTER VIII.— The Sectional Issue. —Slavery in Bucks Co. — Fall of Fort Sum- ter—Condition of the Militia— The Doyles- town Guards — The Thirty-second Keg- iment— The Eighty-ninth— First New Jer- sey Cavalry — Independent Battery D— The One Hundred and Fourth— Fi/teenth Cavalry — The One Hundred and Twenty- Eighth— The One Hundred and Thirty- Eighth— The One Hundred and Slxty- Third- The One Hundred and Seventy- Fourth— The One Hundred and Eighty- First— The Two Hundred and Thirteenth —The Two Hundred and Fifteenth.... 850-364
CHAPTER IX.— Falls Township and Borough of Morrisvtlle. —Descriptive — Settlement and Settlers — Pennsbury^ and the Penn Family — Jacob Brown and ^ Charles Ellet— Morrlsville, Tullytown and Fallsiugton— Other Villages— The Friends — Methodism — The Christian
Church — The Presbyterians— Schools
865-388
CHAPTER X.— Township and Bobouoh of Bristol.- Location of First Purchas- ers— Origin of the Market Town of Bris- tol—The Fairs— Ferry— Bath Springs- Some Notable People— Early Hostelries — Reminiscences of the Revolution — Banking Institution— The Canal- The First Railroad — Development of Manu- factures— Borough Expansion— Social In- stitutions— Growth of Church Organiza-
' tions — Educational Interests — Borough Officers 384-439
CHAPTER XI. — The Makefields. — Lower Makefield Defined- The First Pur- chasers — Yardley — Edgewood — Upper Makefield — Its Settlement — TaylorsvUle — Dolington — Church and School Inter- ests 489-445
CHAPTER XII. — Middletown ; New- town ; Wbiohtbtown. — Topography of the Region — First Lawdowners of Middle- town— -Its Prominent Families— Lang- horne— Its Churches and Societies — New- town's Early History— Town Plot— Early Hotels— Its Social Institutions— Wrlghte- town Settlers— Origin of Name— Village Growth 445-466
CHAPTER Xin.—BENSALEM.— Origin of Name — The First Landowners — Its Prominent Men — Erection of the Town- ship—Roads and Ferries — Dutch Popula- tion— Church Activities — Educational In- stitutions , 469-479
CHAPTER XIV. — Northampton and Southampton. — Early Population of the Townships — Erectioa of Southainpton-»<-
PAOI
Village Growth— Development of Society -^Influence of Different Nationalities — Church Chronicles — Northampton — Early Surveys — Roads and Taverns — Churches and Societies ....479-496
CHAPTER XV. — Warminster ; War- wick ; Warrington. — Currents of Im- migration—The. Settlers of Warminster —John Fitch — Origin and Growth of Villages — Local Institutions — War- wick—Secondary Education — Neshaminy Church— William Tennent, Charles Beat- ty_NathanieI Irwin- Warrington 496^14
CHAPTER XVI. — Buckingham ; Solb- BURT. — ^Primitive Attractions — The Com- ing of the Whites— Early Families— John Lacey — Lime Industry— Postroads and Offices — Public Interest in Education —
i Soleburv — Its Organization and Settle-
" ' ment — Mineral Deposits — Roads and
F^tH^b- ^^'^ U^pflftnA itB Industries—
Churches— Samuel D. Ingham — Zebulon M. Pike 514-589
CHAPTER XVn. — DoTLBSTOWN. — The Society Lands— Origin of the Village — The Removal of the County Seat— Bor- ough Charter— Water-works— Travelling Facilities — Banking — Manufactures — Societies — Academies and Seminaries —
Church Growth — Corporation Officers
54(M66
CHAPTER XVm.— Plumstead ; Bedmin- 8TRR. — Origin of Name — ^Local Industries — Village Development — Bedminster — Early Population — Hagersville, Keelers- ville, and other Villages — Historic Churches 569-582
CHAPTER XIX.— New Britain; Hill- town. — Settlement of the Upper Part of County— Early Welsh Pioneers — " So- ciety" Lands— Origin of New Britain- Early Development — Churches — Hill- town — Incident of Joseph Matthias- Leading Welsh Families— Villages of the Township— Religious Interests.. 583>599
CHAPTER XX.— Richland; Milpord; RoGKHTLL. — The Great Swamp — First Purchasers — Qui^kertown — Local Indus- tries—Societies—Churches— Milford— Its Pioneers — Erection of the Township — The Post Villages — Church Organizations — RockhlU — John Fumess — Conrad De- terer— Incorporated Villasres — Perkasie —Telford— Local Institutions ~ 600-623
CHAPTER XXI.— TiNicuM ; Nockamix- ON. — Location — Indian Outrage — Erec- tion of Tinicum — ^Polnt Pleasant — Other Villages — Origin and Development of Churches — Nockamixon — First Families —Later Social Development ..628-633
CHAPTER XXn. — Springfield ; Hat- cook. — Up-County Topography — Early Settlers of Springfield— Erection of Town-
CONTENTS.
Vll
PAOB
ship— BoBlness Activity — Haycock — Its Early Settlement — Organization — Ita 80- ciai InstitatioDB 633-648
CHAPTER XXIII.— Durham Township. — Landscape Attractions — Prehistoric lu- habitauts^Free Society of Traders— The l^Iron Furnaces — Early Industries— Joseph '^ valloway — Daniel Morgan— George Tay- lor— Backhouse's Journal — The Furnaces
PAGB
Since 1847— The Iron Mines — Settlement In Durham — Village Growth — Schools and Churches 643-671
CHAPTER XXIV. — Appendix. — The "Book of Arrivals"— Roster of County Officers — Roster of the Bench and Bar— Legislative Representatives — Arcbseolofpy —The Lenape Stone 671-715
BIOGRAPHICAL 8KBTCHB8.
CHAPTER
CHAPTER
CHAPTER
CHAPTER
CHAPTER
CHAPTER
CHAPTER
CHAPTER
CHAPTER
CHAPTER PIELD
PAOl
XXV.— Bbdminbtbb 715-753
XXVI.— Bensalejc 753-770
XXVII.— Bristol 771-802
XXVm.— Buckingham., 802-834
XXIX.— D0TLE8TOWN ... 885-885
XXX.— DuBHAM 885-900
XXXL— Falls 900-925
XXXn.— Haycock 926-935
XXXIII.— HiLLTowN ..... 935-951
XXXIV.— LovKK Makk- ...• 951-970
CHAPTER CHAPTER CHAPTER
XXXV.— MiDDLETOWN... 970-990
XXXVI.— MiLFORD 990-1000
XXXVn.— New Britain
CHAPTER
lOOO-lOlO
XXXVIIL— Newtown ...1010-1019
CHAPTER CHAPTER CHAPTER CHAPTER CHAPTER CHAPTER CHAPTER CHAPTER CHAPTER CHAPTER
FIELD
PAOB
XXXIX.— NocKAHixoN ..1020-1028
XL.— Northampton 1023-1030
XLI.— Plumbtead 1030-1037
XLU.— Richland 1037-1073
XLin.— RooKHiLL 1074-1083
2a.rV.— SOLBBURT 1084-1113
%
XLV.— Southampton ...1113-1121
XLVI.— SPRINOFIELD.....1122-1128
XLVn.— TINICUM 1129-1143
XL VIII.— Upper Makb-
CHAPTER CHAPTER CHAPTER CHAPTER
, 1142-1148
XLIX.— Warminster ....1148-1160
L.— Warrington 1160-1168
LI.— Warwick 1168-1173
LII.— Wrightstown — 1173-1176
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PORTRAITS.
PAQB
Atherholt, Aaron D 667
Atkinaon, Edward 467
Bachman, Renben K 647
Barclay, James.. 837
Betta, John .<«: 357
Blackfan, John.. 797
Briggs, James 857
Brudon, James M 397
Burton, Anthony ~ 77
Burton, Elwood 477
Codwallader, A. S 217
Cadwallador, Moeea 957
PAOB
Cadwallader, Samuel C 197
Cornell, Adrian 107
Cornell, Theodore 487
Cressman, A. S 787
Crouthamel, R. B 717
Dana, R. S 407
Delany, Isaiah 177
DIngee, Richard 757
Doan, Eleazar 807
Dobbins, Joseph K 685
DuBois, Charles E 137
Durner, C. F 56
VIU
CONTENTS.
PAOB
Eastbum, George 517
Eastburn, Moses 157
Fackenthal, B. F., Jr. ; 127
Farren, John ^ 567
Feaster, David 57
FcllmaD, Charles.. 167
Fox, Israel D 607
Freed, Henry W 687
Frete, C. D 617
Fretz, Reed 727
Gearhart, Isaiah W 977
Gruver, William H 887
Gwinner, Samuel F 277
Harley, J. Price 747
Heacock, J. L 817
Heffeman, George £ 707
Hillegas, E. F 987
Iden, James C ••••^ 697
Jamison, B. T 777
Jamison, George 507
Johnson, H. Watson ^ S37
Johnson, John ^ 457
Johnson, Milton 997
Kirk, Charles 807
Krats, Harvey .*. 587
Krause, J. H 577
Larzelere, S. B.. 847
Laubaeh, Charles 657
Lear, George 47
Liyezey, Abram 297
Mann, James S 547
Meyers, Jacob 1007
Mlchener, Comly 867
Miles, Griffith 427
Mitchell, Pierson 447
Moyer, D. P 737
Moyer, I. 8 67
Moyer, Jonas D 597
Myers, C. M 347
pAoa
Nickleson, Edward 287
Ott, Jeremiah 927
Parry, Benjamin 17
Paxson, Edward M 87
Pugh,JohnB 207
Rich, Benjamin S 147
Bobbins, John 87
Ross, Geoi^ 247
Rulon, John M 967
Scheetz, Grier 897
Shaw, Charles M 817
Stavely, William 97
Stavely, W. R 627
Stover, Ralph 327
Somstone, Jacob 937
Swain, Anthony 887
Swartzlander, Joseph 487
Taylor, Caleb N 27
Taylor, Charles W 767
Taylor, David H 367
Thatcher, Samuel B 117
Tomlinson, .\Ilen 907
Trumbower, Henry T 637
Turner, D. K 497
Uhler, Michael 627
Van Horn, Isaac 187
Walp, Abraham 917
Walter, James B 637
Warner, George, Jr 877
Watson, H. C. 417
White, M. W 877
Wildman, John 227
Wilson, Samuel 827
Wright, Caleb E 237
Tardley, Robert M 967
Terkes, Harman 257
2U}ms, Israel 8 .,.•••• 947
MISCELLANEOUS.
Court House, Doylestown, View of. Frontispiece
Outline Map of Bucks county op{K)site 9
Part of Holme's Map, fac-simile of opposite 128
The "Lenapc Stone'' 712,713
»
'^
ii
I
I
INTRODUCTORY.
TTTITH the coming of Markham to the settlements established on the west V * bank of the Delaware was inaugurated a rSgime which was marked by an infusion of new ideas, a preponderating addition of new people, and a civiliza- tion essentially new to the people already settled here. While the changes vere of such a radical character, they were, nevertheless, accomplished without shock or recoil, and the feeble colony formerly planted west of the river, robbed of patriotic sentiment by the vicissitudes of its history, was rapidly and almost unconsciously merged in the stronger one planted by Penn. No strongly cherished traditions of the past hindered a ready profession of loyalty to the new order of things, and but few years passed before the original Swedish and Dutch colonists were scarcely to be distinguished from the diverse accessions to the polyglot province of Pennsylvania. There was no settled political machinery nor local seat of government prior to Penn's experiment, and the ** Frame of the Government," which apparently derived few of its features from colonial institutions, may be properly accepted as the origin of a settled government in this commonwealth. The experiment of placing the affairs of state almost entirely in the hands of the people was a new and hazardous one at this era of the world's history, and while the issue has justified the wisdom of bis course, he did not live to see the result for which he so ardently labored. Doubtless, if circumstances had permitted the continued presence of the founder, his wisdom and influence would have saved the province from many of t^^- un- fortunate experiences it eventually suffered, but it was destined otherwise.
The first difficulty which gave him concern was the conflicting claims of Lord Baltimore. The visit of Penn to Lord Baltimore, soon after his arrival in America, for the purpose of settling the boundaries of the two provinces, after a two-days' conference, proved fruitless, and an adjournment was had for the winter, when the efforts for settlement were to be resumed. Early in the spring an attempt was made on the part of Penn, but was prevented till May, when a meeting was held at Newcastle. Penn proposed to confer by the aid of counsellors and in writing. But to this Baltimore objected, and, complain- ing of the sultriness of the weather, the conference was broken up. In the meantime it had come to the knowledge of Penn that Lord Baltimore had issued a proclamation offering settlers more land, and at cheaper rates than
Penn had done, in portions of the lower counties which Penn had secured from 2
10 INTRODUCTOBY.
the Duke of York, but which Baltimore now claimed. Besides, it was ascer- tained that an agent of his had taken an observation, and determined the latitude without the knowledge of Penn, and had secretly made an ex parte statement of the case before the lords of the committee of plantations in Eng- land, and was pressing for arbitrament. This state of the case created much uneasiness in the mind of Penn, especially as the proclamation of Lord Balti- more was likely to bring the two governments into conflict on territory mutually claimed. But Lord Baltimore was not disposed to be content with diplomacy. He determined to pursue an aggressive policy. He accordingly commissioned his agent, George Talbot, under date of September 17, 1688, to go to Schuyl- kill, at Delaware, and demand of William Penn <' all that part of the land on the west side of the said river that lyeth to the southward of the fortieth degree." This bold demand would have embraced the entire colony, both the lower counties, and the three counties in the province, as the fortieth degree reaches a considerable distance above Philadelphia. Penn was absent at the time in New York, and Talbot made his demand upon Nicholas Moore, the deputy of Penn. Upon his return, the proprietor made a dignified but earnest rejoinder.
The anxiety of Penn to hold from the beginning of the fortieth degree of latitude was not to increase his territory by so much, for the two degrees which he securely had, as far as amount of land was concerned, would have entirely satisfied him ; but he wanted this degree chiefly that he might have the free navigation of Delaware bay and river, and thus open communication with the ocean. He desired also to hold the lower counties, which were now well settled, as well as his own counties rapidly being peopled, and his new city of Philadelphia, which he regarded as the apple of his eye. So anxious was he to hold the land on the right bank of the Delaware to the open ocean, that at his second meeting he asked Lord Baltimore to set a price per square mile on this disputed ground, and though he had purchased it once of the crown and held the royal charter for it, and the Duke of York's deed, yet rather than have any further wrangle over it, he was willing to pay for it again. But this Lord Baltimore refused to do.
Bent upon bringing matters to a crisis, and to force possession of his claim, early in the year 1684 a party from Maryland made forcible entry upon the plantations in the lower counties and drove off the owners. The governor and council at Philadelphia sent thither a copy of the answer of Penn to Balti- more's demand for the land south of the Delaware, with orders to William Welch, sheriff at Newcastle, to use his influence to reinstate the lawful owners, and issued a declaration succinctly stating the claim of Penn, for the purpose of preventing such unlawful incursions in future.
But the indications, constantly thickening, that a struggle was likely soon to be precipitated before the crown for possession of the disputed territory,
INTRODUCTORY. 11
decided Penn early in the summer to quit the colony and return to England to defend his imperilled interests. There is no doubt that he took this step with unfeigned regret, as he was contented and happy in his new country, and was most usefully employed. There were, however, other inducements which were leading him back to England. The hand of persecution was at this time laid heavily upon the Quakers. Over fourteen hundred of these pious and in- offensive people were now, and some of them had been for years, languishing in the' prisons of England, for no other offense than their manner of worship. By his friendship with James, and his acquaintance with the king, he might do something to soften the lot of tliese unfortunate victims of bigotry. He accordingly empowered the provincial council, of which Thomas Lloyd was president, to act in his stead, commissioned Nicholas Moore, William Welch, William Wood, Robert Turner and John Eckley, provincial judges for two years; appointed Thomas Lloyd, James Claypole and Robert Turner to sign land patents and warrants, and William Clark as justice of the peace for all the counties ; and on the 6th of June, 1684, sailed for Europe, where his efforts were rewarded with unexpected success.
His first and chief care was the settlement of his disagreement with Lord Baltimore touching the boundaries of his province. This was settled in Novem- ber, 1685, by a compromise, by which the land lying between the Delaware and Chesapeake bays was divided into two equal parts, that upon the former being adjudged to Penn and the rest to Lord Baltimore. This settled the matter in theory, but when the attempt was made to run the lines according to the royal act, it was found that the ministry had very little idea of American geography, and that the line described by their language could not be made, and the disputed boundary remained undecided until 1706. He was equally successful in his efforts in behalf of the persecuted sect, but he lost favor with the aristocracy who did not want liberty of conscience but conformity with the established church, and became the object of reproach and menace as his royal friend lost power and eventually his throne.
In the meantime, the affairs of his province exhibited the sore need of a strong guiding hand to check abuses and guide the course of legislation in proper channels. Penn had labored to place the government in the hands of the people, an idea most attractive in the abstract, and one which, were the entire population wise and just, would result fortunately ; yet, in practice, he found to his sorrow the results most vexatious. The proprietor had not long been gone before troubles arose between the two houses of the legislature rela- tive to promulgating the laws as not being in accordance w^ith the requirements of the charter. Nicholas Moore, the chief justice, was impeached for irregu- larities in imposing fines and in other ways abusing his high trust. But, though formally arraigned and directed to desist from exercising his functions, he suc- cessfully resisted the proceedings, and a final judgment was never obtained.
12 INTRODUCTORY.
Patrick Robinson, clerk of the court, for refusing to produce the records in the trial of Moore, was voted a public enemy. These troubles in the government were the occasion of much grief to Penn, who wrote, naming a number of the most influential men in the colony, and beseeching them to unite in an endeavor to check further irregularities, declaring that they disgraced the province, ^^ that their conduct had struck back hundreds, and was jB10,000 out of his way, and jBIOOjOOO out of the country."
In the latter part of the year 1686, seeing that the whole council was too unwieldy a body to exercise executive power, Penn determined to contract the number, and accordingly appointed Thomas Lloyd, Nicholas Moore, James Clay- pole, Robert Turner and John Eckley, any three of whom should constitute a quorum, to be commissioners of state to act for the proprietor. In place of Moore and Claypole, Arthur Cook and John Simcock were appointed. They were to compel the attendance of the council ; see that the two houses admit of no parley ; to abrogate all laws except the fundamentals ; to dismiss the assem- bly and call a new one, and finally he solemnly admonishes them, ^^ Be most just, as in the sight of the all-seeing, all-searching God." In a letter to these commissioners, he says : *^ Three things occur to me eminently : First, that you be watchful that none abuse the king, etc. ; secondly, that you get the custom act revived as being the equalest and least offensive way to support the govern- ment ; thirdly, that you retrieve the dignity of courts and sessions."
Since the departure of Penn, Thomas Lloyd had acted as president of the council, and later of the commissioners of state. He had been in effect gover- nor, and held responsible for the success of the government, while possessing only one voice in the disposing of affairs. Tiring of this anomalous position, Lloyd applied to be relieved. It was difficult to find a person of sufficient abil- ity to fill the place ; but Penn decided to relieve him, though showing his en- tire confidence by notifying him that he intended soon to appoint him absolute governor. In his place, he indicated Samuel Carpenter, or if he was unwilling to serve, then Thomas Ellis, but not to be president, his will being that each should preside a month in turn, or that the oldest member should be chosen.
Penn foresaw that the executive power, to be eflBcient, must be lodged in the hands of one man of ability, such as to command the respect of his people. Those whom he most trusted in the colony had been so mixed up in the wran- gles of the executive and legislative departments of the government that he deemed it advisable to appoint a person who had not before been in the colony and not a Quaker. He accordingly commissioned John Blackwell, July 27, 1688, to be lieutenant-governor, who was at this time in New England, and who fully possessed his esteem and confidence. With the commission, the proprietor sent full instructions, chiefly by way of caution, the last one Being : " Rule the meek meekly ; and those that will not be ruled, rule with author- ity." Though Lloyd had been relieved of power, he still remained in the
INTRODUOTOBY. 13
council, probably because neither of the persons designated was willing to serve. Having seen the evils of a many-headed execative, he had recommended the appointment of one person to exercise executive authority. It was in confor- mity with this advice that Slackwell was appointed. He met the assembly in March, 1689 ; but either his conceptions of business were arbitrary and impe- rious, or the assembly had become accustomed to great latitude and lax disci- pline ; for the business had not proceeded far before^he several branches of the government were at variance. Lloyd refused to give up the great seal, alleging that it had been given him for life. The governor, arbitrarily and without war- rant of law, imprisoned officers of high rank, denied the validity of all laws passed by the assembly previous to his administration, and set on foot a pro- ject for organizing and equipping the militia, under the plea of threatened hos- tility of France. The assembly attempted to arrest his proceedings, but he shrewdly evaded their intents by organizing a party among the members, who persistently absented themselves. His reign was short, for in January, 1690, he left the colony and sailed away for England, whereupon the government again devolved upon the council, Thomas Lloyd, president. Penn had a high estimation of the talents and integrity of Blackwell, and adds, '^ He is in Eng- land and Ireland of great repute for ability, integrity and virtue."
Penn's favor at court during the reign of James II. caused him to be sus- pected of disloyalty to the government when William and Mary had come to the throne. Accordingly, on the 10th o^ December, 1688, while walking in White Hall, he was summoned before the lords of the council, and though no- thing was found against him, was compelled to give security for his appearance at the next term, to answer any charge that might be made. At the second sitting of the council, nothing having been found against him, he was cleared in open court. In 1690 he was again brought before the lords on the charge of having been in correspondence with the late king. He appealed to King Wil- liam, who after a hearing of two hours was disposed to release him, but the lords decided to hold him until the Trinity term, when he was again discharged. A third time he was arraigned, and this time with eighteen others, charged with adhering to the kingdom's enemies, but was cleared by order of the king's bench. Being now at liberty, and these vexatious suits apparently at an end, he set about leading a large party of settlers to his cherished Pennsylvania. Propo- sals were published, and the government, regarding the enterprise of so much importance, had ordered an armed convoy, when he was again met by another accusation, and now backed by the false oath of one William Fuller, whom the Parliament subsequently declared a " cheat and an impostor." Seeing that he must prepare again for his defense, he abandoned his voyage to America, after having made expensive preparations, and convinced that his enemies were deter- mined to prevent his attention to public or private affairs, whether in England or America, he withdrew himself during the ensuing two or three years from the public eye.
1-i INTRODUCTORY.
His personal grievances in England were the least which he suffered. For lack of guiding influence, bitter dissensions had sprung up in his colony, which threatened the loss of all. Desiring to secure peace, he had commissioned Thomas Lloyd deputy governor of the province, and William Markham deputy governor of the lower counties. Penn's grief on account of this division is dis- closed in a letter to a friend in the province : " I left it to them to choose either the government of the coiAicil, five commissioners, or a deputy. What could be tenderer ? Now I perceive Thomas Lloyd is chosen by the three upper but not the three lower counties, and sits down with this broken choice. This has grieved and wounded me and mine, I fear to the hazard of all ; ... . for else the governor of New York is like to have all, if he has it not already."
But the troubles of Penn in America were not confined to civil affairs. His religious society was torn with dissension. George Keith, a man of con- siderable power in argumentation, but of overweening self-conceit, attacked the Friends for the laxity of their discipline, and drew off some followers. So veno- mous did he become that on the 20th of April, 1692, a testimony of denial was drawn up against him at a meeting of ministers, wherein he and his con- duct were publicly disowned. This was confirmed at the next yearly meeting. He drew off large numbers and set up an independent society, who termed themselves '' Christian Quakers." Keith appealed from this action of the Ameri- can church to the yearly meeting in London, but was so intemperate in speech that the action of the American church was confirmed. Whereupon he became the bitter enemy of the Quakers, and, uniting with the church of England, was ordained a vicar by the bishop of London. He afterward returned to America, where he wrote against his former associates, but was finally fixed in a bene- fice in Sussex, England. On his death-bed, he said, ^' I wish I had died when I was a Quaker, for then I am sure it would have been well with my soul."
Penn was silenced and thrown into retirement in England. It can be readily seen what an excellent opportunity these troubles in America, the separation in the government, and the schism in the church, gave his enemies to attack him. They represented that he had neglect^ his colony by remaining in Eng- land and meddling with matters in which he had no business ; that the colony in consequence had fallen into great disorder, and that he should be deprived of his proprietary rights. These complaints had so much weight with William and Mary, that, on the 2l8t of October, 1692, they commissioned Benjamin Fletcher, governor of New York, to take the province and territories under his government. There was another motive operating at this time, more potent than those mentioned above, to induce the king and queen to put the govern- ment of Pennsylvania under the governor of New York. The French and Indians from the north were threatening the English. Already the expense for defense had become burdensome to New York. It was believed that to ask aid for the common defense from Penn, with his peace principles, would be fruit-
INTRODUCTORY. 15
lees, but that through the influence of Governor Fletcher, as executive, an ap- propriation might be secured.
Through the kind offices of Lords Rochester, Ranelagh, Sidney and Somers, the Duke of Buckingham and Sir John Trenchard, the king was asked to hear the case of William Penn, against whom no charge was proven, and who would two years before have gone to his colony had he not supposed that he would have been thought to go in defiance of the government. King William answered that William Penn was his old acquaintance as well as theirs, that he might follow his business as freely as ever, and that he had nothing to say to him. Penn was accordingly reinstated in his government by letters patent dated on the 20th of August, 1694, whereupon he commissioned William Mark- ham lieutenant-governor.
Free from harassing persecutions at last, and in favor at court, Penn de- termined to remove with his family to Pennsylvania, and now with the ex- pectation of living and dying here. Accordingly, in July, 1699, he set sail, and, on account of adverse winds, was three months tossed about upon the ocean. Great joy was everywhere manifested throughout the province at the arrival of the proprietor and his family, fondly believing that he had now come to stay. He met the assembly soon after landing, but, it being an inclement season, he only detained them long enough to pass two measures aimed against piracy and illicit trade, exaggerated reports of which, having been spread broadcast through the kingdom, had caused him great uneasiness and vexation. At the first monthly meeting of Friends in 1700, he laid before them his con- cern, which was for the welfare of Indians and negroes, and steps were taken to instruct them and provide stated meetings for them where they could hear the word.
Several sessions of the legislature were held, in which great harmony pre- vailed, and much attention was given to revising and recomposing the consti- tation. But in the midst of their labors for the improvement of the organic hiw, intelligence was brought to Penn that a bill had been introduced in the house of lords for reducing all. the proprietary governments in America to regal ones, under pretense of advancing the prerogative of the crown, and the national advantage. Such of the owners of land in Pennsylvania as hap- pened to be in England remonstrated against action upon the bill until Penn could return and be heard, and wrote to him urging his immediate coming thither. Though much to his disappointment and sorrow, he determined to go immediately. He promptly called a session of the assembly, and in his message to the two houses said, '^I cannot think of such a voyage without great reluctancy of mind, having promised myself the quietness of a wilder- ness. For my heart is among you, and no disappointment shall ever be able to alter my love to the country, and resolution to return, aild settle my family and posterity in it Think therefore (since alLmen are mortal).
16 INTBODUOTOBY.
of some suitable expedient and provision for your safety as well in your privi- leges as property. Review again your laws, propose new ones, and you will find me ready to comply with whatsoever may render us happy, by a nearer union of our interests." The assembly returned a suitable response, and then proceeded to draw up twenty-one articles. The first related to the appoint- ment of a lieutenant-governor. Fenn proposed that the assembly should choose one. Sut this they declined, preferring that he should appoint one. Little trouble was experienced in settling everything broached, except the union of the province and lower counties. Penn used his best endeavors to reconcile them to the union, but without avail. The new constitution was adopted on the 28th of October, 1701. The instrument provided for the union, but in a supplementary article, evidently granted with groat reluctance, it was provided that the province and the territories might be separated at any time within three years. As his last act before leaving, he presented the city of Philadelphia, now grown to be a considerable place, and always an object of his affectionate regard, with a charter of privileges. As his deputy, he ap- pointed Andrew Hamilton, one of the proprietors of East New Jersey, and sometime governor of both East and West Jersey, and for secretary of the province and clerk of the council, he selected James Logan, a man of singular urbanity and strength of mind, and withal a scholar.
Penn set sail for Europe on the 1st of November, 1701. Soon after his arrival, on the 18th of January, 1702, King William died, and Anne of Den- mark succeeded him. He now found himself in favor at court, and that he might be convenient to the royal residence, he again took lodgings at Kensing- ton. The bill which had been pending before parliament, that had given him so much uneasiness, was at the succeeding session dropped entirely, and was never again called up. During his leisure hours he now busied himself in writing ^^ several useful and excellent treatises on divers subjects."
Governor Hamilton's administration continued only till December, 1702, when he died. He was earnest in his endeavors to induce the territories to unite with the province, they having as yet not accepted the new charter, alleg- ing that they had three years in which to make their decision, but without success. He also organized a military force, of which George Lowther was commander, for the safety of the colony.
The executive authority now devolved upon the council, of which Edward Shippen was president. Conflict of authority, and contention over the due in- terpretation of some provisions of the new charter, prevented the accomplish- ment of much, by way of legislation, in the assembly which convened in 1703 ; though in this body it was finally determined that the lower counties should thereafter act separately in a legislative capacity. The separation proved final, the two bodies never again meeting in common.
Though the bill to govern the American colonies by regal authority failed,
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INTRODUCTORY. 19
yet the clamor of those opposed to the proprietary governors was so strong, that an act was finally passed requiring the selection of deputies to have the royal assent. Hence, in choosing a successor to Hamilton, he was obliged to consider the queen's wishes. John Evans, a man of parts, of Welsh extraction, only twenty-six years old, a member of the queen^s household, and not a Quaker, nor even of exemplary morals, was appointed, who arrived in the colony in December, 1703. He was accompanied by William Penn, Jr., who was elected i member of the council, the number having been increased by authority of the governor, probably with a view to his election.
The first care of Evans was to unite the province and lower counties, though the final separation had been agreed to. He presented the matter so well that the lower counties, from which the difficulty had always come, were willing to return to a firm union. But now the provincial assembly, having become im- patient of the obstacles thrown in the way of legislation by the delegates from these counties, was unwilling to receive them. They henceforward remained separate in a legislative capacity, though still a part of Pennsylvania, under the claim of Penn, and ruled by the same governor, and thus they continued until the 20th of September, 1776, when a constitution was adopted, and they were proclaimed a separate state under the name of Delaware. During two years of the government of Evans, there was ceaseless discord between the council, headed by the governor and Secretary Logan on the one side, and the assembly led by David Lloyd, its speaker, on the other, and little legislation was effected.
In conjunction with the legislature of the lower counties, Evans was instru- mental in having a law passed for the imposition of a tax on the tonnage of the river, and the ei^ection of a fort near the town of Newcastle for compelling obedience. This was in direct violation of the fundamental compact, and vexa- tious to commerce. It was at length forcibly resisted, and its imposition aban- doned. His administration was anything but efficient or peaceful, a series of contentions, of charges and counter-charges having been kept up between the leaders of the two factions, Lloyd and Logan, which ho was powerless to properly direct or control. He was relieved in 1709.
The experience with Governor Evans led the proprietor to select a more sedate character in his successor. After considering the candidature of his son for a time the founder finally selected Charles Gookin, who was reputed to be a man of wisdom and prudence, though, as was afterward learned to tiie sor- row of the colony, he was subject to fits of derangement, which toward the close of his term were exhibited in the most extravagant acts. He had scarcely arrived in the colony before charges were prepared against the late governor, and he was asked to institute criminal proceedings, which he declined. This was the occasion of a renewal of contentions between the governor and his council and the assembly, which continued during the greater part of his admin-
20 INTRODUCTORY.
istration. In the midst of them, Logan, who was at the head of the council, having demanded a trial of the charges against him, and failed to secure one, sailed for Europe, where he presented the difficulties experienced in adminis- tering the government so strongly, that Penn was seriously inclined to sell his interest in the colony. He had already greatly crippled his estate by expenses he had incurred in making costly presents to the natives, and in settling his colony, for which he had received small return. In the year 1707 he had become involved in a suit in chancery with the executors of his former steward, in the course of which he was confined in the '^ Old Bailey" during this and a part of the following year, when he was obliged to mortgage his colony in the sum of six thousand six hundred pounds to relieve himself. Foreseeing the great con- sequence it would be to the crown to buy the rights of the proprietors of the several English colonies in America before they should grow too powerful, nego- tiations had been entered into early in the reign of William and Mary for their purchase, especially the " fine province of Mr. Penn." Borne down by these troubles, and by debts and litigations at home, Penn seriously entertained the proposition to sell in 1712, and offered it for twenty thousand pounds. The sum of twelve thousand pounds was offered on the part of the crown, which was agreed upon, but before the necessary papers were executed, he was stricken down with apoplexy, by which he was incapacitated for transacting any busi- ness, and a stay was pat to further proceedings until the queen should order an act of parliament for consummating the purchase.
It is a mournful spectacle to behold the great mind and heart of Penn re- duced now in his declining years, by the troubles of government and by debts incurred in the bettering of his colony, to this enfeebled condition. He was at the moment writing to Logan on public affairs, when his hand was suddenly seized by lethargy in the beginning of a sentence, which he never finished. His mind was touched by this disease, from which he never recovered, and after lingering for six years, he died on the 30th of May, 1718, in the seventy-fourth year of his age.
A year before the death of Penn, the lunacy of Governor Gookin having become troublesome, he was succeeded in the government by Sir William Keith, a Scotchman who had served as surveyor of customs to the English government, in which capacity he had visited Pennsylvania previously, and knew something of its condition. He was a man of dignified and commanding bearing, endowed with cunning, of an accommodating policy, full of faithful promises, and usually found upon the stronger side. Hence, upon his arrival in the colony, he did not summon the assembly immediately, assigning as a reason in his first message that he did not wish to inconvenience the country members by calling them in harvest time. The disposition thus manifested to favor the people, and his advocacy of popular rights on several occasions in opposition to the claims of the proprietor, gave great satisfaction to the popular
INTRODUCTORY. 21
branch of the legislatare, which manifested its appreciation of his conduct bj voting him liberal salaries, which had often been withheld from his less accom- modating predecessors. By his artful and insinuating policy, he induced the assembly to pass two acts which had previously met with uncompromising opposition — one to establish a court of equity, with himself as chancellor, the want of which had been seriously felt ; and another, for organizing the militia. Though the soil was fruitful and produce was plentiful, yet, for lack of good markets, and on account of the meagemess of the circulating medium, prices were very low, the toil and sweat of the husbandman being little rewarded, and the taxes and payment on land were met with great difficulty. Accord- ingly, arrangements were made for the appointment of inspectors of provisions, who, from a conscientious discharge of duty, soon caused the Pennsylvania brands of best products to be much sought for, and to command ready sale at highest prices in the West Indies, whither most of the surplus produce was exported. A provision was also made for the issue of a limited amount of paper money, on the establishment of ample securities, which tended to raise the value of the products of the soil and of manufactures, and encourage industry. Though Governor Keith, during the early part of his term, pursued a pacific policy, yet the interminable quarrels which had been kept up between the as- aembly and council during previous administrations at length broke out with more virulence than ever, and he who in the first flush of power had declared ^^ That he should pass no laws, nor transact anything of moment relating to the public affairs without the advice and approbation of the council," took it upon himself finally to act independently of the council, and even went so far as to dismiss the able and trusted representative of the proprietary interests, James Logan, president of the council and secretary of the province, from the duties of his high oflSce, and even refused the request of Hannah Penn, the real governor of the province, to re-instate him. This unwarrantable conduct cost him- his dismissal from office in July, 1726.
Upon the recommendation of Springett Penn, who was now the prospective heir to Pennsylvania, Patrick Gordon was appointed and confirmed lieutenant- governor in place of Keith, and arrived in the colony and assumed authority in July, 1726. He had served in the army, and in his first address to the assembly, which he met in August, he said that as he had been a soldier, he knew nothing of the crooked ways of professed politicians, and must rely on a straightforward manner of transacting the duties devolving upon him. George I. died in June, 1727, and the assembly at its meeting in October prepared and forwarded a congratulatory address to his successor, George II. By the decision of the court of chancery in 1727, Hannah Penn's authority over the colony was at an end, the proprietary interest having descended to John, Richard and Thomas Penn, the only surviving sons of William Penn, Sr. This period, from the death of Penn in 1718 to 1727, one of the most prosperous in
22 INTRODUCTORY.
the history of the colony, was familiarly known as the " Reign of Hannah and the Boys."
In 1782 Thomas Penn, the youngest son, and two years later, John Penn, the eldest, and the only American bom, arrived in the province, and were received with every mark of respect and satisfaction. Soon after the arrival of the latter, news was brought that Lord Baltimore had made application to have the provinces transferred to his colony. A vigorous protest was made against this by Quakers in England, headed by Richard Penn ; but lest this protest might prove ineffectual, John Penn very soon went to England to defend the proprietary rights at court, and never again returned, he having died a bach- elor in 1746. In August, 1736, Governor Gordon died, deeply lamented as an honest, upright and straightforward executive, a character which he expressed the hope he would be able to maintain when he assumed authority. His term had been one of prosperity, and the colony had grown rapidly in num- bers, trade, commerce and manufactures, ship-building especially having assumed extensive proportions.
James Logan was president of the council and in effect governor, during the two years which elapsed between the death of Gordon and the arrival of his successor. The legislature met regularly, but no laws were passed for lack of an executive. It was during this period that serious trouble broke out near the Maryland border, west of the Susquehanna, then Lancaster, now York county. A number of settlers, in order to evade the payment of taxes, had secured titles to their lands from Maryland, and afterward sought to be rein- stated in their rights under Pennsylvania authority, and pleaded protection from the latter. The sheriflf of the adjoining Maryland county, with three hundred followers, advanced to drive these settlers from their homes. On hearing of this movement, Samuel Smith, sheriff of Lancaster county, with a hastily sum- moned posse, advanced to protect the citizens in their rights. Without a con- flict, an agreement was entered into by both parties to retire. Soon afterward, however, a band of fifty Marylanders again entered the state with the design of driving out the settlers and each securing for himself two hundred acres of land. They were led by one Cressap. The settlers made resistance, and in an encounter, one of them by the name of Knowles was killed. The sheriflf of Lancaster again advanced with a posse, and in a skirmish which ensued one of the invaders was killed, and the leader Cressap was wounded and taken prisoner. The governor of Maryland sent a commission to Philadelphia to demand the release of the prisoner. Not succeeding in this, he seized four of the settlers and incarcerated them in the jail at Baltimore. Still determined to effect their purpose, a party of Marylanders, under the leadership of one Higginbotham, advanced into Pennsylvania and began a warfare upon the settlers. Again the sheriflf of Lancaster appeared upon the scene, and drove out the invaders. So stubbornly wece these invasions pushed and resented
INTRODUCTORY. 2S
that the season passed without planting or securing the usual crops. Finally a party of sixteen Marylanders, led by Richard Lowden, broke into the Lancas* ter jail and liberated the Maryland prisoners. Learning of these disturbances, the king in council issued an order restraining both parties from further acts of violence, and afterward adopted a plan of settlement of the vexed boundary question.
Though not legally governor, Logan managed the affairs of the colony with great prudence and judgment, as he had done and continued to do for a period of nearly a half century. He was a scholar, well versed in the ancient languages and the sciences, and published several learned works in the Latin tongue. After retiring from public business he lived at his country-seat at Stanton, near Germantown, where he spent his time among his books and in correspondence with the literati of Europe. In his old age he made an English translation of Cicero's De Senectute^ which was printed at Philadelphia in 1744 with a pref- ace by Benjamin Franklin, then rising into notice. Logan was a Quaker, of Scotch descent, though bom in Ireland, and came to America in the ship with William Penn, in his second visit in 1699, when about twenty-five years old, and died at seventy -seven. He had held the oflfices of chief commissioner of property, agent for the purchase and sale of laujis, receiver-general, member of council, president of council, and chief justice. He was the confidential agent of Penn, having charge of all his vast estates, making sales of lands, executing conveyances, and making collections. Amidst all the great cares of business so pressing as to make him exclaim, ^^ I know not what any of the comforts of life are," he found time to devote to the delights of learning, and collected a latge library of standard works, which he bequeathed, at his death, to the people of Pennsylvania, and is known as the Loganian library.
George Thomas, a planter from the West Indies, was appointed governor in 1787, but did not arrive in the colony till the following year. His first care was to settle the disorders in the Cumberland valley, and it was finally agreed that settlers from either colony should owe allegiance to the governor of that colony wherever settled, until the division line which had been provided for was surveyed and marked. War was declared on the 23d of October, 1789, between Great Britain and Spain. Seeing that his colony was liable to be encroached upon by the enemies of his government, he endeavored to organize the militia, but the majority of the assembly were of the peace element, and could not be induced to vote money. Finally he was ordered by the home government to call for volunteers, and eight companies were quickly formed, and sent down for the coast defense. Many of these proved to be servants for whom pay was demanded and finally obtained. In his first intercourse with the assembly. Governor Thomas endeavored to coerce it to his views. But a more stubborn set of men never met in a deliberative body than were gathered in this assembly at this time. Finding that he could not compel action to his
24 INTRODUCTORY.
mind, he yielded and consulted their views and decisions. The assembly, not to be outdone in magnanimity, voted him fifteen hundred pounds arrearages of salary, which had been withheld because he would not approve their legislation, asserting that public acts should take precedence of appropriations for their own pay. In March, 1744, war jwas declared between Great Britain and France. Volunteers were called for, and ten thousand men were rapidly enlisted and armed at their own expense. Franklin, recognizing the defenseless condition of the colony, issued a pamphlet entitled Plain Truth, in which he cogently urged the necessity of organized preparation for defense. Franklin was elected colonel of one of the regiments, but resigned in favor of Alderman Lawrence, On the 5th of May, 1747, the governor communicated intelligence of the death of John Penn, the eldest of the proprietors, to the assembly, and his own inten- tion to retire from the duties of his office on account of declining health.
Anthony Palmer was president of the council at the time of the withdrawal of Thomas, and became the acting governor. The peace party in the assembly held that it was the duty of the crown of England to protect the colony, and that for the colony to call out volunteers and become responsible for their pay- ment was burdening the people with an expense which did not belong to them, and which the crown was willing to assume. The French were now deeply intent on securing firm possession of the Mississippi valley and the entire basin, even to the summits of the AUeghenies in Pennsylvania, and were busy estab- lishing trading-posts along the Ohio and Allegheny rivers. They employed the most artful means to win ^e simple natives to their interests, giving showy presents and laboring to convince them of their great value. The treaty of Aix-la-Ghapelle, which was concluded on the 1st of October, 1748, secured peace between Great Britain and France, and should have put an end to all hostile encounters between their representatives on the American continent. Palmer remained at the head of the government for a little more than two years. He was a retired merchant from the West Indies, a man of wealth, and had come into the colony in 1708. He lived in a style suited to a gentleman, kept a coach and a pleasure barge.
On the 23d of November, 1748, James Hamilton arrived in the colony from England, bearing the commission of lieutenant-governor. He was born in America, son of Andrew Hamilton, who had for many years been speaker of the assembly. The Indians west of the Susquehanna had complained that set- tlers had come upon their best lands, and were acquiring titles to them, whereas the proprietors had never purchased these lands of them, and had no claim to them. The first care of Hamilton was to settle these disputes, and allay the rising excitement of the natives. Richard Peters, secretary of the colony, a man of great prudence and ability, was sent in company with the Indian inter- preter, Conrad Weiser, to remove the intruders. It was firmly and fearlessly done, the settlers giving up their tracts and the cabins which they had built,
IKTKODDCTORY. 25
and excepting lands on the east side of the river. The hardship was in many cases great, but when they were in actual need, the secretary gave money and placed them upon lands of his own, having secared a tract of two millions of acres.
But these troubles were of small consequence compared with those that were threatening from the west. Though the treaty of Aix was supposed to have settled all difficulties between the two courts, the French were determined to occupy the whole territory drained by the Mississippi, which they claimed by priority of discovery by La Salle. The British ambassador at Paris entered complaints before the French court that encroachments were being made by the French upon English soil in America, which were politely heard, and promises made of restraining the French in Canada from encroaching upon English territory. Formal orders were sent out from the home government to this eifect ; but at the same time secret intimations were conveyed to them that their conduct in endeavoring to secure and hold the temtory in dispute was not displeasing to the government, and that disobedience of these orders would sot incur its displeasure. The French deemed it necessary, in order to estab- lish a legal claim to the country, to take formal possession of it. Accordingly, the Marquis de la Galissoni^re, who was at this time governor-general of Canada, dispatched Gapt. Bienville de 'C6leron with a party of two hundred and fifteen French and fifty-five Indians, to publicly proclaim possession, and bary at prominent points plates of lead bearing the inscriptions declaring occupation in the name of the French king.
Satisfied that the French were determined to hold the territory upon the Ohio by force of arms, a body of one hundred and fifty men, of which Wash- ington was second in command, was sent to the support of the settlers. But the French, having the Allegheny river at flood-tide on which to move, and Washington, without means of transportation, having a rugged and mountainous country to overcome, the former first reached the point of destination. Con- tracoeur, the French commander, with one thousand men and field-pieces on a fleet of sixty boats and three hundred canoes, dropped down the Allegheny and easily seized the fort then being constructed by the Ohio company at its mouth, and proceeded to erect there an elaborate work which he called Fort Du Quesne, after the governor-general. Informed of this proceeding, Wash- ington pushed forward, and finding that a detachment of the French was in his immediate neighborhood, he made a forced march by night, and coming upon them unawares killed and captured the entire party save one. Ten of the French, including their commander, Jumonville, were killed, and twenty-one made prisoners. Col. Fry, the commander of the Americans, died at Will's creek, where the command devolved on Washington. Though re-enforcements had been dispatched from the several colonies in response to the urgent appeals of Washington, none reached him but one company of one hundred men under
26 INTRODUCTORY.
Capt. Mackay from South CaroliDa. Knowing that he was confronting a vastly superior force of the French, well supplied with artillery, he threw up works at a point called the Great Meadows, which he characterizes as a ^^ charming field for an encounter," naming his hastily built fortification Fort Necessity. Stung by the loss of their leader, the French came out in strong force and soon invested the place. Unfortunately one part of Washington's position was easily commanded by the artillery of the French, which they were not slow in • taking advantage of. The action opened on the 8d of July, and was continued until late at night. A capitulation was proposed by the French commander, which Washington reluctantly accepted, seeing all hopes of re-enforcements reaching him cut off, and on the 4th of July marched out with the honors of war and fell back to Fort Cumberland.
Governor Hamilton had strongly recommended, before hostilities opened, that the assembly should provide for defense and establish a line of block houses along the frontier. But the assembly, while willing to vote money for buying peace from the Indians, and contributions to the British crown, from which protection was claimed, was unwilling to contribute directly for even de- fensive warfare. In a single year eight thousand pounds were voted for Indian gratuities. The proprietors were appealed to to aid in bearing this bur- den. But, while they were willing to contribute liberally for defense, they would give nothing for Indian gratuities. They sent to the colony cannons to the value of four hundred pounds.
In February, 1753, John Penn, grandson of the founder, son of Richard, arrived in the Qolony , and as a mark of respect was immediately chosen a mem- ber of the council and made its president. In consequence of the defeat of Washington at Fort Necessity, Governor Hamilton convened the assembly in extra session on the 6th of August, at which money was freely voted ; but, owing to the instructions given by the proprietors to their deputy governor not to sign any money bill that did not place the whole of the interest at their dis- posal, the action of the assembly was abortive.
Finding himself in a false position by the repugnant instructions of the pro- prietors, Governor Hamilton had given notice in 1753, that, at the end of twelve months from its reception, he would resign. Accordingly, in October, 1754, he was succeeded by Robert Hunter Morris, son of Lewis Morris, chief justice of New York and New Jersey, and governor of New Jersey. The son was bred a lawyer, and was for twenty-six years a counsellor, and for twenty, chief justice of New Jersey. The assembly, at its first session, voted a money bill for forty thousand pounds, but not having the proviso required by the proprietors, it was vetoed. Determined to push military operations, the British government had called early in the year for three thousand volunteers from Pennsylvania, with subsistence, camp equipage and transportation, and had sent two regiments of the line, under General Braddock, from Cork, Ireland. Landing at Alexan-
6. /yAu/m
INTRODUCTORY. 29
dria, Ya., he marched to Frederick, Md., where, finding no sapplies of trans- portation, he halted. The assemblj of Pennsylvania had voted to borrow five thousand pounds, on its own account, for the use of the crown in prosecuting the campaign, and had sent Franklin, who was then postmaster-general for the colonies, to Braddock to aid in prosecuting the expedition. Finding that the army was stopped for lack of transportation, Franklin returned into Pennsyl- vania, and by his commanding influence soon secured the necessary wagons and beasts of burden.
Braddock had formed extravagant plans for his campaign. He would march forward and reduce Fort Du Quesne, thence proceed against Fort Niagara, which having conquered, he would close a season of triumphs by the capture of Fort Frontignac. But this is not the first time in warfare that the result of a campaign has failed to realize the promises of the manifesto. Accustomed to the discipline of military establishments in old, long-settled countries, Braddock had little conception of making war in a wilderness with only Indian trails to move upon, and against wily savages. Washington had advised to push forward with pack horses, and, by rapidity of movement, forestall ample preparation. But Braddock had but one way of soldiering, and where roads did not exist for wagons he stopped to fell the forest and construct bridges over streams. The French, who were kept advised of every movement, made ample prepara- tions to receive him. In the meantime Washington fell sick ; but intent on being up for the battle, he hastened forward as soon as sufficiently recovered, and only joined the army on the day before the fatal engagement. He had never seen much of the pride and circumstance of war, and when, on the morn- ing of the 9th of July, the army of Braddock marched on across the Mononga- hela, with gay colors flying and marshal music awakening the echoes of the forest, he was accustomed in after years to speak of it as the ^^ most magnificent spectacle" that he had ever beheld. But the gay pageant was destined to be of short duration; for the army had only marched a little distance before it fell into an ambuscade skilfully laid by the French and Indians, and the forest resounded with the unearthly whoop of the Indians, and the continuous roar of musketry. The advance was checked and thrown into confusion by the French from their well-chosen position, and every tree upon the flanks of the long drawn out line concealed a murderous foe, who with unerring aim picked ofi* the offi- cers. A resolute defense was made, and the battle raged with great fury for three hours; but the fire of the English was ineffectual because directed against an invisibly foe. Finally, the mounted officers having all fallen, killed or wounded, except Washington, being left without leaders, panic seized the sur- vivors and '^ they ran," says Washington, ^^ before the French and Indians like sheep before dogs."
Governor Morris made an earnest appeal to the assembly for money to ward off the impending enemy and protect the settlers, in response to which the
3
80 INTRODUCTORY.
assembly voted fifty thousand pounds ; but having no exemption of the pro- prietor's estates, it was rejected by the governor, in accordance with his origi- nal instructions. Expeditions undertaken against Nova Scotia and at Grown Point were more fortunate than that before Du Quesne, and the assembly voted fifteen thousand pounds in bills of credit to aid in defraying the expense. The proprietors sent five thousand pounds as a gratuity, not as any part of expense that could of right be claimed of them.
In this pressing emergency, while the governor and assembly were waging a fruitless war of words over money bills, the pen of Franklin was busy in in- fusing a wholesome sentiment in the minds of the people. In a pamphlet that he issued, which he put in the familiar form of a dialogue, he answered the objections which had been urged to a legalized militia, and willing to show his devotion by deeds as well as words, he accepted the command upon the frontier. By his exertions, a respectable force was raised, and though in the dead of winter, he commenced the erection of a line of forts and block-houses along the whole range of the Kittatinny hills, from the Delaware to the Potomac, and had them completed and garrisoned with a body sufficient to withstand any force not provided with artillery. In the spring, he turned over the command to Colonel Glapham, and returning to Philadelphia took his seat in the assembly. The governor now declared war against the Indians, who had established their headquarters thirty miles above Harris' Ferry, on the Susquehanna, and were busy in their work of robb^ery and devastation, having secured the greater por- tion of the crops of the previous season of the settlers whom they had killed or driven out. The peace party strongly objected to the course of the governor, and voluntarily going among the Indians induced them to bury the hatchet. The assembly which met in May, 1756, prepared a bill with the old clause for taxing the proprietors, as any other citizens, which the governor was forbidden to approve by his instructions, ^^ and the two parties were sharpening their wits for another wrangle over it," when Governor Morris was superseded by William Denny, who arrived in the colony and assumed authority on the 20th of August, 1756. He was joyfully and cordially received, escorted through the streets by the regiments of Franklin and Duch6, and royally feasted at the 6tate-hou6e.
But the promise of efficient legislation was broken by an exhibition of the new governor's instructions, which provided that every bill for the emission of money must place the proceeds at the joint disposal of the governor and assem- bly ; paper currency could not be issued in excess of forty thousand pounds, nor could existing issues be confirmed unless proprietary rents were paid in sterling money; proprietary lands were permitted to be taxed which had been actually leased, provided that the taxes were paid out of the rents, but the tax could not become a lien upon the land. In the first assembly, the contention became as acrimonious as ever.
INTRODUCTORY. 31
The finances of the colony, on the account of the repeated failures of the money bills, were in a deplorable condition. Military operations could not be carried on and vigorous campaigns prosecuted without ready money. Ac- cordingly, in the first meeting of the assembly after the arrival of the new governor, a bill was passed levying one hundred thousand pounds on all pro- perty alike, real and personal, private and proprietary. This Governor Denny vetoed. Seeing that money must be had, the assembly finally passed a bill exempting the proprietary estates, but determined to lay their grievances before the crown. To this end, two commissioners were appointed, Isaac Norris and Benjamin Franklin, to proceed to England and beg the interference of the royal government in their behalf. Failing health and business engage- ments of Norris prevented his acceptance, and Franklin proceeded alone. He had so often defended the assembly in public and in drawing remonstrances that the whole subject was at his fingers' ends.
Franklin, upon his arrival in England, presented the grievances before the proprietors, and, that he might get his case before the royal advisers and the British public, wrote frequent articles for the press, and issued a pamphlet entitled ^* Historical Review of the Constitution and Government of Pennsyl- vania." The dispute was adroitly managed by Franklin before the privy council, and was finally decided substantially in the interest of the assembly. It was provided that the proprietors' estates should be taxed, but that their located uncultivated lands should be assessed as low as the lowest uncultivated lands of the settlers, that bills issued by the assembly should be receivable^n payment of quit rents, and ^at the deputy governor should have a voice in disposing of the revenues. Thus was a vexed question of long standing finally put to rest. So successfully had Franklin managed this controversy that the colonies of Massachusetts, Maryjand, and Georgia appointed him their agent in England.
In October, 1759, James Hamilton was again appointed governor, in place of Governor Denny, who had by stress of circumstances transcended his instruc- tions. The British government, considering that the colonies had borne more than their proportionate expense in carrying on the war against the French and Indians, voted two hundred thousand pounds for five years, to be divided among the colonies, the share falling to Pennsylvania being twenty-six thous- and pounds. On the 2dth of October, 1760, George II. died, and was suc- ceeded by his grandson, George III. Early in 1762, war was declared between Great Britain and Spain, but was of short continuance, peace having been declared in November following, by which Spain and France relinquished to the English substantially the territory east of the Mississippi.
The boundary line between Maryland and Pennsylvania had long been in dispute, and had occasioned serious disturbances among the settlers in the life- time of Penn, and repeatedly since. It was not definitely settled until 1760,
34 INTRODUCTORY.
John Penn, grandson of the founder, and son of Richard, had come to the colony in 1753, and, having acted as president of the council, was, in 1763, commissioned governor in place of Hamilton. A difference having arisen between the governor and assembly on the vexed question of levying money, the assembly passed a series of resolutions advocating that the ^^ powers of government ought to be separated from the power attending the immense pro- prietary property, and lodged in the hands of the king." After an interval of fifty days — that time for reflection and discussion might be given — the assembly again convened, and adopted a petition praying the king to assume the direct government of the province, though this policy was strongly opposed by some of the ablest members, as Isaac Norri§ and John Dickinson. The Quaker element was generally in favor of the change.
The great struggle for the independence of the colonies of the British crown was now close at hand, and the first sounds of the controversy were beginning to be heard. Sir William Keith, that enterprising governor whose head seemed to have been full of new projects, as early as 1739 had proposed to lay a uniform tax on stamped paper in all the colonies, to realize funds for the common defense. Acting upon this hint, Grenville, the British minister, noti- fied the colonists in 1763 of his ^purpose to impose such a tax. Against this they remonstrated. Instead of this, a tax on imports, to be paid in coin, was adopted. This was even more distasteful. The assembly of Rhode Island, in October, 1765, submitted a paper to all the colonial assemblies, with a view to uniting in a common petition to the king against parliamentary taxation. This was favorably acted on by the assembly of Pennsylvania, and Franklin was appointed agent to represent their cause before the British parliament. The stamp act had been passed on the 22d of March, 1765. Its passage excited bitter opposition, and a resolution, asserting that the colonial assemblies had the exclusive right to levy taxes, was passed by the Virginia assembly, aqd concurred in by all the Others. The Massachusetts assembly proposed a meet- ing of delegates in New York on the second Tuesday of October, 1765, to confer upon the subject. The Pennsylvania assembly adopted the suggestion, and appointed Messrs. Fox, Morton, Bryan, and Dickinson as delegates. This congress met according to the call and adopted a respectful petition to the king, and a memorial to parliament, which were signed by all the members and for- warded for presentation by the colonial agents in England. The stamp act was to go into effect on the 1st of November. On the last day of October the newspapers were dressed in mourning, and suspended publication. The pub- lishers agreed not to use the stamped paper. The people, as with one mind, determined to dress in homespun, resolved not to use imported goods, and, to stimulate the production of wool, the colonists covenanted not to eat lamb for the space of one year. The result of this policy was soon felt by British
INTBODUCTOBY. 35
mannfacturers, who became clamorous for repeal of the obnoxious measare, and it was accordingly repealed on the 18th of March, 1766.
Determined in spme form to draw a revenue from the coloniea, an act was passed in 1767 to lay a duty on tea, paper, printers' colors, and glass. The assembly of Pennsylvania passed a resolution on the 20th of February, 1768, instructing its agent in London to urge its repeal, and at the session in May received and entered upon its minutes a circular letter from the Massachusetts assembly^, setting forth the grounds on which objection to the act should be urged. This circular occasioned hostile feeling among the ministry, and the secretary for foreign affairs wrote to Governor Penn to urge the assembly to take no notice of it ; but if they approved its sentiments, to prorogue their sittings. This letter was transmitted to the assembly, and soon after one from the Yir^nia assembly was presented, urging union of all the colonies in oppos- ing the several schemes of taxation. This recommendation was adopted, and committees appointed to draw a petition to the king and to each of the houses of parliament. To lead public sentiment, and have it well grounded in the arguments used against taxation, John Dickinson, one of the ablest of the Pennsylvania legislators, at this time published a number of articles purport- ing to come from a plain farmer, under the title of the ^^ Farmer's Letters," which became popular, the idea that they were the work of one in humble life helping to swell the tide of popularity. They were republished in all the colonies, and exerted a commanding influence. Alarmed at the unanimity of feeling against the proposed schemes, and supposing that it was the amount of the tax that gave offense, parliament reduced the rate of 1769 to one-sixth of the original sum, and in 1770 abolished it altogether, except three pence a pound on tea. But it was the principle, and not the amount that was objected to, and at the next session of the assembly in Pennsylvania, their agent in London was directed to urge its repeal altogether.
Richard Penn, son of the founder, died in 1771, whereupon Governor John Penn returned to England, leaving the president of the council, James Hamil- ton, at the head of the government. John Penn, eldest son of Richard, suc- ceeded to the proprietary interests of his father, which he held in conjunction with his uncle, Thomas, and in October of the same year, Richard, the second son, was commissioned governor. He held the office but about two years, and in that time won the confidence and esteem of the people, and so much attached was he to the popular cause, that upon his return to England, in 1775, he was intrusted by congress with the last petition of the colonies ever presented to the king. In August, 1778, John Penn returned with the commission of governor, superseding his brother Richard.
To encourage the sale of tea in the colonies, and establish the principle of taxation, the export duty was removed. The colonies took the alarm. At a public meeting called in Philadelphia to consider the subject, on the 18th of
36 INTRODUCTOBY.
October, 1778, resolutions were adopted in which it was declared: "That the disposal of their own property is the inherent right of freemen ; that there can be no property in that which another can, of right, take from us without our consent ; that the claim of parliament to tax America is, in other words, a claim of right to levy contributions on us at pleasure." The East India Company now made preparations for sendiilg large importations of tea into the colonies. The ships destined for Philadelphia and New York, on approaching port, and being advised of the exasperated state of public feeling, returned to England with their cargoes. Those sent to Boston came into the harbor ; but at night a party disguised as Mohawk Indians boarded the vessels, and breaking open the packages, emptied three hundred chests into the sea. The ministry, on being apprised of this act, closed the port of Boston, and subverted the colonial charter. Early in the year, committees of correspondence had been established in all the colonies, by means of which the temper and feeling in each were well understood by the others, and concert of action was secured. The hard condi- tions imposed on the town of Boston and the colony of Massachusetts Bay aroused the sympathy of all ; for, they argued, we know not how soon the heavy hand bf oppression may be felt by any of us.
At a meeting held in Philadelphia on the 18th of June, 1774, at which nearly eight thousand people were convened, it was decided that a continental congress ought to be held, and appointed a committee of correspondence to communicate with similar committees in the several counties of Pennsylvania and in the several colonies. On the 15th of July, 1774, delegates from all the counties, summoned by this committee, assembled in Philadelphia, and declared that there existed an absolute necessity for a colonial congress. They accord- ingly recommended that the assembly appoint delegates to such a congress, to represent Pennsylvania, and Joseph Galloway, Samuel Rhoads, George Ross, Edward Biddle, John Dickinson, Charles Humphries and Thomas Mifflin were appointed.
On the 4th of September, 1774, the first continental congress assembled in Philadelphia. Peyton Randolph, of Virginia, was called to preside, and Charles Thomson, of Pennsylvania, was appointed secretary. It was resolved that no more goods be imported from England, and that unless a pacification was effected previously, no more colonial produce of the soil be exported thither after September 10, 1775. A declaration of rights was adopted, and addresses to the king, the people of Great Britain and of British America were agreed to, after which the congress adjourned to meet again on the 10th of May, 1775.
In January, 1775, another meeting of the county delegates was held in Philadelphia, at which the action of the colonial congress was approved, and while a restoration of harmony with the mother country was desired, yet if the arbitrary acts of parliament were persisted in, they would at every hazard
iZ^l^iTJij
INTKOBUCTORT. 39
defend the '' rights and liberties of America." The delegates appointed to represent the colony in the second congress were Mifflin, Humphries, Biddle, Dickinson, Morton, Wilson and Willing.
The government of Great Britain had determined with a strong hand to compel obedience to its behests. On the 19th of April, 1775, was fought the battle of Lexington, a blow that was felt alike through all the colonies. The cause of one was the canse of all. A public meeting was held in Philadelphia, at which it was resolved to organize military companies in all the counties. The assembly heartily seconded these views, and engaged to provide for the pay of the militia while in service. The second congress, which met in May, provided for organizing a continental army, fixing the quota for Pennsylvania at 4,800 men. The assembly adopted the recommendation of congress, pro- vided for arming, disciplining and paying the militia, recommended the organiz- ing minutemen for service in an emergency, made appropriations for the defense of the city, and offered a premium on the production of saltpetre. Complica- tions hourly thickened. Ticonderoga was captured on the 10th of May, and the battle of Bunker Hill was fought on the 17th of June. On the 15th of June, George Washington was appointed commander-in-chief of the continental army, supported by four major-generals and eight brigadiers.
The royal governors were now an incumbrance greatly in the way of the popular movement, as were also the assemblies where they refused to represent the popular will. Accordingly, congress recommended that the several colo- nies should adopt such government as should ^^ best conduce to the happiness and safety of their constituents in particular and America in general." This meant that each colony should set up a government for itself independent of the crown. Accordingly, a public meeting was held in Philadelphia, at which it was resolved that the present assembly is ^^ not competent to the present exigencies of affairs," and that a new form of government ought to be adopted as recommended by congress. The city committee of correspondence called on the county committees to secure the election of delegates to a colonial meeting for the purpose of considering this subject. On the 18th of June, the meeting was held in Philadelphia, and was organized by electing Thomas McKean president. It resolved to call a convention to frame a new constitu- tion, provided the legal forms to be observed, and issued an address to the people.
The convention for framing a new constitution for the colony met on the 15th of July, and was organized by electing Franklin president, and on the 28th of September completed its labors, having framed a new organic law and made all necessary provisions for putting it into operation. In the meantime the old proprietary assembly adjourned on the 14th of June to the 26th of August. But a quorum failed to appear, and an adjournment was had to the 23d of Sep- tember, when some routine business was attended to, chiefly providing for the
40 INTKODUCraRY.
payment of salaries and necessary bills, and on the 28th of September, after a stormy existence of nearly a century, this assembly, the creature of Penn, adjourned never to meet again. With the ending of the assembly ended the power of Governor Penn.
The titles of the proprietors to landed estates were suspended by the action of the convention, and on the 27th of November, 1779, the legislature passed an act vesting these estates in the commonwealth, but paying the proprietors a gratuity of one hundred and thirty thousand pounds, ^' in remembrance of the enterprising spirit of the founder." This act did not touch the private estates of the proprietors, nor the tenths of manors. The British government, in 1790, in consideration of the fact that it had been unable to vindicate its authority over the colony, and afford protection to the proprietors in the enjoyment of their chartered rights, voted an annuity of four thousand pounds to the heirs and descendants of Penn. This annuity was regularly paid until within a few years, when, on the payment of a round sum to the heirs by the British government, the annuity was discontinued.
The convention which framed the constitution appointed a committee of safety, consisting of twenty-five members, to whom was intrusted the government of the colony until the proposed constitution should be framed and put in operation. Thomas Bittenhouse was chosen president of this body, who was consequently in effect governor. The new constitution, which was unanimously adopted on the 28th of September, was to take effect from its passage. It provided for an assembly to be elected annually ; a supreme executive council of twelve members to be elected for a term of three years ; assemblymen to be eligible but four years out of seven, and councilmen but one term in seven years. Mem- bers of congress were chosen by the assembly. The constitution could not be changed for seven years. It provided for the election of censors every seven years, who were to decide whether there was a demand for its revision. If so, they were to call a convention for the purpose. On the 6th of August, 1776, Thomas Wharton, Jr., was chosen president of the council of safety.
The struggle with the parent country was now fully inaugurated. Parlia- ment had resolved upon a vigorous campaign, to strike heavy and rapid blows, and quickly end the war. The first campaign had been conducted in Massa- chusetts, and by the efficient conduct of Washington, General Howe, the leader of the British, was compelled to capitulate and withdraw to Halifax in March, 1776. On the 28th of June Sir Henry Clinton, with a strong detachment, in conjunction with Sir Peter Parker, of the navy, made a combined land and naval attack upon the defenses of Charleston harbor, where he was met by General William Moultrie, with the Carolina militia, and after a severe battle, in which the British fleet was roughly handled, Clinton withdrew and returned to New York, whither the main body of the British army, under General Howe, had come, and where Admiral Howe, with a large fleet directly from England, joined
INTKODUCTOKY. 41
them. To this formidable power, led by the best talent in the British army, Washington could muster no adequate force to oppose, and he was obliged to withdraw from Long Island, from New York, from Harlem, from White Plains, to cross into New Jersey, and abandon position after position until he had reached the right bank of the Delaware on Pennsylvania soil. A heavy de- tachment under Comwallis followed, and would have crossed the Delaware in pursuit, but advised to a cautious policy by Howe, he waited for ice to form on the waters of the Delaware before passing over. The fall of Philadelphia now seemed imminent. Washington had not sufficient force to face the whole power of the British army. On the 2d of December, the supreme council ordered all places of business in the city to be closed, the schools dismissed, and advised preparation for removing the women and children and valuables. On the 12th the congress, which was in session here, adjourned to meet in Baltimore, taking with them all papers and public records, and leaving a committee, of which Robert Morris was chairman, to act in conjunction with Washington for the safety of the place. General Putnam was dispatched on the same day with a detachment of soldiers to take command in the city.
Washington, who had, from the opening of the campaign before New York, been obliged for the most part to act upon the defensive, formed the plan to suddenly turn upon his pursuers and offer battle. Accordingly, on the night of the 25th of December, taking a picked body of men, he moved up several miles to Taylorsville, where he crossed the river, though at flood tide and filled with floating ice, and moving down to Trenton, where a detachment of the British army was posted, made a bold and vigorous attack. Taken by surprise, though now after sunrise, the battle was soon decided in favor of the Americans. The victory had great strategic value. The British had intended to push forward and occupy Philadelphia at once, which, being now virtually the capital of the new nation, had it been captured at this juncture, would have given them the occasion for claiming a triumphal ending of the war. But this advantage, though gained by a detachment small in numbers yet great in cour- age, caused the commander of a powerful and well-appointed army to give up all intention of attempting to capture the Pennsylvania metropolis in this cam- paign, and retiring into winter cantonments upon the Baritan to await the settled weather of the spring for an entirely new cast of operations. Washing- ton, emboldened by his success, led all his forces into New Jersey, and pushing past Trenton, where Comwallis, the royal leader, had brought his main body by a forced march, under cover of darkness, attacked the British reserves at Princeton. But now the enemy had become wary and vigilant, and, summoned by the booming of cannon, Comwallis hastened back to the relief of his hard pressed columns. Washington, finding that the enemy's whole army was within easy call and knowing that he had no hope of success with his weak ' army, withdrew. He now went into winter quarters at Morristown, and by
42 INTRODUCTORY.
constant vigilance was able to gather marauding parties of the British who ventured far away from their works.
Putnam commenced fortifications at a point below Philadelphia upon the Delaware, and at commanding positions upon the outskirts, and on being sum- moned to the army was succeeded by General Irvine, and )ie by General Gates. On the 4th of March, 1777, the two houses of the legislature, elected under the new constitution, assembled, and in joint convention chose Thomas Wharton, Jr., president, and George Bryan, vice-president. Penn had expressed the idea that power was preserved the better by due formality and ceremony, and, accordingly, this event was celebrated with much pomp, the result being de- clared in a loud voice from the court-house, amid the shouts of the gathered throngs and the booming of the captured cannon brought from the field of Trenton. The title bestowed upon the new chief officer of the state was fitted by its length and high-sounding epithets to inspire the multitude with awe and reverence : " His Excellency, Thomas Wharton, Junior, Esquire, President of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, Captain General, and Com- mander-in-chief in and over the same."
Early in April, great activity was observed among the shipping in New York harbor, and Washington communicated to congress his opinion that Phila- delphia was the object against which the blow would be aimed. This announce- ment of probable peril induced the council to issue a proclamation urging enlistments, and congress ordered the opening of a camp for drilling recruits in Pennsylvania, and Benedict Arnold, who was at this time a trusted general, was ordered to the command of it. So many new vessels and transports of all classes had been discovered to have come into New York harbor, probably for- warded from England, that Washington sent General Mifflin, on the 10th of June, to congress, bearing a letter in which he expressed the settled conviction that the enemy meditated an immediate descent upon some part of Pennsylvania. General Mifflin proceeded to examine the defensive works of the city which had been begun on the previous advance of the British, and recommended such changes and new works as seemed best adapted for its protection. The pre- parations for defense were vigorously prosecuted. The militia were called out and placed in two camps, one at Chester and the other at Downington. Fire ships were held in readiness to be used against vessels attempting the ascent of the river.
Lord Howe, being determined not to move until ample preparations were completed, allowed the greater part of the summer to wear away before he advanced. Finally, having embarked his force on a fleet of transports, he sailed southward. Washington promptly made a corresponding march over- land, passing through Philadelphia on the 24th of August. Howe, suspecting that preparations would be made for impeding the passage of the Delaware, sailed past its mouth, and moving up the Chesapeake instead, debarked fifty-
INTROBUCTOBY. 43
fonr miles from Philadelphia and commenced the march northward. Great actiYity was now manifested in the city. The water-spouts were melted to furnish bullets, fair hands were busied in rolling cartridges, powerful chevaux- de-frise were planted to impede the navigation of the river, and the last division of the militia of the city, which had been divided into three classes, was called out. Washington, who had crossed the Brandywine, soon confronted the advance of Howe, and brisk skirmishing at once opened. Seeing that he was likely to have the right of his position at Red Clay creek, where he had intended to give battle, turned by the largely superior force of the enemy, under cover of darkness on the night of the 8th of September, he withdrew across the Brandywine at Chad's Ford, and posting Armstrong with the militia upon the left, at Pyle's Ford, where the banks were rugged and precipitous, and Sullivan, who was second in command, upon the right at Brinton's Ford under cover of forest, he himself took post with three divisions. Sterling's, Stephen's, and his own, in front of the main avenue of approach at Chad's. Discovering the strong position which the American army occupied, the British general began a movement to turn it by a flank movement. Washing- ton, always on the alert, promptly divined the enemy's intentions and ordered General Sullivan to counteract the movement by flanking the flankers, while he held his immediate command ready to attack the main force while in confusion. The plan was ruined, however, by Sullivan's failure to obey orders, and Wash- ington had no alternative but to remain in position and make the best disposi- tion that time would permit. His main body with the force of Sullivan took position along the brow of the hill on which stands the Birmingham meeting- house, and the battle opened and was pushed with vigor the whole day. Over- borne by numbers, and weakened by losses, Washington was obliged to retire, leaving the enemy in possession of the field.
Congress remained in Philadelphia while these military operations were going on at its very doors ; but on th^ 18th of September adjourned to meet at Lancaster, though subsequently, on the SOth, removed across the Susquehanna to York, where it remained in session till after the evacuation in the following summer. The council remained until two days before the fall of the city, when, having dispatched the records of the loan office and the more valuable papers to Easton, it adjourned to Lancaster. On the 26th the British army entered the city. Deborah Logan in her memoir says : ^^ The army marched in and took possession of the city in the morning. We were upstairs and saw them pass the State House. They looked well, clean and well clad, and the contrast between them and our own poor, bare-footed, ragged troops was very great, and caused
a feeling of despair Early in the afternoon Lord Comwallis'
suite arrived, and took possession of my mother's house."
The army of Washington, after being recruited and put in light marching order, was led to Germantown, where, on the morning of the 8d of October, the
44 INTRODUCTORY.
enemy was met. A heavy fog that morning had obscured friend and foe alike, occasioning confusion in the ranks, and though the opening promised well, and some progress was made, yet the enemy was too strong to be moved, and the American leader was forced to retire to his camp at White Marsh. Though the river had now been opened and the city was thoroughly fortified for resisting attack, yet Howe felt not quite easy in having the American army quartered in so close striking distance, and accordingly, on the 4th of December, with nearly his entire army, moved out, intending to take Washington at White Marsh, sixteen miles away, by surprise, and by rapidity of action gain an easy victory. But by the heroism and fidelity of Lydia Darrah, who, as she had often done before, passed the guards to go to the mill for flour, the news of the coming of Howe was communicated to Washington, who was pre- pared to receive him. Finding that he could effect nothing, Howe returned to the city, having had the wearisome march at this wintry season without effect.
Washington now crossed the Schuylkill and went into winter quarters at Valley Forge. The cold of that winter was intense ; the troops, half clad and indifferently fed, suffered severely, the prints of their naked feet in frost and suow being often tinted with patriot blood. Grown impatient of the small results from the immensely expensive campaigns carried on across the ocean, the ministry relieved Lord Howe, and appointed Sir Henry Clinton to the chief command.
The commissioners whom congress had sent to France early in the fall of 1776, Franklin, Dean and Lee, had been busy in making interest for the united colonies at the French court, and so successful were they, that arms and ammunition and loans of money were procured from time to time. Finally, a convention was concluded, by which France agreed to use the' royal army and navy as faithful allies of the Americans against the English. Accordingly, a fleet of four powerful frigates and twelve ships were despatched under com- mand of the Count D'Estaing to shut up the British fleet in the Delaware. The plan was ingenious, particularly worthy of the long head of Franklin. But by some means, intelligence of the sailing of the French fleet reached the English cabinet, who immediately ordered the evacuation of the Delaware, whereupon the Admiral weighed anchor and sailed away with his entire fleet to New York, and D'Estaing, upon his arrival at the mouth of the Delaware, found that the bird had flown.
Clinton evacuated Philadelphia and moved across New Jersey in the direc- tion of New York. Washington closely followed and came up with the enemy on the plains of Monmouth, on the 28th of June, 1778, where a sanguinary battle was fought which lasted the whole day, resulting in the triumph of the American arms, and Pennsylvania was rid of British troops.
The enemy was no sooner well away from the city than congress returned from York and resumed its sittings in its former quarters, June 24, 1778, and
INTRODUCTORY. 45
on the following day the colonial legislature returned from Lancaster. Gen- eral Arnold, who was disabled by a wound received at Saratoga, from field duty, was given command in the city and marched in with a regiment on the day following the evacuation. On the 28d of May, 1778, President Wharton died suddenly of quinsy, while in attendance upon the council at Lancaster, when George Bryan, the vice-president, became the acting president. Bryan was a philanthropist in deed as well as word. Up to this time African slavery had been tolerated in the colony. In his message of the 9th of November, he said : ^^ This or some better scheme would tend to abrogate slavery — ^the opprobrium
of America-^from among us In divesting the state of slaves, you
will equally serve the cause of humanity and policy, and offer to God one of the most proper and best returns of gratitude for his great deliverance of us and our posterity from thraldom ; you will also set your character for justice and benevolence in the true point of view to Europe, who are astonished to see a people eager for liberty holding negroes in bonditge." He perfected a bill for the extinguishment of claims to slaves which was passed by the assembly, March 1, 1780, by a vote of thirty-four to eighteen, providing that no child of slave parents bom after that date should be a slave, but a servant till the age of twenty-eight years, when all claim for service should end. Thus by simple enactment resolutely pressed by Bryan, was slavery forever rooted out of Penn- sylvania.
At the election held for president, the choice fell upon Joseph Reed, with George Bryan vice-president, subsequently Matthew Smith, and finally Will- iam Moore. Reed was an erudite lawyer, and had held the position of private secretary to Washington, and subsequently adjutant-general of the army. He was inaugurated on the 1st of December, 1778. William Moore was elected president to succeed Joseph Reed, from November 14, 1781, but held the ofiSce less than one year, the term of three years for which he had been a councilman, having expired, which was the limit of service. James Potter was chosen vice-president. In the state election of 1782, contested with great vio- lence, John Dickinson was chosen president, and James Ewing vice-president. On the 12th of March, 1783, intelligence was first received of the signing of the preliminary treaty in which independence was acknowledged, and on the 11th of April congress sent forth the joyful proclamation ordering a cessation of hostilities. The soldiers of Burgoyne, who had been confined in the prison camp at Lancaster, were put upon the march for New York, passing through Philadelphia on the way. Everywhere was joy' unspeakable. The obstruc- tions were removed from the Delaware, and the white wings of commerce again came fluttering on every breeze.
In September, 1785, after a long absence in the service of his country abroad, perfecting treaties, and otherwise establishing just relations with other nations, the venerable Benjamin Franklin, then nearly eighty years old, feeling
46 INTRODUCTOKY. •
the infirmities of age coming upon him, asked to be relieved of the duties of minister at the court of France, and returned to Philadelphia. Soon after his arrival, he was elected president of the council. Charles Biddle was elected vice-president. In May, 1787, a convention to frame a constitution for the United States met in Philadelphia. The delegation from Pennsylvania was Benjamin Franklin, Robert Morris, Thomas Mifflin, George Clymer, Thomas Fitzsimons, Jared IngersoU, James Wilson and Gouverneur Morris. Upon the completion of their work, the instrument was submitted to the several states for adoption. A convention was called in Pennsylvania, which met on the 21st of November, and though encountering resolute opposition, it was finally adopted on the 12th of December. On the following day, the convention, the supreme council and officers of the state and city government^ moved in proces- sion to the old court-house, where the adoption of the constitution was formally proclaimed amidst the booming of cannon and the ringing of bells.
On the 5th of November, 1788, Thomas Mifflin was erected president, and George Ross vice-president. The constitution of the state, framed in and adapted to the exigencies of an emergency, was ill suited to the needs of the state in its relations to the new nation. Accordingly, a convention assembled for the purpose of preparing a new constitution in November, 1789, which was finally adopted on September 2, 1790. By the provisions of this instrument, the executive council was abolished, and the executive duties were vested in the hands of a governor. Legislation was intrusted to an assembly and a senate The judicial system was continued, and the terms of the judges extended through good behavior.
\
3 ^-^ pC »Vw<f-^,^
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
CHAPTER I.
GENERAL TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY.
TOPOGRAPHICALLY, the state of Pennsylvania may be generally divided into three great divisions : The southeastern section, a region of broad, fertile valleys and scattered hills ; the middle belt, some fifty miles wide and two hundred and thirty miles long, consisting of peculiarly symmetrical moun- tain ranges and narrow valleys ; and a high western plateau, deeply seamed by various water-courses.
It is with the southeastern section that these pages are especially concerned. This region is separated from the middle belt by the Kittatinny range, through which the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers force their way, and thence along fertile valleys and rugged peaks to find their outlet to the sea. The South Mountain range and the Susquehanna river naturally suggested the early bound- ary between the whites and the Indians, but the limits finally fixed for Bucks county were the arbitrary dictations of convenience. As it now exists, the county forms an irregular parallelogram, extending from the great bend of the Delaware river along its course in a direct line of about forty miles, with an average width of about fifteen miles, and contabing about six hundred square miles. Inclosed within the foothills of the South Mountain range and the upper limit of the tidewater plain of the Atlantic, it consists of a beautifully diversified, undulating region, sloping gradually from an altitude of one hun- dred and forty feet (A. T.) at its upper limit to a few feet above tide level at its lower extremity. A steeper grade is discovered in passing westerly from the river, the altitude at Quakertown being marked at five hundred feet (A. T.).
A more than usually diversified geological structure confers upon this county a great variety of scenery. Above the level of its general surface rise numerous hills and low ridges of swelling outline. A prevailing softness of contour especially distinguishes its lower portion, which may be attributed to the general absence of the harder igneous rocks and coarse sandstones, and to
4
50 HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
the presence of the easily disintegrated and crumbled varieties of gneiss^ meta- morphic schists, etc., that underlie the surface. The northern portion, com- posed for the most part of a broad zone of friable red shale and argillaceous sandstone, exhibits a smooth and rolling landscape^ except where dykes and ridges of trap-rock protrude through the softer mass.
The extreme northern end of the county is traversed by a portion of the South Mountain chain, and presents a very uniform, general aspect, though internally of great diversity of structure and variety of local scenery. It is remarkable for its evenness of summit and parallelism of its crests or ridges. It is formed of two well-marked parallel ridges, extending from the Delaware, across the northern corner of the county in a southwest direction, to the Schuylkill at Reading. These ranges are a prolongation of the Highlands of New Jersey, and inclose some pleasant agricultural valleys. Their average elevation above the bordering valleys scarcely exceeds four hundred feet, but being abrupt and presenting a marked barrier to the view, they receive the name of mountains, which are more properly applied to other parts of the chain of which they are but the termination. The regular contour of the central region is varied by a broken range of hills which extends nearly due west from a point on the Delaware in Solebury township, just below New Hope, to the central part of Buckingham township where the Durham road skirts its base about a mile below Genterville. At this point the range ends somewhat abruptly and is known as Buckingham mountain, and is only crossed by a zig- zag road near the middle of its extent in this township. It is a rugged eleva- tion of some 250 feet above the bordering valleys, and is still generally clothed wuth its original timber. The colored people have erected a church upon its summit near the road which crosses it, and a few clearings have been made at different places on it ; but its chief economic value is found in the timber it supplies. Toward the Solebury line the elevation rapidly diminishes to a level with the general surface. Passing toward the river a gradual rise develops the Solebury mountain, which extends with a slight southerly curve and ends abruptly at the Delaware. Bowman's mountain is an isolated rocky elevation on the boundary line between Solebury and Upper Makefield, and Jericho mountain is a similar elevation near the central portion of the latter township. In the northeast section of Haycock township is a symmetrical mound-like ele- vation known from the peculiar character of its contour as " The Haycock." It is a rough, rocky structure forbidding in every aspect, and save for its timber and ^n extended outlook to be had from its summit, is without natural attrac- tions. No road as yet renders its economic resources readily available, but a movement to remedy this defect is now being made.
Bucks county lies almost wholly within the valley of the Delaware, and dis- charges its waters directly into that stream through its own water-courses. The river forms the boundary on the eastern side and lower end, and from this
I
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 51
Side of the county receives the waters of the Durham, Tohickon, Pidcock, Knowles, Hough, and lesser streams. At the lower end, it receives the Scott, Mill, Neshaminy, and Poquessing creeks. "The Haycock," with a ridge I extending southwesterly from it, divides the drainage of the upper region of
the county, and the Perkiomen, taking its rise on the southwestern slope of this divide, flows a nearly direct course to the Schuylkill. The principal local stream, however, is the Neshaminy, which clearly indicates the general topog- raphy of the central and lower portions of Bucks. Rising not far from the Delaware, in Plumstead township, it flows in a westerly course until it passes beyond the influence of Buckingham mountain, when it turns, almost at right angles to its previous course, and proceeds in a southerly direction to the river at the lower end of the county. It is through this stream and its affluents that the larger portion of the natural drainage of the county is efiected. The Po- quessing, which forms the lower boundary and determines that of the upper part of the southwestern side of the county, rises in Southampton and receives numerous little runs from Bensalem. The Pennypack rises in Warminster, but, flowing nearly due south, it leaves the county before it gains a size of even local importance. Some of these streams are themselves true rivers in the extent of their drainage. With an annual rainfall of nearly forty inches, and a general regularity of seasons, few of these streams — and they only during an occasional severe drouth in the summer — lack abundance of water in any part of the year.
The geological conditions of the county have permitted these streams to shape its surface into a network of tortuous and highly picturesque courses, the characteristics of which vary from the grandeur of nearly vertical cliffs to the pastoral beauty of the softest landscape and gentlest windings of a placid stream. In endless panoramic view are found the 'most charming pictures of boldly carved hills, of verdant slopes, of fertile meadows, and luxuriant foliage that well might engage the artist's pencil. The admirer of nature, however, will find the greatest inspiration along the Delaware. From the point where its limpid waters first lave the soil of the county at the Durham hills, it flows for several miles in a tortuous course through a deep and some- times narrow channel. After leaving the Durham hills the landscape assumes a difflrent aspect. Here it forms a table land elevated some three hundred feet above the level of the river, cut out on one or both sides of the vallev into long ranges of perpendicular elevations or extremely steep slopes. One stretch along the Narrows or Nockamixon rocks (Pennsylvania Palisades) is an ex- ceedingly grand and picturesque range of beetling cliffs, rising in places four hundred feet from the brink of the river, through an extent of nearly three miles. Some of the views here are strikingly impressive in their grandeur, and taken with the river below are beautiful beyond expression. Tufts of budlies, rare botanical plants, and climbing vines heighten by their green hues
52 HISTORY OP BUCKS COUNTY.
the rich brown tints of the rocks, and lend to the bold faces and narrow ledges of the cliiFs a grace which nature alone can produce. There are few more attractive drives or walks than are found along the river margin at the foot of these cliffs. Farther down the river, in the vicinity of New Hope, some bold ridges of trap-rock impart a pleasing variety to banks otherwise comparatively tame. At Trenton and Morrisville the river assumes an entirely different aspect. Instead of a rushing stream vexed with numerous islands and tumbling over rocky reefs in rapids, it becomes a tidal river, modified by the flowing and ebbing of the tide. This district is not without many views of quiet beauty and some that are even grand. The location of Trenton and Philadelphia in this region has drawn the attention of those who seek a retired home within a convenient reach of business to the natural attractions of the lower stretches of the river, and each year marks the addition on either bank of new residences about which the training hand of art softens the rugged beauty of nature and adds a charm that even the uninspired can enjoy.
The external relief of a country, however, is only the expression of its internal rocky structure, moulded by the erosive action of the elements and the slow chemical influences of the atmosphere. The contour of the surface indicates the hidden anatomy beneath, and in studying the projections and outlines of the landscape the inquirer is led to the investigation of the secrets of its structure. Thus the greater or lesser elevations which are termed moun- tains and hills result from the different forms of the strata composing them. In geological language they are of anticlinal, synclinal, or monoclinal structure. When it is understood that the larger part of the country owes its relief to a diffused powerful cutting or wearing action of the elements and water upon a broad group, or series of groups, of great parallel undulations in the strata, or more or less compressed waves in the earth's outer crust, it is apparent that •there can exist but three forms of ridges and valleys: 1. Those consisting of strata bent convexly upward, or dipping anticlinally. 2. Those consisting of strata bent concavely upward, or dipping synclinally. 3. Those strata dipping only in one direction, or monoclinally, forming the flanks of the waves. These three types of geological structure, shared by the valleys as well as by the ridges, are each of them accompanied by distinctive external forms or charac- teristics. *
Many interesting examples of anticlinal, synclinal, and monoclinal eleva- tions occur throughout the county, and it may be well to recommend to the reader, geologically inclined, to inspect with care such exposures. They are often met with along the banks of our streams, where he will easily detect all l^e above forms and many other curious phases existing in the topography of the county.
Few districts of the state disclose the connection between the external physical features of the land and the character and position of the various
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 53
strata more plainly than certain portions of Bucks county. The position of the county bordering on the Delaware river embraces within its limits a portion of the old gneiss ridges of the South mountain, on its northern boundaries, to the Cretaeetms outcrop at its southeastern extremity. Most of its surface, however, is covered by the Mesozoic new red sandstone and shale, dipping northwestward at angles varying from nearly horizontal to fifteen degrees. The apparent thickness of this formation according to the second geological survey is about thirty thousand feet, which seems incredible for several reasons ; seeing that at halfway of the distance across Solebury and Buckingham town- ships, a northeast and southwest fault, ten miles in length, brings the sandstone No. I. and limestone No. II. up to the surface with quite a limited disturbance of the contour or topography of that section of the county. The whole surface of the Me9ozoie country has been reduced by erosions several hundred feet at least, as the deposits must have once overspread the PotBdam-covered gneiss ridges at the northern end of the county, for they still rise almost to the top of these ridges (1000' A. Tide). Prof. J. P. Lesley, in his Oeological Atlas of Counties, says in regard to this deposit : ^^ Although they dip north towards (the Poe^dam-covered gneiss ridge) ^ and there is no evidence for a fault ; but why no trace exists in the great valley cannot be explained, except on the supposition that the surface of the valley has been lowered by erosion at least a thousand feet since Me%ozoic times ; and this is proved at Hummelstown in Dauphin county."
The Mesozaic formation is of the same character throughout, an alternation of hard and soft layers of reddish sand and mud, some fit for building pur- poses, some conglomeritic, some calcareous, and some fossiliferous, containing numerous bones of lizards, shells, and fossil plants. The name Mesozoic red ^andstoncy by which this deposit is designated by geologists, is given to it in allusion to the geological age in which it was produced, both its organic remains and its position among the other systems of strata distinctly indicating it to have originated early in the so-called Mesozoie period, or middle age of extinct or fossil life. As a term, it is less theoretical and more descriptive than that of new red mnditoney the title often conferred upon it by geologists. In the central and upper parts of the deposit we not unfrequently meet with dark gray and blue shales, containing much carbonaceous matter in a partially pulverulent state, with here and there a chunk of true compact lignite more or less bituminous, but retaining distinctly the fibrous structure of the wood from which it has been derived. This lignite is even occasionally in continuous layers of two or three inches thickness, extending for several yards. Approxi- mating to the features of genuine coal, these little seams are a fertile source of delusive hope among those who are ignorant of the geological relations of ihe strata. Besides the foregoing enumerated characteristics of this great body of red sandstone and shale, the formation includes, near its north and
54- HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
south limits, two other subdivisions which claim a short description ; these are coarse conglomerates, very heterogeneous in composition and interrupted in their line of outcrop.. In the east part of the belt, especially along. the Delaware, the base of the whole formation is a mass of coarse pinkish and grayish sand- stones, composed of angular fragmenta of quartz, feldspar, and a small per- qentage of mica, the constituents of the neighboring gneissic strata. These beds graduate upward into the more argillaceous sandstone strata. These pebbles are of all dimensions from Qpe-half inch to five or six inches.
A conglomerate very similar to that which lies at the base of the formation constitutes in several neighborhoods the upper or terminal stratum. This con- glomerate is so well characterized along the northwest margin of the formation that it is entitled to be regarded as a distinct subformaiion ; it overlies the formation, not in a continuous belt, but in several long narrow patches. Trap- ridges and dykes accompany this formation throughout the county. The rocks constituting them are of igneous origin, and were ejected in a melted state through fissures in the earth's crust. It is. remarkable that these fractures should have taken place in great numbers just where the formations exist, and only sparingly east or west of them. The igneous and aqueous rocks are so associated that they necessarily comeinto the same history. This geological relationship of the trap to the sandstone is an important feature of th^ forma- tion embraced within the limits of Bucks county. What the physical causes were, which, at the close of the Mesozoic period, confined the rupturing of the strata and the effusion of trappean matter to the comparatively narrow area overspread by this formation is difficult even to conjecture, and the present is not a fit opportunity for speculating on the subject.
In many cases this trappean matter occurs simply as a narrow dyke. It has come up through fissures in the sandstone, and, as it escaped, it often thickened up into high elevations ; yet nowhere does it seem to have flowed far over the surface. The proofs that the trap was actually melted are abundant ; for the sandstone rocks have in many places been baked to a hard grit by the heat, and at times so blown up by steam as to look scoriaceous. In some places the uplift has opened spaces between the layers where steam has escaped, and changed the clayey sandstone into a very hard rock looking like trap itself. Occasionally crystalline minerals, as epidote and tourmaline, are among the results of the baking. The evidences of heat moreover diminish as we recede from, the ridges ; and there is no doubt that the sandstone has been extensively worn away by waters where it had not been rendered durable by the heat. The ordinary trap-rock of the Mesazoic belt of Bucks county is that variety which is kpown under the rather obscure name of Basalt, and which in its typical fdrms consists of a union of augite, feldspar, and titaniferous iron, the first- narked mineral predominating. In some dykes, however, the . rock em- braces, much hornblende, replacing the augite. . It is in such cases a true
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 55
greeiistone trap, but this is the less common variety. It is of all degrees of relative fineness of crystallization, from a coarse aggregate to a very complete homogeneous mass. It contains few extraneous minerals, and these are chiefly iDQt with in the amygdaloid varieties, near the borders of certain of the larger dykes,. or more properly in immediate contact with the altered red shale, by the reaction of the trap upon which this amygdaloidal character has been acquired, and these minerals have been evolved chiefly by segregation. Some of the dykes of trap along the Nockamixon rocks or Pennsylvania palisades contain copper ore (copper glance erubescite and malachite), and there is little doubt that the copper veins and the carytes, which is often the gangue of the veins, originated in the same eruptive period. Several isolated masses of trap- rocks are exposed in Nockamixon township. '^ The Ringing Rocks" occur in this township. Haycock mountain, about four miles southwest on the same strike, is quite a prominent feature in this formation. A range of hills four miles in length in Rockhill township consist of trappean material. Several trap-hills enter Bucks county from Montgomery county, near the northwestern corner, another in Southampton township, and several others occur near New Hope, with others scattered throughout the section covered by the Mesozoic formation. At the southern edge of the formation its lowest strata lie upon the Trenton range of gneiss, and appear to be made up of fragments of the older rocks.
This rock is a coarse reddish-gray quartz, with occasional strata of conglom- eritic sandstone, and is exposed at several quarries below Yardley. It is composed of small angular grains and imperfectly rounded pebbles of minerals of the neighboring gneissic. rocks, the upturned edges of which it rests upon unconformably. The pebbles are chiefly quartz and feldspar, those of the former mineral being in certain layers nearly an inch in diameter. Some of this quartz is slightly opalescent. . Much of the feldspar is of a dull yellowish color, without any lustre. A certain amount of hornblende and a small pro- portion of mica likewise occur. Dispersed among these materials, we find minute specks of yellow hydrated peroxide of iron ; this substance and the dis- integrated feldspar weaken the cohesion of the rock, and greatly impair its value for building, purposes. The bedding of the layers is not very regular, the result of inclined deposition, a structure which materially injures the utility of this rock for many purposes. The lower member of the formation is trace- able under more or less distinctiveness of character for many miles from the Delaware, but in places extremely narrow.
Above these heterogeneous. rocks or lower formation there rests a series of beds of a somewhat different material, constituting a zone which near the Dela« ware is several miles in width. In this division the predominant rock is a rather coarse-grained pinkiah sandstone, composed of transparent quartzose oandj specks of feldspar, and occasional flat pebbles of compact red shale or
56 HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
sandstone ; but the siliceous sand is the chief ingredient, and the cement is the red shale or clay. From the circumstance that no part of the formation has ever been deeply buried, either under a great mass of waters or beneath other strata, the cohesion of these rocks is not very great ; nevertheless this belt furnishes some of the best building stone derived from the whole formation. It is quarried near Yardley, and for some distance above and below, and in New Jersey. In a series of quarries along the canal it may be noticed that the stratification is for the most part regular, and the rock is easily quarried and wrought. The next overlying division of the general stratum is much broader, extending from the last described to a point about a mile north of New Hope to a tract or an exposure of limestone in Solebury township. All forms of these rocks exist in this division from the soft argillaceous shales to hard silice- ous and micaceous sandstones. These strata having here a west-southwest strike range through the southern half of the county, entering Montgomery in the same direction. In the neighborhood of the Delaware river, several immense dykes of trap-rock appear, the heat of which has caused extensive alteration in the aspect and appearance of the strata, and developed some interesting phenomena of mineral segregation. The most common minerals thus elaborated are epidote, phrenite, zeolite, stilbite, etc. In the vicinity of Centre bridge there lies a diversified series of strata of about one mile in width, which consists of red standstones and coarse yellowish conglomerates, divided by occasional thinner beds of soft red shale. These strata much resemble thode found at the base of the formation. Much building stone is quarried in the vicinity of Centre bridge, the stone being well adapted for that purpose. Pass- ing northward along the Delaware the red shale rocks are found extensively altered by the temperature originally imparted to them by the trap-dykes, and by igneous rock which has not reached the surface, but of the close proximity of which there exist the strongest indications. The tract under consideration, near the Tohickon creek, consists of partially metamorphosed strata, compact and of a prevailing dull brown color, sometimes passing into a dull blue, and are intersected by large joints into rhombic blocks. Those portions which have been subjected to the greatest amount of igneous action have a semi-crystalline feature, and when struck give out a ringing sound. The Nockamixon cliffs along the Narrows possess the same peculiarities.
The red-shale country is rather fertile and well cultivated ; but those portions of red shale where the rocks are changed to a dark-bluish or purplish color have usually a wet, heavy soil, and are not so much esteemed for agricultural purposes. Many interesting matters connected with the great Mesozoie belt are of necessity passed over for want of space.
Turning now to the southern end or line of the Mewzaic where it flanks the metamorphic rocks, it is observed to extend from the Delaware river, commenc- ing about midway between Morrisville and Yardley, across the county, entering
Q)ai/coi J^ia^f^kcr
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 59
Montgomery coanty several miles south of Southamptonville. There is here no well-defined escarpment, the red soil which results from the decomposition of the red shale being the only guide. Between the Delaware river and the Montgomery county line the Mewzoic rests upon and overlaps the Syenites. The boundary of the Mesozaic and the Syenites is very irregular, owing to the irregularity of the latter and the erosion of the red shale. The syenitic and gneissic rocks of the Laurentian group extend along the southern border of the Mesozaic formation from the Delaware river to the Montgomery county line, extending into that county along that formation for some distance. The character of the rock is similar to that of the Durham hills.
Small particles of magnetite have been found in many localities, but no ore of any amount has yet been discovered here.
At' A. Johnson's farm, southeast of Feasterville, plumbago has been found in a single locality, but not in sufficient quantities to encourage mining operations.
Crystalline limestone occurs in a local deposit at Van Artsdalen's quarry in Southampton township.
South of the Syenitic belt of rocks appears the Potsdani^ Sandstone group of rocks, extending in the same direction across the county as the Laurentian rocks. The Potsdam rock is a fine-grained sandstone with micaceous partings, occasional beds of coarse sandstone and conglomerate, and beds of quartzite. Tourmaline crystals are numerous, usually of a small, needle-like shape. Iron pyrites are plentiful in nearly all localities. Cavities are often met with where this mineral has been weathered out of the rock. Th^re are many exposures of this rock along its trend, forming in many places quite prominent ridges, especially in Falls township. The Potsdam formation is well exposed at Neshaminy falls, in Middletown township. The dip of the rock varies greatly. In Southampton township, near Neshaminy falls, along the southern margin of the sandstone, there is a well-defined escarpment between the Syenites, Potsdam, and mica schists.
The mica schists are flanked on the north by the Potsdam. There are numerous exposures of this rock along the Neshaminy above Hulmeville. The rock along the northern edge of this belt is a gametiferous mica schist. Pro- eeeding southward the garnets gradually diminish in quantity and give place to mica schists and quartz. Alternations of homblendic slate occur in the gametiferous belt.
The southern end of Bucks county is occupied by a belt, five miles wide, of Philadelphia rocks, micaceous gneisses, and mica schists of unknown age, dfpping gently northward and covered with gravel of recent but various ages, ending with the present river mud. A straight and steep outcrop of the Edge Sm sandstone along the south edge of the older gneiss separates it from the Philadelphia gneisses and schists.
60 HISTORY OP BUCKS COUNTY:
Professor Charles E. Hall says in regard to those mica schists : ^' We en- counter the same difficulty in assigning the mica schists and gneisses to any place above the Primal (Potsdam Sandstone^ No. I.) until we get above the horizon of Rogers's Aurol limestones, No. II. The dividing line between the deposits of the Potsdam and the limestones is sharply defined, the change of conditions was rapid, and the source of material was changed. And there are no intermediate deposits of mica schists and gneisses which might be equivalent to the first and second belts. But towards the close of the deposit- of the limestones the conditions were quite different. Throughout the upper portion we find the limestones alternating with slates. Beds of slaty limestones and slate are met with occasionally in the middle and lower portions ; but as we ascend the limestone gradually becomes subordinate and the slates predominate.
" These slates (which have been called the SotUh Valley Hill hydromica and chlorite slates) were considered by Professor Rogers as equivalent to his Primal of the North Valley Hill ; which is not possible, for the Potsdam sand- stone on the north meets the limestone only a few thousand feet from the south side of the valley where the South Valley Hill slates, occur. There are no transition measures between the limestones and the sl&tes of the South Valley Hill. Now, if we assume that the Potsdam in the north hill and the slates in the south hill belong to the same horizon, it would follow that there was a belt ^ few thousand feet wide, extending from an abrupt commencement near the Schuylkill, southwestward beyond the Susquehanna river, along the southern side of which a gradual change or transition took place, and on the north side of which the change was sudden or spontaneous. Such an argument is un- reasonable. The structure alone is sufficient to prove that these slates of the South Valley Hill are not altered Primal^ but no other than a series of slates overlying the limestones of No. II.
*' Aside from the palseontological evidence there is sufficient proof of their Hudson river age alone from the structural relations. The lower portion of this South Valley Hill belt shows a gradual transition from limestone to slate deposits. Throughout the lower portion of the group there is nothing resem- bling the gneisses and mica schists of the lower Schuylkill (first and second belts of Rogers). It is therefore far above the base of the South Valley Hill."
In the southeastern part of Falls township there is a small area of clay exposed. This appears to be a remnant of the lowest clay .beds of the New Jersey Cretaceous. The clay is capped by gravel and forma a prominence known as Turkey Hill. It is surrounded by alluvial deposits, and the expo- sures are confined to the flanks of the hill. The same clay is exposed in several localities opposite in New Jersey.
The course of the Delaware river here points to the fact that the stream has been gradually cutting the edge of the formation, which at one time extended
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 61
moch brther north. Gravel and river deposits cover the southern portion of Falls township. Near .the northern edge of the gravel we find terraces and escarpments. These escarpments have a diagonal course across the township, marking the successive courses of the Delaware river as it has gradually under- mined the newer formations which are now eroded or concealed below the allu- vial on the Pennsylvania side, but are visible on the Jersey side of the river. Northwest of Morrisville, in this township, appears a depression in the Potsdam ridge, and in the neighborhood of Bock run, where this stream runs into Lower Makefield township. The Delaware river possibly at one time crossed to the south side of the Potsdam at this point, and worked its way in a northwesterly direction towards Fallington. It appears that the outcrop of the Wealden deposit at Turkey Hill is the only place in the state where this clay is found. > Crystalline limestone occurs in Southampton township, near the Neshaminy creek. It is interbedded with Laurentian rocks, and occurs near their northern edge. The locality is well known as a mineral district. Plumbago is found interspersed throughout the limestone. The extent of the limestone deposit appears limited and local in character. A hornblende gneiss is in contact with the limestone both north and south, and even splinters and small blocks of the dark gneiss are involved in the crystalline limestone, as if ruptured from the walls of a fissure through which the carbonate of lime of the quarry and the included minerals may have gushed up. Some of these flakes of gneiss are excessively contorted and folded, indicating the whole mass to have been at one time in a pasty or soft state, and so heated and squeezed as to have softened and folded the included gneiss. The limestone itself is a white crystalline mass, consisting of true granular limestone, granular dolomite, and calc-spar full of specks of perfectly and imperfectly crystallized pure graphite, with a variety of other interesting minerals. Orthoclase of a trichinic form has been found in this quarry and analysed by Professor Genth in 1875. He says in regard to this mineral : '^ It has been stated in my report of 1874, B. 94, that orthoclase occurs at Van Artdalen's quarry, in Bucks county, in cleavable masses ; sometimes opalescent with rich blue colors. I have analyzed one of the latter and obtained highly interesting results. The material for analysis appeared quite uniform throughout, and was of a dark gray color with blue opalescence. The particles showed distinct striation. The analysis gave : —
Specific gravity, 2.497.
Silicic acid 64.98
Alumina 18.58
Ferric oxide 0.49
Magnesia 0.12
Lime . . ' 1.77
Soda S.04
Potanh 10.44
.Ignition .1.11
100.48
62 HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTlr.
The analysis agreeing nearly with orthoclase, whilst it shows the striation of a triclinic feldspar. By the examination of the crystalline structure it is yet to be ascertained whether this opalescent variety is not a mixture of orthoclase with either labraclorite or oligoclase, as the apparently pure orthoclase, without striation and perfectly rectangular cleavage, is found at the same locality, or a new feldspar showing the composition of orthoclase with a triclinic form.'' It would seem as if some of these minerals and masses had been elaborated from the gneiss caught in and melted up with more or less of the elements oif the limestone. In some places the limestone includes large bunches of serpentine, associated with talc and other magnesian minerals. The presence of these naturally suggests a possible origin by segregation from the dolomidc layers of the originally magnesian limestone.
In George Justice's quarry, situated about two and a half miles above Morrisville, is a seam of coal about an inch thick. The dip of the rock is about five degrees north, twenty degrees west. It is a fine-grained conglom- erate of grayish-white quartz, flesh-red feldspar, small scales of mica, and some fragments of chlorite. At the time of our visit here they were prepar- ing to set off an immense blast. The powder did its work well, loosening several hundred tons of fine building material. Below Newportville, at Flashing, on Dr. Taylor's estate, a magnesium rock occurs which Dr. Genth has found to be enstatite. Its occurrence is analogous to the limestone of Van Artsdalen's quarry. The dip of the rock is to the southeast, varying from seventy to eighty degrees.
Southwest of Feasterville, in Southampton township, a coarse granite occurs, and is quarried. This rock has been used for bridge abutments by the railroad company. It varies in color from gray to red. Along the Neshaminy the rock varies from gray, slaty, micaceous quartzite to a homblendic syenite.
Having defined in a general way the southern boundary of the Mesozoic as it exists in Bucks county, it remains now, before closing this part of the chap- ter, to give a short risumS of the Delaware river gravels and clays as th^y exist along the lower borders of the county.
^' In order to better understand the arrangement of the gravel and clay deposits extending across the southern end of Bucks and Philadelphia counties the present south bank of the Delaware must first be understood.
^^ The Delaware river flows in a southeast direction from Easton to a point a short distance below Trenton, where it turns and flows southwest to beyond Philadelphia. This bend is a right angle, and is caused by the river imping- ing here against the low, hilly Outcrop of the Cretaeeous formation of New Jersey extending from near the city of New York to the hes^ of Delaware bay at Wilmington in Delaware.
^^ The Delaware river has cut into this formation north of Trenton, and, flowing against the barrier formed by the edge of the Oretaeeoits measures.
HISTORY OP BUCKS COUNTY. 68
has worked its way to the ocean aloog the line of junction, between the Ore- taee^ms and the underlying cryBtalUne rocks.
'^The Cretaceous originally extended some distance north of its present outcrop limit, and the river must have, formerly flowed along a line (in general parallel to its present southwest course) some distance north or northwest of its present channel. Thus we have some slight evidence of its flowing diag- onally across the southeast comer of Middletown township, in Bucks county, following a course defined on the map by the general northernmost occurrence of the yellow and red gravel.
'^ The limits of the Trenton gravel define a course which the river may have had at a comparatively recent date. The small patches (north of the alluvial deposit) called Bryn Mawr gravel by Mr. H. 0. Lewis are possibly remnants of the Upper Cretaceous or, perhaps, of the overlying Tertiary measures.
^* The mud and fine sand deposited by the river at the present time is found in numerous places along the Delaware. It is principally confined to (he. marshes and lowlands immediately adjoining the river. It forms a consider*- able portion of the extreme southern end of Philadelphia between the Dela* ware and Schuylkill rivers." (Professor Hall's Report, p. 15, ch. 2, c. 6.)
The Trenton gravel extends along the Delaware from Yardley , above Trenton, to Darby creek, below Philadelphia. It is usually a coarse gravel. Between Morrisville, opposite Trenton, and vicinity of the Poquessiug creek, through the southern edge of Bucks county, there are two sets of terraces and escarp- ments visible. The northern escarpment extends along the general course ot Jordan Bock run and Mill creek to the neighborhood of Bridgewater. The southern series of escarpments is marked by the general course of the Penn- sylvania cana'l from Morrisville to Bristol. These escarpments mark an earlier course of the river.
The yellow and red gravel and Philadelphia brick clay forms a broad belt extending from the limits of the Trenton gravel northwar<^ to the higher ground. Numerous patches mark the limit of the Cretaceous as it originally existed. This gravel is composed of the d&ris of all the geological formations which exist along the course of the Delaware river, as well, no doubt, as the d&»ris from the sands and conglomerates of the edge of the Cretaceous (and perhaps Tertiary^ undermined by the river.
Large angular blocks of sandstone and quartzite are found in many places. The deposit of clay seems to be in many cases interbedded with the gravel. Whether it be derived from the wash of the Cretaceous beds, or a deposit similar to the glacial clays of the Hudson river, or whether it had its origin from both sources, is still a question. Its age is unquestionably not remote from the glacial period. The material which forms much of the gravel with which the clay is associated owes its transport to glacial agencies. Whether
64 HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTT.
the ice did or did not extend to this latitude, may still be questioned ; but I think there is little question as to the period when the angular blocks were brought south and deposited here with the gravel. Fragments of fossiliferous rocks have been found in various places. They are of unmistakable Ori%kany sandstone and Helderberg slate.
The Iron-bearing clay group is found at Brownsville, this county, and includes all brown hematite (limonite) iron-ore bearing clays, whatever their origin in this section. Those iron-ore deposits which flank the Potsdam sand- stone are all of Potsdam age.
The Bryn Mawr and other four hundred feet A. T. level gravel patches of Bucks and Delaware counties show that there was once a rise of sea level to that height at least. The valleys of the Delaware and Lehigh in Northampton county must have been arms of the sea into which would have been dropped all the material which those rivers brought down from the north ; and if this rise happened after the formation of the moraine, or during the prevalence of the great ice field, these valleys must have become filled up to a high level with glacial clay, in which no doubt would be included large blocks of stone, such as are found in these deposits.
Having described the Mesozoic new red sandstone and the gneisses, mica- ceous schists, etc., of the middle and southern end of the county, under their several aspects, the interesting area comprising the northeastern corner of the county next claims attention. This division of Bucks county north of the Mesozoic formation consists of parallel ridges called the South Mountain or Durham Hills. They are a continuation of the Highlands of New York and New Jersey through eastern Pennsylvania, ending at the Schuylkill river. The contour of these mountains is long and rather narrow, nowhere sharp, and studded with numerous rounded summits seldom reaching the altitude in this section of eight hundred feet above tide level. The side slopes in many instances are quite steep. The region is thickly covered with second growth timber. The soil is ^rtile and in a high state of cultivation wherever cleared. Between these mountains lie secluded valleys of rich limestone li^nd, biit these valleys are themselves rather hilly and greatly resemble the limestone belts in Northampton, of which they are outlying fragments separated from each other by the gradual erosion of the limestone strata which at one time covered the mountains, and the removal of which has exposed the underlying syenitic beds. The Bougher Hill range of granulite is isolated from the rest of the range by Wolf's ravine which descends in a southerly direction, the divide being only three hundred and ninety feet above tide level. West of this ravine the range is broken into summits, the highest, south of the county line in Durham, being seven hundred and ninety feet above tide level ; the south edge of the ridge, overlooking Springtown with its limestone quaijries, being seven hundred and eighty feet above tide level. The water in Durham creek, in the limestone
HISTORY OP BUCKS COUNTY. 65
valley at Springtown, reaches three hundred and twenty feet. At Leithsville, about twelve miles from the river, this range of hills practically ends. From Bougher Hill gap the river keeps on the same course, south, about three miles, bending slightly west about half a mile below Biegelsville, until it reaches the mouth of Durham creek. These three miles it is cutting through the Durham and Mosconetcong valley limestone strata. At the heading of Durham creek, near Leithsville, is a narrow opening into the Saucon limestone valley. A mile south of Durham furnace,, at Monroe, the river makes a gap through the Mus- conetcong Mountain range, one of the greatest mountain ranges in New Jersey. But, in Pennsylvania, its summit west of the river rises only four hundred and ninety feet (A. T.), becoming five hundred and seventy feet south of Spring- town. But some distance west, about two and a half miles south of Leiths- ville, it again reaches an altitude of nine hundred and eighty feet (A. T.). South of this range the whole county is occupied by the Mesozoic or netv red sandstone.
The foregoing will suffice to place before the reader the main features of this northern belt extending diagonally across the county, composed of ranges of syenitic (grannlite) strata arched into anticllnals, and separated from each other by valleys of limestone strata. The stratification of the limestone rocks of the valleys is visible everywhere, but so broken and crumpled that their structure must be chiefly taken on a topographical basis.
The stratification of the syenitic gneiss is rarely to be seen outside of the mines and tunnels. The general trend or course of these long straight ranges of mountains is curiously almost exactly, alike, varying in the main only a few degrees. On the other hand the summits or crests of the individual ridges and 8pur3 range nearly due east and west. Owing to the general decomposition of the surface rock, the dip is often difficult to determine. A great help, how- ever, may be found by observing the parallel arrangement of the minerals com- posing the rock. The anticlinal structure of these mountains can only be observed in a few^ places throughout this section of country ; the proof, however, may be adduced by a course of reasoning. No geologist who has given the matter close attention will fail to come to this same conclusion. That the South Mountain ranges throughout northern Bucks county have not only an anticlinal shape, but an anticlinal structure, is evident to any close observer, and that when they were bent into upward folds they lifted the limestone and other superimposed strata into folds above them ; but in the lapse of ages the overlying limestone and other strata or foundations were swept away, leaving the mountains bare, but the intervening valleys still filled with them. The gneiss of the South Mountain range in northern Bucks county differs materially from the gneisses of the southern end of the county. It is for the most part a massive rock in thick beds, similar in appearance to feldspathic granite, but distinctly stratified, containing but small amounts of mica and hornblende ; it
66 HISTORY OP BUCKS COUNTY.
is in many places largely charged with magnetite. There are only a few isolated belts of talcose and chlorite slates exposed. There is often a distinct parallelism in its crystalline structare, the feldspar and hornblende occupying alternate layers.
It is evident that the South Mountain gneisses belong to a different system from tKose of the lower end of the county, and geologists who are familiar with the rocks of Canada, and the Adirondacks mountains, pronounce them with confidence to belong to the Laurentian system.
Professor Rogers, in his Geology of Pennsylrania, describes the structure of the South Mountain belt on the Delaware river as follows : ^^ Tracing, in the first place, the southeastern limit of the tract, we find it to coincide pretty accurately along its whole extent from the Delaware to the Schuylkill, with the northwestern margin of the Mesozoic red shale and sandstone rocks, which spread so extensively through Bucks and Montgomery counties, and which here overlap and conceal the group of rocks we are about to describe.
'^ At the Delaware river, the boundary in question passes closely to the little village of Monroe, being more exactly marked by a small stream (Rodgers run) which flows at the base of the hills. Taking a course somewhat west of south, the line runs about three-quarters of a mile north of Rursonton (Burson* ville), then crossing Durham creek ranges westward to the vicinity of Opp's tavern, beyond which it bears to the northwest approaching Leith's tavern, about two miles south of Hellertown. From this point the line of division between the two classes of rocks ranges in a direction a little south of west until it meets the south branch of Saucon, about half-a-mile northwest of Coopers town (Coopersburg), crossing the line not far from the north comer of Montgomery. Along the line traced the gneissic rocks and limestone. No. II., wherever this occurs are overlaid unconformably by the edge of the Mesozoic. In several instances, however, the precise line of junction is difficult to trace, owing to the large amount of d&nis lodged near the base of the hills. In other places, which will be noticed further on, the overlying rock is not the ordinary red shale and sandstone of the Mesozoic^ but a coarse-grained, variegated, cal- careous conglomerate, identical in geological situations and aspect with the rock commonly called Potomac marble."
Between Bucher'sHill, which is the northeastern boundary of Bucks county, and the Durham iron mountains or the most southern of the gneissic exposures in this section, lies a fertile valley of limestone No. II., skirted in numerous places by exposures of Potsdam sandstone. This belt occupies the valley of Durham creek as far southwest as Springtown, being along the river about two miles in width. The rocks are well exposed at the numerous quarries through- out the belt. Between the furnace and Durham creek they exhibit a regular anticlinal flexure. This is the locality of the well-known Durham cave, remark- able for the many fossil bones which have been discovered in it from time to
j2 ^^ Qyvu^
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 69
time. It is geologically sitaated in the limestone No. II. of Rogers. Chas. B. Trego, in his Geography of Pennsylyania, page 196, published in 1834, says in regard to this cavern : ^^ In this same township there is a remarkable cave in the limestone rocks, the entrance to which is about one hundred yards from the river. The height of the entrance of the eminence inclosing the cavern is from two hundred to two hundred and fifty feet above the level of the adjoining lands. From the pathway of the entrance to the rock above is upwards of forty feet, but the passage, being partly obstructed by rocks, will not admit Qiore than two or three persons to enter abreast. The interior is lofty and, consists of three spacious rooms ; the passage from one to the other is over steep and prominent rocks. The first apartment is entered by a descent of about thirty feet. The floor of ttie second room is lower than the first ; and that of the third is still lower, in the bottom of which is a spring of excel- lent water, supposed to communicate with the creek or 'river. The entire length of the cavern from north to south is about ninety yards. In quarrying limestone a little east of the entrance to this cave an opening was made into another running parallel with it, and which, though not so wide, is of the same length. This abounds with stalactites, and probably communicates with the other."
The above is a correct and graphic picture of the cave as it existed before 1848 ; but at present the cave, through the devices of man, consists of one grand and spacious level, combining the second and third apartments in one. It is used for holding scientific gatherings, and will seat if space is fully utilized from eight hundred to one thousand persons. .Queen Esther's drawing-room is still in its natural condition, and is much visited by scientists and others interested in ancient lore. Catherine Montour has frequently been confused with the Indian queen, and it was the former (who is sometimes erroneously called Queen Esther) whom it was intended to honor.
It is well known to historians that this cave was the resort of the abori- gines, as, in earlier times, numbers of flint arrow-heads, stone hammers, beads, pestles, etc., were found in the recesses, of which there were many, some of these extending into the side walls for some distance. Marks of fire were frequent where, no doubt, they prepared their food. Parts of a human skele- ton were found, and numerous fossil bones of extinct animals. An interesting fact in connection with these petrifactions was a heap of cherry-pits or stones, which were by some means or other deposited where the di'ippings from the limestone rock above fell upon them, retaining their shape and size. As late as 1855 a fossil skeleton of a deer was exhumed out of the solid limestone rock. The animal, no doubt, became fastened in some manner in a side fissure, and by the constant dripping of the salts of lime from above, at last became incorpo- rated with the solid limestone.
The gneiss forming the ridge between the Durham and Roger run valleys, is at the river about one mile wide. It is merely a spur of the Musconetcong
5
70 HISTORY OP BUCKS COUNlT.
mountain, nosing downward. Its structure is that of a double-anticlinal, em- bracing a very shallow synclinal band of Potsdam^ well exposed about one- quarter of a mile southwest of the Surface mine, east of a branch of Durham creek. The rock here is much weathered, and the dip rather obscure. The Potsdam rocks here lean upon the denuded edges of the syenitic gneiss, dipping in a nearly opposite direction. The rock consists of a dark silicious slate, and altered sandstone ; upon these repose the lower beds of the limestone No. II., conforming in dip and strike with the sandstone.
On the south flank, or rather at the south base of the Durham hills, lies a narrow outcrop of limestone, consisting of white magnesian limestone, greenish talcose slate, and blue limestone. The limestone is quarried at Schick's, and makes good lime for agricultural purposes. Abutting abruptly against the blue limestone, we find the conglomerate, which terminates the overlying Mesozoic red sandstone. This conglomerate here is a true pudding stone, composed of pebbles of all the adjacent older rocks — gneiss, Potsdam sandstone and slate, and magnesian limestone— imbedded in a paste of red shale. The conglome- rate dips northwest, while the limestone dips southeast at varying angles. This interesting spot, according to Professor Rogers, marks one point along the ncMhern shore of the broad red sandstone estuary, skirted by a bold range of hills, with comparatively deep water at their base, where the crust disturbances which lifted and drained the district shook down a large body of fragmentary matter, to be rolled and imbedded by the waters along their base.
Just north of Monroe, on the west side of the road, gray and dark-colored homblendic, pyroxene, feldspathic gneiss is exposed. This exposure is a fine one. Several hundred yards north on the same side of the road, limestone about one hundred yards in width is exposed, wedged in between the gneissic walls. About one hundred feet north of this, on the same side of the road, we find massive gray-banded granitic gneiss forming a prominent bluff. The rock contains pink feldspar and some epidote, the rock dipping about twenty degrees south.
It may be of interest to the general reader to learn the probable origin of the magnesian limestones which we find so extensively quarried, wherever exposed, within the limits of the county. F. Prime, Jr., in his Report of Progress, Second Geological Survey of Pennsylvania, page 185, says: "The probable origin of the dolomites and dolomitic limestones has been a favorite theme with many geologists and chemists, and, as a natural result, many theories have been offered as to their probable mode of origin.
" In many cases, however, wide generalizations have been attempted from limited occurrences of such rocks, or from mere laboratory experiments which were based either on insufficient evidence or else on a forgetfulness of the fact that nature often operates in a manner far different from the chemical labora-
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 71
tory, since she has one important element, viz., time, to aid her in her opera* tions, which the chemist lacks.
^*- The magnesian limestones of the great valley vary from compact to semi- crystalline ; are of various colors ; contain very few fossils, and these concen- trated in a very few localities. The beds nearest the surface are the most honeycombed by the dissolving action of water; when deeper beds are exposed in quarries they give little evidence of such action. Analysis of these rocks shows that they all contain slight traces of carbonate of magnesia, ^rhile some of the beds contain a quantity almost sufficient to constitute them true dolomites/'
He then goes on to give the chemical analysis, which is omitted for want of space.
On page 188 he says : ^' Bischoff was unable to decompose carbonate of lime by carbonate of magnesia, and, therefore, opposed the theory of chemi- cal precipitation of the latter in the form of magnesian limestone. Scheerer professes to have accomplished the reaction, but does not give his process. His artificial dolomite may have been a mechanical mixture.
*' The chemical theory, however, is sustained in some measure by natural pseudomorphs of dolomite after calcite, often with a nucleus of unchained calcite, or with a vacancy left by the total solution of the calcite. As most of these pseudomorphs occur in mineral veins, the agent must have been (probably hot) magnesian waters ; and the carb. mag. must have decomposed the carb. lime. Heat and time are factors in such a process.
^^ But the chemical infiltration theory of the formation of our magnesian limestone must encounter a great objection in the unequal distribution of the magnesian carbonate through the mass. It should be either equally or pro- gressively distributed. On the contrary, specimens from the same bed vary greatly, and beds in actual juxtaposition still more. Thin beds of dolomite lie between thick beds of limestone, and thin beds of limestone between thick beds of dolomite. The analogy between this and shale bands in masses of sand- stone, or sand-partings in shale, makes it hard to believe that the limestone and dolomite beds are not mechanical or mud deposits of mixed materials, floated from a distance by currents from different sources and prevailing over each other alternately.
^' Forchhammer imagined that the limestone waters of rivers flowing into the sea, holding magnesian salts, would produce dolomite beds, but when trying the process with boiling water he could only get 12.50 per cent, of magnesian car- bonate in the precipitate.
" Sterry Hunt modified the theory by supposing the river water charged with carbonate of soda, but the fact of alternate magnesian and non-magnesian beds is still in the way.
^* Dr. Hunt imagined solutions of sodium carbonate, poured by rivers into
72 HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
a shallow closed sea, holding in solution sulphate or chloride of magnesium, and then, by the action of heat, in the presence of carbonate of lime, the de- posits changed into dolomites ; but the whole mass would necessarily be homo- geneous. Alternate beds would not be possible without a corresponding number of entrances of the waters of an outside ocean.
^^ Hardman makes this objection to Hunt's theory, that nearly pure lime- stone beds lie between highly-magnesian beds, and shows that a separate precipitation of carbonate of lime would not begin until at least three-fourths of the sea-water had been evaporated, the carb. mag. still remaining in solution and for a considerable time longer ; in fact, not until concentration had pro- ceeded so far as to make animal life impossible.
" J. P. Lesley, Director of the Geological Survey of the State of Pennsyl- vania, adds : ^ The main force of these objections, however, is derived from the vast extent of the deposits, for they spread continuous at the surface, or under- ground, from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the Blue Ridge to beyond the Mississippi river. A sea of such extent could hardly have been closed, and must have received great rivers. But during the long Siluro- Cambrian age great erosions of land surfaces must have taken place, furnishing mechanical sediments, or if the ocean were merely studded with islands, coral reefs would furnish such sediments.' "
The iron mines which form so conspicuous an element in the economic geology of the county are principally found north of the Mesozoic. Of these the surface or Mine Hill mine is of the greatest historic interest. This mine is located on the south side of Mine Hill summit, four hundred and ninety feet above tide-level. The deposit of ore lies between the Potsdam sandstone and the gneissic rocks. The ore is columnar, and pitches thirty degrees east and sixty degrees south, and varies in thickness from eighteen to forty feet. The ore is red hematite, slightly magnetic, and presents a mottled appearance from a mixture of quartz. This is the locality where the early Durham furnace of 1727 obtained its ore for the manufacture of charcoal iron. It is a noticeable fact that wherever, in mining, the old works are struck, no rock has been driven through by the miners of a hundred and sixty years ago. This is owing to the fact that the whole mountain, from its northern base to the southern synclinal, including its summit, is covered (where not removed by the early mining opera- tions) from two to eight feet in depth with ore and soil of the best quality, and these early miners confined their operations mainly to these surface deposits. In one instance, however, these ancient miners ran a tunnel into the mountain several hundred yards in length, but only through* the surface ore and soil, evading the underlying gneissic rocks. The whole mountain is composed of ore, interstratified with gneissic rocks.
About half a mile south of the surface mine near Geisinger's mill is another out-crop of ore, not working at the present time. The ore here is of good
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 73
quality, and large quantities have been mined by the Keystone Iron Company, of Northampton county.
Several hundred yards northwest, at Charles Gruver's, are some old work- ings where much ore was mined during 1830-6. The ore is red hematite of good quality, but appears to be almost exhausted in the immediate locality. The ore, when the mines were in operation, was shipped to the Crane Iron Company at Catasauqua. Houpt's limonite mine is located on the southern slope of the second spur of the South mountain, on the north side of Durham creek, half-way between the village of Durham and Springtown. The ore is overlaid by mountain dibris of from six to ten feet. Considerable ore has been mined here and shipped to Durham furnace.
Funk's limonite mine, not now working, is located near Funk's mill, on the east side of Durham creek. Large quantities of ore have been mined here by the Durham Iron Company.
Geisinger's limonite mine is located about one-half mile southwest of Spring- town, Springfield township, near the main road. The mine is not working. Along the southern slope of the second spur of the South mountain, several magnetite and limonite mines have been opened and worked to some extent, but owing to the stringency of the iron market these mines are neglected. A new tunnel is located a short distance east of Durham post-office. This tunnel runs into Mine Hill a distance of three-fourths of a mile, in a direction nearly due south. Large bodies of bluish-gray ore are exposed here.
Rattlesnake mine is located on the north slope of Rattlesnake mountain near the summit. The mine is opened by several slopes driven on the ore, which undulates and dips south twenty degrees forty east.
The ore is variable in thickness, in places from tei^ to fifteen feet in thick- ness. The main slope is four hundred feet deep, from which three levels are run. The ore is magnetite, magnetic, and in places polaric (loadstone). Hollow tunneU located on the east side of Rattlesnake mountain, connects with the Rattlesnake series of tunnels. All the ore mined in this mountain is delivered at the entrance of Hollow tunnel. The ore is the same as that developed at the Rattlesnake mine. The rock consists of rusty and dark-colored feldspathic gneiss, interspersed with magnetite.
It would be tedious to enumerate all localities where this mineral has been found, and a glance at their geological position will suffice. The magnetic iron ores in this section are found interstratified with quartz and feldspar (granulite). The magnetite is widely disseminated throughout the rocks, and is found to be present at almost all localities where the older crystalline rocks are exposed. The crystalline rocks are formed principally of quartz and feldspar. In some cases small amounts of dark-colored mica and pyroxene occur through the rock ; occasionally mica and magnetite are found together. The magnetite is generally more or less mixed with quartz and feldspar, although occasionally
74 HISTORT OF BUCKS COUNTY.
portions of the deposits are met with which are quite pure. The magnetite beds are always parallel to the bedding of the rock, and quite variable in thick- ness. The observed dip of the gneissic rocks is to the southward.
Limonite (hydrated ferric oxide) ore of iron is an important factor through- out this gneissic range of hills. The crystalline form of this mineral is not known. It occurs in fibrous, radiating, stalactic, baytryoidal, and maromillary masses ; in concretions, compact and earthy. Its colors are various shades of brown, the surface often of a black lustrous appearance, the massive varieties dull and earthy.
A very singular dark mottled ore of iron presents itself in Richland town- ship. This ore occurs on the southern slope of a trappeandyke, and protrudes through a fissure in the rock. It is somewhat magnetic, containing crystals of feldspar disseminated through the ore, which gives it the mottled appearance. Only a small excavation filled with water was visible when it was visited. Several tons of ore were lying on the dump, all having the ss^e general appearance. The prospects for a large amount of ore in situ were not very promising.
The only other instance of mining operations worthy of mention is in New Britain township, where galenite is mined. This mineral forms a vein of con- siderable size and richness. The mine is located along the North Branch creek, about three miles from Doylestown. At this mine the galenite is found in fine cubes, with octahedron and dodecahedral planes.
An assay of the galenite of this mine showed the presence of two-and-a- quarter grains, or not quite ten cents' worth of gold per ton. The specimen of gold extracted from five ounces of galenite from this locality is exhibited in the cabinet of the United States Mint at Philadelphia. Small quantities of zinc- blende occur with the galenite. Such ores generally contain disseminated throughout a slight percentage of silver.
In Report D^ of Pennsylvania Second Geological Survey, page 229, occurs a short paragraph in regard to this glacial drift. The report says : ^^ North of Rattlesnake hill large rounded bowlders of Potsdam quartzite occur along a branch of Guck creek. The deposit has the appearance of a glacial deposit."
The above paragraph relates to the glacial deposit covering the northern portion of Durham and extending some distance into Springfield township. The greatest portion of it is composed of sand and gravel of different degrees of fineness, confusedly mixed together. A remarkable fact is, that this gravel is not derived from the rocks beneath it, but from those at a distance of some miles, lying along the Delaware or in New Jersey. Scattered through this gravel are rounded masses of rock, of a size larger than pebbles, which are called bowlders.
Along the valley of the Brandywine, a small tributary of Durham creek,
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HI9T0RY OP BUCKS COUNTY. 75
we find thiB deposit existing on either side, a distance of over a mile ; the stream catting through the deposit in places to a depth of ten to fifteen feet, the course of the stream being greatly deflected by these barriers. The deposits have a general southwest and northeast trend. Some of the deposits are crescent-shaped and of considerable size ; others merely deposits of bowlders in a heterogeneous mass of small area. The materials of which this deposit is composed are essentially the same throughout the whole area covered by it; beds of gravel, sand, and clay interspersed with immense rounded bowlders of Potsdam quartzite and gneiss.
The deposit in this county is confined to the extreme northeast corner of the county ; but in the adjoining county of Northampton we find these deposits more numerous. The materials or rock masses comprising these hills are rounded or water-worn, showing that the rock masses had been subjected to considerable attrition and the action of water. No rock masses or bowlders composed of the rock formations in the immediate vicinity are found in these deposits, excepting such as were placed here by or through the agency of man ; these latter are easily detected by noting their position and composition.
Before going further into details it will be well to notice a few of the rock formations represented here, not found in the vicinity, and their geological position. It may be of use to the general reader to bear in mind that all the materials composing these drift deposits are more or less rounded bowlders, and the larger portion of these now being described were purposely broken apart to get their actual composition and geological position.
1st. A black or bluish slate, sometimes gray, olive, or yellowish, sometimes containing rounded pebbles. This rock formation is found extending on the Delaware from Belvidere, New Jersey, to the Water Gap.
2d. A hard white and gray or reddish greenish silicious sandstone, quite coarse, also containing pebbles. This formation stretches from the Delaware Water Gap to Franklin county in this state.
3d. A group of sandstone rocks containing dark olive-colored slaty seams or strata. Many specimens of this formation contain fossil shells, encrinites, trilobites, etc. This formation covers a large portion of Monroe, Pike, and Wayne counties.
4th. A brownish-red shale and sandstone, with an occasional layer of greenish gray interspersed. Found principally in Pike and Wayne counties.
5th. Is a somewhat porous silicious rock and of a somewhat doubtful hori- zon. In its general appearance it resembles scoriae, but its color, which in some specimens is a bluish-white and in others deep to pale red, leads to a different conclusion.
It would be tiresome to the general reader to prolong the description of the v(irious geological formations represented in these ridges. The above may suffice to give a general idea to those who have followed as thus far.
76 HISTORY 01^ BUCKS COUNTY.
The ridges of gravel, sand, and clay appear to have been carried by a similar action and at the same time as the larger stones. The small stones which are found in the drift are to a great extent similar in character and are probably from the same localities.
The depth at which these deposits cover the surface varies, accumulating in some places above fifty feet, while in others the rock is reached in one or two feet. The hill deposits generally present their greatest slope to the south.
The period of the deposit of this material is very far subsequent to that of the underlying limestone rocks, upon which it rests. A long lapse of time must have intervened sufficient to deposit all the limestone and other formations northward in the state.
The deposit is distinguished from alluvial deposits by its being found where no action, no existing agency could have produced it, by its requiring, if not a different agency, yet a greater intensity of action for its production.
It differs likewise from the deposits of the tertiary system, for these are found in limited basins, whereas this is scattered over almost all the northern portion of the Durham valley, and on the top of the highest limestone hills. It is also unstratified, and its situation is such that it could not in general have been deposited by water, yet the sand and clay, which form its upper part, must have been deposited in quiet waters. Finally, when the drift was deposited, the climate must have been colder than at present ; whereas the reverse may be stated of the tertiary formations.
Having thus briefly reviewed the evidences of glacial action in the north- eastern portion of the county, we will quote Second Geological Survey, Report Z, page 12. Here J. P. Lesley says: ** In Chapter XIX. I have appended a short description of the course of the moraine through New Jersey, so carefully studied by Professors Cook and Smock, and published with copious details in the annual report of the state geologist for 1880. For not only do the mountains of Pennsylvania traverse northern New Jersey, and are glaci- ated in New Jersey when they are not in Pennsylvania, but the New Jersey drift is swept into Pendsylvania by three considerable streams, which enter the left bank of the Delaware river — the Paulin's kill at Portland, Beaver brook at Belvidere, and the Musconetcong at Biegelsville. The Delaware river gravels in Pennsylvania, therefore, partly owe their origin to the moraine of ,New Jersey. But as no drift comes down the Schuylkill river, because its water basin is entirely south of the moraine, so no drift enters the Delaware river below Durham because the great Raritan river water basin carries the drainage of drift into Raritan bay." That the range of drift hills crossing the Delaware one mile south of Belvidere represents the southern limit of the great terminal moraine is abundantly proved by the evidences of glacial action everywhere north of this line, and the absence of all such evidences south of it.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 79
The whole subject of terrene elevations and subsidences is shrouded in mys- tery, and whether these deposits belong to the glacial epoch, or to the succes- sive variations in the successive sea levels of the globe, is a question that we need not discuss here. But that these deposits differ from those in the river valley in being composed of unstratified material, and of their being otherwise exact imitations of deposits existing north of the line of the great terminal moraine^ except so far as area and size are concerned, is beyond successful contradiction.
Returning now to the Delaware at Riegelsville it is found that the town lies upon a terrace of stratified river drift, which both north and south of the town is heaped into ridges whose axes trend south. This drift extends about a mile north and south of the town, forming quite prominent ridges, covered north of the town with bowlders of gneiss containing epidote and hornblende ; bowlders composed of Medina and Oneida sandstone, red shale, and in fact of most of the geological formations between No. III. and No. X. Sandstones, which outcrop between Belvidere and the upper waters of the Delaware river, are represented in this terrace, north and south of the town. Many of them are finely striated. Limestone underlies the drift.
A well recently dug at a prominent point on this terrace gives the follow- ing drift strata : 1st, Sixteen feet through paVing stones ; 2d, five feet quick- sand and loose gravel; 8d, eighteen feet very coarse gravel and bowlders; 4th, three feet cement gravel (so called on account of its hardness and appear- ance of being cemented together by yellow hydrated peroxide of iron) ; 6th, six feet of limestone soil ; 6th, twelve feet of limestone and water. The depth of the well is 60 feet.
A paragraph or two from the prefatory letter of Professor Lesley in Report D", page 19, may well conclude this review of the geology of Bucks county : "The State Geological Survey, with all its other work on hand, can only indicate in its reports of progress these subjects of future investigations, and mark out in outline the great facts which will be studied in detail by Pennsyl- vanians when their interest in this branch of science has been aroused. Much can be done by parties of college students in vacations ; but the most of the work will be accomplished by intelligent private citizens of the state, each studying the district in which he happens to live, and communicating his obser- vations to some society which publishes proceedings. There should be a society of local investigators, a field club of naturalists in every county in Pennsylvania, which could easily place itself in active correspondence with the American Philosophical Society, or with the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, for the publication of their papers, or they might place them at the disposal of a geological bureau at Harrisburg, for publication by the state.
" Natural science is now too copious and difficult to be managed by isolated seekers after truth ; its devotees must arrange themselves into communicating
80 HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
groups. The history of England shows how much more knowledge is gained by a multitude of small corresponding societies than by a few metropolitan academies of science* These last are merely headquarters ; the great army of field-workers must be cantoned about everywhere. Pennsylvania might easily have for itself sixty live geological societies localized in its county towns and at its mining centres."
CHAPTER 11.
EARLY SETTLEMENTS ON THE DELAWARE.
IT is common to date the founding of Pennsylvania from the arrival of the first colonists under the charter granted to William Penn, but the student who would understand the character of its first settlements must go back some three-quarters of a century to the first exploration of the Chesapeake, which links its history with the first inception of the idea of colonizing the ^^ new world." Even that portion of Pennsylvania now known as Bucks county was not a terra incognita to the first English colonists. A crude civilization had already entered its limits, and was slowly advancing upward along the trend of the river, carrying with it its characteristic institutions and individuality, which, though not remarkkble for its enduring character, has still left traces that carry the investigator back to the time when the Dutch and Swedes con- tended for supremacy.
The " first colony to Virginia" had been planted scarcely two years when Hudson, exploring the Atlantic coast in the interest of the Dutch, discovered ^^ a great bay," since known as the Chesapeake. This, with his subsequent discovery of the river which bears his name, laid the foundation of the Dutch claim to the wide scope of country which they named the New Netherland. Hudson gained a very inaccurate idea of the character of the bay, and in his report gave marked preference to what was generally called the North river. The Dutch, who had gained the reputation of being the most daring adven- turers and most enterprising traders of Europe, were, therefore, soon upon the river in quest of barter. In the year following Hudson's discovery their traders were to be found among the natives, exploring the river nearly to the site of Albany, and in 1618 the national flag floated over temporary structures erected for the protection of those who remained to carry on the exchange yrith the Indians.
Early in 1614 a general charter for the encouragement of trade was granted by .the states-general of Holland, and, stimulated by this dispensation, an
HISTORY t)F BUCKS COUNTY. 81
expedition, composed of five veseols, was fitted out bj the merchants of Amsterdam to take advantage of its provisions. The exclusive privilege of trade during four voyages with ^^ any new courses, havens, countries, or places" discovered, made exploration the primary object of the expedition, and on reaching Manhattan island the vessels separated to scrutiniEC the coast north and south of their rendezvous. Captain Cornelius Jacobson Mey was assigned to the southern coast, and in the Fortune he explored the shore as far as the Virginia line. His chart shows the care with which he performed his mission ; but, accepting the view of Hudson or pressed for time, he passed the bay, pausing only to ^ve his name to the projecting capes at its mouth. The other vessels had achieved a similar work, and with this the expedition returned to Holland. One vessel, however, had been destroyed by accident, and its place had been filled by a small one constructed here. This, named the Unrustj was left behind, with a crew under the command of Hendrickson, to continue the work.
It is evident that the bay had excited an interest which the superficial examinations of Hudson and Mey did not satisfy, and the Unrust was soon on its way to the Chesapeake. It is probable that this vessel was first employed in exploring the upper part of the Hudson, but in the latter part of 1615 it made its way up the bay. How far the exploration was pushed is in doubt. His report mentions ^^ three rivers situate between the thirty-eighth and for- tieth degrees ;" but the ^^ Carte Figurativej^ which was attached to this report, leads to the belief that he did not reach even the mouth of the Delaware. But, wherever the utmost point of this exploration may have been, he found that, although no European vessel had preceded him, his own countrymen had visited the interior some time before. The hardy trappers on the Hudson were accustomed to make their homes with the various tribes, and so control the sale of tlieir peltries. Three of these, who had joined the Mohawks and *^ Machicans," had been captured by the *^ Minguas," who resorted to the bay, and here fell in with explorers. Hendrickson apparently had no difficulty in effecting their ransom, giving in exchange for them certain ^^ kettles, beads, and merchandise."
These discoveries, however, suggested to tl||^ Dutch no more than a good opportunity for a valuable trade, and notwithstanding certain far-sighted ones urged that ^^ his majesty of Great Britain would be disposed to people the aforesaid lands with the English nation," all suggestions of colonization were refuAed Gon»deration. In 1621 the English ambassador at the Hague reported to his government that the Dutch had begun to trade to ^^ these parts between forty and forty-five degrees, to which, after their manner, they gave their own names. New Netherlands, a South and a North sea, a Texel, a Blieland, and the like ;" whither they bad continued to send ships of sixty and eighty tons ^^ to fetch fiirres, which is all their trade ; for the providing of which they
82 HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
have certain factors there continually, residents trading with savages — ^but I cannot learn of any colony either already planted there by these people, or so much as intended." And this continued to be the truth of the Dutch pos- sessions in America for nearly another decade. Up to 1624 the bay country did not receive even the attention which the ambassador's report might imply. Only little is definitely known of the trading operations of the Dutch in this region during the period in question, but it is quite certain that there were no stations nor resident factors, though it is probable that trading vessels visited the bay with some regularity.
At the date mentioned, the West India Company having come into possession of the trading privileges by virtue of a charter granted in 1621, Mey with others was dispatched to America to enlarge and invigorate the trading opera- tions which had hitherto been carried on without regard for permanency or system. A colonial form of government was established ^ith its seat on Man- hattan island, the chief officer being styled a director. Mey was the first appointee, and early in his administration proceeded to the Chesapeake, where, some time in 1624, he erected a trading-post near the site of Gloucester, New Jersey. This he dignified with the name of Fort Nassau, and placed four women with their husbands and eight other men to keep it. Such possession of the country was not long maintained. In the following year the weakness of the central station demanded the concentration of the company's forces, and Fort Nassau was abandoned, its occupants being transferred to Manhattan.
While the returns of the company were not inconsiderable it was neverthe- less found difficult to infuse such vigor into the settlement as to promise suc- cessful competition with* the thriving English colonies on either side of it, and colonization accordingly came to be considered a necessity. Certain " freedoms and exemptions" were offered by the company '^ to all such as shall plant colo- nies in New Netherland." Previous to this action, however, several directors of the company had purchased of the natives a tract of land extending from Cape '^ Hinlopen" upward along the shores of the bay, and about eight and a half leagues into the interior. A company was formed, with which De Yries, ^' a'bold and skilful seaman," was associated, and measures taken to plant a colony on the land purchased^ The mariner appears to have been made the executive head of the undertaking, and in December, 1630, he dispatched <^ a number of people, with a large stock of cattle," to found the colony of Swaen- dael. The colonists soon after their arrival effected the purchase of a tract on Cape May, sixteen miles square, probably for a fishing station, but no imme- diate attempt was made to occupy it. A building, ^^ well beset with palisades," was erected near the site of Lewis, Delaware, and the company of thirty-two men prepared to accomplish the object of their coming.
The career of this colony was a short and melancholy one. Not long after the departure of the ship which brought the colonists to America a misunder-
HISTORY OF BCCKS COUNTY. 83
standing occurred with the natives, and every member of the colony was mur- dered. Early in 1632 a second voyage to the colony was planned, but it was the 24th of May before the vessel set sail from the Texel, and just before he left the harbor De Yries learned of the destruction of Swaendael with all its people. It was December before he reached the bay, and exploring the site of the colony discovered the half-burned building and the whitening bones of his people bestrewing the neglected fields. De Yries pushed his explorations as far as Fort Nassau, which he found occupied by natives ready to exchange their peltries for trinkets. Here he prudently made peace with the Indians, made a visit subsequently to the colony in Virginia, and in April returned to Amsterdam. His report of the advantages to be derived from a settlement on the bay was such as to discourage further attempts in this direction, and, save the occasional visits of trading vessels, the region was permitted to return to the undisturbed possession of the savages for several years.
It appears that Fort Nassau was temporarily occupied for trading purposes from time to time, and in 1633 it is said a purchase was made by the Dutch of ^Hhe Schuylkill and adjoining lands." The evidence of this purchase is a deed which was executed many years after the original transaction. This, with other evidence bearing upon the subject, suggests a much later date as the one at which the purchase was made, and it is probable, that beside the purchase made for the colony at Swaendael, the Dutch had no equitable claim against the savages in the bay country. In 1635 the rights of the destroyed colony were disposed of to the West India Company, and with this transfer ended all private attempts on the part of the Dutch to colonize this region. This was a fateful period for the Dutch interests on the South river. Their claims in the ^' new world" had never been recognized by the English, and not content with ^sputing their progress in Connecticut, a party of English colonists in that region was formed to drive out the garrison of Fort Nassau. The attack proved futile, the assailants being captured and taken to Manhattan, where they were released and permitted to settle in the vicinity of Fort Amsterdam. But across the sea a more formidable competitor was even then maturing plans which boded no good to the feeble tenure by which the Dutch held the bay.'
Their colonial projects had not escaped t^ intelligent scrutiny of the Swedish monarch, and before the cause of Protestantism had summoned him to the fatal fields of Germany, he had cherished plans for founding a colony on the western continent. A company had been formed in Stockholm as early as 1624, but the nation becoming involved in the war and the tragic death of Gustavus Adolphus following in 1632, the project was delayed. It was so far revived in 1685 that the charter of the Swedish West India Company was published, but it was two years later before actual measures were undertaken to plant the proposed colony. In 1638, therefore, two vessels, laden with Swedish colonists and supplies, set sail for America under the command of
84 HISTORY OP BUCKS COUNTY*
Peter Minoit, a former director of the Dutch at Manhattan. It is probable that the knowledge thus gained influenced the commander to direct his course to the bay.
The expedition landed about the middle of April a little above Cape Henlo- pen, and in recognition of the attractions of the location named it Paradise Point. Their stay here was short, however. TrafiBc with the Indians was the prime object of the colony, and for the best achievement of this a settlement near the haunts of the natives was desirable. Minuit accordingly sailed up the bay and river to the mouth of a stream which he named Christina, and proceeding up its course some three miles selected a site for the colony. Here he gained the confidence of the natives, and purchased a strip of country ex- tending along the west bank from the cape to the falls at Trenton. He imme- diately erected a trading-house and pushed the trafiBc with the Indians with such success that before the end of July he was able to dispatch the vessels to Sweden well laden with furs.
The new-comers found Fort Nassau garrisoned, and one of their vessels sailed past it up the river and returned unmolested, though stopped in a second attempt and visited by the Dutch commander to learn the authority for such intrusion. News of the Swedes' arrival was hastily forwarded to the colonial seat of government, and a prompt but rather lame protest speedily returned to be served upon the commander of the intruding colony.
The true import of this document was not lost upon Minuit, who probably knew that the weakness of the Manhattan colony would allow no more forcible opposition to his progress. He ignored the protest, therefore, and exerted his energies for the protection of his little colony and for the development of the Indian trade. In the latter respect he was abundantly successful, and so inter- fered with the Dutch traffic that up to October, 1639, they complained that it had fallen short full thirty thousand beaver skins. But in other respects the outlook for the Swedes was far from agreeable. The colony had numbered only about fifty men, some of whom were transported criminals. Many of these had succumbed to the ravages of the miasma to which the location of the colony greatly exposed them, and this evil was seriously aggravated by the fact that the supplies were found nearljf exhausted.
This state of affairs was well known to the Dutch, who confidently predicted " that they must soon move off" if not reinforced." At this juncture, when the colonists had decided to abandon the place on the following day, the Fredefiburg, ^' laden with men, cattle, and other things necessary for the culti- vation of the country," arrived to encourage the Swedes and disappoint their rivals. The new-comers were Hollanders whom the illiberal policy of the Dutch company had driven to seek a charter from Sweden. They established themselves in a separate settlement not far from the Swedes, and were little identified with the history of the latter. They afforded assistance at a critical
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 86
moment, however, and sustained the langaishing colony until the subsequent amval of supplies from the home government.
Early in 1643 John Printz came, bearing the commission of goremor of New Sweden. His arrival marks a new era in the history of the Delaware colony. At his coming it was a straggling settlement of little more than a hundred persons. Of these, probably less than a half dozen were women, and the Reverend Reorus Torkillus the only representative of the professional class. On Christina creek was a trading-house with a cluster of cabins, and in the near vicinity were the little settlements of the Hollanders. The trading- house was probably provided in some degree for the resistance of an Indian attack, but they had no forts to resist a more determined enemy, nor any regularly organized soldiery. But little had been done toward bringing the acquired land under cultivation, and the colony was still dependent for its existence upon provisions sent from the old country.
The expedition which brought the new governor was the most important which had entered the Delaware, and brought ample supplies adapted to the peculiar necessities of the struggling colony. Beside his family and official staff, he brought a large reinforcement to the settlers, twenty*four of whom -were regular soldiers, a large 8up{dy of military stores and equipments, pro- visions, and merchandise for the Indian trade. His instructions were ample and intelligently framed. He was commanded to close the river against for* eign intrusion ; to protect the natives from the violence or injustice of the colonists ; to encourage agriculture, especially the sowing of grain for the support of the colony, after which the cultivation of tobacco was to receive his attention. In addition to the stock sent out with him, the governor was urged to give especial attention to sheep ^^ in order to have a good species" for the production of a good staple for export. The trade in peltries was to be maintained, and the culture of grapes, the raising of silkworms, the develop- ment of fisheries, and the discovery of minerals encouraged.
A significant clause in these instructions referred to an English colony of some sixty persons which he was to attract to his jurisdiction, and to that end ** to work upderhand as much as possible, with good manners and with success." It appears that the Connecticut people were not discouraged by the miscarriage of their first attempt to secure a foothold on the Delaware, and in 1640 made land purchases on both sides of the bay and river. In the next year they effected a settlement near Salem, New Jersey, and made a purchase on the Schuylkill, where they erected a trading-house. The latter was promptly burned, and the people removed by the Dutch with no excess of gentleness. The Salem colony was subsequently driven off with the approval of the Swedes, if not with their active cooperation. This was probably accomplished before the arrival of Printz, leaving the new governor no opportunity to strengthen his colony by underhand diplomacy.
86 HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
The governor came well equipped for the duties assigned him. In the ad- ministration of justice he was given unlimited powers under the laws of the realm, and in the direction of civil and military afiSEiirs he was granted dictatorial powers. He was a man of great energy and good judgment, though some- times imperious and haughty in his intercourse with his rivals. He succeeded during his administration, however, in avoiding an open rupture with the Dutch, notwithstanding the progress of this expanding colony excited the deepest jealousy among them. One of his first measures was to erect a ^^ pretty strong" fort of green logs on Tinicum island, and soon afterward another at the mouth of Salem creek in New Jersey, where he mounted eight brass twelve-pounders. Near the upper fort, called New Gottenberg, he built a " very handsome" man- sion for himself, planted an orchard, and erected ^^ a pleasure-house and other conveniences."
The settlements of the colonists were influenced by the governor's selection of a building site as well as the location of the fort, and a report of the Dutch authorities in 1645 notes some plantations two miles above Christina creek which were ^' continued nearlj^ a mile." But few houses were built, and these were at wide distances apart, the new settlers having built their houses in the vicinity of the fort. ^' Farther on, at the same side, till you come to the Schuylkill, being about two jniles, there is not a single plantation, neither at Tinnekonk, because near tie river nothing is to be met but under- wood and valley lands." A mill, ^' which ground both coarse and fine flour," had also been erected on Cobb's creek in the mean time, and a strong trading- house or fort near the Schuylkill, ^^ a certain and invariable resort for trade with the Minguas." The increase of population was not rapid, though accessions were occasionally received, some of whom being of the criminal class were re- fused admission and forced to return. But in trade^.and the cultivation of tobacco the progress of the colony justified the complaints of the Dutch. In 1644, beside other goods, more than seventy thousand pounds of tobacco was exported, while the position of the Swedes' advanced trading-fort well nigh deprived their rivals of any share in the Indian traffic.
The Dutch were not disposed ^^ to lose such a jewel by the devices and hands of a few strangers" without a struggle, but the little garrison in Fort Nassau, at times not exceeding eight men, was too feeble to make any forcible* demonstration, and so its commandant protested in season and out of season. It is doubtful, however, if this force had been stronger whether any other course would have been pursued. Neither nation was prepared for a determined contest and neither exhibited complete confidence in the justness of its claim. There is some evidence to ^rarrant the belief that some general division of the country between the two claimants had been agreed upon, but the agreement was probably not scrupulously observed by either party and the war of protests continued. Various measures were undertaken by the Dutch to regain their
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 89
prestige east of the river and similar steps were taken by the Swedes to thwart them, and it would seem that only a firm determination not to provoke an armed conflict prevented active hostilities. And thus the bickerings between the Swedish governor and the commandant of Fort Nassau, and a certain hostility between their retainers, which was scarcely ignored in the formal courtesy ob- served between the leaders in their intercourse, continued into the early part of Stuyvesant's administration, who in 1647 succeeded Kieft as director of the Dutch colony.
It would have been strange indeed if such a state of affairs had not in any way involved the Indians in the struggle, and it is very much to the credit of both people that neither took advantage of their credulity to arouse them to acta of hostility. In the summer of 1646 the Dutch commissary in command at Fort Nassau proceeded as far as the falls in search of minerals. Here he was stopped by the Indians, who were inspired to resist his advance, it is said, by a Swedish story to the effect that the Dutch proposed to build a fort there, garrison it with two hundred and fifty men, and then exterminate all the Indians on the river below. In September the same official took possession of the west bank of the river about a mile above the fort, and some days later ef- fected a purchase of the region of some natives. This land was a part of that purchased by tBe Swedes in 1638, and at once became the subject of vigorous protest by Printz. All attempts by the Dutch to occupy this territory were successfully resisted by the Swedes. The buildings erected were thrown down and burned, the intruders being rather roughly handled, and sometimes de- prived of guns, ammunition and other valuables. All this was done without any show of legal formality, the superior strength of the Swedes leaving their opponents no resource save to protest and present bills for damages, which were simply ignored.
Again in 1648, the Dutch were disturbed by the rumor that Printz was negotiating with the Minguas for the erection of a trading-house in their country and by their active preparation to build one near the Schuylkill at the only place left open to them for trade. As the commissary observed to his superior, with this trade lost, the possession of the river would deserve very little consideration, and so that doughty official determined, in case the Swedes continued their threatening movement, '' to take possession of the tract of land nearest to him in the name of the company." Again the savages were brought into requisition, and in accordance with a convenient invitation of certain sachems the commissary proceeded to the east bank of the Schuylkill and erected a fort, subsequently known as Beverswede. This was scarcely accomplished before a Swedish party of eight men appeared on the scene and challeilged their right to occupy the land. Neither party was disposed to ex- hibit the warrant for their presence, and notwithstanding the Indians sharply rebuked the Swedes for their interference, the latter proceeded to destroy cer-
90 HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
tain improvements effected, but omitted to tear down the structure, probably for prudential reasons. The Dutch now hastened to plant a settlement here, and for this purpose assigned certain grants to several freemen, but this moye was thwarted by the Swedes in their old fashion, a party pulling down and burning the partially completed structures and roughly driving off the would-be settlers. Not content with ^ese demonstrations, Printz erected a building within twelve feet of the Dutch fort and between it and the river, so that the latter structure was almost hidden from the sight of vessels anchoring in the river.
It is difficult to understand the real merits of a dispute which was carried on with such an absurd combination of temerity and forbearance. Each party continued to pursue the policy of obtaining additional grants of the Indians with a view to strengthening its claims, the savages shrewdly taking advantage of the reckless mania to sell and resell their lands as often as they found a pur- chaser. In all this period the Delaware Indians seem to have generally acted as a disinterested party without any obligation to warrant the title transferred, and without any adequate idea of what the sale of their lands really meant. Neither party sought to enlist the hostility of the savages against its rival, and Indian outrages since the Swaendael tragedy were rare exceptions in the his^ tory of the early settlements on the Delaware. In this year, however, two Swedes were murdered and, four years before, the crew of a New England trad- ing vessel was attacked by the savages, four of the whites being killed, and two captured and subsequently ransomed by Governor Printz. There is no evidence that these murders were the result of the bickerings between the two peoples', nor indeed that ^hey were perpetrated by the river Indians. The Minguas who came hither only to trade or fish were of a different disposition from the Delawares and may have been the authors of the mischief.
In the meanwhile the Swedish colony continued to thrive, to the despair of its rivals. Even the energetic Stuyvesant saw no probable termination of its encroachments, and expressed himself at loss to determine ^^ what he shall apply as a remedy." A little above Fort Beverswede, the Swedes held Fort Korsholm on the same side of the Schuylkill, and on the other side near its mouth they had Manayunk, ^' a handsome little fort built of logs filled up with sand and stones, and surrounded with palisades cut very sharp at the top." Be- tween this and the Karakung, or Cobb's creek, was a settlement of " five free- men" with ^'substantial log houses, built of good, strong, hard hickory, two stories high, which was sufficient to secure the people from the Indians." West- wardly the settlements increased along the trend of the river to Christina creek.
It was at this juncture of affairs on the Delaware that the Dutch adopted a new policy to check the growing power of the Swedes. In 1651, Stuyvesant visited the South river and endeavored to get a statement of the Swedish claim that would afford some opportunity for an advantageous compromise or for
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 91
contesting its validity. Foiled in this he turned to the Indians as arbiters of the conflicting claims, and in July secured from the compliant savages a ques- tionable grant of land from Christina creek to Bompgen's hook. Tliis done he directed the abandonment of Fort Nassau, as it " lay too high up and too incon- venient a distance," and erected Fort Casimir on a " tolerably suitable spot," about a league below Fort Christina. This called forth a protest from Governor Prints, but as this did not deter the Dutch from pursuing their plans the Swedish governor became reconciled to the situation and indulged in the exchange of official courtesies with Stuy vesant.*
The return of Governor Printz to Sweden, in 1653, marks the turning-point in the fortunes of New Sweden. The tedious duties of his position had given rise to a keen longing to return to more congenial employment, and his letter calling for reinforcements to guard against the new and threatening attitude of the Dutch contained also the request for permission to return. This was reluctantly granted, but before the notice of his release reached the country he had sailed. John Rysingh was appointed to succeed Printz, but not with the same unlimited powers. He was instructed to form a council *' of the best in- structed and mos| noble officers in the country," of which he was to be ^^ director." Military affairs and matters pertaining to the defence of the