| Subject: Re: "Beans Family Historian" |
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Linda
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Date Posted: 12:56:51 09/07/05 Wed
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Linda
's message, "New "Beans Family Historian"" on 07:37:09 05/30/05 Mon
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WARRINGTON
1734
Land-holders in 1684. -Richard Ingolo [Ingelo*]. -Devise to William Penn, Jr.,
-William Allen. -Division of his tract. -Joseph Kirkbride. -The Houghs*.
-Dunlaps*. -Old map. -Land-owners. -Township organized. -The Millers,
Craigs, Walkers, et al.* -The Longs. -The Weisels. -Nicholas Larzelere and
descendants. -Roads. -Township enlarged. -Craig's tavern. -Sir William
Keith, and residence. -Easton road opened. -Pleasantville church. -Traces
of glaciers. -Boulders found. -Mundocks. -Pine trees. -Valley of
Neshaminy. -Post-offices. -Population. -Nathaniel Irwin.
Warrington is the upper of the three rectangular townships that border the
Montgomery county line. When Holme's map was published, 1684, there were but
four land-owners in the township, none of which lived there, Richard Ingolo
[Ingelo*], R. Sneed, Charles Jones, Jr., and R. Vickers. At this time
Warrington was an unbroken wilderness.
There must have been some authority for putting Richard Ingelo on Holme's
map as a land-owner in Warrington, in 1684, although the records inform us
that he did not become an owner of land in the township until the following
year. January 22, 1685, William Penn granted to Ingelo 600 acres, which he
located on the county line below the lower state road. In 1719 Ingelo
conveyed it to Thomas Byam, of London, and in 1726, Byam conveyed 150 acres
to Robert Rogers. The farms of James and Lewis Thompson are included in the
Ingelo tract.
In the will of William Penn, 10,000 acres in the county were devised to his
grandson, William Penn, Jr., of which 1,417 acres lay in Warrington,
extending across to the county line, and probably into Horsham, which was
surveyed by Isaac Taylor, by virtue of an order from the trustees of young
Penn, dated November 16, 1727. On August
25, 1728, the whole of the 10,000 acres was conveyed to William Allen,
including the part that lay in Warrington, which made him a large land-owner
in the township. August
31, 1765, Allen conveyed 323 acres to James Weir, who was already in
possession of the land, and probably had been for some time. He owned other
lands adjoining, as did his brother John. Weir and his heirs were charged
with the payment of a rent of "two dung-hill fowles" to William Allen, on
November 16th, yearly forever. The 323 acre tract lay in the neighborhood of
Warrington, and a portion of the land is now owned by Benjamin Worthington.
In 1736 Allen conveyed 105 acres, near what is now Tradesville, on the lower
state road, to Richard Walker, and in 1738, 148 acres additional, adjoining
the first purchase. They are now owned by several persons, among whom are
Philip Brunner, 88 acres, Jesse W. Shearer, Lewis Tomlinson and others. The
quit-rent reserved by Allen on the first tract was a bushel of oats, with the
right to distrain if in default for twenty days, and one and one-half bushels
of good, merchantable oats on the second tract, to be paid annually at
Philadelphia, November 16th. The first of these tracts ran along Thomas
Hudson's grant the distance of 120 perches. In addition to these lands, Allen
owned 500 acres he received through his wife, the daughter of Andrew Hamilton,
in 1738. This he conveyed to James Delaney and wife, also the daughter of
Allen, in 1771. In 1793 Delaney and wife conveyed these 500 acres to Samuel
Hines, William Hines the younger, and William Simpson, for £1,500, each
purchaser taking a separate deed. (1) This land lay in the upper part of the
township, and extended into the edge of Montgomery county. There was an old
log dwelling on the tract, on the upper state road, half a mile over the
county line, in which a school was kept forty years ago. The road that runs
from the Bristol road across to the Bethlehem turnpike at Gordon's hill, was
the southern boundary of the Allen tract.
(1) At the extreme west corner of the tract, where the State road and county
line intersect, stands an old stone house built over a century ago. It is now
the property of Allen White and a part of the hamlet formerly called "Harp's
Corner." In this house once resided John Simpson, grandfather of General
Grant, and his daughter Hannah, mother of the renowned General and President.
The residence of the Simpson family there was only temporary, during the year
1818. Simpson had sold the present Dudley farm in northern Horsham, September
1817, and left Warrington for Ohio, May 1819.*
In 1722 Joseph Kirkbride owned a tract of land in the southwest corner of
New Britain, and when Warrington was enlarged, some thirty-five years ago
(1905 edition), 258 acres of it fell into this township. In it are included
the farms of Henry, Samuel, and Aaron Weisel, Joseph Selner, Charles
Haldeman, Benjamin Larzelere, and others. In 1735 the Proprietaries conveyed
213 acres, lying on the county line, to Charles Tenant [Tennent*], of Mill
Creek, in Delaware, and in 1740 Tennent sold it to William Walker of
Warrington. The deed of 1735 from the Proprietaries to Tennent, states that
the land was reputed to be in "North Britain" township, but since the
division of the township, it was found to be in Warrington. John Lester was
the owner of 125 acres in Warrington prior to 1753, which probably included
the 98 acres that Robert Rogers conveyed to him in 1746, and lay in the upper
part of the township adjoining the Allen tract. August 12, 1734, the
Proprietaries conveyed to Job Goodson, physician, of Philadelphia, 1,000
acres in the lower part of the township, extending down to the Neshaminy, for
part of its southern boundary, and across the Bristol road into Warwick. May
27, 1735, Goodson conveyed 400 acres to Andrew Long, of Warwick, for £256.
This was the lower end of the 1,000 acres, and lay along the Neshaminy, and
the farm of the present Andrew Long, on the south-west side of the Bristol
road, is part of it.
[Among the settlers in Warrington in the eighteenth century, were the
Houghs, descendants of Richard Hough, who came from England, 1682, and
settled in Lower Makefield. He was highly esteemed by William Penn and
enjoyed his confidence. Joseph Hough, the immediate ancestor of the Houghs of
Warrington and other parts of Bucks county, and grandson of Richard, was born
in the township. He married Mary Tompkins and was the father of several
children. In 1791 his son Benjamin married Hannah Simpson, daughter of John
Simpson, a soldier of the Revolution. The substantial stone dwelling at the
southeast corner of the Easton and Bristol roads, at Newville, and known for
many years as the "Hough homestead," with the tract belonging to it,
embracing the present farm and that formerly Robert Greir's, was bought by
Benjamin Hough, 1804, of John Barclay, - for several years its owner and
occupant, who built the house, 1799. It still stands apparently as
substantial as when erected. Benjamin Hough and wife had nine children, who
married and settled in Bucks:
John
Joseph
Anne, married George Stuckert
Benjamin
Silas
Hannah married Daniel Y. Harman
William
Samuel M.
Mary married John Barnsley.
Benjamin Hough and wife both died, 1848, his will being executed August 11,
1847, and probated May 29, 1848. The property was bought by Robert Radcliff,
1855, and by him conveyed, 1864, to his son, Elias H. Radcliff, the present
owner. This semi-colonial homestead has become somewhat famous, from the fact
that Ulysses S. Grant, while a cadet at West Point, spent his vacation in it.
The Houghs were cousins of young Grant, through Hannah Simpson, niece of
Benjamin Hough's wife, whom Jesse Grant married. The Hough mansion (2) is
four miles below Doylestown, the county seat of Bucks.*]
(2) It was taken for the author by Miss Hines, a young lady of Doylestown, 1899.
(See illustration of Hough House)
From an old map of Southampton, Warminster, and Warrington, re-produced in
this volume, this township appears to have had no definite northwest and
southeast boundary at that time. It had already been organized, but in the
absence of records to show the boundaries it is not known whether they had
been determined. The names of land-owners given on the map are Andrew Long,
J. Paul, ? Lukens, ? Jones, R. Miller, T. Pritchard, the London company, the
Proprietaries, Charles Tennent, ? Nailor, and William Allen. That these were
not all the land owners in the township in 1737 can be seen by referring to
the previous pages. Allen was still a considerable land-owner along the
northeastern line, coming down to about Warrington, and the Penns owned two
tracts between the Street road and county line, above the Easton road. The
land of Miller, Pritchard, and Jones lay about Warrington Square, the seat of
Neshaminy post-office.
Our knowledge of the organization of the township is very limited, and the
little that we know not very satisfactory. The records of our courts are
almost silent on the subject. It is interesting to know the preliminary steps
taken by a new community toward municipal government, and the trials they
encounter before their wish is gratified. But in the case of Warrington we
know nothing of the movement of her citizens to be clothed with township
duties and responsibilities. At the October session, 1734, the following is
entered of record: "Ordered that the land above and adjoining to Warminster
township shall be a township, and shall be called Warrington." It was
probably named after Warrington, in Lancashire, England, and the first
constable was appointed the same year. We have not been able to find any data
of population at that period, and are left to conjecture the number. [In 1850
the south corner of New Britain was added to Warrington, and the James Dunlap
farm was part of it. He was an early settler, taking up land about 1750. It
also included part of the Kirkbride tract. This became the Larzelere farm of
225 acres. James Dunlap died, 1791, and Larzelere bought the farm, 1855 for
$11,000. The Dunlaps were Scotch-Irish. The McEwens, "sons of Ewen," early
settlers in Warrington, are descended from James McEwen, born in the North of
Ireland, 1744, and settled in the township in 1762-67. He married Mary Ann
Dennison, who was born, 1748, and settled on the Bristol road a mile above
Newville. He was an ardent foe of Great Britain and served his adopted
country during the Revolution. His wife died July 27, 1806, and he April 24,
1825. They left eight children from whom have come many descendants.*]
[Toward the close of the first quarter of the eighteenth century there was a
valuable accession to the sparse settlers in the territory afterward erected
into the townships Warwick and Warrington, the Craigs, Jamisons, Stewarts,
Hairs, Longs, Armstrongs, Wallaces, Millers, Grays, and others, and a little
later, the Walkers. These immigrants, Scotch-Irish, and Presbyterians in
faith, were the fathers and founders of pioneers that would have done credit
to any state. William Miller and wife Isabella, born in Scotland, 1670-71,
came with three sons, William, Robert and Hugh, about 1720. On March 26 he
purchased of Joseph Kirkbride, 400 acres in Warwick, dedicating one acre to
the use of a church and graveyard, and here the first Presbyterian church
building was erected. While William Miller was a leading man in the
community, he held no public office except member of the Grand Jury,
commissioner of highways and elder in the church. He died 1758 at the age of
eighty-seven, his wife preceding him a few months. His children married into
the families of Jamison, Graham, Long, Earle, Curry and Wallace. William
Miller, Jr., became a large landowner; his children and grandchildren
intermarried with the Kerrs, Craigs, and other Scotch-Irish families, and he
died, 1786. Robert Miller was a land-owner in Warrington as early as 1735,
owning 300 acres in all and dying, 1753.*]
[The Craigs were in Warrington about the same period, the family consisting
of Daniel and wife Margaret, with children Thomas, John, William, Margaret,
wife of James Barclay, Sarah, wife of John Barnhill, (3) Jane, wife of
Samuel Barnhill, Mary Lewis and Rebecca, wife of Hugh Stephenson. Daniel
Craig located a considerable tract on the west side of the Bristol road
including the site of the tavern at Newville, subsequently built upon it, and
was known as "Craig's tavern" for many years. Two of his brothers, Thomas and
William Craig, settled in Northampton county and formed what is known as
"Craig's" or the "Irish Settlement," Presbyterian, in Allen township. This
was the first permanent settlement north of the Lehigh. Thomas Craig, son of
Thomas, of Northampton, took a prominent part in the Revolution. He was
commissioned Captain, October 1776, and rose to the command of a regiment,
serving to the end of the war. His cousin, John Craig, was captain in the 4th
Pa. Light Dragoons. Thomas Craig and his eldest son, Daniel, married into the
Jamison family, Warwick.*]
(3) President Theodore Roosevelt is descended from Warrington ancestry,
Robert Barnhill, his great-grandfather, who was born in Warwick township,
Bucks county, 1754, was a son of John Barnhill, who married Sarah Craig,
daughter of Daniel Craig, of Warrington. The wife of Robert Barnhill was
Elizabeth Potts, Germantown, and their daughter Margaret born 1797, married
Cornelius Schaick Roosevelt, grandfather of Theodore Roosevelt.*
[John Gray, from the North of Ireland, was an elder in the Presbyterian
church, 1743, and one of the trustees in the deed of trust, 1741. He owned a
plantation on the northwest side of the Bristol road extending
north-westwardly from the village of Newville. He died April 27, 1749, at the
age of fifty-seven, leaving a widow and two sons, John and James, and two
daughters, Mary and Jean, the latter being married to a MacDonald. His sons
are not mentioned in his will, but, after making some bequests to nephews and
nieces, among the latter being Margaret Graham, "late wife of Robert Miller,"
and to some cousins in Ireland, he devised the whole of his estate to his
wife Margaret for life, then to "Brother" Richard Walker, Rev. Charles Beatty
and Rev. Richard Treat in trust for the church and kindred purposes. John
Gray's son John removed to the Tuscarora Valley, Juniata county, 1756, where
his wife and child were captured by the Indians and taken to Canada. He
returned to Bucks county, 1759, where he died broken hearted. The wife made
her escape and came to Warrington shortly after his death. She married again,
and returned to Juniata county with her husband. The settlement of the estate
of the first husband gave rise to some important and interesting litigation
that was in the courts for fifty years. (4) The child was never heard of.*]
(4) The suit is known to the legal profession as "Gray Property Case," and is
one of the most celebrated ejectment suits ever tried in the state, being
reported in 10 Sergeant and Rawk, page 182, Frederick vs Gray.
[The Walkers settled in Warrington about 1730, taking up land and going to
farming. The immigrant's name was William, with wife Ann, sons John, Robert
and Richard, and daughters, Christian and Mary:
John, born 1717, married Mary Ann Blackburn and died 1777
Robert died unmarried in Northampton, 1758
Christina married John McNair
Mary married James King
Richard, born 1702, married Sarah Craig and died April 11, 1791, aged eighty-nine
and Sarah died April 24, 1784, age seventy-eight
William Walker, Sr. died 1738, aged sixty-six years, and his wife, 1750, aged
seventy. Richard Walker, third son, was a man of note before and during the
Revolution. He served in the Provincial Assembly, continuously from 1747 to
1759, commissioned captain in the Provincial militia, February 12, 1749; was
a Justice of the Peace, and sat on the bench from 1749 to 1775, a member of
the Committee of Safety for Bucks county and an elder of Neshaminy church. He
probably died without children, as his estate was divided among his collateral
heirs, descendants of his brothers and sisters. His wife was a sister of Elder
Thomas Craig, founder of the "Irish Settlement" in Northampton county. Richard
Walker's plantation was on the Lower State road, extending westward from the
Bristol road to Tradesville, 257 acres.*]
Of the old families of the township, the Longs still occupy their ancestral
homestead, and we cannot call to mind another family which owns the spot
where their fathers settled near a century and a half ago. Andrew Long came
to Warwick between 1720 and 1730, but the year is not known nor the place
where he first settled. He and his wife, Mary, were both immigrants from
Ireland. After he had brought the 400 acres in Warrington, part of the
Goodson tract, me moved on it and built a log house, just south of the
present Andrew Long's dwelling, on Bristol road. He had three children, sons,
[William, Andrew and Hugh, and died November 16, 1735.*] His son Andrew, born
about 1730, and died November 4, 1812, married Mary Smith, born 1726, died
1821, about 1751, and had children, John, Isabel, Andrew, William, born
March 16, 1763, and died February 5, 1851, grandfather of the present Andrew
Long, Mary, Margaret and Letitia Esther. The two latter married brothers,
William and Harman Yerkes, of Warminster, and Margaret was the grandmother of
Harman, of Doylestown. After the death of Andrew Long, Sr., the brothers and
sisters of Andrew Long, Jr., released to him, in 1765, their interest in 220
acres in Warrington. This was part of the original 400 acres bought in 1735.
The present Long homestead on the Bristol road was built between 1760 and
1765. The northwest room was used as an hospital at one time during the
Revolution, probably while Washington's army lay encamped on the Neshaminy
hills, in 1777. Andrew Long, the second, was a captain in Colonel Miles's
regiment of the Revolutionary army. In 1755 [1735 in the 1905 edition] Andrew
Long bought 58 acres, on the east side of the Bristol road, of Jeremiah
Langhorne and William Miller.
The Weisels, of Warrington, members of a large and influential German
family, are descendants of Michael Weisel, who immigrated from Alsace, then
part of France, but now belongs to Germany, and settled in this county about
1740. He brought with him three sons, Michael, Jacob and Frederick, who were
sold for a term of years, from on shipboard, to pay the passage of the
family, which was customary at that day. In what township the father or sons
settled, we are not informed. About 1750 Michael, the oldest of the three
sons, married Mary Trach, and bought land in Bedminster on the Old Bethlehem
road, near Hagersville, which is now owned by his grandson, Samuel. Michael
Weisel the second, had four sons and three daughters, Henry, John Michael,
George, Anna, Maria and Susan. Henry married Eve Shellenberger, and settled
on the homestead, Bedminster, and his children and children's children
intermarried with the Fulmers, Harpels, Detweilers, Leidys, Flucks, Louxes,
Solidays and Seips, and settled principally in the townships of Bedminster,
Hilltown and Rockhill. From them has spring numerous descendants. Some have
removed to other counties in this state, and few to other states, but the
great majority of them are living in Bucks county, the home of their
ancestors. Nearly all the Weisels in the county are descendants of Michael,
Henry Weisel, of Warrington, being a great-grandson. Jacob, the second son of
Michael the elder, married about 1755, but to whom is not known. He had five
sons, George, Jacob, Peter, John and Joseph, and all settled in Rockhill,
Richland and Milford townships. George, Peter, Jacob and John afterward
removed to Bedford county. Joseph had three sons who married and settled in
Milford township. What became of Frederick, third son of Michael Weisel, the
elder, is not known. Michael Weisel, Jr., and his son Henry, served as
soldiers in the Revolutionary army. The Weisels of New Britain and Plumstead
are of this family. The family of Henry Weisel, of Warrington, has in its
possession a stove plate with a number of unintelligible letters upon it, and
the date, 1674. Richard Walker, a contemporary of Simon Butler, a justice of
the peace, and a prominent man in his day, lived on land now owned by the
Weisels.
Benjamin Larzelere, although but a quarter of a century in the township
(1876 edition), comes of an old Huguenot family, nearly a century and a half
resident of the county (1876 edition). Toward the close of the seventeenth
century, Nicholas and John Larzelere immigrated from France to Long Island.
Nicholas subsequently removed to Staten Island, where he married and raised a
family of four children, two sons, Nicholas and John, and two daughters. In
1741 Nicholas, the elder, removed with his family to Bucks county and settled
in Lower Makefield. He had eight children, Nicholas, John, Abraham, Hannah,
Annie, Margaret, Elizabeth, and Esther, died at the age of eighty-four, and
was buried in the Episcopal graveyard at Bristol. The eldest son, Nicholas,
born on Staten Island about 1734, married Hannah Britton, of Bristol
township, and moved into Bensalem, where he owned a large estate, and raised
a family of ten children. Benjamin, one of his sons, is living in
Philadelphia, at the age of eighty-six [ninety*]. The father fought in the
Revolution, and died at the age of eighty-four. Nearly the whole of this
large family lived and died in this county, and left descendants. Benjamin,
the eldest son, married Sarah Brown, of Bristol, moved into that township,
had eight children, and died at eighty-four. Part of Bristol is built on his
farm. John, the second son, married in the county, where he lived and died,
and a few of his descendants are living in Philadelphia. Abraham, the third
son, married Martha VanKirk, of Bensalem, removed into New Jersey, and raised
a family of eight children, and where he has numerous descendants. Nicholas,
the fourth son, married Martha Mitchel, the eldest daughter of Austin
Mitchel, of Attleborough, has two sons and three daughters, and lived and
died in Bristol. One of his sons, Nicholas, settled in Maryland, and raised a
family of nine children, of which Mrs. Thomas P. Miller, of Doylestown, is
one, and Alfred, another son, removed to Kansas some years ago, where he
still resides. Thomas Britton, the youngest son of the third Nicholas, fought
in the second war for independence, 1812-15, [was born in Bucks county, 1790,
but died in Philadelphia, 1896, at the age of eighty-six, of injuries
received from a fall while crossing a culvert, leaving a widow and one
daughter.*] Of the daughters of the third Nicholas, Mary was married to
Nicholas Vansant, of Bensalem, and had three sons and five daughters;
Elizabeth married Asa Sutter, of Tullytown, and had five children; Sarah
married Andrew Gilkyson, of Lower Makefield, and had five children; Hannah
married Thomas Rue, who removed to Dayton, Ohio; Nancy married John Thompson,
of Bensalem, who removed to Indiana; Catharine married Aaron Knight, of
Southampton, had five children, and died at the age of eighty-four. Margaret
never married.
Benjamin Larzelere, of Warrington, was a grandson of Benjamin, the eldest
son of the third Nicholas. His father was Nicholas and his mother a daughter
of Colonel Jeremiah Berrell, of Abington, Montgomery county. He was one of
twelve children. The Rev. Jacob Larzelere, long pastor of the North and
Southampton Dutch Reformed church, was a descendant of John, brother of the
first Nicholas.
Warrington is surrounded by roads, except the elbow running into Doylestown,
and several others cross it. Elsewhere will be found a history of the Bristol,
Street road, county line, and the Easton road which crosses it diagonally
through its lower end. Of the lateral roads, that which leaves the Bristol
road at the Warrington schoolhouse and runs via Mill creek schoolhouse to the
Butler road, was opened before 1722. It afforded the settlers in the upper end
an outlet toward Bristol and Philadelphia before the Bristol road was opened
the length of the township. In 1737 a road, called Barefoot alley, was opened
from the Street road terminus, above Neshaminy, across to the county line, in
a zigzag course. It is more in the nature of a private lane than a public
road.
About 1849 the northwest boundary of Warrington was extended to the upper
state road, cutting off from New Britain territory about a mile in length,
and adding 1500 acres to this township. This addition was made because the
township was a small one. At Warrington the township line leaves the Bristol
road and forms an elbow up into Doylestown.
The tavern at what is now Warrington, but still known and called by many,
Newville, is much the oldest public house in the township, and for many years
was the only one. It was probably opened by John Craig, at least he is the
first landlord we have note of, who kept the house as early as 1759, but how
much earlier is not known. He was there in 1764, and the same year was one of
the petitioners for a bridge across the Neshaminy, "on the road from William
Doyle's to John Craig's." It was under this petition the first bridge was
built at Bridge Point. It was still called "Craig's tavern" in 1806, although
the crossroads was known as Newville as early as 1805. The original name
probably fell into disuse after Craig ceased to keep the house. It was owned
and kept by John Wright in 1813. Afterward the tavern was kept for many years
by Francis Gurney Lukens. During his administration it was a great stopping
place for the heavy teams that passed up and down the road, and as many as
thirty wagons have been known to be there over night. It is told of one of
the leading teamsters from the upper end who was stopping there, that after
making a square meal on meat, bread and butter, coffee, etc., he pulled up a
preserve dish and ate its contents with his fork, remarking: "Well, dat is as
good apple-butter as ever I tasted." There are two other taverns in the
township, one on the Willow Grove turnpike, south of the Neshaminy, at a
place known as Frogtown [Frog Hollow*], and the other on the county line,
near Pleasantville, the seat of Eureka postoffice [and was formerly called
the "Eells Foot," now Green Tree.*]
On the edge of Montgomery county, near where the Doylestown and Willow Grove
turnpike crosses the county line, and on the very confines of Warrington,
stands the baronial country home of Sir William Keith while
Lieutenant-Governor under the Proprietaries. The demesne originally contained
some 1200 acres, and was probably in both counties. The greater part of it was
maintained as a hunting park, roads were opened through the woods in every
direction from the dwelling, the wood cleared of underbrush, and the whole
surrounded by a ditch with the bank planted with privet hedge, something
after the manner of the parks of England. It was stocked with deer and other
game.
Governor Keith arrived at Philadelphia May 31, 1717, with William Penn's
commission as Lieutenant-Governor, and the oath of office was administered to
him the next day. He was accompanied by his wife, who had been the widow of
Robert Driggs, of England, his stepdaughter, Ann Driggs, and Doctor Thomas
Graeme. The Keiths were knighted in 1663, and Sir William was probably the
last of the family to bear the title. He probably succeeded to it after he
became Lieutenant-Governor, on the death of his father, about 1721. He was a
man of popular manners, and, notwithstanding his eccentricities of character,
made one of the best governors under the Penns.
(See illustration of Sir William Keith)
Sir William commenced a settlement on the county line about 1721, although
we believe the contract, which bore the Keith coat-of-arms, for the erection
of the buildings was not executed until the following year. The buildings
consisted of the mansion, several small structures for offices and domestic
purposes, and a malt-house where he intended to manufacture the barley of the
farmers. There is a tradition, not sustained by any documentary evidence that
we have seen, that he built a grain-mill on Nailor's branch in the meadow, on
the Bucks county side of the line.
The mansion, still standing, and in good repair, with its north end to the
county line, and a sloping lawn falling to the creek, is 56 feet long by 25
feet wide, and the stories are 14 feet in the clear. The drawing room at the
north end is 21 feet square, and the walls are handsomely wainscoted and
paneled from floor to ceiling. The fireplace is adorned with marble brought
from England, and those of the other rooms with Dutch tile plates after the
fashion of that day. Above the mantel of the drawing room is said to have
been a panel bearing the arms of the Keith family, but it has been removed
and something plainer put in its place. In the fireplace of one of the upper
rooms is an iron plate bearing the date, 1728, said to have been placed there
by William's son-in-law, Doctor Graeme. The stairs and banisters are
substantially built of oak. The house is of sandstone, such as is found in
that vicinity, and its joists, beams, rafters, and other timbers are of white
oak, as solid and strong as the day they were put into it. The kitchen and
other offices were detached from the main structure, and were so placed that
when viewed from the front they had the appearance of wings, and being but
one story gave the general effect of grandeur to the mansion. There is said
to have been a lock-up at the park, where the governor temporarily confined
offenders. When Keith returned to England, in 1728, the property passed into
the hands of Doctor Graeme, who placed the iron plate in the chimney corner
bearing that date. (5) The tract is now divided into several farms, but the
mansion, which belongs to the Penrose family, has always borne the name of
Graeme park. It was the summer residence of the Keiths and the Graemes, and
these families resided alternately in the city and at the park, with some
interruption, from the time the house was built to the death of Mrs.
Elizabeth Ferguson in 1801. On the west front are the remains of a wall which
probably once enclosed the courtyard, and of a ditch, said to have been the
race to the mill, whose remains we are told can be traced in the meadow. Two
large sycamore trees stand at what was probably the western limit of the
courtyard. No doubt they are as old as the mansion, and stood sentinel at the
gateway.
(5) Dr. Graeme introduced the so-called daisy as a garden flower, which has
been a world of trouble to farmers. It soon became a nuisance. It was given
the name of "Park weed," from Graeme Park. When the author was a boy it was
the most troublesome weed the farmers had to deal with, but modern sentiment
has canonized it.
(See illustration of Dr. Graeme)
This building is the only remaining "baronial hall" in this section of the
state, and its history is loaded with memories of olden time, when the
provincial aristocracy assembled within its walls to make merry after a hunt
in the park. Many a gay party has driven out there through the woods, from
the infant metropolis and the Delaware, and partaken of the hospitalities of
Sir William and Lady Keith.
At the meeting of the provincial council, March 28, 1722, Governor Keith
stated that he had made considerable advancement in the erection of a
building at Horsham, Philadelphia county, in order to carry on the
manufacture of grain, etc., and asked that some convenient public road and
highway be opened through the woods, to and from it. Accordingly Robert
Fletcher, Peter Chamberlin, Richard Carver, Thomas Iredell, John Barnes, and
Ellis Davis were appointed to lay out a road from the governor's settlement
to the Horsham meeting-house, and thence to a small bridge at the Round
Meadow run, now Willow Grove; also to lay out a road from where the York road
intersects the county line, northwest, on that line as far as shall be
convenient and necessary to accommodate the neighborhood. These roads were
surveyed by Nicholas Scull, the former on April 23rd, and the latter April
24, 1722. The county line road was then opened from the York road 1,274
perches to a black oak tree standing by a path leading from Richard Sander's
ferry (6) on the Neshaminy to Edwin Farmer's miller. (7)
(6) Probably where the Doylestown and Willow Grove turnpike crosses the
Neshaminy.
(7) In Whitemarsh.
(See illustration of Keith House, Graeme Park)
Governor Keith died in the Old Bailey debtor's prison, in London, November
18, 1749. His widow survived him several years, and lived in a small frame
house on Third street, between Market and Arch, Philadelphia, poor and
secluded from society. The house was burned down in 1786.
Warrington has but one church within her borders, the Reformed at
Pleasantville, on the county line, founded in 1840. It grew out of a woods'
meeting there, in August or September of that year, held by the Rev. Charles
H. Ewing, on invitation of the Rev. Frederick W. Hoover, a Presbyterian
clergyman, and who became the first pastor. A comfortable brick church
building, still standing, was erected that fall. It was organized with seven
members in the grove where the first sermon was preached, but it now has a
membership of about 200, and a congregation of some 350. It has had four
pastors, Mr. Ewing it founder, and the Reverends Messrs. William Cornwell, N.
S. Aller, and D. W. C. Rodrock. Mr. Aller officiated twenty years and seven
months, longer that all the other pastors combined. Although it was organized
and incorporated as a Reformed church, all the pastors except the present, Mr.
Rodrock, have been Presbyterian in faith. [The present pastor is Rev. J.
Hunter Watts, called, 1898.*]
There is evidence of the Glacial period in Warrington. Traces of glaciers
are found in this country even to the tops of our highest mountains. Our
geologists advocate a Maine, Connecticut, Hudson and a Susquehanna glacier,
and we have a right to believe there was a Delaware glacier also, sliding
from the mountains southward, in a direction a little south of east, a spur
of it passing over this county. It crossed the hills about Little Neshaminy,
and as it advanced, carried the boulders we now find in some parts of the
county, dropping them out of its melting edge, and they received their
rounded shape by constant friction and rolling. These traces are seen in the
northeast part of the township and the adjacent parts of Warminster. In this
section we observe loose, round stones lying on or near the surface, varying
in size from a few inches to two or three feet in diameter, of different
composition from the stone found in quarrying. They have no cleavage or
grain, and when broken are like fragments of trap-rock, are scored and
scratched on all sides and in several directions, and have evidently been
brought from other localities and dropped where they lay, at random. They are
found on both sides of the Bristol road, half a mile southeast of Warrington
postoffice, extending three or four miles in that direction, bearing to the
west and from a half to a mile wide. The line crosses the Street road, east
of Little Neshaminy, and the southwest corner of Warrington, into Horhsam.
The drift probably extends farther both north and south than is here stated.
These stones evidently mark the track of a glacier, and their presence cannot
be satisfactorily accounted for upon any other theory. The inhabitants of the
vicinity call them "mundocks," the origin of which word is unknown. Webster
gives the word "mundic" as applied in Wales to iron pyrites in the mining
districts. It is possible that the word mundock is a corruption of mundic,
brought to us by some immigrant, but it can hardly come from the Latin
mundus, "world". On the Darrah farm, near Hartsville, in Warminster, in an
oak grove, is a fine growth of pines, which have been there from the earliest
settlement of the country, the seed being probably deposited by the glacial
drift. The trees belong to a more northern region. In early days the site of
Pineville was covered with pine trees, in the midst of a region of oak, whose
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