3-Month Fete Marks Northampton's 250th Year.
3-Month Fete Marks Northampton's 250th Year.

3-Month Fete Marks Northampton's 250th Year

by James E. Stanton
Of the Bulletin Staff

    Northampton Township, the history of which goes back almost to the time of William Penn's landing, is about to launch its 250th anniversary with a three-month celebration to be capped by an all-faith service on its actual incorporation date, Dec. 14.
    One of the largest townships in Bucks County, Northampton came into being at the petition of 21 men of English and Dutch lineage at Bristol, then the county seat.
    Actually families began moving into the area soon after Penn landed at Philadelphia, according to historians, so it doesn't have to take a back seat to bordering areas incorporated earlier.
    Growth in those days was slow. When the township was incorporated on Dec. 14, 1722, only 40 families lived in the township. Today it has nearly 20,000 residents living in its 26.5-square-mile area.
    Many of these residents are helping set up the four major events beginning in mid-September, which will mark the anniversary.

    "THIS ANNIVERSARY is just as important to us as the Bicentennial will be to our country four years from now," Robert D. Crompton, general chairman of the celebration, said in an interview.
    "This township is as typically American as any in the country," Crompton said. Crompton himself lives in a home that harks back to 1731 when some members of the Bennett family, the earliest Dutch immigrants to Northampton, built the "Old Bennett House" located off Second Street pike.
    If typically American, the old and the new Northampton have many contrasts. Much of the verdant pastureland of pre-1960 vintage has been gobbled up by developers.
    Since 1960, the township has become a bedroom-type community described in reports by the Bucks County Planning Commission. Many more homes are scheduled to be built in the future.
    The planning commission projects the township's 1985 population at 60,000.
    Mrs. John H. Geyer, a local historian, pointed out in a recent interview that Northampton probably was the largest slave-owning township in the county.
    Some sociologists today depict as near-slavery the young executive working to pay off a hefty mortgage, school taxes and membership in the local country club. A lot of these "typical" Americans can be found in the single homes of Northampton Township.
    Crompton heads a five-member steering committee which is the nucleus of the township's anniversary committee. All five members are also members of the township's Historical Study Commission, where the idea for an anniversary celebration originated more than a year ago.
    Sharing Crompton's enthusiasm for the celebration is Mrs. Howard B. France, the steering committee's vice chariman, who is in charge of the program for the four events.

    IN PREPARATION for the anniversary celebration, a new township seal was created by Donald B. Dravitz of Richboro based on suggestions made by Mr.

Grave Markers at the Addisville Reformed Church in Richboro.

GRAVE MARKERS still stand at the burial grounds of the Addisville Reformed Church in Richboro. Church Elder Furman Edwards (kneeling) shows Richard Solly of Ivyland and Mrs. John H. Geyer of Richboro the tombstone on the grave of Henry Wynkoop (1737-1814) who was a member of several continental congresses, a Bucks County judge and the first congressman from Bucks County.
and Mrs. Donald A. Ebert of Holland.
    The seal shows a white oak leaf and an acorn, symbolic of the "White Oak" tree which once marked the southwestern corner of the township. The lower half of the seal shows a grist mill and the Neshaminy Creek which forms about half the boundary of the township.
    On Sept. 16 from 11 A.M. to 8 P.M., the anniversary committee will turn back the clock in an event to be held at the Richboro Intermediate School, Upper Holland road near Bustleton pike, Mrs. France said.
    "There will be demonstrations of tools and toys of the past," Mrs. France said, there will be women quilting and weaving on old looms and visitors can see how a kitchen looked more than two centuries ago."
    In addition, Mrs. France said, there will be an art show with exhibits by some of the country's most noted artists, and an antique auto show.

    THE COUNCIL ROCK High School band will entertain throughout the day joined by the First Troop of New York City which will conduct a Revolutionary War muster and drill.
    "It will all be free except for the food," Mrs. France said, adding that a number of local groups will supply the vittles including an ox roast.
    On Oct. 20, the Council Rock High School band will offer 250 years of American music at the high school auditorium, Swamp road, Newtown Borough. The Villa Joseph Marie High School Chorus will also take part at the event which will be free of charge, Mrs. France said.
    The event is tentatively scheduled for 8 P.M.
    On Nov. 17, the township will hold an Old Timers Night to honor residents who have lived in Northampton for 50 years or more. A testimonial dinner will be held at 7 P.M. at the Council Rock High School cafeteria.
    "We hope to have them all attend," Mrs. France said. "Our present estimate is that there are about 50 of these citizens."
    Township residents interested in past history can remain after dinner to see hundreds of slides of present and past places of interest in Northampton.
    Mrs. France said that Adolph Herzog's collection of slides includes barns, covered bridges, mills and roads of past years.
    On Dec. 14, there will be a Founders Night All Faith Candlelight Service at the historic Addisville Reformed Church, Second Street pike, Richboro.
    The service has been tentatively scheduled for about 8 P.M., Mrs. France said, and the sermon will be given by a guest speaker to be announced at a later date. There will be refreshments after the service.

    NORTHAMPTON TOWNSHIP'S most prominent early resident was Henry Wyncoop, a descendant of early Dutch settlers.
    An account of the death of Wynkcoop's wife Susannah, was given in a Bucks County Historical Society publication.
    She died of injuries suffered after running from the house and jumping into an abandoned well. She was fleeing from British sympathizers ransacking her home looking for revolutionaries like Henry.
    Wyncoop, who died in 1816, served as a member of the first United States Congress and as President Judge of the Bucks County Courts from 1780 to 1789.
    W. H. H. Davis, in his 1905 history of Bucks County, described Wyncoop as "the personal friend of Washington and Hamilton, and ... a man of large frame and handsome appearance."
    Mrs. Geyer, treasurer of the steering committee, noted in a recent interview that the township can lay claim to the county's first sheriff under the new Congress in 1777.
    He was John Thompson, a wagonmaster for the Revolutionary forces, who lived in the historic Hip Roof House. The house, which probably has been restored a number of times, dates back to about 1737. It stands on Second Street pike.
    "In more recent years," Mrs. Geyer said, "Northampton can lay claim to Mrs. Sara T. Rorer, author of the widely read Philadelphia Cook Book."
    LIKE A NUMBER of other Bucks townships that haven't yet been fully developed, Northampton is replete with old homes, mills and schools.
    Some of these edifices will be in an illustrated book of Northampton history that Mrs. Geyer is authoring. The book, which Mrs. Geyer says will include much recent history, is scheduled to be published in several weeks.


Source:

Stanton, James, E., "3-Month Fete Marks Northampton's 250th Year", The Evening Bulletin, Philadelphia, Pa., Thursday, 31 August 1972: Pp. 13 & 18A.


Notes & Acknowledgement:

    I'd like to thank my brother, Geoff, for clipping this article way back in 1972 and saving it for posterity, not to mention doing a great job restoring the photo that accompanies it. Many thanks Geoff!

    Chris

Created September 15, 2001; Revised October 25, 2002
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