Cf~7'+-S' f 3 // V", 4» c* Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from This project is made possible by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries https://archive.org/details/pennsylvaniacoun58unse INDEX. s Pag'\ s Page T_; _ U V • W W XYZ \>v_/ A SCRAP OF LOCAL HISTORY. THE SOUTH CORNER OF TOW A M ivh Thirty years later, orin 1764 Saanar The name of Kriebel is a common one £m°fo'xlVoO6 far,n C° tm 8°’n Abra- among the Sch wenkfelters. This par¬ bam tor £l,o00—a very large advance ticular family of that name has held The neighbors had changed. In Wor' possession of the south corner of Towa- cester were Abraham and Jacob Wentz* mensing township for nearly 160 years, Caspar Kept-, Melchoir Meschter and or fur five generations. It is a fertii’ a^um-Wei?D8r were on the upoer and quite rolling, hilly region, watere side; Christopher Weigner was on the by the Towamensing creek and it northeast, and Melchoir Kriebel ou the tributaries. The stream here flow I ?aodnd y0allaei? dofnf dp~Germanm08tly extraction ^ch wenkfelters, The westward towards Skippack creek Seetb „( Caspar Krl'b‘;““»- Here, on a knoll by a piece of wood land, is one of the few Schwenkfeltei I EriebePhi^’ I771’ wbl18 churches in the world, and adjacen I S $90 Part“,,r’ are the cemeteries where sleep the dear of past and present generations. I. Sf J1.'*0'1' °r. 11,6 ,arm henceforth 18 but a series of transfers from father The old homestead is just opposite,t the westward, across a narrow valle AbrahadmWK L° htb.e pre8ent generation. and up the slope of the rising groun Abraham Kriebel, born in 1736 and beyond. A two-story stone bouse ver the c coed of tbe line, married Susan- anded in front and of the usual ’farm i nab daughter of George Schultz and house pattern, is the modern residence, his death took place in 1801. In ’l784 ibe ancieut dwelling stood a few yards he bought a narrow strip of twentv 1 southward, on the lower slope of the acres in Gwynedd of Benjamin Wet*/ which remained in the famiiy owner-1 1 ll* • fas dem°l!shed in 1848, and' bore the date of 1734. ’ fb,pfpor a. ong, Penod. The farm was left by will to his sons Christopher and The lands contained in the original tract bordered on four r ads, with Andrew but in 1804 tbe latte? bought Gwynedd and Worcester on two sides the whoie. Andrew Kriebel, born in containmg 490 acres, and comprising 1765, married Maria, daughter of the three present Kriebel farms and George Heebuer and died in 1853—at others Later, the estate of Caspar be age of 88. His son George tbe Kriebel contained 189 acres, now di- I ied6VfKthe !jD6’ b°rn iD 1707, mar- Jvided into the farms of Abraham K. I Krthii°Phlo’ ,dau£bter of Abraham I |?nebel, ^2 acres, and that of * I bK ’ d,ed ln 1869. His son | Abraham K. Kriebel, married Phcebe’ I Theatun‘ KnebeI’ of over e'gbty acres. 1 he latter is at the extreme south daughter of Isaac S. Kriebel, and is the present owner. During ihe present he bas Purchased the neighboring I d; ™ fa,rm’ on the northern side, and now has two as productive farms as anb^bmem,63Wii U ia m/Mark'ham there are in the township. v»?JaTS-Goodson- In 1688 they con¬ veyed their right to James Peters of THE ANDERS FARM, TOWAMENSING. Bristol, England. In 1716, the will of ?tle fer1t,ile lands of this farm, com¬ Si®ea8aPptf8 gave t0 his nephew prising rolling hills, valleys and mead- - 31“} ^ers. Before this time set- ows are divided by the Towamensing In 17M ap ,begUD in the creek. The dwellings are situated on f,,!7 3' T Pe,ter« sold the tract to the bank, ou the northerly side of that Nicholas Lesber, Sr., Nicholas Lesber stream. A new house of modern ap Jr., and James Hill for £160. pearance has been built, but tbe old Five years later, or in 1728, the two one has been allowed to remain. L iKehVllS ll'il made a partition by This homestead has the same earlv which Nicholas Lesber, Jr., got this history as the Kriebel place, for they I or 789 “ores. At that time were together under the English own- I Nicholas Hartstein lived on the Gwyn- ership It became the share of [ edd side, Peter Wentz on the Worces ! 8r ’ iD 1723- lt was' ter side Henry Pennypacker on the part ol 2o2 acres sold by Lesher in 1728 wb‘*e Nicholas Lesher Sr to Cadwallader Evans, of Plymouth.! held the northeast side. Lesher made It is not known whether Evans made improvements and built the dwelling in any improvements, but in 1735 he sold 1734, just before selling the property lot) acres to a newly arrived Sch wen k- In September, 1734, was the time of f ’ na“ed Christopher Weigner, for the coming of the Schweukfelters and ,lb,“ was bounded by lands of Itb,s ^arm,of 169 acres was immediatelv Edward Griffith, on the Gwynedd side ■ 11IchnT choir TKriebeld by,( ;foraSpar £242. Kriebel In 1744»nd Mel bv TOUT/ ?rI6bel’ °n the southwest hu Phbr fLUueDSA 00 lhe northwest, and r6r Stob?,1. l-ed over „D “be by Christopher Rein wait and Christian I Gwynedd side, sold his claim in the Weber, on the northeast-all German or Dutch except Griffith. • | I SW£l50nS1Dg f3r“ t0 Caspar Kriebel im historical facts, while m the vicinity. This Christopher Weigner was a On the old Gulph road there stands bachelor, and had no issue. His sister an ancient looking residence, which Rosina was the nearest heir, but she was pointed out to us as having been I was likewise unmarried. Her heirs at one time the residence of Charles ! were Ann. Anders, wife of Baltser An- Thompson. Clerk of the Firsk-Conti¬ ders; George Hoffsichter, George nental Congress. The house lb ingood Fleigner, Baitser Miller and Melchoir repair and is owned at present by. Mrs. Beer—all except the first living in Naomi Morris, who is a descendant of Europe, at Harpersfield, Liegnitz, Mr. Thompson. The house is now Silesia. In 1764, these heirs conveyed occupied as a iarm. house. On the property there is a private graveyard, f their rights to Ann Anders. In 1780, in which Charles Thompson and his she conveyed to her son George Auders wife were buried, but recently they i for £700. She had then removed to were disintered and removed to Laurel Milford, now Lehigh county. The Hill Cemetery. , - , . next transfer was in 1801, from George There is still a historic history about Anders to his son George. There were the place. Just before tbe war the four George Anders’ in succession. In property was owu by one Harigon 1845, the third George came into pos¬ and quite unusual as it may appear in session, and in 1878 the fourth, known this part of the country, he owned as George S. Anders, inherited the and worked about one hundred slaves, property of 95 acres. As before men¬ and the bodies of them still lie buried tioned, Abraham K. Kriebel purchased at the old burying grounds, spoken the farm during the present yeajc^. of above. At the old residence no relics have been preserved, but at the Some Historical GH«w»V»gs of Mont- residence of William A. Fisher, .Bryn gomery County. Mawr.we were shown an old fashioned Yesterday the Radnor M. E. Church chair, which had belonged to Mr. in Montgomery county located on the Thompson. The chair is very Old and old Lancaster road, was formally valued quite highly by its present opened for services after .being owner. , , carpeted and having the seats re- On the old Gulph road above men¬ cushioned. The service was con¬ tioned, we were struck by the ancient ducted by J- R- Hargas, Presiding look of the mileposts,and on examina¬ eld r, of the West Philadelphia district. tion we found that they had probably ! The old church has some historic been standing since the time of Wm. j history the bulk of which we will relate. Penn. On the front of the stone, fac-: The old church which formerly ing the road, the number of miles to j stood on the site of the present one, Philadelphia is cut and on the back of was erected and ready for worship in the post,cut clearly in the stone and yet the year 1784. Meetings had been plainly .discernible is the Coat of Arms held prior to this, but they were either of Wm. Penn, namely: A shield with [ held at private residences or under the three cannon balls on the face of it. j trees. This was one of the places The road has now passed into disuse j where methodism was first intro and is very seldom traveled except by j duced into America, the first meetings the countrv residents. There are quite a number of histor¬ being held about 1780, in charge of ical places of interest about the John Cooper. After a time,the congregation becom¬ vicinity, but our time being limited a j ing too large for the limited space of full description cannot be given, but the small church, the erection °: a is promised for some future date^y*^ j new church was proposed and during 'the month of May, 1833, the old church was rased to the ground and a new church erected on the site.