The
Intelligencer
Doylestown,
PA. Monday June 11, 1900
Thirteenth
Annual Meeting Held at Pullen
The
Historical Literary and Musical Program of Exercises Attract a
Large Audience-Excellent Papers Presented and an Address by
Harvey S. Kiser, Esq.
The
thirteenth annual meeting of the
Buckwampun Historical and Literary Association was held Saturday
afternoon at Pullen, on the Quakertown and Eastern Railroad,
four miles from Quakertown, the little station house standing at
the converging lines of three townships Haycock, Richland and
Springfield. The meeting was held in the woods of William Heft,
in Springfield township, a couple of hundred yards from the
township
line, and a
few miles north were the beautiful hills of the Rocky Valley,
just
inside of
the Bucks and Northampton
county line. This valley was formerly
an
inland sea, and Charles Laubach of Riegelsville, the noted
geologist of Bucks
county, says of the geology of this section: We notice some of
the fields as
well as the
woods strewn with boulders
of
trap-solid trap in place is rather rare
right
here-what we do see is merely trap rubbish, boulders and
yellowish and
reddish gray
loam of fully decomposed
trap
which is always accompanied by
blocks of trappean rocks the size of a
small
hay stack, as well as smaller ones.
The
larger solid trap exposures in the
New
Red (Trias) are at Stony Garden,
Ringing Rocks and Pottstown following everywhere one geological
horizon. To the south and west from here, a
large
expanse of country was in earliest
times
of a wet swampy nature, and in the spring of the year is yet
extensively
so. Most of
the boulders and trap rubbish seen here belongs to overflow
sheets and came to the surface through long
trough-like dikes, rather than through
circular volcanic craters, like Haycock, Ringing Rocks and
other localities It
may
be noted that the trap here is in
the
axis of an extensive anticlinal, and was
supplied by the wide spread bed that occurs to the northwest a
short distance
from here.
All the trap here occurs in the form of an overflow sheet, the
covering of shale having been removed by erosion, but during the
forming of the
shale in
these parts, igneous activity was also in progress, but the
overflow of
the molten
mass occurred some time after the shales had been partly baked,
as in many instances the later shale deposits above the trap
remain unaffected.
Although some of the trap rock here differs somewhat in
appearance, its structure and composition are very similar.
Its
structure throughout approximates
granular, or imperfectly crystallised pyroxene consisting of
hornblende titanic
iron
feldspar and augite, all, however,
being
genetically connected, but divided
into
four different species distinguished
as
follows: Diabase, dolerite, gabbro and
epidiorite, Diabase is a rock consisting
of
augite, feldspar and titanic iron, and
all
the evidence points to the fact that
most
of the trappean rocks have been
derived from this and the doierite rocks.
Diabase is well represented at Ringing
Rocks, at Bridgeton, Bucks County, Pa.,
and
other places. Dolerite resembles diabase but contains
more
titanic iron and augite also some
magnetite and sphene. Most of the rocks
lying
about belong to gabbro variety,
which
very much in color according to
the
size of the grain-the fine grained
rocks
being dark gray to nearly black
while
the coarse grained are light gray.
The
gabbro variety is well represented
at
Rockhill and Shelly station; also at Stony Garden, Haycock.
Epidiorite on account of the large percentage of hornblende, is
of a greenish
color. and
more tough than grbbro and
not
easily worked into paving rocks, the
base
of the trappean rocks near, Coopersburg are of the gabbro
variety. The
great
diversity in the direction of the
axes
of the rock folds in this section, is
owing
to the prominence and firmness
of
the earlier rock ridges and the shore
line
on the northern borders of the ancient Triassic sea. The axes of
the folds
of rock beds
in any given region, are a
guide
to the history and conditions of an
earlier period in the world's evolution,
and
in a general way are parallel to the
older
ridges that could resist and bound
the
movements of the more recent deposits. The precise order of the
changes
we cannot
trace yet, their general character and tendency we are at no
loss to
discover;
but we do know that the pent-up fires within would seek vent,
the volcanoes would disgorge their contents,
and
the earthquake would shake and dislocate the land and the sea.
Pullen station is named after Samuel
Pullen, who resides within a hundred
feet
of the station, and to him the Intelligencer is indebted for
courtesies
shown its
representative on Saturday.
On
the other side of the railroad lies the
farm
of William Heft, upon whose land
the
meeting was held, and near by still
stands one of the oldest log houses in
upper
Bucks county. It was occupied at
the
beginning of the century by a man
named
Klotx, who drove six-horse
freight teams on Bethlehem pike
from
Allentown and Bethlehem to Philadelphia. It is a picturesque old
building
and was
occupied up to about a dozen
years
ago, but it is now falling into decay, yet there are still
numbers of old
fashioned
flowers found blooming in the
door
yard in an uncultivated state. Mr.
Heft
has a copy of the Doylestown Express, published January 7, 1846,
by M.
H.
Schneider, a German paper, which
was
the predecessor, probably, of the
Der
Morganstern, now also defunct. The meeting was attended by about
four
hundred persons many of whom
drove
long distances to attend the annual event which means much to
those
interested
in the history of the upper end
of
Bucks county. Owing to the inability
of
the president, Hon. C. E. Hindenach,
of
Durham, to be present, Ryan Rapp, of Riegelsville, presided and
delivered a
brief
address at the opening of the exercises, The program was
enjoyably interspersed with excellent music by a
number of the members of the Quakertown Band. All the papers
read, which
will appear
in full in subsequent issues
of
the Intelligencer, evidenced keen research into historical facts
and legendary lore, with which that section is replete, and were
well presented. The first paper was by Miss Myra
Brodt,
of Springtown, on the Franklin
School, situated at the forks of the road
leading from Springtown to Bursonville
and
Pleasant Valley, nearly opposite the
Bursonville creamery. It was formally
known
as the "Eight Square" but afterwards changed to "Barrons"
school. Rev. O. H. Melchor of Springtown,
presented another interesting installment,
of a
series of papers on "The Pioneer
Preachers," his subject being Muhlenberg and his work in Bucks
county. "Old Time Grist Mills" was the subject of an excellent
paper by Miss Carrie S.
Kulp.
Miss Kulp dealt with the history
of
the seven old grist mills which line
Cook's creek, from the source in Springfield township to the
point where it enters Durham. Harvey S. Kiser, of Doylestown,
delivered an address on "The Individual in
History.” He spoke in a commandatory
way
of the work and influence of the
association, and expressed the hope that
it
would live long and grow in influence
and
usefulness. He urged the necessity
of
studying some prominent characters
in
order to get the best good and to
arouse the most interest in the study of
history, national as well as local. A
few
examples were given of persons
prominent as "history makers" and how
the
study of their lives created fresh interest in that branch of
history which is
a result of
their labors. Other papers read were by Miss Clara
R.
Laubach, of Riegelsville, on "Morgantown," Miss Katie Knecht "A
Sketch
of Pullen,"
and Rev. A. P. Horne, of
Hellertown, "Several of the Old Springfield Pastors." The
indefatigable secretary of the association, Charles Laubach, has
in preparation an article on the typography of
the
country through which the Quakertown and Eastern railroad runs,
and the
geology of
the valley, which has been filled up, it is said 16,00 feet
since the ages when it was an inland sea. A number of new
members were elected, three propositions were received,
George MacReyholds, Doylestown: Dr, F.
C.
Gray and W. H. Vansyckel, Riegelsville. The committee on
constitution and
by-laws was
continued , and it was proposed to place the association on a
permanent basis. The next meeting will
probably be held ay Durham, one of the
most
interesting spots in the upper end.