NOCKAMIXON – FOUNDED 1742

On the organization of Tinicum, in 1738, a large tract of country immediately north of it was left without local government. The Durham iron-works had been established since 1727, and although there was no organized township north of Tinicum, settlers had taken up land and built cabins here and there in the woods as high up as the Forks of Delaware.

They were generally found on the river side of the county. The Durham Road became a traveled highway several years before this date, and its opening, no doubt, invited immigrants to push their way up into the woods of Nockamixon, (1) settling near or on the road. The names, and dates, of the original settlers cannot now be told; nevertheless it would be interesting to know who had the courage to first penetrate that wilderness of country.

The name Nockamixon is first met with as early as September 8, 1717, when a patent was issued, to Jeremiah Langhorne and John Chapman, for several tracts of land, one of them in this township.

We have reason to believe that settlers located in Nockamixon as early as in Durham, still higher up the river, and that before 1730 the pioneer was felling the trees in her woods. In 1737, Bartholomew Longstreth purchased 250 acres of the Proprietaries, on or near Gallows Hill Run (now known simply as “Gallows Run”), which tradition says took its name from a suicidal traveler found suspended from the limb of a tree on its bank. Continue Reading at US GenWeb’s Nockamixon Page

Learn more at the Nockamixon Historic Commission website. This is the only historic organization officially authorized by ordinance in Nockamixon Township.

Visit the Nockamixon Historical Society site. (This is a private organization not affiliated with Nockamixon Township.)