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YOU NEED A PERMIT IN NOCKAMIXON

Nockamixon Township History

In 1746 Nockamixon was erected. Four years before the "inhabitants of the adjacents of Plumstead" petitioned for the erection of a township, the intolerable bad condition of the roads constituting the moving cause. A draft of its proposed boundaries was ordered, but was not returned until 1744, and not confirmed until two years later.

THE triangular area partially included between Haycock and Tohickon creeks and the Delaware river comprises the only townships of the county of which the names are of Indian origin. The creeks mentioned separate them from Haycock, Bedminster, and Plumstead. Tinicum creek and its numerous branches drain the larger part of both townships, the course of the main stream being nearly parallel with that of the Tohickon until, at a distance of about five miles from its mouth, the direction changes to the east at a sharp angle and the river is reached at a point midway between the Nockamixon and Plumstead lines. It receives the waters of Nockamixon creek within the boundaries of that township, and of numerous smaller tributaries at intervals in its progress. Gallow’s run, mentioned in early records as Galloway’s run, is a small stream which reaches the Delaware near the Durham line. The little Tinicum and Mill creeks drain the interior of Tinicum. All these streams unite with the Delaware through deep and narrow valleys. A ridge of hills parallel with its course begins above the mouth of the Tohickon, and assumes greater regularity of contour and elevation within several miles of Kintnersville, where the cliffs are known as the Narrows. These rock walls rise abruptly to the height of several hundred feet almost from the water’s edge, confining the river to a narrow channel with scarcely sufficient space at their base for the canal and roadway. Few localities in Bucks county present greater attractions to the naturalist or tourist.

TINICUM was originally settled by the same nationality as Deep Run in Bedminster— the Scotch-Irish— a people who have virtually disappeared, leaving few memorials of their history. The families of Hughes, Lear, Haverford, Ross, Williamson, Campbell, Stewart, Shaw, and McFarland were represented in 1738. Herman Rosencrout, Bernard Schneider, Samuel McConoghy, William Richards, Henry Newton, Jacob Fox, Robert Stovart, John Wallace, and Martin Freyley were residents in 1762 upon a tract of nearly five thousand acres owned by Richard Stevens. The first grist-mill in the township was built by Henry Killian about 1740 upon Tinicum creek, over which two dams were constructed. The race was one hundred and seventy-five yards long, with a fall of twenty feet at the overshot wheel. There was one run of stones. A number of Indian implements and weapons have been found in the vicinity; among others a broken war-club, two and one-half inches thick and three feet long, of a coarse flint texture. The first saw-mill was built by the Pattersons on Mill creek some distance from the grist-mill of Henry F. Betz, which they also built. Among the early settlers there was no character more interesting than Edward Marshall, the celebrated walker of 1737. Having failed to receive the promised reward for his remarkable pedestrian feat, he continued his life as a hunter, and in 1754 removed to a settlement at Benjamin Stroud’s mill, eighteen miles above Easton. Several years afterward a party of Indians attacked his cabin during his absence, killing his wife and wounding a daughter. His son suffered a similar fate from a savage ambush. For the greater protection of his life and property he removed to an island in the Delaware which yet bears his name. The Indians seem to have cherished an insatiate revenge against him on account of his connection with the "walk" of 1737. Forty years after that event, during the revolution, it is said that a party of Ohio braves journeyed the long distance from their hunting-grounds with the avowed object of taking his life, and that he escaped them only by being absent at the time. The inveterate hatred thus manifested was fully reciprocated; and after the tragic death of his wife and son Marshall neglected no opportunity for retaliation. He died at his home on the island at the advanced age of ninety years. It may be further mentioned, in connection with the events in which he figured with such prominence, that at Red Hill (Ottsville), in this township, Jennings became exhausted after a walk of nineteen miles in two hours and a half, leaving Marshall and Yeates to proceed alone.

One stretch along the Narrows or Nockamixon rocks (Pennsylvania Palisades) is an exceedingly grand and picturesque range of beetling cliffs, rising in places four hundred feet from the brink of the river, through an extent of nearly three miles. Some of the views here are strikingly impressive in their grandeur, and taken with the river below are beautiful beyond expression. Tufts of bushes, rare botanical plants, and climbing vines heighten by their green hues the rich brown tints of the rocks, and lend to the bold faces and narrow ledges of the cliffs a grace which nature alone can produce.

Some of the dykes of trap along the Nockamixon rocks or Pennsylvania palisades contain copper ore (copper glance erubescite and malachite), and there is little doubt that the copper veins and the carytes, which is often the gangue of the veins, originated in the same eruptive period. Several isolated masses of trap-rocks are exposed in Nockamixon township. "The Ringing Rocks" occur in this township.

On August 11, 1855, Jacob Armbruster was arrested in Nockamixon for the murder of his wife. His trial occurred in the following month, the prisoner was convicted, and sentenced by Judge Smyser to be hanged. The sentence was carried out on Friday, February 15, 1856. The duty of the officiating sheriff was particularly unpleasant in this case. The prisoner protested his innocence to the last, declared that he had been convicted upon the evidence of children, and expressed a determination to resist all attempts to put the sentence in execution. No effort of his spiritual advisers could induce him to prepare for death, and the last scene was painful in time extreme. The wild, frantic rage of the victim made the sad duties of the officers in charge an experience never to be forgotten by those who participated.

The Irish have never formed a conspicuous element in the population of the county, though more numerous in other parts of the province. About 1730 to 1740 a noticeable colony gathered on the Haycock run, in the township of the same
name, and in Nockamixon, but there are few descendants of these pioneers remaining, save the McCartys, whose progenitors came about 1737.

In the case of St. Luke’s, Nockamixon, both denominations furnished a separate place of worship until 1812, when they united in building the predecessor of the present edifice at that place. Both existed prior to the revolution.

There was a small Catholic element among the German settlers of Haycock and Nockamixon; and here, about the close of the revolution, a congregation was formed, and the parish of St. John at Haycock soon constituted. It is a large parish and embraces missions at Durham, Tinicum, and Nockamixon.

 

... Battle's History of Bucks County 1887