Further information can be found in
"The History of Bucks County"

TINICUM
1738

TINICUM is bounded by the Delaware river and Nockamixon on the north,
the Delaware on the east, the Tohickon which separates it from
Plumstead and Bedmister, on the south, and by Nockamixon on the west.
The area is seventeen thousand one hundred and seventy-seven acres

On the 6th of September, 1699, William Penn wrote to James Logan from
Pennsbury: "I desire to see T. Fairman, for that I hear an Indian
township called Tohickon, rich lands and much cleared by the Indians, he
has not surveyed to mine and children's tracts as I expected. It joins
upon the back of my manor of Highlands, and I am sorry my surveyor-general
did not inform me thereof.  If it be not in thy warrants, put it in, except
lands already or formerly taken up, or an Indian township.  The Indians
have been with me about it."

Penn was very cross that his surveyor had neglected to lay off the tract
alluded to, to himself and children, which was afterward formed into an
Indian township.  We find, in our investigations, that somewhere "above
the Highlands," but the exact location is not known, ten thousand acres
were confirmed to John Penn and his children.  This may have reference to
the same tract, and probably the "Indian township" was part of what is now
Tinicum.

The "London Company" was among the earliest land-owners in the township
as well as the largest, and the purchase was probably made about the time
the company bought part of manor of Highlands in 1699.  The courses and
distances are given by John Watson, who probably surveyed it when broken
up, as follows: "Beginning at a white oak by the river Delaware, thence
running by vacant lands, south-werst one thousand six hundred and sixty
perches to a black oak; thence by land laid-out to said Proprietary's
land south-cast six hundred and thirty-four perches to a post at the
corner of John Streaper's land; thence north-cast by the said Streaper's
land, one thousand one hundred and sixty perches to a white oak; thence
south-east by the said Streaper's land, six hundred and eighty perches
to a black oak sapling, to the said river; thence up the same on the
several courses, one thousand six hundred and fifty-eight perches to the
place of beginning, containing seven thousand five hundred acres."  From
these notes it is difficult to define the boundary at the present day.  It
had frontage of about five miles on the Delaware extending back about the
same distance, and occupied the northern part of the township.  We have
seen a copy of the draft made by Benjamin Eastburn, surveyor-general, in
1740, but its accuracy is doubted as the lines do not extend eastward to
the river.

The stream of immigration that planted the Scotch-Irish on the banks of
the Deep run, in Bedminster, carried settlers of the same race across
the Tohickon, into the then wilderness of Tinicum in the first quarter
of the last centry.  By about 1730 we find settled there:
MARSHALL, William, Edward and Moses
COLLINs, Joseph
HAVERFORD, Joseph
THATCHER, Richard
GRIFLEE(GRIFFITH), David
MINTURN, Richard
ROSS, James
HALL, John
WILLEY, James
not one of whom was German.

The actual date when each one of these immigrants settled in Tinicum it
is impossible to give, or the place and the quantity of land taken up.
Edward MARSHALL, who made the "Great Walk" for the Penns in 1737, was an
inhabitant of the township at the time, and during part of his residence
there, made his home on an island in the Delaware, which still bears
his name.  In 1737 MATTHEW HUGHES took up a tract in the lower part of
the township, lying on the river road and extending back to the hills.
In 1746 he granted forty acres to ADAM MEISNER, at the upper end of
Pont Pleasant, then called the Narrows.  In 1759 Mr. Hughes gave fifty-
four acres to his son Uriah.  In 1759 CASPER KOLB brought one hundred
and fifty acres of the Proprietaries, which he sold in 1749 to MICHAEL
HEANEY, who was probably the ancestor of the family of this name which
now lives in the township.

In 1745 HEANEY bought one hundred and fifty acres of patent land, 
described as "near Tohickon, Bucks County."  John PRAUL, of Bensalem,
patented several hundred acres, extending from Point Pleasant up to
Smithtown, and reaching a mile back from the river.  John VAN FOSSEN,
a Hollander, was one of the earliest land-owners a the mouth of the
Tohickon, his tract extending on the south side into Plumstead, on which
Point Pleasant is built in part.  A German named Christopher SIGMAN
lived in Tinicum in 1750. There was still vacant land in the township
in 1753, when thirty-two acres were surveyed to John HART, under a warrent
dated March. 16, 1750.  A few of the Hessians captured at Trenton settled
in Tinicum, and others in Williams and Saucon townships, Northampton
County.

The Wolfingers of Tinicum(my family) and neighboring townships are
descended from Frederick Wolfinger, who came with his wife from Germany
about 1750 and settled in Nockamixon, where he bought a tract of land
near Kinterville, now owned by John AHLEM and John KEYSER, He had four
sons and three daughters, who married into the families of Schick, Grover,
Sassaman, Good, Hoffmann, and Scheetz, and left large families.

The Lears(my family) of Tinicum are decended from ancestry who immigrated
from Germany to Virginia at at early day. From there Joseph Lear, the
grandfather of Mahlon C. Lear, came to Bucks and settled in Tinicum, near
Erwinna, where he died thirty years ago, at the age of ninety-two.  The
family claim that Tobias Lear, the private secretary of General Washington
was a brother of the aforesaid Joseph Lear. (My Lears are from Tinicum, but
I haven't made the connection to Virginia as yet)

By 1738 the settlers in what is now Tinicum felt themselves numerous
enough to ask for a township organization and on the 12th of March we
find William, Edward and Moses MARSHALL, Joseph and Jonathan COLLINS,
Joseph HAVERFORD, Richard THATCHER, David GRIFFITH, Richard MINTURN, James
ROSS, John HALL, James WILLEY, James STEWART, Joseph M. KING, Michael
WILLIAMSON, William RICKEY, John MCKEE, John PETERSON, James BRIGGS, James
CAMPBELL, John STEWART, James JOHNSTON, John SHAW, William HILL, and
Joseph MCFARLAND, who styled themselves "divers inhabitants of the lands
adjacent to Plumstead," petitioned the court of quarter sessions to erect
the follwoing district of country into a new township to be called
"Tennicunk", viz: "Beginning at lower corner of Nockamixon, on the river
Delaware, thence extending by the same township south-east two thousand
one hundred and forty perches to the Tohickon creek, thence down the said
creek, by the townships of Bedminister and Plumstead, to the Delaware
aforesaid, then up the said river to the place of beginning."  The court
does not seem to have hestiated, but allowed the township which was soon
afterward surveyed and organized.  The original boundaries are retained
to the present day. At the time the township was laid out, there was
probably but one grain-mill in it.   BARCROFT's on the Tohickon near its
mouth.  The township organization invited settlers and immigrants seeking
new homes flocked to the country north of the Tohickon, and gradually new
farms were opened, dwellings erected and roads laid out.  The names on the
petition for the erection of the township prove the early settlers to have
been English and Scotch-Irish.  The Germans were the introduction of a 
later immigration, and afterward many of this nationality found homes in
TINICUM.  We have no record of their advent, but they came soon after the
township was settled.

In 1762 we find the additional names of Herman RONSECROUT, Bernard
SCHNEIDER, Samuel McCONOGHY, William RICHARDS, Henry NEWTON, Jacob FOX,
Robert STOVERT, John WALLACE, and Martin FRYLING, three of which were
names were German. In 1738 Conrad KUSTER took up one hundred and a half
acres of land on a branch of Tinicum creek.  Henry STOVER resided in 
Tinicum in 1768 and Christian HONK and Nicholas HERN owned land there in
1769.  In 1774 Jacob KOLB purchased two hundred and eleven acres in Tinicum.

1774 -The Williamses are decended from a Yankee ancestor, born in Boston,
who removed to Wilmington, Delaware and thence to Philadelphia, where
he married. The Great-great-grandfather of Hiram A. Williams purchased
several hundred acres of John and Richard Penn. His son, Jeremiah
Williams, purchased this tract of his father and settled in the township
with his family before the Revolutionary War where they and their decendants
have lived to the present time.  Newbury D. Williams formerly cashier of
the Frenchtown bank, was a member of this family.

At this time Richard STEVENS was the largest land-holder owning four
thousand one hundred and thiry-one acres, nearly one-fourth of the land
in the township.  The population was sparse.

We hae met with the records of but few roads in Tinicum, the earliest
being that of 1741, when the road was laid out from the mouth of Tinicum
creek, near Erwinna, then known as "London ferry" to the mouth of Indian
cabin run, where it crosses the Tohickon and meets the Durham road, near
Hinkletown, in Plumstead.  The Durham road was laid out through the
township in 1745.  In June 1747, John WATSON surveyed a road from London
ferry, twelve miles and three hundred and sixty-seven and a half perches,
until it met the Durham, probably a re-survey of the road that was laid
out in 1741.

About 1750 the inhabitants of Tinicum built, by subscription, a wooden
bridge over Indian creek, near its mouth at the river. In 1768 the
inhabitants of Tinicum, Nockamixon, Bedminster and Plumbstead asked
persmission of the court to build a stone bridge at their own expense, in
place of the wooden one, but it was not granted.  Among the petitioners
are the names of George HILLPOT(my family), William MCINTYRE, Michael
WORMAN and Abraham FRETZ, probably the ancestors of the extensive families
bearing these names in that section of the country.  The bridge over the
Tohickon, on the Durham road, was built in 1765 at an expense of 283. 16s.
101/2 of which the inhabitants contributed 101.13s.6d., and the balance
was taken from the public funds.  This crossing was called John ORR's
ford, after the first settler of that place.  The grand jury reported
in favor of the bridge at the June term, 1763, but it was to to be built
until the inhabitants raised as much money as they could toward the cost.


GENEALOGY INFORMATION SENT IN BY FELLOW RESEARCHER
I read the History of Buck's County and could add to the landowners listed
there. I have a copy of an indenture dated 1783 in which my gggg-
grandfather, William Cooper, bought 155 acres of land from Timothy Beanes.
The land was originally owned by John and Margaret Patterson (June 11,1746)
Samuel Cooper , William's father, paid taxes on this land until 1789 when
William assumed the taxes. 71 of these acres was given to the grandchildren 
of William  These grandchildren were the children of his son,Bethel. One of
these children, Nelson Cooper, acting on behalf of his brothers and sisters 
sold the land at auction in 1855 to John Bergstresser.Nelson married a 
Catherine -.Nelson was my gg grandfather. When I did my early research at 
the Spruance Library in Doylestown, I found an early map in the Streiper 
papers showing some early landowners. I would be willing to share any
information I have that would be of interest to anyone doing his/her 
research in the Tinicum area.Nelson and his wife ,Catherine are buried in a 
cemetery called the Marshall-Ridge- Cooper Cemetery. The cemetery is also 
called " Gravel Hill ".There were no readable tombstones in this cemetery, 
but its location could possibly have been part of the original 155 acres.
The other Cooper family buried there are all descendants of William through
his son James.Let me know what I can do to make it easier for others. This
Tinicum Township bunch was hard to track through chuch records. The only 
birth record  have is of my great grandfather, William, the son af Nelson
and Catherine in 1844.

Sally

Sally Otto


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  TIANA   

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