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Bucks County, PA
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One of the three original counties created by William
Penn in November 1682. Bucks is named for
Buckinghamshire in England, where the Penns had lived
for generations. Doylestown replaced Newtown as the
county seat in 1812 and was incorporated as a borough on
April 16, 1838. It was named for William Doyle, an
innkeeper.
 Most
original settlers were Quakers, and William Penn’s
estate was at Pennsbury Manor. During the religious
Great Awakening the log college at Neshaminy educated
clergymen. In 1776–1777, Washington used Newtown and
Keiths as bases for his Trenton and Princeton campaigns,
crossing the Delaware on Christmas at McConkey’s Ferry
and in 1778 his army camped at Doylestown. Bristol was
the first county seat, succeeded by Newton and then
Doylestown. Fries’ Rebellion occurred in 1798 in
opposition to a federal tax on windows. Bucks has a long
tradition of high quality farming, including selling
seeds that are used all across the nation. Dairying
became strong toward the end of the nineteenth century.
Wealthy estates have acquired much of the farming area;
22 percent of the land is currently farmland. Textiles,
pottery, and decorative tile making flourished. The U.
S. Steel Company built a plant after World War II, and
then the population increased sharply. Many found homes
in the new housing complex of Levittown. Explorer
Zebulon Pike, writer Pearl Buck, and War of 1812 general
Jacob Brown were all from Bucks. There were Underground
Railroad stations in four towns. |
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