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Chapter 1
Early History
West Point Pennsylvania, part of Gwynedd Township in Montgomery
County, was officially named sometime in 1878. This is a brief
history of some of the events leading up to and after the
forming of the village. While pondering when this history should
start, it was decided that it should begin with the first family to live in the area,
the events and causes which led up the purchase of Gwynedd, and
the creation of West Point 180 years later.
Therefore, our story starts in the latter half of the 17th century in
Wales, United Kingdom. The Welsh Friends (also known by the then
derogatory name as "Quakers") were being
persecuted in their own homeland for their religious principles. By
act of British Parliament (the Quaker Act of 1662) their public worship
was forbidden on penalty of heavy fines and imprisonment.
Because they would neither swear the Oath of Allegiance or pay
tithes to the Church of England they were beaten,
stoned, arrested and left to rot for years in filthy and
overcrowded prisons.
Their property was confiscated and their cattle, horses, and crops were
seized.
In 1681 William Penn, a Quaker theologian and minister, was given the rights
to all of what is now Pennsylvania and Delaware in payment of a
debt owed to his father by King Charles II of England. (During the
reign of this same king, more than 450 Quakers died in prison of
disease, exposure and malnutrition.)
In America, Penn began
his “Holy Experiment" in governing - guaranteed religious liberty
and toleration for all who "shall confess and acknowledge one
Almighty God to be the Creator, Upholder and Ruler of the
world." It is not surprising then, that between 1682 and 1700 the Welsh
Quakers were the most numerous body of immigrants arriving in
Pennsylvania.
In the year 1683 an energetic and influential Quaker minister named Hugh Roberts arrived in
what is now Merion Pennsylvania with the first wave of Welsh immigrants.
Merion was part of the "Welsh Tract" of 40,000 acres located
near Philadelphia. In 1697 on his second visit back to his old home in
Merioneth Shire he convinced a number of inhabitants to
return with him to Pennsylvania. The Gwynedd Company of Friends
was formed for this purpose. (Also called the Gwynedd Company of
North Wales). This company consisted of about 9 families and 40
other individuals.
In 1698 William ap John and Thomas ap Evan, two cousins from Merioneth
Shire, sailed to Pennsylvania
in advance of the main company. They preceded the other
immigrants to choose land, according to the habit of the Welsh
at the time. Why Hugh Roberts didn't secure the new settlers for
the Welsh Tract is not known, however these "Gwynedd Welsh"
did not all profess to be Quakers. All but three of the original
households were Anglicans. Many
of them did eventually join the religious society.
The Purchase of Gwynedd Township
On March 10, 1698 William John and Thomas Evan purchased 7,820 acres from
Robert Turner. (Turner was a Quaker who had purchased some of the land from
William Penn, and the rest from Robert Gee, Joseph Fuller and
Jacob Fuller. He also built the first brick house in
Philadelphia, at the corner of Front and Mulberry streets) The deciding factors of their selection are
presumed to have been fertility of the land, price and
availability. The price was "Sixty-one pounds
Eight pence three farthings Silver money". (The land was
resurveyed in 1702 and found to actually be 11,449 acres. The
various landholders then paid for 2,846 additional acres
directly to William Penn)
On the deed the area is called "the Township of Gwinned
in the County of Philadelphia". The land was heavily timbered with
oak, hickory and chestnut trees, but had no large bodies of
water. The Leni Lenape Indians sometimes passed through and an Indian
trail ran somewhat through the center of the tract. Except for
this, the land was unoccupied and
undisturbed wilderness.
Click here for a full sized view
of map. (1.4 mb)
This 1687 map shows the land
(shaded green) owned by Robert Turner, John Gee,
Joseph Fuller and Jacob Fuller. By 1695 Turner owned all of
it, then sold it to
William John and Thomas Evan in 1698, thus creating Gwynedd Township.
On April 18, 1698 the 8 the Gwynedd Company set sail
from Liverpool, England aboard the ship Robert and Elizabeth.
They arrived in Philadelphia on July 17th, eleven weeks after
leaving Liverpool and fifteen after starting from their homes in
Wales.
Forty-five passengers died of dysentery
during the voyage, including William John's sister, Margaret. Gwynedd
was thus settled in 1699 by less than 100 persons.
The Original
(West Point) Settler
William John
Some months after the purchase of
Gwynedd, deeds were made to the other settlers by William John
and Thomas Evan when it was decided how much land each should
take. The entire northern section of Gwynedd, from modern day West
Point Pike to Valley Forge Road, and from Morris Road to Main
Street in Lansdale was retained by William John. These
roads and streets, now major traffic arteries, were at that time
the boundary of the John tract. It was the largest single tract
in Gwynedd, consisting of 2,866 acres of land.
The village of West Point is located in the southwest corner of
this tract. See this
MAP
Residence of William John, built
along the Wissahickon Creek
near present day West Point
William John
carved a plantation out of the forest and lived along the
Wissahickon Creek near today's West Point. It appears that he
was the wealthiest landowner in Gwynedd, being as he had three
times as much land as any other settler. He lived there with his wife Jane,
his son John,
and five daughters - Gwen, Catherine, Margaret, Ellin and Gainor. The last name of his children was Jones.
In keeping with Welsh tradition William John's last name
became his son's first name, therefore his son's name was John Jones
(not John John).
William John was born about 1660 in Merionethshire, Wales and died on November 1, 1712 in Gwynedd,
Pennsylvania. His will
showed that he had planted the area in wheat, rye, oats and hay. In
addition, he had 21 cattle, 6 horses and 7 bee hives. Interestingly, dates marked on William John’s
house show
it was completed in the year he died. The house and 1400 acres were left to his son John.
(The daughters inherited another tract of land in the lower part of the township.)
The Welsh were the most numerous,
wealthiest, and most influential inhabitants of the Township,
but in July and August of 1745 an epidemic of Diphtheria spread
through the Gwynedd Friends. More than 60 people died, most of
them children, almost the entire next generation of Welsh. From
this time on fewer births were reported in Gwynedd. 120 years
later at the end of the Civil War, Gwynedd was populated not
just by the descendants of the surviving Welsh but also by the
Germans, who had immigrated to the area beginning in the 1730's.
Chapter 2
Origin of the Village
In 1867 Hezekiah Zieber opened a resort
on 20 acres of forest so "that the good people of this section
should have some place for wholesome entertainment". It included
pavilions, dining halls, buildings for picnics, a carousel, a
pond with "swan boats" and even a Fife and Drum Corps. Thousands
of patrons visited each month, traveling a dirt road that would
one day be called Garfield Avenue.
In 1869 the thriving
town of North Wales was incorporated into a Borough, but the
area west of North Wales was still mostly farmland and forest
except for Zieber's Park. A saw mill on 90 acres of timber
owned by Jonathan Lukens was the only other distinction.
Of the
farmsteads, a particular farm house and 139 acres had been owned
since 1818 by Andrew Kriebel. In 1856 Kriebel's heirs sold the
house and 100 acres to Amos Jones of Hilltown for $6000,
creating the Jones Farm. Today, the greater portion of the
village occupies what was once the Jones Farm.
1871
Part of a map from 1871 showing both
the Jones farm and
Jonathan Lukens saw mill.
(for reference, Sumneytown Pike
is at the top, West Point Pike is right center.)
The Stony Creek Railroad
In 1868
plans were made by the North Penn Railroad to create the "Stony
Creek" line. This railroad was to start in Norristown near the
Stony Creek (hence the name) and end in North Wales. The plans
for the intended route were changed by a prominent individual in
Lansdale, the president of the Lansdale City Council, Dr. John
N. Jacobs. (Jacobs was the first to sign Lansdale's
Petition for Incorporation in 1872, and remained active in
Lansdale's development for more than 50 years until his death
in 1924.) It was Jacob's desire that the new railroad lead to
Lansdale instead of
North Wales. He and a group of businessmen bought the majority
of the shares of Stony Creek stock, and so they had the
controlling interest.
The railroad eventually ran from Norristown to Lansdale, bypassing
North Wales completely. Most importantly, the new route brought the tracks near Jonathan
Lukens' saw mill.
Lukens
Station
Jonathan Lukens donated land a few hundred yards from the saw
mill for a train depot on the new rail line. (It would be
nice to know if he also donated the wood, but this is not known.)
The depot was located close to where the railroad tracks
crossed the main street, making a trip from the saw mill to the
train depot a very easy one. When the line opened in 1873 this
train stop (one of ten stops on the Stony Creek line) was
“Lukens Station”, situated between "Acorn Station" and "Kneedler
Station"
1877
Map showing "Lukens Station" along the Stony Creek
Rail Line.
The saw mill, between Lukens and Kneedler, is marked "J
Lukens S.M."
Next stop after Kneedler's was Lansdale. North Wales is to the upper
right.
Almost immediately after Lukens Station was established a
village began to grow around it. Two businessmen from
North Wales, Elias Freed and Henry Moyer, built four hay houses
and a feed mill on the main street near the railroad tracks.
Because this complex stood to the west of their main business in
North Wales, they named one of the new buildings “West Point
Feed House”.
The Village
is Born
In 1874 Samuel Kriebel bought a
vacant lot from Jonathan Lukens for $225 and built a large
three story building which housed a tavern and general store.
Jonathan Lukens built a feed warehouse that same year. A coal,
grain and feed dealership were built by Samuel Kriebel and
William Heebner. In 1875 three houses were built. Sam Kriebel
purchased seven acres of the Jones Farm in 1876 for $2228 and
built a hotel. Two more houses were added in 1876 and another
three in 1877. In 1878 Abraham L. Reiff owned a steam flouring
mill and Aaron Kriebel had a coal and lumber yard as well as a
planing mill.
In 1878 a post office was
opened in the general store. The
village had no official name, but had been called both
"Lukens Station" and "West Point"
for about two years. The name
"West Point" was chosen for the Post Office, making
the name official.
By the year
1880 the area was becoming more populated. Hosea Kriebel started
the West Point Engine and Machine Company in a little building
on the main street. (William Heebner was in on that venture,
too) Zieber’s Park, located within walking distance of the train
station, was seeing a thousand visitors a month. Jonathan Lukens,
now aged 60, parceled some of his land into building lots and sold his saw mill to Allen Thomas.
Also in 1880
Amos Jones, owner of the Jones Farm, passed away at age 85.
Chapter 3
188
Properties
In 1880 Amos
Jones inherited 82 acres of land from his father of the same
name. Just two years later in 1882 he sold it. He
divided his property into 188 lots of varying sizes and
then sold 188 lottery tickets at fifty dollars apiece for each
of the lots. When all the tickets were sold the lottery was held
and each ticket holder was awarded a lot. The grand prize was
the Jones’ 23 acre farm, which was won by Samuel Kriebel’s
wife. More importantly, the lottery determined the number of
properties and
eventual population of the village.
It was afterward declared that this method
of sale was not legal, but the results were allowed to stand.
Because of the way the land was divided and because some of the
smaller pieces of land were never claimed, today the yards around many of the homes
in West Point are of different sizes,
and some of the addresses do not run consecutively.
By 1884 West Point was the largest village in Gwynedd Township,
with 30 houses and a dozen businesses, including a brick yard
which manufactured 500,000 bricks a year. The saw mill was
producing 10,000 feet of lumber a week, and Kriebel's engines
were known throughout America. During the summer and fall of
that year a one and a half mile turnpike was built connecting
Sumneytown Pike to Morris Road. It incorporated the main street
through the village, and was named West Point Pike. Allen
Thomas, owner of the "West Point Steam Saw Mill", was president
of the West Point Turnpike Company.
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1893
This map shows that by 1893 Lukens Station is now named
"West Point Station".
The names Lukens and Jones are gone. The Lukens property
is
owned by Allen Thomas, and the Jones farm is owned by J.
Supplee. |
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A group of denizens in front of the West
Point Hotel in 1902. |
By 1911 there were 55 dwellings in the village. A trolley
line ran along West Point Pike, turning northwest past Zieber's
Park on its route from Norristown to Lansdale. The car barn for
the trolley resided on West Point Pike, which had ceased being a
turnpike about 10 years prior. In addition to the train station,
post office, general store, tavern, hotel, Zieber's Park, flour
mill, engine company and coal and feed houses, there was now a
brick yard, a church, a lumber mill, a public grade school and a
high school.
Additional information. (Note: the documents
linked below are LARGE)
This document, from the 1850 census shows Amos Jones
the father, age 56 and Amos Jones the son, age 22. They
are both
farmers living in Gwynedd Township. It states there were 12
people living in the Jones household at the time. It also shows
Sam Kriebel, age 55, and Sam Kriebel age 14,
father and son.
This Document from 1860 shows Amos Jones is now 66, his son 28. (Should we trust the accuracy
of the census taker? His son should have
been 32. Interestingly, the person between Amos Jones Sr and
Amos Jones Jr is listed as being 32). His farm is valued at $6000.
This document, from 1870 shows Amos Jones as a
"Retired Farmer", age 75. The farm is worth $10,000. At this
time Amos Jones the son would have been 42.
The following was found on a genealogy
website:
"Jonathan Lukens was born in Horsham, MONTGOMERY, PA, February
16, 1820. Jonathan died February 9, 1884 in Gwynedd, MONTGOMERY,
PA, at age 63. He married Sarah Ann Webster 1850 in MONTGOMERY,
PA. Sarah was born 1825.Sarah was the daughter of Naylor Webster
Jr. and Hannah Dowlin. Sarah died 1900 in Gwynedd, MONTGOMERY,
PA, at age 75."
Further reading:
Click
here to read a
history of Gwynedd, PA from 1697
Click
here to read a
history of Gwynedd, PA from 1884.
Click here to
read a description of Kriebel's Engine and Machine Company
Click
here to
read more about William John (by James A. Quinn, Historian)
Click here for a 1636
map of the UK showing the location of Merioneth in Wales
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History
