Where in the World is Dublin Pa?
Highland Hill Farm Po. Box 517 Fountainville, PA 18923
(215-345-0946) Welcome to
Dublin Pa. Goose Hunting on Our Pond
Just 1 mile from Dublin Boro is our small farm we call,"The Rice
Farm". It is on 27 acres that is planted with nursery stock
except or a 1 acre area that has a small 40' pond. This small
pond can attract upwards to 1000 geese at a time. Last year
before we planted this field there sometimes would be 20-50,000
Geese at a time. On the 15 acre field you cold walk across it
stepping on geese and never touch the ground. This year with
less open ground there are less geese but yet there can be geese
by thousands in this field.
This pic was taken Jan 10, 2006.
I could still miss, but I would have to be a real poor aim!
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Local History of the town of Dublin, PA Where our farm is
located.
"Our" Dublin, one of 3 towns in America named Dublin, began at a
crossroads. In the late 1600's, Dublin didn't even have a name
yet, barely a village of just a handful of structures where two
trails crossed, evolving as so many other towns have throughout
history, throughout the world. Dublin is by far the largest town
in Bedminster township. Bedminster is one of the 54 townships of
Bucks county today.
Bedminster began as part of Plumstead township in its first
settlement days, when, as early as 1680, a few people owned land
before William Penn. William Penn's treaty with the native
American "Indians," known as the Leni-Lenape, illustrated his
Quaker ideals and would have made a fine model for the treaties
which would be needed with other tribes in the future westward
growth of the nation many decades later. "I desire to gain your
Love and Friendship by a kind, Just and Peaceable Life," he
wrote to the Leni-Lenape from England. He followed up that
desire with his "holy experiment." when he was granted all of
what became the state named after him. William Penn got about
40,000 square miles of land in the "New World" from King Charles
II for what his recently deceased father's estate was owed.
Admiral Sir William Penn had loaned the king money in addition
to his deferred pay during the 1665-1667 Second Anglo-Dutch War.
William Penn lived in his Quakertown at the end of his life.
Three hundred-plus years later, almost 5,000 people live in
1,800 households on today's Bedminster of 31 square miles, over
20,000 acres. About 2,100 people live in Dublin, according to
the 2000 census. Bedminster township today is bordered by
Plumstead township's remainder, and Hilltown, Rockhill, Haycock,
and Nockamixon Townships, having the tortuous Tohickon for its
north and north east boundary. All the surrounding townships,
except Haycock, were organized prior to Bedminster's
establishment in 1742.
By the 1730's. William Allen, as in Allentown, was a young
colonial on the go. After graduating from Cambridge University
he came to William Penn's 46- year old "New World" colony and
promoted Philadelphia as the first capital of Pennsylvania
rather than Chester. He earned money as a lawyer and investing
in land with his partners' and father's money. He was mostly
investing in the "virgin lands" beyond his hometown of
Philadelphia. He was what today is considered either a land
speculator or even a suburban real-estate developer. William
Allen was one of the largest landowners in central Bucks County,
with possessions in several townships when settlers began to
enter Bedminster.
Bedminster township's total land area then was 16,058 acres.
The township began as William Allen and his other
"Proprietaries" opened their huge tract "laying "near the
Tohickon above Deep run," in 1734. William Allen was exactly 30
years old. Settlers came in quite rapidly, and in a few years
there was considerable population along the Deep Run, which name
the evolving settlement bore for just a few years as the
township was quickly organized in 1742. The little village of
Dublin was already the township's center of activity and at just
26 miles from Philadelphia, not too far outside of the city.
Bedminster's successful start tied-in well with William Allen's
appointment as colonial mayor of Philadelphia in 1735. William
Allen suggested the township's name from the parish in Somerset
County which is named Bedminster. (His father's birthplace?
Mother's? Favorite place to "holiday"? First land he ever owned?
His reason for the choice is unknown.) However, there is the
connection to Bucks County being named for England's Bucks
County, short for Buckinghamshire...
From where were Bedminster's "first-comers?" Virtually all were
from the north of Ireland and belonged to that sturdy people
known as Scotch-Irish. This ethnic group played an important
part in the settlement of both the county, the state of
Pennsylvania, and the United States. Of the almost 300 million
Americans today, about 50 million, or 1 out of 6, are of Irish
descent. The Scotch-Irish Presbyterians had not been long seated
on Deep Run before they organized a church, which took the name
of that stream, and bears it to this day. A log meeting-house
was built near the creek, in the southwest corner of the
township as early as 1732 and the first settled minister was
there six years later. It was the original place of worship of
all the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians of the region of county.
Later on, the larger Doylestown Presbyterian church was
established.
McNeeley, McHenry, Darrah, Hughes, Alexander, Grier, Smith,
Hough, Robinson, Orr (later to become notable in the history of
the Carolinas) are Scotch- Irish names "awrighty." Fer sure.
German immigrants soon followed along arriving with Scotch-Irish
immigrants all during the 1800's and 1900's too. Today,
German-Americans are the largest ethnic group in Dublin,
Bedminster Township, Bucks County, in fact the state of
Pennsylvania, and indeed, in the entire United States. Almost 1
in 4 Americans has German heritage. A Mennonite church was built
by and for the first of the German immigrants along the
"Tohickney's Deep Run" in 1846 on 50 acres given to them by
William Allen. Today, this historical landmark can be found just
north of Dublin's incorporated limit, where Route 113, also
called Bedminster road, crosses Elephant Road. Please don't ask
where that name came from.
In the 1848 Mexican war there was a notable General Smith who
"hailed from Bedminster, PA." Robert Grier, a United States
Supreme Court Associate Justice from 1846 until 1870, also came
from Bedminster's very first settlers. William Allen went on to
be Pennsylvania's first colonial supreme court justice and then
in 1762 established what he named Northamptontown farther north
in the valley of the Lehigh River. His town there was nicknamed
with the simpler moniker of "Allen's Town." In 1838, long after
his death, when the city of Allentown was incorporated, it
became more than apparent that, as is so often the case,
nicknames stick. Did you know that Albuquerque was named for Joe
Buquerque's brother who died from a rattlesnake bite when they
traveled "out west" in the days after the end of the Civil War?
Just kidding.
In the earliest days of the 1740's, there were five villages in
the township of Bedminster: The township hall was in Bedminster
village, Bedminsterville, in other words was located at the
intersection of the roads that lead from Mennonite Meeting House
to Keller's Shop and from the Durham Road to the Dublin Road. It
had a store and a schoolhouse. The name was derived simply for
being the township "capital," like New York City, New York, or
Indianapolis, Indiana, etc. Then there was Pipersville,
Hagersville, Keelersville, and Dublin.
Pipersville was not actually given that name for over a hundred
years, until 1845. At that time, a post office had just been
located there. At the junction of the road along Deep Run and
Durham Road (Easton Road), where today's Routes 413 and 611
meet, was George Piper's Inn from 1784 to 1823. Mr. Piper's
son-in-law assumed the inn on George's death, and the name was
changed to Upper Bucks Hotel. Probably the hotel was still known
as Piper's Inn. So, in 1845, with a post office and a name for
the town a crucial necessity for there to be delivery before zip
codes were invented, they chose a reliable name. They chose
Pipersville.
Hagersville was a small village on the Old Bethlehem Road, the
road which branched off from the Dublin Pike/Swamp Road
extension and went due north towards that city. By 1850, it had
a post office and a blacksmith. Later. it too boasted a hotel.
Today, the Old Bethelhem Road only exists in discontinuous
sections and most of the road in Bedminster Township is
underneath the man-made Lake Nockamixon.
Keelersville was named for the Keichline family. It is also
located on the Old Bethlehem Road. It's just north of Ridge
Road, now Route 563, east of Dublin Pike, Route 313. Inns were
important when travel was only done by day, during at least
partially fair weather, and at an average speed measured in
single digits. there was an inn and a church. By 1838, the
church was across the street. By 1850, Keelersville had the
Tohickon Church, the Keichline Inn next door. and there was a
tanyard, a store, a hotel, a meeting hall, a schoolhouse, and a
lumber mill. Pennsylvania's native Eastern White Pine forests
made for great construction wood supplies. Today, there is
nothing to be found there but residences on large lots.
Dublin was always the largest of the villages in Bedminster. It
was located on Swamp Road, today's Route 313, in the southwest
corner of the township. It appears the town was known as Dublin
before the township was formed. With the number of Scotch-Irish
in the area, this is not surprising. The idea of a "double inn"
would seem to be a myth. The first Tavern in the village was
that of Robert Robins and the only thing double at this inn was
a double wall - possibly between the inn and his house. However,
the town was Dublin before his inn was built. It was the largest
village mainly because the speculators who held the land as
early as 1680 were not farmers - simply land speculators, junior
William Allens, starting the suburbs just beyond the
Philadelphia city limit. They sold off small lots - 2 acres on
up - very early along Swamp Road which farther north became
Dublin Pike, now Route 313. This quickly led to the development
of a small village. Robinson's farm of 75 acres was one of the
larger in the immediate vicinity. Dublin today sits on about 320
acres. The Dublin Inn is a popular diner. Just a few miles west
is one our SeedlingsRus' additional properties for growing tree
saplings. Known for it's former owners, the Rice Family, this
27-acre parcel is also just a few miles from Highland Hill Farm,
headquarters for Highland Hill Farm and Seedlingsrus.com.
Dublin's population has just 2.8% below the poverty line, with
a mean average income that's well above the national average.
It's a comfortable little town, in more ways than one, you see?
More links to Bill's articles:
http://seedlingsrus.com/DeerDamageControl
http://seedlingsrus.com/NewConstruction
http://seedlingsrus.com/Soils
http://seedlingsrus.com/PlantingTips.html
http://www.zone5trees.com/GrowingGrasses.html
http://zone5trees.com/PlantingInstructions.html
http://seedlingsrus.com/TradesWanted.html