Sixteen reasons Bucks County has enduring fame
Think of counties you’ve called home and what makes them famous. The ones I’ve lived in? Merced: Joaquin Murrieta, growing tomatoes, gateway city to Yosemite. Broward: Fort Lauderdale, mega yachts, mansions and canals. Alachua: University of Florida, Gator-aid, Tebow.
Bucks County? Geez, where do I begin? I contacted history buffs Bill Pezza in Bristol, Sally Sondesky in Bensalem, Larry Langhans in Langhorne, Brian Rounsavill in Newtown, Fletcher Walls in Doylestown and Stephen Wiley in Durham to come up with a Top 10 list. That list became far more than 10. I did my best to whittle it to a cool 16 reasons Bucks County is famous.
So here we go in reverse order (to build historical suspense, of course).
No. 16: The Peaceable Kingdom
America’s greatest folk artist was born 242 years ago in Langhorne. Edward Hicks had no intention of becoming famous. He just yearned to make a living. At age 13, he was an apprentice craftsman painting houses and coaches. But he gave it all up in his 20s to become a roving Quaker minister based in Newtown.
With income insufficient to support his wife and five children, he started painting furniture, farm equipment and tavern signs. The Quaker community wasn’t happy. His art was too fanciful.
Discouraged by a schism splitting his religion into three groups, Ed stopped preaching and returned to art. His focus became 62 versions of his highly popular “Peaceable Kingdom” series of oil paintings inspired by Biblical prophecy. Said one biographer, “Hicks depicted humans and animals to represent the Inner Light’s idea of breaking physical barriers to working and living together in peace.” The artist espoused that philosophy. “The highest art a man can practice in his community is the art of peaceable living,” he wrote prior to his death in 1849.
No. 15: Arsenal of democracy from Bensalem to Falls
You don’t tug on Bucks County’s cape. World War I, World War II, the Korean War and Cold War transformed the county. Defense industries sprouted along the Delaware River waterfront from Bensalem to Falls. Kaiser, Harriman, Fleetwing, 3M, Rohm & Haas, Penn Salt, Publicker and U.S. Steel’s Fairless Works employed thousands building ocean-going troop ships and freighters, aircraft of all types, high strength plastics, steel for tanks and artillery, adhesives and specialized chemicals.
Some factories became enemy targets. Nazi saboteurs failed in a plot to blow up Bensalem’s Pennsylvania Salt that produced a rare chemical essential to making aluminum for light weight aircraft, key to defeating Germany. Also targeted unsuccessfully were chemical giants Publicker and Rohm & Haas. However in Bristol, a German spy ring successfully infiltrated the Fleetwing aircraft factory to steal aviation secrets.
No. 14: The Delaware Canal
Just about any point along the 60-mile-long canal between Bristol and Easton completed in 1832 is a portal to the agrarian and early industrial life of the 19th century. In Upper Bucks 300-foot-high cliffs tightly rim the canal and the Delaware River. Of interest downstream are the remains of 23 massive lock mechanisms that once raised and lowered water levels so narrow coal-laden boats pulled by mules could pass. A stroll on the canal towpath through New Hope leads past quaint shops and restaurants. The waterway continues through New Hope, Washington Crossing Historical Park, Yardley and Morrisville before reaching the canal’s terminus beneath the Italianate grandeur of the 168-foot-high Grundy clock tower in Bristol.
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Generational families lived on the boats with jobs for life during the canal’s 100-year history. The working day began at 4 a.m. and ended at 11 p.m. “We lived like muskrats – born and raised on the canal,” as Chester Lear put it.
Coal shipped on the canal helped fuel the industrial revolution in Philadelphia and other cities on the East Coast until the waterway closure in 1931.
No. 13: Covered bridges of Bucks County
Another Bucks County icon of the 19th century is the covered bridge. Twelve of them. The fact the wooden structures have persevered is remarkable given the earliest were built in 1832 (the Erwinna and Uhlerstown bridges). The overhead lattice structures protected underlying river spans from rain, sleet and snow.
In their heyday, Bucks had 50. Most were replaced by more durable iron and cement structures in the mid-20th century. In the 1940s, nostalgia for the old bridges began to captivate public attention. It was almost too late. A dozen were saved and are well preserved amid occasional vandalism and highway accidents. One – the Schofield Ford Covered Bridge across Neshaminy Creek in Tyler State Park, Newtown – was rebuilt after arsonists destroyed it in 1991. It’s the longest at 150 feet.
Today auto, motorcycle and bicycle clubs regularly stage covered bridge tours in Bucks.
Sources include Edward Hicks paintings, artifacts and information at the Half-Moon Inn, headquarters of the Newtown Historic Association on Court Street reached at 215-968-4004 or info@newtownhistoric.org, and “Pennsylvania’s Delaware Division Canal: 60 Miles of Euphoria and Frustration” by Albright G. Zimmerman published in 2000 by the National Canal Museum in Easton. More on the county’s covered bridges can be found on the web at www.visitbuckscounty.com/things-to-do/covered-bridges/
Carl LaVO can be reached at carllavo0@gmail.com
This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Few can rival Bucks County's beautiful landscapes, or its history
