THE FIRST HOUSES
As to be expected, the first settlers in the county immediately constructed shelter. The first house built by a settler was usually constructed with the materials at hand. Log houses, made from logs cleared from the agricultural fields, undoubtedly were the first dwellings constructed by the majority of settlers. As the family grew and the settler prospered, these original dwellings were enlarged. Often, stone cleared from the same agricultural fields, was used in these "second generation" buildings. As time wore on, the houses were often enlarged again; producing the multi sectioned stone houses for which the county is famous. Many times these later stone sections replaced the original log structure.
The two most common misconceptions about log houses is that they were only constructed in the eighteenth century, and that there use was limited to first the Swedes, and the German settlers. Tax records from the 1790's in the distinctly English Quaker communities of Falls, Upper Makefield, and Wrightstown Township show that a large percentage of ths houses in existence were log houses. As the heavily forested sections central and upper Bucks County developed in the first half of the nineteenth century, newspaper and other documentary sources indicate that many settlers were still constructing log houses.
The problems of seventeenth century construction are recorded in the minutes of the Falls Meeting. While the specific issue was a meeting house, the problems were probably applicable to domestic architecture as well. In April 1689, Bucks Quakers decided to construct a meeting house. The Minutes of the Falls Monthly meeting document the process. A committee was appointed to “to discourse with workmen what a house of 25 foot long and 20 foot wide will cost of timber and of brick or of timber only...”. The following month it was reported that the committee contracted for 25,000 bricks. The bricks were to be made by Randall Blackshaw. In November 1689, Blackshaw reported problems with his bricks. “ye bricks allready and are not good therefore [he] desires Friends to Imploy another...” The next month, the committee decided to “consult ye carpenter to see what ye charge will be to build all of wood ye dimentions formerly mentioned ye cheapest and warmest way they can devise.” In January 1690, the committee received a quote of £41 which they accepted. By September 1690 the building although not finished, was sufficiently complete to hold worship. As late as November 1691, it was ordered to complete the building and finish constructing the chimney.
One of the earliest detailed descriptions of a house comes from Ambrose Barcroft's letter to his father in England dated March 1, 1722/23. Barcroft, who bought 450 acres of land in Solebury Township, wrote his father a long letter grumbling about the high cost of buying land, building a house, and purchasing household goods. He wrote that "The House I have built is near 9 yards long and 6 wide within. The walls of oke trees of about 12 inchis Diamiter, laid one upon another and one let into another at the four Corners, and the Seams fill'd with morter. "Tis cover'd with Shingle which with a little repair will last 20 years and is a handsome Dry Roof. Tho' such a house be not the handsomest 'tis very warm, and that is enough for the present. Tho' we recon the Timber nothing, the Expence is considerable in day wages as above [Barcroft earlier stated that a laborer received 1s.8d. per day in the Winter and 2s. in the Summer; a carpenter, joiner or mason got 2s.6d. and 3s.6d. per day and meals. In discussing the construction of his four bay barn, Barcroft had previously stated that if he did not use his indentured convict servant who was a carpenter, it would cost him nearly L 30 to have the barn built] and in Nails at 10d. per lb. and other necessarys, and it is impossible for new hands to do such work.
In addition to dispelling the "English did not build log house" myth, this account also dispels the rumor that every settler could and did build their own house. Barcroft states that building was done by experienced carpenters not "new hands".
As previously noted, any settlers in a new frontier must give immediate thought to shelter. Bucks County provided the raw materials to afford protection from the weather. The first shelters were undoubtedly made from boughs, bark, sod, and thatch. There are several documented examples of settlers occupying “caves” dug into hillsides. As soon as possible, “real” houses were constructed. The English settlers built huts and houses like the traditional structures they had known at home. Using the ax and the saw, they produced timber frame houses covered with clapboards. Other European settlers who came from heavily forested countries such as the Swedes and Finns, and later the Germans, had come from a tradition which employed log construction. Finding the virtually unlimited forests of Pennsylvania, they built log houses in America reminiscent of those structures they had known at home. Traditional sources suggest that the “culturally conservative Englishmen required several generations and much hard labor with handsaws before the discerned the merits of notching logs and building a pen to live in. The Scotch-Irish, who filtered through German settlements on their way to more remote frontiers early in the eighteenth century, adopted the log cabin and made it their own.” {The Cultural Life of the American Colonies 1607- 1763, Louis B. Wright, Harper & Brothers, New York 1967}. This interpretation is supported by at least the seventeenth century account of two Dutch travelers Jasper Dankers and Peter Slutyer.
Like most observations of generally undocumented events, these impressions are generalizations; and like many generalizations, they lead to misconceptions. The two most common misconceptions about log houses is that they were only constructed in the seventeenth or eighteenth century, and that there use was limited to first the Swedes, and then the German settlers.
Log houses were not only found in the German settled areas of the county. Whether it took several generations for the “culturally conservative Englishmen” to adopt the log house is still, unclear. Logic would suggest that settlers presented would an easier, faster, more energy efficient and more comfortable building would adopt that type of building a lot faster. However long it took, the log house was adopted as the first home for many English settlers during the eighteenth century, if not earlier.
Eighteenth century newspaper advertisements indicate log houses were built throughout southern Bucks County. On February 24, 1763 James Rue’s estate along the Neshaminy Creek in Bensalem, with a large stone shouse and log house, was advertised for sale. According to advertisement from October 1783, Peter Praul’s estate also located along the Neshaminy Creek, in Southampton; had two dwelling houses, one of which was stone and the other of hewn logs, along with two framed barns.
Tax records from the 1790's in the distinctly English Quaker communities of Falls, Upper Makefield, and Wrightstown Township show that a large percentage of the houses in existence were log houses. As the heavily forested sections central and upper Bucks County developed in the first half of the nineteenth century, newspaper and other documentary sources indicate that many settlers were still constructing log houses. On July 17, 1821, the Doylestown Democrat newspaper advertised a log house and frame barn on 10 acres in Bristol Township.
ACCOUNTS OF THE EARLIEST HOUSES
There is little record of what the first houses in Bucks County looked like. Dr. John Watson’s account of the First Settlers of Bucks County. [Copied from Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Watson’s Annals of Philadelphia v.II, page 519.] gives some background.
“In the space of time from the first improvement until 1730, perhaps a period of more than forty years, many circumstances and occurrences may be worthy of remark, and especially the difficulty of beginning in the woods. Building a house or cabin, and clearing or fencing a field to raise some grain, were the first concerns; procuring fodder for their small stocks was next to be attended to: for this purpose they cut grass in plains or swamps, often at several miles from home, stacked it upon the spot, and hauled it home in the winter.
One of the first dwelling houses yet remains in Abraham Paxson’s yard, on the tract called William Croasdale’s, now Henry Paxson’s. It is made of stone, and is dug into the earth were there is moderate descent, about twenty feet by ten or twelve. At the end fronting the south-east was a door leading into the dwelling-room for the whole family, where there was sort of a chimney; and a door at the other end, also level with the ground, led into the loft which must have been the lodging room.
The documentation of early houses was also of interest to Samuel Preston. His notes are preserved in manuscripts at the Bucks County Historical Society Library. He wrote:
“There were 2 old houses stand[ing] in my time in Solebury and 2 in Buckingham. I have been in them all.
“1st one on Henry Paxson’ farm in the upper part of Solebury not far from the River. it was built of stone one story high as near as I can now remember about 20 feet long and 12 wide the long way nearly N & South the end towards the hill. a door in the S[outh] end on the first floor and another in the north end to go into the loft, no stairway only one room below, fireplace in one corner, but one or two small windows.
“2 one also in Solebury on the land settled by Tobias Dymock now Moses Eastburn’s built of hewed logs each was cut out on the under side which was the narrowest and the one below it sharp to fit it the point between them made tight with fine moss - some of these logs now remain, they were dovetailed together at the corners.
“3rd a small stone house on the farm of Matthew Hughes in Buckingham. one room - fireplace across one end 1/3 the width [was?] a wooden mantle going reaching from wall to wall.
“4th A frame house built by Thos. Watson, Jr. about the year - the frame was all sawed and covered with boards split out of oak about 6 feet long [and ?] from 9 inches to a foot broad shaved thin on one edge and about 3/4 of an inch thick on the other and spliced together on the studs- they were called clapboards Many Barns and some houses were so built since my time.
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