Neshaminy Journal Spotlights Doylestown Rebirth, Telford Witch Trial

DOYLESTOWN, PA — The Doylestown Historical Society and Neshaminy: The Bucks County Historical and Literary Journal have announced the publication of its Spring/Summer 2024 issue of Neshaminy, featuring stories about Bucks County’s past, present and future.

In the 1960s, urban blight struck many American communities, and while some turned to contentious urban renewal schemes, Doylestown said “no thanks,” reinventing itself through Operation ’64, a grassroots movement bringing together residents, politicians, and business-owners in a plan of strategic restoration.

Written by Lee Bigelow Davis and Melissa D. Sullivan with research assistance of the Doylestown Historical Society, the article features rarely seen before and after images, including watercolors by Bucks County illustrator William N. Erwin.

Sketches by William N. Erwin, circa 1963. (Courtesy of Neshaminy Journal)

In his original essay, William J. Donahue writes about a literal witch hunt in Telford nearly 200 years after the Salem Witch Trials, exploring how much of the fear and superstition that pushed the residents of a small town to the brink of turning on one of their own remain in place even today.

Don Swaim writes an extensive biographical sketch on Pennsylvania author Christopher Morley, co-founder of The Saturday Review of Literature, judge for the Book of Month Club, and co-editor of Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations. The issue also features Morley’s 1918 essay of a canoe trip up Neshaminy Creek.

Christopher Morley, circa 1930. (Courtesy of Neshaminy Journal)

Additional highlights include:

• A look at the forgotten Newtown poet Thaddeus Stevens Kenderdine
• An essay on the history of William Penn’s Quaker settlers by Kimball Baker
• Supernatural fiction by Don Swaim about a ghost-like family that roams the streets of Doylestown
• A profile of Bucks County photographer and rockhound Rob Hall
• Artwork by Jae Martin, Hollie Brown and Lucine Kaplan
• Poetry by Helen Behe, Julie Bernstein, Matthew Kirby, Joseph Chelius, and Linda Andress

The Spring/Summer 2024 issue of Neshaminy: The Bucks County Historical and Literary Journal is a co-publication of the Doylestown Historical Society and the Bucks County Writers Workshop and can be obtained at the DHS at 56 S Main St., local bookstores, and online from Amazon.com. The Journal welcomes submissions. More information can be found at neshaminyjournal.org and doylestownhistorical.org.